TECH 313 Product Design and Development

Day 2: Wednesday, January 7th 2009 Dr. Seaman

Chapter 2: Development Processes and Organizations

Objectives of this Lecture:



After this lecture, students should be able to answer the following questions:
 

 

What are the different functions in a product development organization and what do they do? What does a generic product development process look like? Why is a process important? How can the project team structure be mapped onto the overall product development organization of a firm? What are the strengths and weaknesses of different organizational firms?

Case Study: AMF Bowling



AMF Bowling is the leading manufacturer of bowling equipment. The Capital Equipment Division of AMF manufactures bowling alley equipment such as pin spotters, ball returns and scoring equipment. Several years ago, the general manager of the division asked the head of engineering to develop a well-defined and generic product development organization that would enable AMF to compete effectively over the next decade.

A Generic Development Process

A product development process is the sequence of steps or activities which an enterprise employs to conceive, design, and commercialize a product.

Karl T. Ulrich and Steven D. Eppinger

A Well-defined Development Process is useful for the following reasons



Quality assurance


Following the process is one way to assure the quality of the product It helps act like a master plan to let team members know when to contribute and whom to work with to exchange information & materials Built in milestones related to each phase Able to assess performance of the ongoing development effort Good documentation helps to I.D. opportunities to improve

Coordination


Planning


Management


Improvement


Six Phases of the Generic Development Process

Marketing Design Manufacturing

0. Planning

1. Concept Development

2. System-Level Design

3. Detail Design

4. Testing and Refinement

5. Production Ramp-Up

Marketing
Articulate the market opportunity. Define the market segments. Collect customer needs. Identify lead users. Identify competitive products. Develop plan for product options and extended product family. Develop marketing plan. Develop promotion and launch materials. Facilitate field testing. Place early production with key customers.

Design
Consider product platform and architecture. Assess new technologies. Investigate feasibility of product concepts. Develop industrial design concepts. Build and test experimental prototypes Generate alternative product architectures. Define major subsystems and interfaces. Refine industrial design. Define part geometry. Choose materials. Assign tolerances. Complete control documentation . Reliability testing. Life testing. Performance testing. Obtain regulatory approvals. Implement design changes. Evaluate early production output.

Manufacturing
Identify production constraints Set supply chain strategy. Estimate manufacturing costs. Assess production feasibility. Identify suppliers for key components. Perform make vs. by analysis. Define final assembly scheme. Define piece-part production processes. Design tooling. Define quality assurance processes. Begin procurement of long-lead tooling. Facilitate supplier ramp-up. Refine fabrication and assembly processes. Train work force. Refine Quality assurance processes. Begin operation of entire production system.

Concept Development

The Front End Process

The activities below are not always linear in fashion. The activities may overlap in terms of time and iteration (repetition) is often necessary due to new information or results.

Identifying Customer Needs



Important to know their needs and effectively communicate them to the development team. Output results in:
  

Customer needs statements Organized in a hierarchical order Each need is assigned a rating of importance

Establishing Target Specifications



Specifications define what the product is supposed to do. Serves as a translation of customer needs into technical terms. Target specs are set early and refined as the team zeros in on a choice of product concept.

Concept Generation


The goal is to thoroughly explore the space of product concepts that may address the customer needs. Consists of:
  

External searches Creative problem solving within the team Results in maybe 10 to 20 concepts, each with a sketch and brief description


Assignment 1 for you will address this!

Concept Selection


A process where each concept is evaluated to identify the most promising concepts. Requires several iterations and may cause additional concept generation and refinement.

Concept Testing


One or more concepts are tested to verify the customer needs have been met. To also assess the market potential of the product. I.D. any shortcomings before any further development. Poor customer feedback could result in terminating a project.

Setting Final Specifications



Previous target specifications are revisited AFTER a concept has been selected and tested. The project team needs to commit to specific values of metrics for the final specifications. Technical modeling done and they look at trade-offs between cost and performance.

Project Planning


During this final activity the team

 

Creates a detailed development schedule Comes up with a strategy to minimize development time I.D. resources required to complete the project

The result = Contract Book



Contains
       

Mission statement Customer needs Details of the selected concept Product specifications Economic analysis of the product Development schedule Project staffing Budget

Adapting the Generic Product Development Process

Generic (Market Pull)



A firm begins with a market opportunity, then finds appropriate technologies to meet customer needs Examples:
  

Most sporting goods (golf putters) Furniture (IKEA) Tools

Technology-Push Products


A firm begins with a new technology, then finds an appropriate market

 

the post-it note Gore-Tex Rainwear

Planning phase involves matching the technology to the market

Platform Products


A firm assumes that the new product will be built around an established technological sub-system Consumer electronics, computers, printers PT Cruiser Dodge Neon

Process-Intensive Products


Characteristics of the product are highly constrained by the production process. Both the product and the process must be developed together from the very start, or an existing production process must be identified first Frito-Lay snack foods, chemicals, semiconductors, computer memory

Customized Products


New products are slight variations of existing configurations. Examples include:

   

Switches Motors Batteries Containers



i.e. Pepsi bottles and other drink packages for markets around the world

The AMF Development Process

Product Development Organizations

Successful firms need to effectively organize their product development staffs. Lets look at several types of organizations.

Organizations Are Formed by Establishing Links among Individuals

  

Reporting relationships Financial arrangements Physical layout

Organizational Links May Be Aligned with Functions, Projects, or Both

Choosing an Organizational Structure



Organizational structure depends on organizational performance factors critical to success.



Functional organizations have specializations and expertise in functional areas. Project organizations are better suited to enable rapid and effective coordination among diverse functions. Matrix organizations (hybrids) contain a little of both.

Matrix Organizations

Group Work for Chapter 2

Group Work for Chapter 2



Reports from each group on the set of questions given Lets review

The AMF Organization



Decided to adopt a matrix structure for its product development staff.

 

General Manager Functional Manager (each mgr. reports to G.M.)

     

Engineering Manufacturing Marketing Sales Purchasing Quality assurance

The AMF Organization



Product Development Projects

 

Led by Project Manager The are Project Teams



Team members for each Project Team are pulled from the functional areas of:
     

Engineering Manufacturing Marketing Sales Purchasing Quality assurance

The AMF Organization



AMF Matrix Organization



Resembles a lightweight project organization.



Why? Project managers are NOT the most senior level mangers and therefore lack direct control over resources (budget) and staffing (people) for the PROJECT TEAMS and, AMF has many small projects and a few big projects ongoing. The mixed size of projects has team members committed on a part-time basis. People (less than 100 salaried employees) work in the Capital Equipment Division with sales over $100 million. Small division with employees sharing financial rewards when their division is profitable!

The AMF Organization



Project managers are held responsible for successful projects. A Project Manager from a functional area is responsible for the overall success and not just in his or her functional area! General managers (senior management) influence on product development and personal interest in each of their associated projects contributes to the overall success of the project(s). The Division message is on successful products rather than strong functional areas.

What happened to AMF Bowling Worldwide in 2001?



http://www.scripophily.net/amfcompan y.html

QUBICA AMF

Diagram a process for planning and cooking a family dinner. Does your process resemble the generic product development process? Is cooking dinner analogous to a market-pull, technology-push, process-intensive, or customization process?

One process might consist of the following steps:



 

 

Ask spouse, children, or roommates what they feel like eating and when they would like to eat. Survey available ingredients. Generate three or so alternatives that are both feasible and meet the desires of the other diners. Select an alternative through a survey or by a subjective judgment. Plan (usually informally and intuitively) the best sequence for preparing the food. Cook and serve. Reflect on the results and the process (just kidding).

Objectives of this Lecture:



You should be able to answer the following questions:

 

 

What are the different functions in a product development organization and what do they do? What does a generic product development process look like? Why is a process important? How can the project team structure be mapped onto the overall product development organization of a firm? What are the strengths and weaknesses of different organizational firms?

Assignment 1 Overview
Individual Assignment Refer to handout

Product Categories
     

Outdoors/Sports Entertainment Garden Parenting/Baby Office Supplies Computer accessories Kitchen products

Car/Truck /Motorcycle 3rd party accessories Communication Devices accessories

Where can you go to research existing products?



    

Staples Office Depot Office Max Pep Boys ? ? ? ?

   

? ? ? ?

Assignment 1 Directions


Here is what to do

Reminders for Next Time



Quiz #1 over Chapter 2



5 questions Focus is on marketing opportunity and not solution concepts at this time! Assignment 1a: 1-page proposal handouts


Individual Project proposals



For 3 potential projects 60 seconds per project proposal

Assignment 1b: Proposal Presentations