PRODUCT INNOVATION AND DEVELOPMENT

Product is something which is sold by an enterprise to its customers. Product development is a set of activities beginning with the perception of a market opportunity and ending in the production, sale and delivery of the product. Need for New Product Development:
Shorter product lifecycles Increasing technological capabilities Increasingly competitive Markets Grow brand loyalty Diversify into growth areas Increase Market share Production and Research and Development Strategies

Characteristics of New Product Development

1. Product Quality:
Goodness of the new product Satisfying customer needs Robustness Reliability

2) Product Cost 3) Development Time 4) Development Cost

5) Development Capability
6) Safety

Challenges of New Product Development

1) Design and Property trade-off

2) Market Dynamics
3) Product Details 4) Time Pressure 5) Economics 6) Team Diversity and Coordination

New Product Development Process

Stage 1: Idea generation
Within the company i.e. employees Competitors. Customers Distributors, Supplies and others.

Stage 2: Idea Screening

This process involves shifting through the ideas generated above and selecting ones which are feasible and workable to develop. Pursing non feasible ideas can clearly be costly for the company.

Stage 3: Concept Development and Testing The organization may have come across what they believe to be a feasible idea, however, the idea needs to be taken to the target audience.
What do they think about the idea? Will it be practical and feasible? Will it offer the benefit that the organization hopes it will? or have they overlooked certain issues?

Note the idea and concept is taken to the target audience not a working prototype at this stage.

 Stage 4: Marketing Strategy and Development How will the product/service idea be launched within the market? A proposed marketing strategy will be written laying out the marketing mix strategy of the product, the segmentation, targeting and positioning strategy sales and profits that are expected.
Stage 5: Business Analysis The company has a great idea, the marketing strategy seems feasible, but will the product be financially worth while in the long run? The business analysis stage looks more deeply into the cashflow the product could generate, what the cost will be, how much market shares the product may achieve and the expected life of the product.

Stage 6: Product Development Finally it is at this stage that a prototype is finally produced. The prototype will clearly run through all the desired tests, and be presented to the target audience to see if changes need to be made.

Stage 7: Test Marketing Test marketing means testing the product within a specific area. The product will be launched within a particular region so the marketing mix strategy can be monitored and if needed, be modified before national launch.

Stage 8: Commercialization If the test marketing stage has been successful then the product will go for national launch. timing, how the product will be launched, where the product will be launched, will there be a national roll out or will it be region by region?

Types of New Product Design

1) Original Design:
Elaborating original solutions for a given product Leads to innovation/invention, development of associated activities High risk opportunity, but has potential to dominate

2) Adaptive Design:
Adapting a known product to a changed functionality Evolving a significant subsystem for a known product

3) Variant Design:
Varying the parameters (size, geometry, material properties, control parameters, etc.) of a certain aspect of a product to develop a new and more robust product

4) Redesign:
Used to mean any of the design types such as original design, adaptive or variant, but to implement improvements to certain aspects of design that was deficient. Iterative design process involved

Types of New Product Development

1) Technology Push Products:
Involve basic material development or basic process development

Eg.: Microprocessor based ignition timing control

2) Platform Products:
Built around a pre-existing technological subsystem. Eg.: DVD drive mechanism in audio system.

3) Process Intensive Products:

Production volumes are high and may be bulk material processing Strict constraints are placed on properties of products

Eg.: Semiconductor industry

4) Customized Products:
Developed against an order.

PROTOTYPE
Prototype is an approximation of the product along one or more dimension of interest. Need for Prototypes: 1) Learning
Prototypes are used as a learning tool

2) Communication
Prototypes enrich communication with top management, vendors, partners, team members and customers.

3) Integration
Prototypes used to ensure that components and subsystems of the product work together as expected

4) Performance Scale
Prototypes are used to demonstrate that the product has achieved a desired level of functionality and goals.

Types of Prototypes
1) Physical Prototype:
These are tangible models created to approximate the product for testing and experimentation. They look and feel like the actual product.

2) Analytical Prototype:
They represent the product in a nontangible , usually mathematical form.

3) Comprehensive Prototype:
Implement most of the attributes of a product. It is a full-scale and fully operational version of the product. It is the one given to customers in order to identify any remaining design errors.

4) Focused Prototype:
Implement one or a few of the attributes of a product. It is used to investigate the overall performance of the product.

Testing and Reliability

Testing done at: 1) Preliminary Design Stage:
It is design maturity test dealing with basic reliability of product design and are performed to measure product mean time before failure.

2) Development Stage:
It is failure mode effective analysis test performed to examine all potential ways in which a product or its sub-components are likely to fail.

3) Frequency at which failures occur:

It gives a measure of products reliability. Higher the failure rate, more unreliable.

PRODUCT FAILURE
Classification of Design Product Failure:
1) Critical Failure
Life or significant financial loss.

2) Major Failure
Requires immediate replacement.

3) Minor Failure

Origin of Failure:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Errors in design Errors in material selection Material defects Fabrication/Manufacturing Defects Deterioration of properties in service Operation error / service abuse

Type of Tests
Material Test
Characterizes the properties of materials

Manufacturing and Fabrication Test

Validates methods of manufacture

Design Validation Test Quality Assurance Test Performance Test

Relates to functionality and performance

Endurance Test
Durability Test

Field Test
Test in actual environment