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New product development process

1.1 Introduction

The development of new products is a major competitive issue as consumers continuously demand new and improved products. One outcome of this competitive landscape is the need for shorter product life cycles while still achieving ever increasing expectations for product quality and performance measures. This has required companies to significantly enhance their capabilities to better identify true customer wants, translate them into quantifiable product functional requirements, quickly develop, evaluate, and integrate new design concepts to meet them, and then effectively bring these concepts to market through new product offerings.

Several companies (e.g., Apple, General Electric (GE), Samsung, Toyota, General Motors (GM), Ford) have made great strides improving the effectiveness of new product development. For example, many companies have created processes to quickly gather voice of the customer information via surveys, customer clinics, or other sources. Samsung, for instance, has a well-designed system of scorecards and tool application checklists to manage risk and cycle time from the voice of the customer through the launch of products that meet customer and business process demands (Creveling et al., 2003). In addition, advances in computer simulation and modeling techniques permit manufacturers to evaluate many design concept alternatives, thereby resolving many potential problems at minimal costs. This also allows one to minimize assumptions and simplifications that reduce the accuracy of the answer (Tennant, 2002). Finally, even when there is a need to construct physical prototypes, the cost has been lowered through rapid prototyping processes.

An interesting outcome of reducing the costs of data collection and analysis (for voice of the customer, simulation modeling, or physical testing) has been an increase in these activities. This has subsequently resulted in a deeper and broader understanding of customers and their interactions with products. This expanding knowledge base further allows a greater proliferation of product choices to satisfy increasingly diverse and sophisticated consumers.

Still, product development undoubtedly entails tremendous challenges. Many companies struggle with products that are slower to market than planned, fail to meet cost objectives, or are saddled with late design changes. Although no single recipe exists for product development success, one common thread is the ability to effectively integrate engineering resources within product and process design along with sales, marketing, manufacturing, and most importantly the end user.

Design for Six Sigma (DfSS) is a methodology that emphasizes the consideration of variability in the design process, resulting in products and processes that are insensitive to variation from manufacturing, the environment, and the consumer. The role of DfSS within new product development is to become an enabler of better integration of these resources to provide a deeper knowledge of product performance drivers and capabilities. An excellent example may be observed through GE, which has aligned the tools and best practices of DfSS within their product development process (Creveling et al., 2003). This chapter discusses the major phases of new product development with an emphasis on the roles engineers and DfSS resources play in effectively launching new products.

1.2 Phases of new product development

The time to develop a new product often depends on product complexity, which typically is a function of the technology readiness level (Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, 2011), the number of components, and the difficulties associated with manufacturing. In the case of an automobile, product development typically requires at least 2 years depending on the extent of the redesign. For example, if a manufacturer uses an existing powertrain and interior body frame, the development time may be reduced to less than 2 years. Product development times in aerospace industries typically range from 3 to 4 years, while the electronics industry is much faster with lead times of 6–12 months depending on the complexity of the product.

Although the total time for new product development will vary by design complexity and technological availability, the basic steps involved are common. Clark & Fujimoto (1991) and others (Tennant, 2002; Clausing, 1994) have provided basic descriptions of the product development process. The general phases (or steps) of new product development include concept development, product planning, product engineering design and verification, process engineering, and manufacturing validation as shown in Figure 1.1. The ideal situation for employing DfSS is to integrate it within these steps. To do so, one must acquire true customer needs and then apply the discipline of DfSS within the phases to efficiently transform customer needs into desirable products and services. DfSS and product development are complementary to each other and they can be implemented in parallel (Yang & El-Haik, 2003).

Figure 1.1 The phases of product development.

The following sections describe these phases in greater detail and discuss the roles of engineers and the integration of DfSS methods to improve their effectiveness.

1.2.1 Phase I—concept planning

During concept planning, manufacturers gather information on future market needs (voice of the customer), technological possibilities, and economic feasibility of various product designs. Many companies begin concept planning by expressing the character or image of their product in verbal, abstract terms using basic questions such as:

• Who shall use the product? (Target customers, cost of the product).
• What should the product do? (Performance and technical functions).
• What should the product have? (Appearance, packaging, key features, and options).

In defining a product concept, manufacturers often conduct three key assessments. These include assessing the voice of the customer, capabilities of the competition, and technological capabilities within the company.

The primary step in the development of a new product is the determination of the customer's wants and needs. Obtaining the voice of the customer traditionally has been the responsibility of Sales and Marketing who may conduct market studies, customer surveys, interviews, or use past sales data to identify market needs and trends. Although marketing is primarily responsible for customer research, under a DfSS framework, companies include more technical specialists such as product engineers in voice of the customer studies. The inclusion of technical specialists often accomplishes two objectives. First, product designers gain a better perspective of customer desires by mitigating the marketing filter. Second, technology specialists often are better suited to interpret emerging desires because of their deeper understanding of new technologies in development or existing ones in other industries that could be applied to their products.

To gain insight into consumer purchasing influences, Kano's method of analysis is a useful tool (Berger et al., 1993). Successful applications of Kano's methods require skill and experience. Translating customer wants and needs into product decisions remains a mix of art, science, and sometimes just good fortune.

To further assess the market, many companies conduct benchmarking studies of their competitors. Benchmarking is the continuous process of comparing one's own products, services, and processes against those of leading competitors. Although manufacturers typically benchmark direct competitors, they occasionally examine leaders in other industries. For example, car and bicycle manufacturers may benchmark airplane designs for ideas on how to make their products more aerodynamic, or for methods to improve internal processes.

To analyze complex products, today's manufacturers may even purchase their competitors' products and disassemble them down to evaluate the design. Here, companies are concerned with the inner workings of a product and how it is manufactured rather than its external appearance. Many companies set up “war rooms” where they make displays of competitor product components allowing internal engineers to review other designs and activate the creative process. In many cases, these war rooms provide a tremendous catalyst for making improvements. While one has to be careful to prevent benchmarking from leading to “look-alike” products, it can be a valuable tool to generate new ideas, which undoubtedly is necessary for continuous improvement of a product design.

The culmination of the concept and initial planning phase is often referred to as concept approval. This is an important date, because it typically is when financial resources are committed to bringing the product to market. While a company may reject a new product later in development, concept approval is generally “when the clock starts ticking.”

1.2.2 Phase II—product planning

Once a concept is approved, a manufacturer must translate it into more concrete assumptions and detailed product specifications. In the language of DfSS, this involves the translation of customer requirements into product functional requirements, product attributes, and product features. This invariably consists of trade-offs between cost, functionality, and usability. Consider the design of an...