New Product Development

New Product Development:

Improving and updating products is an ongoing task as consumer needs and wants continuously change. A failure to develop products could result in a reduction in sales if consumers decide to buy competitor products.

The Product Development can be defined as "creating, innovating, or developing entirely a new product , or presenting an existing Market product with enhanced utility, improved features, more Attractive design, better quality  and reliability to satisfy the requirements of its end-users."

In this Rapid-changing world we are experiencing change in our daily life and at marketplace too. Customer needs, wants, and expectations are changing more rapidly. Customers are increasingly demanding advance features, attractive designs, better quality, and reliability in products. To meet the changing demands of customer, business organisations are investing heavily in research and development (R&D). Business organisations are updating existing products and developing new products to satisfy changing customer needs, wants, and expectations.

Meaning of Product Development

Product means a good, service, idea or object created as a result of a process and offered to serve a need or satisfy a want. Development means the act or process of growing, progressing, or developing. Product Development  is a process of improving the existing product or to introduce a new product in the market. It is also named as New Product Development.

Major Stages in New-Product Development

Product Development Process

Product development process is a crucial process for the success and survival of any business. Present-days, businesses are operating in a highly dynamic and competitive environment. Business organisations have to continuously update their products to conform to current trends. The product development process starts from idea generation and ends with product development and commercialisation.

The key to successful innovation is in a total-company effort, strong planning, and a systematic new product development process. The new-product development process consists of eight stages: idea generation, idea screening, concept development and testing, marketing strategy development, business analysis, product development, test marketing, and commercializati n.  At each stage, a decision must be made as to whether the idea should be further developed or dropped. The company wants to minimize the chances of poor ideas moving forward or good ideas being rejected.

1.             Idea Generation - The first step of product development is Idea Generation that is identification of new products required to be developed.  This is the systematic search for new product ideas.

For every one hundred new product ideas, only a very few ever make it to commercialization. 

The search for these ideas should be systematic not haphazard. Followings  are the sources for new product ideas.

a. Internal sources where formal research and development, company scientists and

engineers, company executives, and company sales people can contribute ideas based on

their formal and informal research and experience.

b. Customers feedback and needs.

c. Competitors are another source of new-product ideas. It is a good idea to watch

competitor's  market products, ads and other communications to get clues

 about  new products. In

addition, the organization can buy competing products, take them apart, analyze the

business processes used to sell the product, and then decide whether to make a similar

product themselves.

d. Distributors, suppliers, and others in the distribution chain can be sources of

information. Resellers are close to the market and can pass along information about

consumer problems and new-product possibilities. Suppliers can tell about new

concepts, techniques, and materials that can be used to develop new products. Other

sources can be trade magazines, trade shows, seminars, government agencies,

consultants, university and commercial laboratories, etc.

2.             Idea Screening : selecting the best idea among the ideas generated at the first step. selecting ones which are feasible and practical to develop. As the resources are limited, so all the ideas are not converted to products. Most promising idea is kept for the next stage.

Idea Screening   involves screening new product ideas in order to spot good ideas and drop poor ones as soon as possible. Because product-development costs rise dramatically in later stages, companies must proceed only with product ideas that will turn into profitable products. One way to keep information organized is to have executives write up new-product ideas on a standard form that can be reviewed by a new-product committee. A well-designed system for rating and evaluating new-product ideas prevents problems at latter stages.

3.             Concept Development - At this ,selected idea is moved into development process. For the selected idea different product concepts are developed. Out of several product concepts the most suitable concept is selected and the concepts needs to be taken to the target audience. What do they think about the idea? Will it offer the benefit that the organisation hopes it will? or have they overlooked certain issues? Will there be a demand for the product? Note the idea taken to the target audience is not a working prototype at this stage, it is just a concept.

4.             Market Strategy Development - At this step the market strategies are developed to evaluate market size, product demand, growth potential, and expected sales and  profit estimation for initial years. Further it includes launch of product, selection of distribution channel, etc. the marketing strategy statement describes the planned long-run sales, profit goals, and marketing mix strategy.

5.             Business Analysis - The company has a great idea, the marketing strategy seems feasible, but will the product be financially worthwhile in the long run? The business analysis stage looks more deeply into the Cash flow the product could generate, what the cost will be, how much market shares the product may achieve and the expected life of the product. Business analysis includes - estimation of sales, frequency of purchases, nature of business, production and distribution related costs and expenses, and estimation of profit.

6. Product Development - At this step the concept moves to production of finalised product. Decisions are taken from operational point of view whether the product is technically and commercially feasible to produce. Here the research and development department develop a  prototype model. This step calls for a large jump in investment. The prototype will undergo a serious tests, and will be presented to a selection of people made up of the target market segment to see if changes need to be made.. 
7. Test Marketing - Now the product is ready to be launched in market with brand name, packaging, and pricing. Initially the product is launched in a test market. Test marketing means testing the product within a specific geographic area. The product will be launched within a particular region so the marketing mix strategy can be monitored and if needed modified before national launch. If the product is found acceptable in test market the product is ready to be launched in target market.
8.  Commercialisation - Here the product is launched across target market with a proper market strategy and plan. The following decisions regarding the target market need to be made

o    Timing of the launch

o    How the product will be launched

o    Where the product will be launched

Designing guide

MECHANICAL DESIGN PROCEDURE:

 1.  At first a design scheme (lay-out/concept) is drawn in which the shape of the part being designed and the nature of its connection with other elements are presented in a simplified form while the forces acting on the part are assumed to be either concentrated or distributed in conformity with some simple law.

    o    Decompose the physical concept into sub-assemblies and components, determine the Geometric arrangement of component and establish dimensional relationships between components.

    o            Decide which components are standard and which must be designed.

    o           Select manufacturing process to be used for each designed component.

2. The forces acting on the part in the process of machine operation are then determined;

3. The necessary material is selected and the allowable stresses are found accounting for all the factors that affect the strength of the part;

4. The dimensions of the part, required by the design criteria (strength, rigidity, wear resistance etc.) corresponding to the accepted design scheme, are determined;

5. Finally the drawing of the part is made indicating all dimensions, accuracy of manufacture, surface finish and other information necessary for the manufacture of the part.

The Product Design Specification [PDS]:

The Product Design Specification is the necessary information required to effectively define architecture and system design in order to give the development team guidance on architecture of the system to be developed. The Product Design Specification document is created during the Planning Phase of the project. Its intended audience is the project manager, project team, and development team. Some portions of this document such as the user interface (UI) may on occasion be shared with the client/user, and other stakeholder whose input/approval into the UI is needed.
The Product Design Specification (PDS) comprises quantitative statement of what you want to design prior to starting to design it. In other words, the specifications of the PDS should be largely independent of any specific embodiment of your product, so multiple solution concepts are possible.The purpose of the PDS is to ensure that your design actually addresses your customer needs. This is essential if your product is to succeed.

Typical content of PDS:

Factors to be considered for Preparing PDS:

A. Product design & performance issues..

·         Expected product size and weight

·         Expected product performance requirements

·         Operational requirements.

·         Speed (Continuous or discontinuous)

·         Loadings likely encountered

·         Product power requirements.

·         Product shelf life.

·         Product service life.

·         Expected product service environment.

·         What is the operating temperature range

·         What is the operating humidity range

·         Subject to shock loading?

·         Will the product be exposed to dirt or other contaminants (corrosive fluids, etc.)

·         Will there be any anomalies in power/fuel available for this product?

·         How will the product be treated in service?

·         What impact will the product have on its environment?

·         Expected product safety requirements.

·         Potential sources of product liability litigation.

·         Potential operator hazards.

·         Potential manufacturing and assembly hazards.

·         Potential for misuse/abuse.

·         Expected product reliability standards and requirements.

·         What level of reliability can we expect for this product?

·         Expected product ergonomic requirements -- customer requirement

·         Which user/operator features are desirable in this product?

·         Are there problem areas for users/operators? Can we design around them?

·         Expected product aesthetics -- customer requirement

·         Expected product maintenance requirements.

·         Can product be maintenance-free?

·         If routine maintenance is required, can it be done by the owner/operator?

·         Will professional maintenance be required?

·         Possible off-the-shelf component parts.

·         Which parts of this product be purchased instead of being made by us?

·         Is the quality and reliability of purchases parts adequate for this design?

·         Material requirements..

·         What are the strength requirements?

·         What are the rigidity/compliance requirements?

·         Is product weight of importance?

·         Expected product recycling potential and expected disposal

·         Does the disposal of this product constitute an environmental hazard?

·         Can parts of this product be effectively recycled by existing processes?

·         Manufacturing process requirements and limitations.

·         Is protection from the environment necessary?

·         Is there a customer preference for a particular finish?

·         How do we minimize environmental impact?

·         Product packaging requirements.

·         Can we use environmentally friendly packaging and packing materials?

·         How much packaging and packing materials are really necessary?

·         Applicable codes and standards to be checked.

·         Patents to be checked.

·         Processes to research/benchmark. (special processes needed for fabrication?)

B. Market issues...

·         Potential customer base

·         Who will buy this product? Why?

·         Have you listed all potential classes of customers?

·         Can we tap into a new segment of the market? How?

·         Market constraints on product.

·         Who is buying this type product? (customer base)

·         What is currently selling?

·         What is currently not selling?

·         Expected product competition (These will be benchmarked)

·         What are the strengths of each competing product? Can we incorporate them?

·         What are the weaknesses of each competing product? Can we improve?

·         What are the market shares of competing products?

·         Target product price -- OEM and MSRP

·         Target production volume and market share.

·         Is there a market for this product? How do you know?

·         Is the potential market sufficiently large to justify investment in a new product?

·         Is the new product sufficiently better than the competition?

·         Expected product distribution environment.

·         How will the packaged product be treated in shipping, storage, and on the shelf?

·         Are adequate shipping facilities available?

·         Will installation require a professional?

C. Capability issues....

·         Company constraints on product design, manufacture, and distribution.

·         What are our manufacturing capabilities?

·         Should we manufacture ourselves or outsource?

·         Schedule requirements -- time to market.

·         When should we have this product to market to capture maximum market share?

·         How much time should we allocate to design?

·         How much time do we need to implement a manufacturing process?

Development Of Product Specification:

Improvement Of Product Specification:

Materials Selection:

The selection of a material for a machine part or structural member is one of the most important decisions of the designer.  There are systematic and optimizing approaches to material selection. Here, for illustration, we will only look at how to approach some material properties. One basic technique is to list all the important material properties associated with the design, e.g., strength, stiffness, and cost. This can be prioritized by using a weighting measure depending on what properties are more important than others. Next, for each property, list all available materials and rank them in order beginning with the best material; e.g., for strength, high-strength steel such as 4340 steel should be near the top of the list. For completeness of available materials, this might require a large source of material data. Once the lists are formed, select a manageable amount of materials from the top of each list. From each reduced list select the materials that are contained within every list for further review. The materials in the reduced lists can be graded within the list and then weighted according to the importance of each property.  

Selection of Material Depends on following factors,

·         Material Properties

                         The expected level of performance from the material 

·         Material Cost and Availability

Material must be priced appropriately (not cheap but right)

            Material must be available (better to have multiple sources)

·         Processing

Must consider how to make the part, for example:

Casting

Machining

            Welding

·         Working Environment and Serviceability

         Wear And Corrosion

·         Durability and Maintenance