Introduction
Product Design and Development
Chapter 1
Karl T. Ulrich and Steven D. Eppinger
7th Edition, Irwin McGraw-Hill, 2019.
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CHAPTER OVERVIEW
SO1 SO2 SO3 SO4
What is Product Characteristics of Successful - Who Designs and The Challenges of Product
Planning and Product Development Develops Products? Development
Development? - Duration and Cost of
Product Development
SO5
Roadmap of this subject
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Apple: Simply Better Products
Slide 3
iRobot Roomba
Slide 4
What Makes Product Development Successful?
Product Quality Product Cost Development Time Development Cost
Meeting customer needs Optimizing Responding quickly to Managing the significant
with robust, reliable manufacturing expenses competitive forces and investment required to
solutions that command including capital technological achieve profitable
market share and equipment, tooling, and developments to outcomes.
premium pricing. per-unit production accelerate economic
costs. returns.
Development Capability
Building organizational assets for more effective and economical future product development.
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Who Designs and Develops Products?
The Cross-Functional Team
Core Functions Product development requires
contributions from nearly all functions of
Marketing, Design, and
a firm. Marketing identifies opportunities
Manufacturing work
and customer needs. Design defines the
together throughout
physical form to meet those needs.
development.
Manufacturing produces the product
efficiently.
Teams include a core group small
enough to meet in a conference room,
plus an extended team that may include
hundreds or thousands of members
across partner companies and suppliers.
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Who Designs and
Develops Products?
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Scale of Product Development
Development efforts vary dramatically in scope, duration, and investment across different product types.
Duration and Cost of
Product Development
(Source: Folkestad & Johnson, 2001)
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The Challenges of Product Development
Trade-offs Dynamics Details
An airplane can be lighter, but Technologies improve, customer Choosing between screws or
manufacturing cost increases. preferences evolve, competitors snap-fits can have million-dollar
Managing trade-offs to maximize introduce new products, and the implications. Even modest
product success is difficult. macroeconomic environment products require thousands of
shifts constantly. such decisions.
Time Pressure Economics
Decisions must be made quickly Large investments in
without complete information, development, production, and
compounding all other difficulties. marketing require products that
appeal to customers and cost
little to produce.
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The Challenges of Product Development
For many people, product development is interesting precisely because it is challenging. For others, several
intrinsic attributes also contribute to its appeal:
✓ Creation: The product development process begins with an idea and ends with the production of a physical
artifact. When viewed both in its entirety and at the level of individual activities, the product development
process is intensely creative.
✓ Satisfaction of societal and individual needs: All products are aimed at satisfying needs of some kind.
Individuals interested in developing new products can almost always find institutional settings in which they
can develop products satisfying what they consider to be important needs.
✓ Team diversity: Successful development requires many different skills and talents. As a result, development
teams involve people with a wide range of different training, experience, perspectives, and personalities.
✓ Team spirit: Product development teams are often highly motivated, cooperative groups. The team
members may be colocated so they can focus their collective energy on creating the product. This situation
can result in lasting camaraderie among team members.
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PROCESS FRAMEWORK
The Generic Product
Development Process
A well-defined development process ensures quality,
coordinates team efforts, anchors project planning,
enables performance management, and identifies
improvement opportunities.
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Slide 11
Concept Development: The
Front-End Process
Critical Activities The concept development phase
demands more cross-functional
• Identify customer needs
coordination than any other
• Establish target specifications
phase. Activities are interrelated
• Generate product concepts
and often overlapped, with
• Select and test concepts
iteration common as new
• Set final specifications
information emerges.
• Plan downstream
development Supporting activities include
economic analysis, competitive
benchmarking, and building
prototypes throughout the
process.
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Process Variants for Different Contexts
Technology-Push Platform Products Process-Intensive Quick-Build
Begin with proprietary technology, Build around preexisting Production process constrains Rapid design-build-test cycles
find appropriate market technological subsystems to product properties; design product enable flexible, responsive spiral
applications. reduce development time and and process together. development.
cost.
Complex Systems
Decompose into subsystems
developed by parallel teams, then
integrate and validate.
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Tyco's Rally Point Process
Tyco International implemented Rally Point as a standardized product development process across its operating divisions. This
process comprises nine phases, each separated by critical review gates, known as Rally Points. While a standard baseline,
teams can adapt this process with variants for specific product types or customer needs.
01
Conceive
Project registration and concept definition
02
Design
Feasibility, planning, and preliminary design
03
Optimize
Final design and product verification
04
Verify
Process verification, launch, and assessment
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Choosing the Right Organization
Organizations link individuals through reporting relationships, financial arrangements, and physical layout. The optimal structure depends on your
priorities.
Functional Organization
Links by function (marketing, design, manufacturing). Fosters deep
specialization and expertise. Best for customized products with slight
variations.
Project Organization
Links by project team. Enables rapid coordination and integration.
Best for start-ups, breakthrough projects, and highly dynamic
markets.
Matrix Organization
Hybrid approach with both functional and project links. Heavyweight
variant emphasizes projects; lightweight variant emphasizes
functions.
Key Trade-off: Functional organizations excel at developing deep expertise. Project organizations excel at coordination efficiency and
speed. Matrix organizations attempt to balance both.
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