Proposta de modelo de referência para o processo de desenvolvimento de produto para a indústria de móveis

Abstract

Brazilian industry of furniture has faced a decrease of competitiveness in the export market in recent years. It can be noticed by the decrease in exports of furniture while total Brazilian exports increased. However, this sector has potential to expand their sales by taking advantage of the expansion of foreign markets, considering that most of the countries of the European market are deficient in the production of furniture. The main alternatives to strengthen the furniture sector are focused on the improvement of the production process and the product development process (PDP). The improvement of PDP is one of the main keys to increase the competitiveness of companies. PDP has increasingly been considered as a decisive process in companies’ strategies. One of the ways to improve the PDP is through the use of reference models that meet the needs and particularities of the company. However, specific reference models available in the literature are exceeded or far off and because of this they meet only very specific demands and are focuses to small and medium size industries. Thus, the present study aimed to propose a specific reference model to the furniture industry with the intent of providing greater chances of developing successful products. The elaboration of the proposal was made in three steps. In the first step it was conducted a collection in literature of PDP models generic and specific to the furniture sector in the available literature. In the second step it was performed an analysis of the structure of the PDP in sector through a questionnaire and on-site observation. Finally, in the third step was the preparation of the proposed model. The proposed model is divided into three major phases which are divided into 7 stages. This model is still made up by 11 decision activities, gates and intermediate gates. This proposed model for the PDP in the furniture industry, besides presenting an overview of the process, even offers a systematization of activities that occur in each phase. It is a more embracing model, directed to the industries in the furniture industry as a whole, not being directed to a characteristic region or for a peculiarity of the sector such as the other models found in the literature. This model can be used as a reference for the academic and business fields due to the level of detail of the process. It comes to contribute to the improvement of the PDP in the furniture industry and the lack of research in this area and can be used as a starting point for the organization of the process in companies.