These factors drive project length:
The higher the product’s production line automation rating, the longer the project. As a rule of thumb, you can keep up with the drift rate in the high technology segments (High End, Performance and Size) with automation ratings as high as 5.5 or even 6.0, provided that you drive the projects into December and revise products every year. In the low technology segments (Traditional and Low End) you can automate to 7.0 or perhaps 8.0 and keep up using the same tactics. Even products automated to 10.0 can keep up with their segments if you plan back-to-back projects of two to three years.
The more projects that you have underway, the longer each project takes. Eight projects (the maximum) increases each project's length by 25%.
Longer Moves Take More Time
For existing products, the farther that you move the product, or the bigger the change in the MTBF specification, the longer the project. However, the simulation makes a distinction between incremental improvement and quantum jump. If you move the product a very long way on the perceptual map, say six units, the project will complete in less than three years. An incremental project might take two years to move 3.0 units on the map.
For new products, all projects take at least one year, even if you make the specifications identical to an existing product, because it takes at least one year to buy the associated production capacity. This aside, project length is driven by the distance your new product is from existing products
If you abandon a segment, then decide later to reenter the segment, the project length is a function of the distance from your closest project to the new product. Usually this implies a "quantum jump" project which takes 2.5 to 3.0 years to complete. Therefore, it is easier for High Tech companies to reenter the Traditional and Low End segments than it is for Low Tech companies to reenter the high tech segments.