Definition
Danaher's Toll Gate process system for accelerating New Product Development.
In detail
Accelerated Product Development (APD) is Danaher's New Product Development Toll Gate process, dividing development into multiple phases, each with a quality gate to ensure product definition, design, and launch meet customer needs and business objectives. It addresses slow new-product launches, misaligned requirements understanding, and inefficient cross-functional collaboration. Unlike general project management, APD emphasizes Voice of the Customer and gate reviews, and its outputs are a structured development plan, gate review records, and launch decisions.
Example in practice
When a company plans to launch a new medical device and needs to ensure accurate product definition and controllable time-to-market, APD is used. For example, before the Stage-Gate 2 review, the team uses a TG-2 kaizen week to translate customer needs into design specifications and complete QFD analysis. After the stage-gate review, management decides to continue investment, and the product ultimately launches on schedule with reduced rework.