PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Introduction

Firms today are under pressure than ever before to develop goods, services and process
necessary to produce such goods or services. Two major causes are responsible for these trends;
viz:

 Increased competition
 Advances in technology

As a result, it is impedingly necessary for firms to continuously research on how to improve on

existing product or offer new products that will enable it sustain competitive status. A
breakthrough begins with product design.

WHAT IS A PRODUCT

A product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use or
consumption that might satisfy a need or want. It includes physical object, services, persons,
places, organization and ideas. (Kotler and Armstrong; 1996).

In the same vein, (Nickels, McHugh and McHugh, 2001) defined a product as any physical
goods, services or idea that satisfies a want or need plus anything that would enhance the product
in the eyes of the consumer (e.g brand)

On the other hand, design is seen as an art or process of conceiving how something will look,
work etc. It is a conceptual process by which some functional requirements of people
(individually or en-mass) is satisfied through the use of a product or a system which derives from
the physical translation of the concept.

Consequently, product design can be defined as a visible and tangible expression of an idea; such
a design may be functional design, aesthetic design, production design or design for packaging.
It is detailed planning and engineering of product, services or processes (Oyende;2012)

Product design is embarked upon to ensure that organizational goods/services outcome are of:

1. High quality
2. Produced on a dependable basis
3. Offer some flexibility
4. Produced tat low cost
5. And production is achieved in a speedily manner.

OBJECTIVES OF PRODUCT DESIGN

Specifically, product design is required to achieve the following objectives:

1. To satisfy customers’ needs and wants

2. To generate adequate profit
3. To translate customers’ wants and needs into product or service requirements
4. To refine /improve existing products
5. To develop new products/service
6. To construct and test prototype
7. To document specification
8. To stay on top of competition

FACTORS TO BE CONSIDERED IN PRODUCT DESIGN

1. Materials
2. Manufacturing facilities
3. Standardization requirement
4. Aesthetic (appearance and attractiveness)
5. Functionality
6. Ergonomic (ease of use, operate and comfortability)
7. Operating condition
8. Maintenance
9. Tolerance
10. Simplification
11. Economy

PRODUCT DESIGN PROCESS

This is the method by which product design evolve from conceptualization through engineering
to manufacturing and marketing. With the trend towards shorter product life cycle, successful
company must be able to (a) continuously generate product ideas (b) convert such idea into
reliable functioning design that are user friendly (c) ensure that these designs are readily
producible and (d) select the proper process that are most compatible with needs of the customer
and above all (e) it must be accomplished within increasingly shorter time frame. (Davis,
Aquilano and Chase; 2003). The process of product design is explicitly laid below:

 IDEA GENERATION
 Product design begins with idea generation; which can come from several sources; these
sources are grouped into two: Viz; Internal and external sources
 Internal Sources External Source
Sales marketing personnel Customers
Internal research efforts Research institutions
Product department Suppliers
Customer service department Competitors
Creativity Foreign product
Employees’ suggestion etc Advertising agencies
Participation in seminars, conferences,
workshop, trade fair and exhibition etc.

TECHINIQUES FOR GENERATING PRODUCT IDEAS

1. Attribute listing
2. Need/problem identification
3. Plus, Minus and implication analysis (PMI)
4. Value analysis
5. Free Association
6. Collective notebook method
7. Heuristic
8. Gordon method
9. Matrix charting
10. Big- dream approach
11. Parameter analysis etc

IDEA SCREENING

This is a process designed to reduce the number of new product ideas being worked on at
anytime (Oyende; 2012): it involves evaluation of various ideas conceived in order to spot good
ideas and drop poor ones. The evaluation or analysis is done in line with feasibility as well as
cost implication to the company.

In short idea screening is an elimination technique used to reduce the ideas to those that are
attractive, practicability and profitability. The criteria for idea screening according to Oyende,
(2012) are:

1. Product criteria- in terms of technical feasibility, service requirement, legal consideration,

organizational support etc.
2. Market criteria- which has to do with market size for the product, likely market share,
market growth potential, distribution etc.
3. Financial crtiteria- profitability, return on investment, cash flow etc.

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
Once a new product idea has been generated, it needs to be further developed and tested. This
includes an initial design of the product (which is conducted by R&D) along with a detailed
analysis of the market and customers’ requirement (which is conducted by marketing).

Businesses today recognizes the need to involve their customers in all aspects of the design,
production and delivery of the goods and services that they offer; with increased competition,
companies that do not listed to their customer on continuous basis will find them taking their
business to firms who will listen (Davis, Aquilano and Chase; 2003). An attractive, feasible and
viable product idea can be redefined into product concept. The steps involved are

 Product idea- this is a possible product which the company might offer to the market.
 Product concept- this is the detailed version of the idea expressed in meaniful consumer
time
 Product Image- this is particular perception of the consumer about the potential product.

PRODUCT DESIGN

This relates to the actual conception of the product features, attractiveness and packaging. It
involves:

 Recognition of needs
 Definition of problems (specification of the product to be designed in terms of physical
and functional characteristics, cost, quality, and operating performance)
 Analysis and synthesis- i.e subjecting product component to analysis, improvement and
redesign.
 Evaluation
 Presentation of design (documentation of the design through drawing, material
specification of each components)

BUSINESS ANALYSIS

At this stage, management needs to prepare the pro-forma sales cost, and profit projection so as
to assess whether or not it satisfies the company’s bench-mark.

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

After the product has passed the business analysis test, research and development and
engineering takes prominent step of developing and putting the design into physical product. It is
also at this stage that the company should establish whether or not the product idea can be
translated into technically and commercially feasible product.
Prototype (at this stage) is put through rigorous functional and commercial test. The product is
dressed up with a brand name, packaging and preliminary marketing program in order to give it a
more authentic consumer testing.

PROCESS PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT

This is related to the process required in order to manufacture the product. It is also about
selection of the most suitable and economical process of manufacturing the product. Ergonomic
factors should be taken into consideration while designing the process because of the importance
in productivity and comfort of the production workers.

MANUFACTURING THE PRODUCT

Here, a small quantity of the product should be manufactured first and the performance of this
product should be observed during usage. Improvement can be effected before manufacturing the
product in large quantity.

MARKETING THE PRODUCT

At this stage, the company should consider the following factors:

 Market entry timing

 Geographical area(s) to enter first
 Target market
 How to introduce the product ( develop an action plan)

BENEFITS OF PRODUCT DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

Davies, Aquilano and Chase documented the benefits of product design and development to
include

 Greater market share

 Price premium
 Quick re-action to competition
 Set industry standard

Greater market share

Firms with ability to introduce new product or innovations to the market have several advantage
over slower competitors. First early market entrants take market share, which is easier to
accomplish when there is no competition, as compared to trying to take market share away from
entrenched competitors. This is especially true for revolutionary product which have no
alternatives
Price premium

When a firm is the first to bring new product to market, it has little or no competition and can
therefore charge premium prices while the competitors struggle to catch up. The combination of
market share and premium price translates into significant profit. Thus, the faster a product is
introduced into the market ahead of competitors, the more profitable the productis over the entire
lifecycle.

Quick reaction to competition

A company that has the resources capability to bring new product to the market quickly is also in
a much better position to respond quickly to competitors’ surprise announcement of the
introduction of a new product. With such resource in hand, the firm can significantly limit the
competitive disadvantage that is usually associated with being a market late comer

Set industry standards

Product design and development enables first entrants the luxury of setting the standards for the
industry. This, in many cases, acts as a barrier to new entrants, and further delay competition.