Product Design

Mike Baxter

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781482249293
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Tecnología e ingeniería
• Subtopic: Ingeniería mecánica

The discovery of market needs and the manufacture of a product to meet those needs are integral parts of the same process. Since most textbooks on new product development are written from either a marketing or an engineering perspective, it is important for students to encounter these two aspects of product development together in a single text.Product Design: Practical Methods for the Systematic Development of New Products covers the entire new product development process, from market research through concept design, embodiment design, design for manufacture, and product launch. Systematic and practical in its approach, the text offers both a structured management framework for product development and an extensive range of specific design methods. Chapters feature "Design Toolkits" that provide detailed guidance on systematic design methods, present examples with familiar products, and conclude with reviews of key concepts.This major text aims to turn the often haphazard and unstructured product design process into a quality-controlled, streamlined, and manageable procedure. It is ideal for students of engineering, design, and technology on their path to designing new products.

1 Introduction

Innovation is a vital ingredient of business success. Free market economics depend upon companies competing with each other in the marketplace and trying to close any lead established by another company. In terms of selling products, companies must continually introduce new products to prevent their more innovative competitors eating away at their market share.

In more recent years, the pressures to innovate have grown. As manufactured products have become more global, the competitive pressures from overseas companies have increased substantially. This is not only a threat from the multi-national industrial giants. International licensing agreements can spread products around the world through networks of small or medium sized companies. Looking over your shoulder requires much longer vision that it used to! To make things worse, the average life span of products is shrinking fast. New technologies, such as CAD, rapid prototyping and tooling are reducing product development times. Customers can therefore be more choosy and change their demands more frequently, stimulated and fuelled by whatever product or new idea has been introduced most recently. Pity any poor manufacturer who does not move fast enough, or worse still, tries to stand still in such a rapidly changing marketplace. The statistics on business success show clear trends in product innovation (Figure 1.1).

‘The managerial tactic of consciously shortening the market life of products, through rapid new introduction is a strategic weapon against slower-moving competitors. Pioneered by the Japanese, this viciously effective approach is now being emulated by a growing number of Western countries. As a result, every competitor is having to scramble to produce a greater and faster flow of new products than in the past.’

Christopher Lorenz [1]

Year	% Total sales	% Profits
1976–1980	33	22
1981–1986	40	33
1985–1990	42	–
Projected 1995	52	46

Figure 1.1
The percentage of total company sales and profits generated by new products [2]

For designers this is exciting news. Design is the vehicle for product change and the more products change, the more design will be needed. But it is not all good news. The failure rate for new products is another often-quoted business statistic. The figures vary a great deal because they use different definitions for what constitutes a new product and what constitutes success. But the consensus suggests that for every 10 ideas for new products, 3 will be developed, 1.3 will be launched and only 1 will make any profit [3]. Considering that the cost of new product development can run well into six-figure sums, these are terrifying odds. No one in their right mind would start – except, as we have seen, it happens to be essential. This makes design a very different vehicle to drive. Reaching the finishing line, with a fully developed new product is no use at all if the product is unsuccessful. Choosing the right destination, picking a good course, changing course when necessary, negotiating hazards, avoiding accidents – and all whilst driving fast enough to be sure not to lose sight of your competitors. This is what ‘driving’ the design process is all about in the world of modern manufacturing.

‘….for every 10 ideas for new products, 3 will be developed, 1.3 will be launched and only 1 will make any profit…’

Innovation — risky and complex

The secret to successful innovation is, therefore, the management of risk; the subject at the heart of this book. Risk management can be looked at in two ways:

• First, it is about targeting; getting the new product on to the market, ensuring that it appeals to, and satisfies the customer, is fit for its intended purpose, is of a quality to last its design lifetime and can be made at an acceptable cost. Innovation methods must take account of all these factors and minimise the risks of the new product failing.

• Secondly, it is about killing off products as soon as they fall short of the set targets; innovation must be examined critically at every stage in order to stop the development of unsuccessful products as early as possible. If only a small proportion of new products are going to succeed it is vital to the financial health of any company that the wastage of resources on failure is minimised.

‘There are only two important functions in business: marketing and innovation; everything else is cost’

Peter Drucker

Already, a few paragraphs into this book, the complexity of new product development is becoming clear. Just how can new products be developed in order to meet the multitude of different, and often conflicting requirements?

• Customers want improved product performance and better value

• Marketers want a competitive edge and product differentiation

• Production engineers want simple production and easy assembly

• Technologists want to try new materials, designs and processes and

• Accountants demand costs and margins for minimum investment.

New product development is inevitably a compromise process. At the very least, compromise will be required between factors which add extra value to the product (e.g. improved product quality, the addition of secondary features) and those which constrain its development costs (e.g. product price, development lead time, design and development man-hours). This compromise must end up with a product which will compete effectively against other products in an ever-changing market. An ill-informed, ill-considered or just plain unlucky compromise may cause that product to fail and all the resources invested in its development to be wasted.

New product development is never simple and straightforward. It requires thorough research, careful planning, meticulous control and, most importantly, the use of systematic methods. Systematic design methods are not, at present, used to anything like their full potential in new product development. To do so requires a multidisciplinary approach, embracing marketing methods, engineering methods and the aesthetic and styling methods of industrial design. This marriage of social science, technology and applied art is never going to be easy but the imperative to innovate demands that it must be attempted. The best designers of the future will be multi-skilled and will feel as comfortable discussing market research as they do colouring up a rendering of a new product or selecting which plastic it should be made from. This is not to suggest that the design profession will be limited only to naturally gifted polymaths. In-depth expertise in all areas is not required; that can always sought from others within the company or from external consultants. But what is required is a basic understanding of a wide range of approaches and methods for tackling the development of new products. The ability to use basic methods in each of the three main disciplines – marketing, engineering and industrial design – will remove the fear factor and will give the designer both an empathy and a working understanding of new product development in all its aspects.

‘A good workman is known by his tools!’

Proverb

Ground-rules for systematic design: The 3 very unwise monkeys

The 3 Wise Monkeys: See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil

See no evil! Seeing evil, which in the new product development dictionary means spotting the new products which will fail in the marketplace, is vital in new product development. In fact it is probably the second most important task a designer can perform, second only to being able to create products which will not fail! This is far too important a task to be left to clairvoyance and must, therefore, be tackled systematically. Setting clear and realistic targets for a new product provides the vision of what that product must achieve to be successful. The most important targets are those demanded or wished for by customers. Other important targets include compatibility with the skills and facilities of the manufacturer, suitability for the intended marketing, sales and distribution channels and conformance with relevant statutory or industry standards. Designers who fail to set targets will indeed ‘see no evil’ but they also will fail to see what they ...