Putting products on store shelves quickly – and making timely changes to those items when necessary – has clear benefits for manufacturers. Extended delays while internal departments work on artwork approval or packaging production can damage competitiveness and revenue potential, as companies can spend weeks or months without products on shelves.

The Importance of Improving Time to Market

Organizations of all categories and specializations should work to reduce the time between conceptualizing a product and getting that item onto shelves.

Entrepreneur Luis Goncalves offered important context on why speed is so important. The basic principle involved is competition. Any advancement worth making within a particular product category will be pursued by more than one manufacturer. Quick and efficient companies within an industry can cash in on the initial novelty of a new idea. Lagging businesses will be forced to play catch-up.

Being quick to market has become more important in recent years, e-commerce expert Greg Petro wrote for Forbes. While the dawn of outsourced manufacturing created long product cycles, the fact that all companies were on a vaguely equal playing field, and that information traveled relatively slowly, allowed organizations to move deliberately through the 1980s and 1990s.

In the digital age, however, conditions are different.

Fast-moving information, delivered via mobile devices, has given consumers new expectations. Today’s shoppers want new products quickly, and if one company is significantly ahead of its competitors, tuned-in audiences will know about it. Organizations that become faster and more responsive to consumer preferences are becoming leaders today, Petro stated.