Product Strategy and Development Lifecycle Management

Product Strategy Options

• Differentiation: Shouldice Hospital
• Low Cost: Taco Bell
• Rapid Response: Toyota

Product Life Cycles

Introduction: Fine Tuning

Focus on research, product development, process modification, and supplier development.

Growth

Product design begins to stabilize; effective forecasting of capacity becomes necessary.

Maturity

Competitors are established; high-volume, innovative production may be needed; improved cost control is essential.

Decline

Unless the product makes a special contribution to the organization, you must plan to terminate the offering.

Product by Value Analysis

Lists products in descending order of their individual dollar contribution to the firm.

New Product Opportunities

1. Understanding the customer
2. Economic change
3. Sociological and demographic change
4. Technological change
5. Political/legal change
6. Market practice

Quality Function Deployment (QFD)

• Identify customer wants.
• Identify how the good will satisfy customer wants.
• Relate customer wants to product "hows."
• Identify relationships between the firm’s "hows."
• Develop importance ratings.
• Evaluate competing products.

Organizing for Product Development

Modern approaches utilize a team approach:

• Cross-functional: Representatives from all disciplines or functions.
• Concurrent engineering: Cross-functional team collaboration.

Manufacturability and Value Engineering

Benefits

1. Reduced complexity of products
2. Additional standardization of products
3. Improved functional aspects of the product
4. Improved job design and job safety
5. Improved maintainability of the product
6. Robust design

Issues for Product Development

• Robust Design: Typically results in lower cost and higher quality.
• Modular Design: Adds flexibility to both production and marketing; improves the ability to satisfy customer requirements.
• Computer-Aided Design (CAD): Using computers to design products and prepare engineering documentation. Extensions: Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA), 3-D Object Modeling.
• Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM): Utilizing specialized computers and programs to control manufacturing equipment.