The product development process (PDP), if well-structured and managed, can become a business process that directly influences the companies' competitiveness increase. The PDP in Brazilian SMEs in the agricultural machinery and implement industry Sector (AMI) is little known since most publications on product development focuses on the reality of large and multinational companies, which have a quite different structure from SMEs. The purpose of this paper is to characterize and analyze the management maturity profiles of the product development process in small and medium sized Brazilian companies in the agricultural machinery and implement industry sector located in the state of São Paulo. Therefore, the addressed actions of PDP improvements in those companies can be undertaken. A survey research was conducted in 40 companies. An in loco interview was applied to the respective individual in-charge of PDP by means of a structured questionnaire. For the data analysis, descriptive statistics and the multivariate cluster analysis techniques were used. The findings indicated that the SMEs in AMIs of the state of Sao Paulo present a heterogeneous structure with respect to PDP management. Three groups of companies were identified in the sample with different maturity PDP profiles: Group I (20% of companies in the sample), Group II (50% of the sample), and Group III (30% of the sample). Differences in the management of PDP were observed, especially among companies of Group I (smallest level of PDP maturity) and Group III (highest level of PDP maturity). However, despite the differences in PDP management presented in the groups of companies, according to the literature on PDP management, all groups are in the basic (initial) maturity level of PDP. The identification of the maturity level, in which these companies are, can help the determination of activities that link the internal actions to improve the PDP of these companies and the proposal of specific public policies that encourage the improvement of product development for domestic companies in this industry sector.
PDP management; Product development; Agricultural machines and implements; Small and medium enterprises
