Product development and management of transparent plastics used in optics

Nippon Zeon’s “Zeonex”

Abstract

This paper examines product development processes and management of “Zeonex.” Zeonex is a functional chemical product that is an optical transparent plastic launched by Nippon Zeon, which accounts for over 90% of the camera lenses used in mobile phones. In traditional product development theory, product development organizations, and development processes, a discussion of managerial skills affecting the competitiveness of a product is rare. In contrast, this paper increases the possibility that fine-tuned management of product development processes, such as “front-loading of problem solving,” believed to be effective in assembly-type product development, are equally effective in the product development of functional chemical products.