NEW YEAR, NEW PRODUCT In association with FÁS

John McGrath, Services to Business Manager, FÁS

It is possible to drive your business forward through excellence in product development, explains John McGrath

Creating and developing a product or brand and turning this concept into a real business market is a real challenge. Therefore, all the elements must be right, including the actual product, the packaging, the pricing and the marketing strategy. It is important to identify the right ideas early on and to have the ability to express them in the right way.

Before developing a product it is essential for the SME to firstly define and understand the companies marketplace, customer needs and competitors. Once these factors have been considered the company can then select and plan a strategy that will enable them to develop their product and enhance their competitive capabilities.

In our diversifying and global economy, product development is the basis for successful competition. Successful product development requires improved approaches to organising the development process, reducing waste, and providing products to meet customer needs both in local markets and in increasingly global markets.

Product and design development

Cost - A strong emphasis on target costing, design-to-cost, value engineering, and design for manufacturability is essential. Keeping product variety to a minimum will also keep costs to a minimum.

Quality, reliability and dependability - A disciplined and rigorous product development process needs to be adhered to if a product is going to succeed in the market and in return bring profits to your business. Strong focus on understanding customer needs and providing products that meet those needs is equally important. The product must be tested and qualify for any safety standards. Processes need to be put in place to ensure that any adjustments required are made effectively and cost efficiently.

Time-to-Market - Continuous surveillance of the marketplace and understanding of customer needs is fundamental if your product is going to survive in the market place. Well-planned and managed deliverer of the product to the market is not sufficient, you must also ensure that once the product is on the market your customers are satisfied with the product. If customers are not it is you responsibility to put a plan in place to change this and to ensure that new measures are implemented.

KEY OBJECTIVES OF PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

The design of products to better meet customer needs and quality expectations The design of processes or the consideration of process capabilities in designing products in order to produce products at a more competitive price Reduction of product and process design cycle time or time-to-market to bring products to market earlier High productivity through and the minimization of disruptive design changes The accomplishment of these objectives requires an integrated approach to product and design process, which considers the companies’ business strategy. This integrated approach to product and design process depends on the following: Alignment of product development with business strategy. SME integration using product development teams or integrated product teams as a way to organize development activities. A well-defined and optimised development process. Integrated design automation tools oriented toward creating, analyzing and using digital product data to move a product into production. Optimisation of the product and process design to enhance manufacturability, testability, affordability, reliability, maintainability. In applying these tools and concepts, the SME must be re-structured, cultural issues considered, and communication among different functional units improved