Generic Product Development Process
1. Product Development
Product : A product is something sold by an enterprise to its customers.
Product Development : Product development is the set of activities beginning with
the perception of a market opportunity and ending in the production, sale and
delivery of a product.
2. The Product Development Process
A process is a sequence of steps that transforms a set of inputs into a set of
outputs.
A product development process is the sequence of steps or activities that an
enterprise employs to conceive, design, and commercialize a product.
Some organizations define and follow a precise and detailed product
development process, while others may not even be able to describe their
processes.
3. A Generic Product Development Process
We will consider here a generic product development process that can be used in
a market-pull situation.
The input to the process is a mission statement and the output of the process is
the product launch.
Mission statement : Identifies the target market for the product, provides a
basic functional description of the product, and specifies the business
goals of the effort; results from a well-executed product planning phase.
Product launch : Occurs when the product becomes available for
purchase in the market place.
4. A Generic Product Development Process Concept Development System-Level Design
Detail Design Testing and Refinement Production Ramp-Up Product Launch Mission
Statement Product Planning
5. Concept development
The needs of the target market are identified, alternative product concepts are
generated and evaluated, and a single concept is selected for further
development.
A concept is a description of the form, function and features of a product and is
usually accompanied by a set of specifications, an analysis of competitive
products, and an economic justification of the project.
6. System-level Design
Includes the definition of the product architecture and the division of the product
into subsystems and components.
The final assembly scheme for the production system is usually defined during
this phase.
The output of this phase is usually a geometric layout of the product, a functional
specification of each of the products subsystems, and a preliminary process flow
diagram for the final assembly process.
7. Detail Design
Includes the complete specification of the geometry, materials, and tolerances of
all the unique parts in the product and the identification of all the standard parts
to be purchased from suppliers.
A process plan is established and tooling is designed for each part to be
fabricated within the production system.
The output of this phase is the control documentation for the product.
8. Testing and Refinement
Involves the construction and evaluation of multiple pre-production versions of the
product.
Early prototypes are usually built with production-intent parts (parts with the same
geometry and material properties as intended for the production version of the
product but not necessarily fabricated with the actual process to be used in
production).
Early prototypes are tested to determine whether or not the product will work as
designed and whether or not the product satisfies the key customer needs.
9.
Later prototypes are usually built with parts supplied by the intended production
process but may not be assembled using the intended final assembly process.
Later prototypes are extensively evaluated internally and are also typically tested
by customers in their own use environment.
The goal of the beta prototypes is usually to answer questions about
performance and reliability in order to identify necessary changes for the final
product.
10. Production Ramp-up
The product is made using the intended production system.
The purpose is to train the work force and to work out any remaining problems in
the production process.
The artifacts produced during production ramp-up are sometimes supplied to
preferred customers and are carefully evaluated to identify any remaining flaws.
The transition from production ramp-up to ongoing production is usually gradual
and continuous.
11. At some point in this transition, the product is launched and becomes available for
widespread distribution.
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