Product development in manufacturing SMES: Current state, challenges and relevant supportive techniques

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) provide the backbone to the world’s economy nowadays. These companies represent more than 90% of all the enterprises around the globe and are a major source for providing employment and entrepreneurship. They contribute as much value to the gross world product (GWP) as larger enterprises. However, when it comes to productivity growth, SMEs are falling behind. This paper aims at identifying and evaluating different approaches that have been proposed for supporting various product development activities within manufacturing SMEs. The work of several researchers in this area has been reviewed and various supportive techniques to improve product development practices of manufacturing SMEs have been discussed. The paper concludes by identifying the specific challenges in applying these approaches to address different aspects of SMEs needs and highlights the importance of ascertaining beforehand, the type of activities and businesses that a particular SME is engaged in.