Chapter 2- Product Development Process and Organization

In general, how would you define a product development process?

The sequence of steps or activities that an enterprise employs to conceive, design, and commercialize a product.

What are the three critical issues that are considered throughout the product development process, but finalized in the detail design phase?

Materials Selection, Production Cost, and Robust Performance

What are customized products? And provide an example

New products are slight variations of existing configurations. Motors

What are technology-push products?

New/Proprietary tech comes along, then looks for a market to implement the new technology

Do all organizations utilize the same product development process?

No, often they are all at least slightly different

What is Phase 0 of the product development process?

Planning - The output of this phase is the project mission statement, target market definition

What are product-service systems? And provide an example?

Products and their associated service are developed simultaneously. Restaurants/Financial Services

What are digital products? And provide an example

Products are digital...application software, websites, etc.

Why is a well-defined product development process useful?

Quality assurance: A development process specifies the phases a development project will pass through and the checkpoints along the way. When these phases and checkpoints are chosen wisely, following the development process is one way of assuring the quality of the resulting product. Coordination: A clearly articulated development process acts as a master plan that defines the roles of each of the players on the development team. This plan informs the members of the team when their contributions will be needed and with whom they will need to exchange information and materials. page 13Planning: A development process includes milestones corresponding to the completion of each phase. The timing of these milestones anchors the schedule of the overall development project. Management: A development process is a benchmark for assessing the performance of an ongoing development effort. By comparing the actual events to the established process, a manager can identify possible problem areas. Improvement: The careful documentation and ongoing review of an organization's development process and its results may help to identify opportunities for improvement

What are quick-build projects? And provide an example

Rapid modeling and prototyping enables many design build test cycles. Clothing

What are advantages of globally distributed product development teams?

Specialized resources Market Info Technical expertise Access to lower wages

What are complex systems? And provide an example

System must be decomposed into several subsystems and many components. Airplanes/Automobiles

What is Phase 2 of the product development process?

System-Level Design - outputs include geometric layout of the product, functional specification of each product subsystem, and flow diagram for the assembly process

What are some activities that take place during the Concept Development Phase?

-Identify Customer Needs -Establish Target Specs -Concept Generation -Concept Selection -Concept Testing -Setting Final Specs -Project Planning -Economic Analysis -Benchmarking Competitive products -Modeling and Prototyping

What is phase 5 of product development?

Production Ramp Up- product is made using intended system

What are the six phases of the generic product development process?

0- Planning 1- Concept Development 2- System Level Design 3- Detail Design 4- Testing and Refinement 5- Production Ramp Up

What is a key difference between alpha and beta prototypes?

Alpha prototypes use similar parts that are not necessarily fabricated with the same processes that would be used in final production, whereas beta prototypes are built with parts supplied by the intended process

Which are early prototypes and which are later prototypes (Alpha Prototypes vs. Beta Prototypes)

Alpha- Earlier Beta - Later

What is the postlaunch project review?

An assessment of the project from both commercial and technical perspectives with the goal to improve the development process for future projects

What are process intensive products? And provide an example

Characteristics of the product are highly constrained by the production process. Snack Foods

What is a matrix organization?

Combination of Projectized and Functional Organizations, Employees are a part of division, but use this expertise to collaborate on projects. Can be either lightweight or heavyweight

What is Phase 1 of the product development process

Concept Development - Target market needs are defined, product concepts are generated and evaluated, concepts are selected for further testing and development

What is Phase 3 of the product development process?

Detail Design- the complete specification of all unique parts of product. Output is control documentation

What is a projectized organization?

Employees are grouped to work on the same project

What are functional organization?

Employees are linked/grouped by their division or by performing similar functions

What is a lightweight matrix?

Employees ties to their division are stronger than to the product or project team

What is a heavyweight matrix?

Employees ties to their product are stronger than division

Provide an example of market pull, and an example of technology push

Market Pull- Hybrid Cars Tech Push - Touch Screens

What is the tradeoff between functional and project organizations?

Functional- deep expertise Project- coordination efficiency

What is the process flow diagram for a generic product development process, a spiral product development process, and a complex system development process respectively?

Generic = Planning, Concept Development, System Level Design, Detail Design, Testing and Refinement, and production Ramp up Spiral= Planning, Concept Development, System Level Design, Many iterations of Design-Build-Test, Production Ramp Up Complex = Planning, Concept Development, System level design, Design and test of many product components - then integrate components and test the whole, validation and ramp up

What is a disadvantage to globally distributed product development teams?

Higher project coordination costs, team members aren't collocated.

What are some additional names of heavyweight project teams?

IPT(Integrated product team), Design Build Team, PDT (Product development team)

What are High Risk Products? And provide an example

Technical or market uncertainties create high risk of failure. Space Systems

What is Phase 4 of the product development process?

Testing and refinement - construction of prototypes

What is another nickname for the concept development phase?

The Front-End Process

What is control documentation(in relation to Detail Design)?

The drawings, computer files specifying the geometry of each part and its production tooling, the specs of the purchased parts, the production supply chain, and the process plans for fabrication and assembly of a product

The generic product development process is most like the process used in a market-pull situation; what is a market-pull?

The market opportunity presents itself, then resources are used to make the product for the market

What is the definition of product launch?

The product is made available for widespread distribution

What is iteration?

The repitition of nominally complete activities

What are platform products? And provide an example

The team assumes that the new product will be built around an established technological subsystem. Intel Chip In Computers