Product Development and Design

Product - It is an article obtained by transformation of raw material and is marketed by the

Manufacturer

Development - It is carried out after applied research which follows pure research
development concern the most economically feasible method for applying the principles
identified through the research. It involves design and fabrication of new or modified product
and testing it to find its utility.

Product Development and Design - Product development and design is at the core of
the development and growth of production centre and its development. Thus production
design in one of the fundamental element of management policy production design in one of
the fundamental element of management policy.
It concern all the aspects product design, Including its functionality, quality, features
investigation of material, standardization etc, and lastly but most importantly, customer
satisfaction (primary objective).

Necessity of Product Development –

1. Meet challenging customer needs.
2. Manufacture improved and low cost products.
3. Maintain sales position and profit margin

Product classification
1. Convenience goods – All these items are found to be available at stretch of hand to
Journal stores. e.g. cigarettes, blade, magazines.
2. Shopping goods - these are the most expensive item that people by less frequently.
e.g clothing and garments, automobiles etc.
3. Specialty goods - These are the item with buyer will take extraordinary pen to
obtained. These are possessed by people having such hobbies e.g high speed car,
jewellery etc.
4. Industrial goods -These comprises raw material and finished good which may be
converted into finished product, machinery etc e.g automobile manufacture may need
steel which will go into his product

Product life cycle

It is well known fact that every product, error expected of its value or nature process for the
life cycle in the market., it may also have multiple life cycle depending upon its demand re
introduction By the producers, modification to the product etc. the sales estimate for each
year or a particular. Decide the life cycle of the product. Based on market acceptance a
product has five stages in its life cycle.
1. Introduction
2. Growth
3. Maturity
 4. Saturation
5. Decline

When the new product entered into the market will be the first in its introductory stage
where the sales volume is very. As its demand increases, sales volume also increases which is
the second stage of life cycle. Once the market grows Sales further increase and reaches a
Stable stage, which is maturity state. At this stage, the product is well known and acceptable.
It is seen that at the end of maturity stage, sales is maximum at which the market gets
saturated and the Sales volume are almost stagnated. As this state the demand and supply are
almost equal and the market is flooded with the product. After sometimes the reverse process
starts, when the demand start coming down and a gradual decline in the sales volume occurs.
This is the decline stage, Which is due to reason like competition from other new and better
products, obsolescence or to its own weakness, due to improper supply.
Consumable items such as toothpaste and Clothes and some services like hair cutting, car
wash do not reach such a point in a cycle because they are consumed and reproduced.

Factor Affecting product life cycle

The product life cycle depend upon the product and the market. The characteristics of
product, that effect span of each stage, are its price, quality, availability and competition from
other for similar products. Any product which hold for a longer period in the maturity and
saturation stage, make better return Where the sales volumes are maximum.
A cheaper product may sell more even without good quality but would not last longer.
on the other hand a better product may have greater demand even at high price,. Which again
depend on various factor
Market factors and consumer behaviour also affect product life cycle from stage to
stage. The market factors like general price levels, Market competition, economic policy,
company distribution effort and advertising effect. The life cycle to a greater extent
The consumer behaviour factor like which affect the product life cycle are income
level, class and status consciousness [Link] aggressively public city Campion escalate the
demand for product on an inflammatory pressure reduces the demand. A good product in
demand may reduce its L as soon as the another new product is introduced at more or less
same price label.
Product development Procedure - The various stages involved in selecting and
developing the product may be listed as

1. venture of ideas- New idea for selection and development of product is generated
by
a. Imitation –
 Imitation means marketing another product similar to one in the
market.
 Designed by imitation save lots of research and development money.
 It also avoids a risk of being unsuccessful because only those designs
are imitated which have proved their success in the market.
 It is a quick mean of developing the product.
b. Adaptation - Adaptation involved developing in improve product for already
existing in the markets.
c. Invention (Research and development)-
 New designs come from invention.
 New conceived idea developed and turn into new products.
 This procedure involves lots of money, time, risk of failure or
unsuccessful in the customer market.
 For this reason, greatest flow of new design is not from invention but
by imitation.
d. Other sources- Sometimes new idea may be obtained from the following
sources
 Dealers and customers.
 By advertising, asking people to send their ideas and announcing price
for best ideas.
 Success story of friends/relatives experience of other manufacturers.
 Chances of producing substitute of an article for which there is a good
demand.
 Internal source for new idea or employs including and staff, sales
representatives, production workers etc. Every employee a potential
source of new product ideas and should be encouraged to put forth
suggestions.

Classification of product ideas – Various product ideas may be classified as

i. Research base ideas
 Industries based on mineral, agriculture, marine and forest sources.
 Waste based products such as agro waste, wood waste and metal waste etc.
ii. linkage based ideas
 Ancillary development products
 Industry based on substitutions that is products, which are either obtained from
the outside region.
iii. Export – Import related ideas
 Items having export potentials
 Imported substitutions
iv. Market growth ideas
 It include the consumer and individual products, which have growth potential
result of increase population purchasing power, change in fashion, improved
standard of living, etc.
v. Special product ideas
 Research and invention based products
 Skill/knowledge based products
 Products based on institutional requirements Government purchase/
hospital/School etc.
 Foreign collaboration
 service sector ideas: All Souls, repair and maintenance, service facilities,
workshop establish to fulfil industrial and household needs
2. Screening of ideas – The various project ideas is then carefully screened. Poor
ideas are dropped and through the process of elimination. Only the most promising
face bill and profitable ideas are selected for the further detail investigation and
evaluation. The entrepreneur should consider his own strength and limitation. It is
important to generate product idea.
3. Concept development – All the product are yaar are selected after preliminary
(screening) investigation Are subjected to detail investigation and analysis. The
purpose is to develop idea into mature product concept which possesses utility and
can be marketed profitably.
4. Product analysis – Product analysis or production analysis carried out in
concurrence with product design. Many factors have to be released in connection with
the development and design. Some of these may be grouped as
a) Marketing aspects
b) Product characteristics
i. Functional aspect
ii. Operational aspect
iii. Aesthetic aspects
c) Economic analysis
i. Profit consideration
ii. The effect of standardization, simplification and specialization.
iii. The break even analysis
d) Production aspects.
a) Marketing aspects –
 Market Survey is carried out to ascertain that product is desirable & Acceptable,
 Consumers and sales figure can be used for existing or similar Product.
 Type of market, which can be established.
b) Product characteristics –
i. Functional Aspect -The design of machine, its complexity, shape, appearance and
its price is to be considered. Additional attachments, automatic operation, increase
versatility and range of operation increase functionality.
ii. Operational aspects - Product has to confirm to various operational conditions
and often it has to be adopted to various degree of skill of potential operations.
 iii. Durability and reliability - These factors related to the selection of material and
class of workmanship and hence design of product and economical analysis of its
cost. They determine quality of product.
Durability is defined as the length of active life of product under given
working condition
Reliability is the probability of the product to confirm it intended function
satisfactorily for a specified period of time under a given environment
iv. Aesthetic Aspect - The selection of material, texture, shape, colour can provide
great variety through basic product remains same. Surface finishing, changing
outside stage, using contrast of colour with the attractive, bright look and
packaging not only provide novelty and style but may become reason for the
choice of customer.
c) Economic analysis - The price the customer is willing to pay for the product and
value or a utility he puts, influence sales.
Economic analysis evaluates capital expenditure required to manufacture new
product, estimation of product cost per piece and margin of profit.
5. Product design and development program-
Product design - Product idea is conceived and develop to the point it shows itself to
be both technical and economically viable, it is consider how the product should be
made.
“Design in its broadest sense include whole development of product through all
the preliminary stages until actual manufacturing begins”.
Three major fields of design are
 Design of new products
 Re-design of existing products
 Improvement in packaging for greater appeal in the market and convenience to
consumer.
Product design is a specialised field, which has two basic aspect: functional design
and production design
 Functional design -The satisfaction of need of customer is paramount. The design
must provide for normal repair and replacement at low cost. The age of
maintenance repair is an important factor contributing to the product utility and
consumer good will. Thus utility of product should be increased by performing
specific service.
 Production design - Consumer want utility, quality and style within a given price
range. Whereas functional design aims at performance standard production design
target economy of production.
Thus existing ideal capacity & production machinery available should be
taken into account in arriving at the design specification. Newly designed product
that can be produced on existing facility at a comparatively low cost eliminate the
need of investment on new facilities thus making existing plant more productive.
 Product designer has to select alternative involving minimum cost of
production. So product design first sets the minimum possible cost that can be
achieved through the specification of materials, tolerance, configuration etc.
Requirement of good product design -A good product design must fulfill following
essential requirements
a) Customer satisfaction
b) An adequate profit
In order to achieve customer satisfaction
1) The product should meet functional requirements
2) It should be off proper quality so as to achieve desired degree of accuracy and
reliability.
3) It should be easy to operate.
4) It should be easy to repair and service.
5) It should have good appearance
6) It should be durable.
7) It should have reasonable price to compare with other equivalent products in the
market.
In order to earn adequate profit
1) It should be easy to manufacture the product in the available resources.
2) It should have minimum number of parts.
3) It should adopt latest technology so that manufacturing requires minimum cost per
unit of production.
4) Standard component parts should be used whenever possible.
5) Manufacturing process should be decided on the basis of volume of production.
6) A well designed product should be easy to pack and distribute.
Miniaturization
“Make it small and lighter in weight”. When you cannot sync anymore, pack twice as
much power into it.
But there is also some limit to miniaturization. Everything cannot be miniaturized.
Bed cannot be smaller than the size of a person, the key of typewriter cannot be smaller than
fingerprints etc.
The main characteristics of minimization are less material, saving in space, reduction
in weight, easy to handle.
The use of standard sub-assemblies gives rise to numerous in product in different
combinations. This concept is known as modularity.
Some examples of module designs are
 Circuit board in different combination that could be used for tape recorder TV sets
and radios
 Jet engine developed for airplanes can be used for power plants
  Gasoline pump that permit the user to mix his own blends
 Food processor that user number of attachments
Technical Development - At the stage after the product is designed, it is converted into a
prototype development giving a visual image of the product. This model is subjected to see
whether it is function properly or not. The next step is branding packaging and labelling the
product.`
Marketing program development is then for introducing the product to the market. A
description of the proper market size and the characteristics is done and expected
sales, market share and profit for the first few year is worked out on the basis of
planned pricing, distribution and promotion Strategy for the product. The planned
program may undergo modification during actual implementation if and when
necessary.
6. Test Marketing - Once the product has been developed, it has to be tested in the
actual market place to learn how customers react to the product’s features, its
performance and its marketing program including branding, packaging, price and
distribution. Testing market decision include design on the test, cities or geographical
areas, where test is to be done and deciding the strategy to be tested like packaging,
advertisement and sampling.
The product is manufactured on limited scale and introduced in a well selected
test market before starting a full scale production. Customer’s reaction is then studied
under the normal marketing conditions. The reaction of the customer will give
additional valuable clues for the product development and necessary modifications so
as to make it more acceptable to the customers.
7. Commercialisation - Once the test marketing gives green signal, the company can
undertake the full scale manufacturing, considering the necessary modification. The
marketing management can then launch a full flashed advertising and promotion
campaign for the distribution of product in the entire market.
Marketing management will have to undertake constant checking of the new
product throughout its life cycle. Product improvement search will be a continuous
affair to introduce the improvements, modifications, innovations at etc. in the existing
product on the basis of changing customer’s preferences as well as on the account of
technological developments.

Customer adoption process

A new product has to survive beyond its introductory stage and the consumer have to
not only make trial purchases but have to sustain their buying through repeat purchases and
ultimately become regular user of the new product. Consumers typically go through the series
of stages in reaching the regular user stage. This process is term as adaption process

Awareness-Interest-Evaluation-Test trial - Adoption

The Adoption rate is not the same for all products some products may be quickly
adopted while some may take a longer time. Following product characteristics affect the rate
of adoption
1. Relative advantage - The greater products received superiority over previous
products, the faster is the adoption rate.
2. Compatibility - It is the extent to which product is consistent with the customer’s
cultural values and the perceived personal and social risks associated with using the
Product.
3. Complexity - It is the degree to which a new product is difficult to understand or use.
4. Trial ability - It is the degree to which product can be used or a limited basis. Free
samples, small size introductory packages, money back guarantees, test runs and
incentives to encourage trial are used by the marketer to help customer try their
product.
5. Communicability - It is a degree to which product results can be observed by other
or describe to them.

Tools for product development – The Three S’s (standardization, simplification

and specialization) are at the root of any economic analysis of product design. The three
processes are linked together and usually developed as a logical sequence.
a) Standardization- Standard essentially a criterion of measurement, quality,
performance from a practice established by custom, consent or authority and use as a
basis for comparison over a period of time.
These standards become a basis to evaluate performance of various component
of production in a manufacturing process. Reduction in the essence of standardization.
This effect the production and setup times. The fact can be recognised as ISO 9000
system of International standard are accepted globally and has become a symbol for
quality and prestige.
Advantages –
 Eliminating wastage
 Reduction cost
 Better quality.
Disadvantages –
 Monotonous test
 Less flexibility
 Obstacle to progress, if changes resisted.
b) Simplification- Elimination of complexity by reducing very large varieties, sizes, etc.
It should precedes standardization
Advantages –
 Better Inventory control
 increase efficiency
 Quick delivery
 Less overhead.
c) Specialization- It is a natural outcome of application of standardization and
simplification. It implies expert in particular area. Worker me specialised in a
particular job. E.g. Lathe. Factory may specialise in spark plug.
Advantages
 Increase output
 Productivity increase
 Quality improved
Disadvantages
 Less flexibility in adjustment to changes
 Monotony and boredom me effect efficiency