  In today s dynamic marketplace, manufacturing companies are under strong
pressure to introduce new products for long-term survival with their
competitors. Nevertheless, every company cannot cope up progressively or
immediately with the market requirements due to knowledge dynamics being
experienced in the competitive milieu. Increased competition and reduced
product life cycles put force upon companies to develop new products faster. In
response to these pressing needs, there should be some new approach compatible
in flexible circumstances. This paper presents a solution based on the popular
Stage-Gate system, which is closely linked with virtual team approach. Virtual
teams can provide a platform to advance the knowledge-base in a company and
thus to reduce time-to-market. This article introduces conceptual product
development architecture under a virtual team umbrella. The paper describes all
the major aspects of new product development (NPD), NPD process and its
relationship with virtual teams, Stage-Gate system finally presents a modified
Stage-Gate system to cope up with the changing needs. It also provides the
guidelines for the successful implementation of virtual teams in new product
development.
