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Product Development Process

Product Development Process – 7 Stages of New Product Development | Operations Management

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Product Development Process

New product design is the process of taking a product or service from the conception of the market. The process sets out a series of stages that new products typically go through, beginning with ideation and concept generation, and ending with the product’s induction to the market. The product development process encompasses all steps needed to take a product from concept to market availability. This includes identifying a market need, researching the competitive landscape, conceptualizing a solution, developing a product roadmap, building a minimum viable product, etc.

7 Stages of New Product Development

The key stages in process of product development are;

  • Need identification
  • Feasibility Analysis
  • Advance Design
  • Detailed Engineering
  • Production Process Design and Development
  • Product Evaluation and Improvement
  • Product Use and Support

Need Identification

The concept of a new product starts with the identification of customers’ needs. Ideas for new products and improvements to an existing product can be generated from many sources like research and development, customer complaints and suggestion market research, supplies, and salesperson. Competitors are also the source of ideas for new products and are created, it is important to demonstrate whether the product can or not fulfill the needs. Therefore, the first step of new product development is to identify the customer needs. The product design should emphasize the users. The strategy planner should brainstorm for the new innovative idea.

Feasibility Analysis

After identifying the need of customers, the idea should validate with potential users and reviewing competitive offerings. Similarly following preliminary primary activities should be performed.

  • Preliminary market analysis
  • Creating an alternative concept of product
  • Clarifying the operational requirement
  • Design criteria and priority
  • Requirement for producing, distributing, and maintaining the production market.

Advance Design

It is the process of investigating technical feasibility and identifying in detail the tradeoff in product design. It is concerned with developing or filtering and evaluating decision alternatives if necessary based on critical parameters. It includes analytical testing experimentation, physical modeling, and prototype testing. It is concerned with screening new product ideas along with product design and market potential. It also should ensure that the idea fits into business strategies and determines demand, cost, and profit margin.

Detailed Engineering

In this stage, the designed pattern, system, and competence required for producing the product would be determined. Material, shape, size, quantity, and labor required for each product would be determined. The detailed engineering includes the analysis, experimentation, and data collection to meet designed objectives. In another word, the process should be designed in such a way that final goods will be of superior quality at minimum cost with proper safety to the consumer because it ultimately increases productivity.

Production Process, Design, and Development

In this step, the product design engineer and manufacturing specialist design and develop the system like material acquisition, storing, transportation, distribution, warehousing, etc. Similarly, they plan and design systems for human resources, control, and information collection.

Product Evaluation and Improvement

Generally, each product should be evaluated continuously throughout its life cycle. So that it can be improved on time for the satisfaction of customers. It can be evaluated by data failure or field performance analysis. Data failure refers to the process of analyzing failure products data based on good one whereas field performance is concerned with the performance of the product to the satisfaction of customer need. It also includes modifying products according to the customer, manufacturer and with support of organizational feedback. It should also consider the cost and profit analysis.

Product Use and Support

The ultimate stage of product design is to consider the supports for consumers. It may be to educate people on the application of the product, provide warranty, repairs, after-sales services, and upgrade parts and components with design improvement.  It includes determining the price of the product and finalizing the market plan. It finally helps to launch the product in the market smoothly.

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