Product Devt

8/13/2019 Product Devt

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Product & Concept

Development


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Product Development Process

The sequence of steps/activities employed toconceive, design & commercialize a product

Many are intellectual and organizationalinstead of physical

Highly evolved business enterprises follow adefined, precise & detailed developmentprocess. Some companies may not be able todescribe their process

Every organization employs processes that are

at least slightly different from the rest.

There are companies that follow differentprocesses for each of several types ofdevelopment projects


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Uses of a Well-Defined DevtProcess

Quality assurance.Specified phases andcheckpoints assures quality of product

Coordination.Devtplan acts as masterplan, defining roles, timelines &coordinative actions

Planning.Milestones marks thecompletion of each phase. Occurrence isset by devtplan

Management.Devtprocess is abenchmark for assessment of ongoing

devteffort. Actual events ranged againstestablished process allow managers toidentify possible problem areas

Improvement. Careful documentation &ongoing review of a devtprocess and itsresults are tools to identify improvementopportunities


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Generic Product DevtProcess


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The 6-Phase Process

Planning

Concept Development.System-Level Design

Detail Design

Testing & Refinement

Production Ramp-up


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1 of 6 Stages: Planning

Planningaka The Zero Phase.

Precedes the project approval & launch of actual product devtprocess

Identifies Opportunity as guided by corporate strategy. Coverstechnology devtassessment & market objectives

Project Mission Statement. Output of planning phase, Specifiestarget audience, business goals, key assumptions, andconstraints

Opportunity identification. Explains a process of gathering,evaluating and choosing from a broad range of productopportunities

Product Planning. Presents a discussion of the subsequentproduct planning process


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2 of 6 Stages: Concept Devt

Needs of target market identified

Alternative product concepts are generated & evaluated

One or more concepts are selected for further devt & testing

Concept is a description of the form, function & features of a product

that usually comes with a set of specifications, analysis of competitive

products, and economic justification for the project


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3 of 6 Stages: System-Level Design

Defines the product architecture, decomposition of the product

into subsystems and components, and preliminary design of key

components

Initial production system plans and final assembly are defined in

this phase

Output is geometric layout of the product, a functional

specification of each of the subsystems, and a preliminary

process flow diagram for the final assembly process


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4 of 6 Stages: Detail Design

Complete specification of the geometry, materials, and tolerances of

all the unique parts in the product and the identification of all of the

standard parts to be purchased from suppliers are dealt in this

phase.

Process Plan established. Tooling is designed for each part to be

fabricated within the production system

Output of this phase is the Control Documentationdrawings or

computer files describing the geometry of each part & its production

tooling, specifications of the purchased parts, and the process planfor the products fabrication & assembly

Finalizedin this stage are 3 critical product devt process issues:

materials selection, production cost, and robust performance


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5 of 6 Stages: Testing & Refinement

Involves the construction and evaluation of a products multiple

preproduction versions

Alphaprototypes are built withproduction-intentparts or parts with

similar geometry & material properties as per the production

version but not necessarily fabricated with the actual processes tobe used in production.Alphaprototypes are tested to determine

whether the product will work as designed and/or it satisfy key

customer needs

Beta prototypes are usually built with parts supplied by the intended

processes but may not be assembled using the final assemblyprocess. Beta prototypes are extensively evaluated internally and

are typically tested by customers using their own environments.

The goal for Beta prototypes is to answer performance & reliability

questions in order to identify final engineering changes for the final

product


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6 of 6 Stages: Production Ramp-up

The product is made using the intended production system to train the

workforce and work out any remaining problems in the production

process

Products produced during this stage are sometimes supplied to

preferred customers and are carefully evaluated to identify anyremaining flaws.

Transition from Production Ramp-up to actual production is usually

gradual. At some point during the transition, the product may be

launchedand made available for widespread distribution.

Postlaunch Project Review are usually done after the launch.


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Identifying Customer Needs

GOAL: Understand customers

needs and to effectively them to the

development team.

OUTPUT:A set of carefully

constructed customer need

statements, organized in

hierarchical list, with importance

weightings for many or all of the

needs


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Establishing Target Specifications

Specifications provide a precise

description of what a product has to

do. These are the customer needs

translated into technical terms.

Targets for the specifications are setearly in the process and represents

the hopes of the devtteam.

Specifications are later refined as

dictated by the products concept.

OUTPUT: List of target specifications,

each consisting of a metric, including

marginal and ideal values of that

metric.


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Concept Generation

Includes external search,

creative problem solving within

the team, and systematic

exploration of the various

solution fragments the teamgenerates

GOAL: Thoroughly explore the

space of product concepts that

may address the customer

needs.

OUTPUT: 10-20 concepts,

represented by text & a brief

descriptive text


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Concept Selection

Various product concepts

are analyzed and

sequentially eliminated to

identify the most promising

concept or concepts. This

usually require several

reiterations and may initiate

additional concept

generation and refinement


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Concept Testing

One or more concepts are tested

to verify that the customer needs

have been met, assess the market

potential of the product, and

identify any shortcomings that must

be remedied during the further

development. If the customer

response is poor, the devt project

may be terminated or some earlier

activites may be repeated as

needed


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Setting Final Specifications

Target specifications earlier set in

the process are revisited after a

concept has been selected and

tested. During this stage the team

commits to specific values of the

metrics reflecting the constrains

inherent to the product concept,

limitations identified through

technical modeling, and trade offs

between cost and performance


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Project Planning

The final activity of concept devt where adetailed devt sked is created, a strategys isdevised to minimize devt time, and identifythe resources required to complete theproject.

Major results of front-end activities arecaptured in a contract book, which containsthe mission statement, the customer needs,details of the selected concept, productspecifications, economic analysis of the

product, the devt sked, project staffing andbudget. The contract bookserves todocument the agreement between the devtteam and the senior management of theenterprise


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Economic Analysis

Supported by a financial analyst, the

devt team builds an economic model

for the new product which is used to

justify the continuation of the over-alldevt program and to resolve specific

trade-offs between, for example, devt

cost & manufacturing cost. It is an

ongoing phase in the concept devt

phase. Economic analysis are often

performed before the project even

begins and this analysis gets updated

as more info are made available


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Benchmarking of

Competitive Products

Understanding the competition is critical to successfully position a

new product. It is also a rich source of ideas for the product and

production process design. This is performed in support of many

front-line activities


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Modeling and Prototyping

Stages of concept devt process

involves various forms of models

and prototypes. May include:

Proof-of-concept models. Helps in

demonstrating feasibility

Form-only models.Usually shown

to customers to evaluate

ergonomics and style

Spreadsheet models of technical

trade-offs

f G


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Variants of Generic Product Devt Process


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Documents

Product Devt