Establish Target Specifications: Based on customers' needs and reviews of competitive products, the team establishes the target specifications of the prospective new product. While the process of identifying customer needs is entirely a function of marketing, designers and engineers become involved in establishing target specifications. Target specifications are essentially a wish-list tempered by known technical constraints. Later, after designers have generated preliminary products concepts, the target specifications are refined to account for technical, manufacturing and economic realities. Analyze Competitive Products: An analysis of competitive products is part of the process of establishing target specifications. Other products may exhibit successful design attributes that should be emulated or improved upon in the new product. And by understanding the shortfalls of competitive products, a list of improvements can be developed that will make the new product clearly superior to those of others. In a broader sense, analyzing competitive products can help orient designers and provide a starting point for design efforts. Rather than beginning from scratch and re-inventing the wheel with each new project, traditionally, the evolution of design builds on the successes and failures of prior work. Generate Product Concepts: Designers and engineers develop a number of product concepts to illustrate what types of products are both technically feasible and would best meets the requirements of the target specifications. Engineers develop preliminary concepts for the architecture of the product, and industrial designers develop renderings to show styling and layout alternatives. After narrowing the selection, non-functional appearance models are built of candidate designs.
Select a Product Concept: Through the process of evaluation and tradeoffs between attributes, a final concept is selected. The selection process may be confined to the team and key executives within the company, or customers may be polled for their input. Candidate appearance models are often used for additional market research; to obtain feedback from certain key customers, or as a centerpiece of focus groups.
Refine Product Specifications: In this stage, product specifications are refined on the basis of input from the foregoing activities. Final specifications are the result of tradeoffs made between technical feasibility, expected service life, projected selling price, and the financial limitations of the development project. With a new luggage product, for example, consumers may want a product that is lightweight, inexpensive, attractive, and with the ability to expand to carry varying amounts of luggage. Unfortunately, the mechanism needed for the expandable feature will increase the selling price, add weight to the product, and introduce a mechanism that has the potential for failure. Consequently, the team must choose between a heavier, more costly product, or one that does not have the expandable feature. When product attributes are in conflict, or when the technical challenge or higher selling price of a particular feature outweighs its benefits, the specification may be dropped or modified in favor of other benefits.
Perform Economic Analysis: Throughout the foregoing activities, important economic implications regarding development expenses, manufacturing costs, and selling price have been estimated. A thorough economic analysis of the product and the required development effort is necessary in order to define the remainder of the development project. An economic model of the product and a review of anticipated development expenses in relation to expected benefits is now developed.
Plan the Remaining Development Project: In this final stage of concept development, the team prepares a detailed development plan which includes a list of activities, the necessary resources and expenses, and a development schedule with milestones for tracking progress.
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