ASSIGNMENT: NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

PROJECT TITLE: Safety Alarm For Construction Worker

FACULTY : CIVIL ENGINEERING

PROGRAMME CODE/ GROUP : EC221 / PEC2216A1

SEMESTER :6

GROUP MEMBERS:

1. MUHAMMAD HADZIM BIN ZAKI (2017269504) (LEADER)

2. AIMAN NABILAH BINTI MOHD NOR ARMAN

(2017428352)

3. NOR FATIHAH BINTI ZULKIFLI (2018616094)

4. LILY SURIANI BINTI FAHRURAZI (20177661068)

LECTURER : Dr. SAMSUDIN WAHAB

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TABLE OF CONTENT PAGE
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3

1.0 INTRODUCTION 4

2.0 PROBLEM STATEMENT 4

2.1 METHODOLOGY 5

2.2 LIMITATION 6

2.3 ADVANTAGES 7

NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT 8

3.1 DEFINITION 8
3.2 9
3.3 NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT 10-19
PROCESS
CONCLUSION 20

REFERENCES 21

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
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The Silver Hawk Sdn Bhd had been chosen among all the safety equipment that are available
in Pulau Pinang as company for the case study. The research was first started by interviewing
the owner of the company for their details. Not only that, the interview was done in order to
gain information regarding their strength, weakness and improvements that could be
implemented to their company that could perhaps increase their marketing ability.
From the interview done, there are few notable problems that could be identified. The main
product of the company is more on preventative measures rather than onsite site problem
solving.Not only that, imbalance marketing strategy had caused their company to lose
customer attractions to their store. Their other products could be said to be outdated and keep
on building up as their inventories. Due to their old and outdated inventories, they are now
unable to order new products due to the old overload inventories.
There are few solutions that could be implemented to Silver Hawk Sdn Bhd. First solution is
to find ways for the company to be able to reduce their old and outdated inventories. After
reducing the old and outdated equipment, new and advance styled story books could be added
by the company as a marketing strategy for customer attraction. This is where I shall
introduce the idea of the future of safety equipment that could revolutionize the industry as
well proving more safety to onsite workers.

Introduction

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In this report we are going to analyse the potential market and to do a research on our proposed
product to cater the problems that society face today. Such our product will be solving on the safety
issue and creating a safer work environment for the construction worker. This also ensure that
everyone is aware of what is happening on the site. Many live consuming accidents should have been
avoided. I think working in a safe environment is one of human rights that must be taken into account.
I hope this product that I developed is going to help so much people and giving people a good feeling
when going to work knowing they are safe and sound.

2.0 Problem statement

Construction worker have to face various problems regarding their safety issue on workplace.
Conventionally they have to wear safety outfit and hard reflective cloth for safety reasons and to alert
the other when needed. This create a concern where the workers are only prepared on the preventative
measure but not on the actual emergency case event. For instance, a worker is trapped in rubble of
concrete and nobody can hear the worker screaming for help or might lost contact from the rest of the
co-worker. This can be very dangerous where it can take up for hours or even days to find the victims
inside the concrete rubble. By the time the victim is found it is already too late due to suffocation or
dehydration. This situation can be avoidable if my product is put to use and could help safe a lot of
lives.

2.1 Methodology : Data Collection

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All information was collected through several methods which are:

1. Observation

Observation was performed through the problems faced by the one of our group members who went
to the actual construction site nearby our campus and see the actual condition on the site. She
identified that the construction worker are not allowed to bring their communication device on the site
and only certain people only allowed to bring but only the walkie-talkie device. This increases the risk
chances of workers unable to communicate. She felt that this culture need to change for the sake of
safety and at least the worker have something to use to call for help in case of emergency.

2. Survey or questionnaire

Several online surveys or questionnaire were conducted to identify the number of people aware of the
current safety issue plus risk exposure and the probability of the proposed product to be accepted by
the market. This survey also suggesting a design showcase to identify if consumer might like the
ergonomics design of the product.

3. Research

Research and study have been done on existing conventional safety alarm is used on Alzheimer
patient. Its used to find the patient when he or she has lost its way for forget its way home. Based on
the problem statement, it is identified that this concept is applicable on construction worker and may
be the solution to a safer working environment.

2.2 Limitations

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Wearing safety outfit were simple yet most critical to ensure safety of workers. While existing safety
measure have its flaws and our product also have it limitation and it also come in different aspects. To
introduce a new safety alarm that is suitable to use in harsh condition such construction site, there are
some limitations need to be considered :

1. Price

As usual coming out with a new technology is going to be quite costly. Most of the capital gain are
going to the design and research cost of the product.

2. Battery life

Battery life of the product is limited to certain hours of usage. To cater the problems the battery usage
is rechargeable due to lithium-ion battery usage and can provide up to 12-24 hours of usage when
fully charged.

2.3 Advantages

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After reviewing our product, we found a number of strong sides of the product that can be use for
advertising purposes and promoting the product on commercial levels. These are the advantages:

1. Durability

Our product is made from high quality material that can withstand high force to ensure high
durability catered to construction site.

2. Waterproof

Our product is waterproof so it can function on the worst case scenario. Just to be prepared it is
important to have this feature in our product when it came to emergency cases.

3. GPS system

This device is pre-installed GPS system so that the device can function to its maximum potential
where it main purpose is to locate and send alarm to people.

3.0NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT (NPD)

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 3.1 Definition
Living in the era of technology, people are expecting an easier hassle-free lifestyle with helps
of technological devices that are smart, multipurpose and automatically operated. Conventional
ways of doing things can be time-consuming in some case not safe or unsustainable Thus, to
stratify the necessities and needs, NPD which produces new product innovations have been
introduced. Innovation is defined by Simonton (1990) as anything that is useful, especially
economically, and actually implemented in processes or artefacts. Thanks to this field, people
nowadays gain benefits from many technological products such as wireless internet, electrical
devices and public transportations.

NPD is a complete process of bringing new product in business and engineering perspectives.
It is a process by which entrepreneur designs and creates new product or service that will be sold
to customers. The process involves transforming market opportunity into a product available for
sale whether by developing a new product or service for the market or modifying existing
products as new with better design or features.

Developing new product design involves the following process:

Figure 3.1: NPD Process

3.2 Classification of NPD

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According to claessens (2016) and iskanderani (2016), new product can be classified into the
following categories:

1. Completely new product

It involves new-to-the-world product which are new inventions that create a whole new market and
new to the firm products which are not new to the world but new to the firm.

2. Improvement on existing products

There are four categories of the new product in the classification which are additions to existing
product lines. Product developments, repositioning, and cost reductions. Additions to existing product
are usually new to the company, but they fit under an existing product line that the company makes.
Current products are made better by improving quality, features or performance of an existing
product. Repositioning involves introducing new application for an existing product for a new market
segment. Product which offer similar benefits at lower cost are cost reductions.

3.3 New Product Development Process

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3.3.1Research and development
a) Idea generating

The idea sparked when one of my group member parent is working as a construction worker and she
told me that her parent are complaining about the hazards that might occur at the site and this has
inspire our team to come out with a solution to help out her parent solve the problem.

Correlation to that story, we afraid that wearing a safety outfit would not sufficient enough and we
have to improvise the current methods and provide the most out of it. Her parents also told her child
that dead accident during work is a norm due to unable to safe the victim on time.

To solve the problem , they can use the safety alarm for construction worker. Where this device have
a GPS and alarm system that can alert and locate the victim accurately. So the he or she can be saved
on time.

Figure 3.2: ideas for safety alarm for construction worker

b) Idea screening

Based on figure 3.2, we have decided to develop a safety alarm with the following features:

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 i. GPS system

This system is important because this is the main component in our device to help locate and find the
user using this device in case of emergency. Especially at outdoor and trapped in rubble piles.

ii. S.O.S alarm

This feature is important because this is used to alert the other so that the person knows where you are
and to find you when in emergency such as in fire situation.

iii. Text sender

This feature is important to user because it can be use to further increase the usability of this device by
able to send short text to other person that using the same device within a certain range.

iv. Wifi connectivity

This feature is able to further increase the accuracy of the device and positioning the location
accurately in desperate times.

c) Market Survey

According to bluescope annual report 2018/2019 the sales of construction outfit rose 9% from last
year meaning the construction industry is growing so does the workers number. This market for us is
expanding in front our very eyes. This opportunity need to be use to capitalize the profit.

Market survey is conducted by preparing a questionnaire to gain information on safety alarm for
construction worker demand and its potential in market. The results of responses of 34 people are
shown in Figure 3.3.

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Based on the results, it is found that almost all respondent (97.1%) agree that they noticed some
worker having difficulty to call other workers when they face emergency case during construction
work. As the figure of the device shown, the respondent shown that a positively result where a (100%)
of the respondent agree that the device will help workers during the emergency. Lastly, to determine
the potential demand of the product. Respondent react to if product were commercializes would you
buy question. (94.3%) of them agree to buy meaning above 90% is a very good sign for a new product
and demand is high proven.

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3.3.2 Product Design/Features
In this section were tasked to investigate the product design and features of the product where it is
important to understand the consumer needs and demand to be able to compete in the market
successfully. There are a number of different aspect are taken onto account to measure the needs and
making our product features suits. A survey has been done to make measure the criteria and being
plotted onto a graph.

Figure 3.4 : criteria consideration chart

Based on the graph, the most highest demand for feature is the functionality. This is logical where a
product should functional properly to be able to solve the problem faced by the consumer where it
stands at (94.3%) of the demand.

Next is the price of the product itself. This is can be explain why the price is the main concern
because this product need to be use in a large quantity and the price point of the product should be in
directly proportional to the functionality of the product where it chart at (57.1%) of the demand.

Durability of the product stands at the third place where more than half of the respondent (54.3%)
agree that durability matters when it comes to construction equipment. Due to extreme activities.

Lastly, the mobility feature most least voted. Because the product is already small in size so can easily
carry everywhere they go and ready to use whenever needed. This feature stand at (45.7%) of the
demand.

The design of our product are as below in 2D and 3D view:

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Figure 3.5: product top and side view

Figure 3.6: product dimension

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3.3.3 Concept Testing
The flow of safety alarm for construction worker are as below:

Figure 3.7: workflow of concept testing

3.3.4 Test Marketing

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A survey has been done by using google form to test the market demand for our product. A few
questions regarding the price point suggestions and recommendation of product.

Figure 3.8: price point suggestion chart

The above chart shows that the crowd have a very tight competition on price point whether the price
should be on RM 50 and RM 25. As discussed earlier, the price point of the product depends on the
manufacturing cost and research and development cost of the product. But as we can see here the
majority of the crowd agree that the price should be around RM50 and below RM 99 With (57.1%) of
the respondent votes.

Our consumer is always our top priorities the best pricing will be applied to be able to compete with
other brands and similar product currently available on the market. Our product will be sold online
only mainly on ecommerce websites such as Lazada and Shoppe. For wider consumer reach,
worldwide well-known ecommerce website such Amazon and Ebay will be taken onto consideration
in future times.

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 Figure 3.9: Recommendation chart.

Based on figure 3.9, we can see that chart is tilted on one side of the graph where the responses are
positively high where the consumer are liking the product and the high score obtained from the result
will positively affect the manufacturer company to boost manufacturing of the product.

This situation where more than 60% of the respondent voted high score recommendation which at 4
and 5 scale. The end result will cause the free marketing strategy where people willing to tell each
other about their usage experiences to their friends and families.

This chain reaction will further boost the potential sales of the product if the current trend continues
and bring huge capital gains to the company.

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3.3.5 Consumer Trend Analysis
The consumer trend canvas may assist in gathering and analyses the problem basic needs and
transform the innovation before it can commercialized. The CTC for safety alarm for construction
worker is as below:

-Providing a safer solution

-Safety
to construction worker
-safety issue
-simplicity
- Provide an efficient
-health
-Relevance device to use when
-systemic management emergency.
-reachability

-comfortability

Safety alarm
for
construction
worker
-safer methods

-Easy handling and

maintenance
-Construction worker
-save lives
- service worker
-reachability among
-
workers

- locating accurate
location

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4.0 CONCLUSION
As a conclusion, referring to the problem statement it is known that a major problem in a construction
worker is safety issue. Safety alarm exist in the current market however there is still room for
improvement. The main features of the safety alarm is durability and high mobility usage. A poll
directed to the public produced results that at least more than half of the respondents have found this
product helpful and 94.3% of those respondents are interested in the product. In the design process of
the product, ergonomics, size, and ease of use for the consumer were the main priority.The aesthetic
needs of the consumer were also considered. Therefore, the safety alarm has potential to compete in
the market of safety equipment based on the research done above.

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5.0 REFERENCE
1. Simonton, D. (1999). Genius, creativity, and leadership. San Jose: ToExcel.
2. Claessens, M. (2016).Categories of New Products – What Is A New Product?
[online].Marketing-Insider. Available at:https://marketing-insider.eu/categories-of-new-
products/[Assessed 20 Nov. 2017].
3. Iskanderani, W. (2016).The Six Categories of New Products. [online]. Linkedin. Available
at:https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/six-categories-new-products-wisam-iskanderani-
npdp[Assessed at 20 Nov. 2017].
4. A dictionary of business and management (5th ed.). Oxford [England]: Oxford University
Press. 2009. ISBN 9780199234899. OCLC 277068142.
5. Koen, Peter A. "The fuzzy front-end for incremental, breakthrough and platform products and
services" (1). Consortium for corporate entrepreneurship.

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