DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES AND ORGANIZATION

MEM531INTEGRATED PRODUCT DESIGN 1

1.3 ADAPTING THE GENERIC PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

PROCESS→→

• Begins with a new proprietary technology and looks for anappropriate market in which to apply this technology.

• Involve basic materials or process technologies because they arecommonly deployed in many applications.

• In the planning phase → a given technology is matched with amarket opportunity → followed by generic development process.

• A technology-push product will only succeed if:− The technology used gives a clear competitive advantage in

meeting customer needs.− Suitable alternative technologies are unavailable for the

competitors to utilize.

Technology-Push Products

Example of Technology-Push Products

• The new product will be built around an established technologicalsubsystem (a technology platform).

• Example: Tape transport mechanism in the Sony Walkman, theApple Macintosh operating system, Polaroid instant film.

• Slightly similar to technology-push product → development startswith an assumption that the product concept will utilize a particulartechnology.

• The only difference is a technology platform has already beingused and proven useful in meeting customer needs.

• Therefore much simpler to develop compared if the technologywere developed from scratch.

Platform Products

Example of Platform Products

• Include semiconductors, foods, chemicals and paper.• Characteristics of the product are highly constrained by the

production process.• Certain production process will give different product characteristic.• In many cases the products are produced in very high volumes and

are bulk.• Either an existing production process must be specified from the

beginning, or both product and process must be developedtogether from the beginning.

Process-Intensive Products

Example of Process-Intensive Products

• Customized products have slight variations of existingconfigurations.

• Developed in response to a specific order by a customer.• Involves setting values of design variables such as physical

dimensions and materials.• Similarity of projects allows for a streamlined and highly structured

development process.

Customized Products

Example of Customized Products

• Have big uncertainties of failure related to the technology ormarket.

• Technical risk → will the product function properly?• Market risk → will the customer like what the team develops?• Budget and schedule risk → can the team complete the project on

time and within the budget?• Reducing these risks by addressing the risk at early product

development stages → concept testing using prototypes.• These risks have to be monitored regularly expecting that the risk

will be reduced over time and not being postponed (wait and see).

High-Risk Products

Example of High-Risk Products

• Rapid modeling and prototyping enables many design-build-testcycle to be made.

• This allows rapid iteration (more flexible and responsive productdevelopment process) a.k.a spiral product development process.

• Detail design and testing phases are repeated a number of timesuntil the product is completed or time/budget runs out.

• Customer may ne involved in the testing process after one or morecycle → trial version of software.

• When this happen, normally all the expected detail design featureshave been incorporated into the evolving product

Quick-Build Products

Example of Quick-Build Products

• System must be decomposed into several subsystems and manycomponents.

• These subsystems and components are developed by many teamsworking in parallel.

• Involves larger-scale products such as automobiles and airplanes.• Detail design of the components is a highly parallel process in

which the development teams work at once.

Complex Systems

Example of Complex Systems

• Involves the development of market-pull, technology-push,platform, process intensive, customized and high-risk products.

• Each stage is followed by a review to confirm that the stage iscompleted and to determine whether the project proceeds.

Products Development Process Flow

• Involve the quick-build products.• Detail design, prototyping and testing are repeated a number of

times.

• Involve the complex systems.• Works of the subsystems and components are decomposed into

parallel stages of work.