Pre-development process -
Aerospace and defense

Products: Inertial systems, accelerometers, sensors

Turnover: 150 Mio. €

Employees: 700

Client: Managing Director

Project duration: 2 months

Consultant days: 15

In pre-development, technological ideas are transformed into viable product concepts or technology modules. The focus is on feasibility testing and proving functional limits, manufacturability and expected manufacturing costs. In iterative loops, technical risks are reduced, solution approaches are concretized and initial samples are built - from functional models to demonstrators. Good pre-development processes create a reliable transfer of knowledge into product development and reduce subsequent changes, delays and costs.

Today, technological leadership and a short time to market are decisive success factors for benefiting from the current growth opportunities in the defense industry. In the past, our customers' technology components were often not yet fully developed, which led to high risks and considerable delays in product development projects. This resulted in great potential to significantly shorten the time to market by systematically increasing the maturity level of the technologies.

In many cases, an organizational separation of pre-development and product development is an effective lever for significantly increasing the focus and effectiveness of pre-development. It prevents "cannibalization" due to short-term product development priorities, which otherwise often lead to delays and unfocused processing. For these reasons, our customer has also decided to clearly separate the two areas organizationally.

A second central solution component is the introduction of an efficient pre-development process, which is established in addition to the existing product development process. This process ensures a structured, comprehensible procedure with defined tasks, decision points and results. A clearly formulated project brief at the beginning and a clean handover to the responsible product development team at the end are particularly crucial - both ensure the connectivity and success of the pre-development work.

In the first step, we consciously paused and jointly formulated the purpose of the new process. This clear "why" created a shared vision and aligned the project team with a target image. Based on this, we defined the level of maturity a technology module should reach - TRL 5, the functioning prototype in a realistic environment, was set as the target.

Then we went into detail: what types of projects should the process apply to? Whether exploratory studies, internal technology initiatives or internal contract developments - we defined the framework in such a way that it allows flexibility but offers clear orientation. A key aspect here was the role of the client: who sets the goal - the pre-development department itself, product development or an external customer?

The new process was structured as a stage-gate model with eight clear phases: from strategic embedding in technology management, idea generation and requirements definition through to the four development stages (TRL 2 to TRL 5) and the final handover. Each step follows a well thought-out logic - described according to the SIPOC principle and supplemented by tailoring instructions for different project types.

The result: a common framework that provides orientation, structures decision-making processes and promotes technological innovation in a targeted manner.

• Clear target orientation
• Transparency about maturity levels and decision-making logic
• Commitment and reusability
• Efficiency through tailoring
• Clear interface to product development
• Contribution to the technology and innovation strategy