PD & Development

Introduction

Economic success of most firms comes from identifying the needs of customers, creating products quickly and at low cost.

Definition of Product Development:

Product development is a set of activities beginnning with the perception of a market opportunity and ending in the production, sale and delivery of a product.

Characteristics of Successful PD:

This results in products which can be produced and sold profitably, characteristics include:
Product Quality, Product Cost, Development Time, Development Costs, Development Capability

Duration & Cost of PD

Few products can be developed in less than one year, this makes me slightly worried as my final year is only 9 months. As well as only having a one man internal team.
At least this will keep costs down, as cost is roughly proportional to the number of people on the project team and the duration of the project. It would be sensible to design a simpler product well, than to do a complicated product badly.

Challenges of PD
Trade Offs: For example changing a material might improve function but increase costs. Trade-offs need to be recognized, understood and managed in a way that maximised the success of the product.

Dynamics: Tech improves, markets change, customers evolve....it's all forever changing.

Details: Developing a product with the mildest complexity may require thousands of decisions...snap fits, screw fits, tolerances, materials....

Time: Decisions must be made quickly without complete info.