1. What is product design?

“Product design is the process of creating a new product to be sold by a business to

its customers.”
Product design is a means of adding value to a product by ensuring that its layout is
attractive to the customer. Product design is all about trying to link customer needs
to product attributes, therefore providing the customer with value.
2. Importance of good product design

1. Good product design attracts more customers thereby giving an organisation a

hedge above other competitors in the market.

2. It is also important because it brings together three important issues, the concept,
the package and the process.

3. Good design makes a business grow by enhancing profitability and turnover

because it transforms the needs of customers into the desired shape and value of
the product demanded.

4. It makes life easy and comfortable for the customer by introducing products that
are easy to use.

5. Good product design is important in replacing obsolete designs.

3. The stages of product design

http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/production-management/new-product-design-
process-6-major-steps-involved/57462

4. THE INFULENCE OF A CUSTOMER ON PRODUCT DESIGN

A well designed product makes a great difference to a customers perception of the

product, and certain factors influence the decision of a customer about the design of
a particular product, these factors are the value attributes, they are the value
perceived by a customer, these are what the customer considers before, making a
decision to buy a product, these factors are; convenience, cost, technology quality,
style/fashion.

The design of a product to a large extent influences the decision of a customer to

buy the product, for example, the newly designed touch screen phones introduced
by almost all mobile phone manufacturers has really increased their turnover and
this is because it is easy and convenient to use, so it can be said that one of the
factors that influences the customer concerning product design is how convenient
and easy the design is to the customer.

Another factor that can influence a customer is cost, the cost of a well designed
product is sometimes too expensive for a customer, and thereby the customer may
either decide to buy it or choose an alternative with a lesser design so as to safe
cost, on the other hand, from the business perspective a well designed product will
increase turnover but the cost of manufacturing will be high. Sometimes it is possible
for an organisation to create a cost advantage either by reducing the cost of the
individual value chain activities or redesign the product. Redesigning means,
changing some aspect of the design so that it can be manufactured at a lower cost

Technology is another factor that influence’s a customer perception of a product

design; the need for modern technology can influence a customer’s perception of a
product and therefore influence the decision to buy or not to buy a particular product
just because its design does not meet the customers expectation, for example the
introduction of windows 7 by the Microsoft corporation will encourage customers to
buy laptop computers which have this application rather than buying one without
windows 7,this because windows 7 is a more sophisticated and modern technology
and customers will prefer it to an outdated version of the same computer, this means
that the introduction of modern technology or application into a product design will
enable the organisation sell more and increase its turnover.

Quality with is all also known as fitness for purpose is also a factor that can influence
the customer about product design. An improved quality of a product design can
further attract customers; this involves the use of high quality materials in the product
design process. The outcome of this is that the product will be well designed and
durable and therefore the customer will be willing to pay more and have a product
that has a longer life span which can withstand adverse weather conditions rather
than buying a low quality product that will not serve its purpose, for example a
company that manufactures shoe like Clarks, may decide to use a high quality of
leather skin in their product design process, this will lead to the production of quality
shoes which has good weather resistant, this will attract customers.

Style and fashion is also a value attribute to customer’s perception of product design,
because the latest changes in style and fashion around the globe will seriously
influence a customer. To ensure that organisation’s product are attractive to
customers, there must be a constant change in the design of products, this means
that organisation should endeavour to produce goods that follow the trends of
current style and fashion, this attribute is normally feasible in the cloth industry and
the target market should be the youths who are fashion crazy, a typical example
would be George a subsidiary of ASDA, in the Wal-Mart family, George will increase
its turnover if it can produce clothes that meet with the latest and current standard of
style and fashion.

What is process design?

Process design is where the product is broken down into parts, which further can be
helpful in the actual manufacturing process. Process design ensures that there is
smooth and continuous relationship between required output and all the intermediate
process.

For example, manufacturing of Air-Conditioners, process design has to be such that

maximum supply is achieved during the hot months of summer when demand of the
product is at the highest. So people, process and machines need to align to give
continuous production throughout the year as to satisfy seasonal demand.
Process design can be summarized through following steps:

1. Process Requirement: The very 1st step is to collect and gather information to
give structure with the end objective. That is to make process requirement
document highlighting various stages, risk and stakeholders for production. This
will include assessment of available technology, raw material requirement,
factory/plant layout and demand forecast.
2. Team Building: Once the process requirements are finalized, for each objective,
a team is finalized based on skill level and experience. Function of the team is to
get familiarize with the whole process.
3. Planning and Implementation: Process planning team will develop module;
policies and procedure require for production, which are after required approval
internal as well as external is implemented.
4. Audit: A regular audit is carried out to ensure that process thus implemented is in
line and delivering value to customers.
5. End of Life: Over a course of time there may be enhancement of the product or
product may get discontinued in these circumstances, process thus develop is
discontinued.

Why Important?

A successful process design has to take into account the appropriateness of the
process to overall organization objective. Process design requires a broad view of
the whole organization and should not have a myopic outlook. And the process
should deliver customer value with constant involvement of the management at
various stages.

In order to achieve a good process design, effective process strategy is required,

which deals with a singular line items required to manufacture the end product.
Effective process strategy deals with raw material procurement, customer
participation, technology investment, etc.