PRODUCTION DESIGN

AND DEVELOPMENT
By Dr. Nitya Khurana
Assistant Professor
IITM, Janak Puri
 Product Design
• Product Design is the process of creating a new product to be sold by the
business to the customers.
• It is a combination of art and science. The art determines the aesthetics
of the product whereas science is required for functionality of the
product.
• Thus every product must have a balance of form and function
• The effectiveness of a product design depends on three things
Cost of developing the product or modifying the existing product
Quality of the product
Time to market i.e. time taken by a product from being conceived to being
available in the market for sale. This specially matters for industries where
product gets outdated very quickly
 Approaches for Design of a
Product
1. Traditional Approach
2. Concurrent Engineering Approach
3. Computer Aided Approach
 Traditional Approach

Customers Manufacturing
Design Engineer
Specification
Product Manufacturing
Concept Design Specifications
Engineer

Production
Marketing Performance Personnel,
Purchase
Personnel Specifications
Personnel, Supplier
 Traditional Approach
• This approach suffers from lack of coordination and integration
• For e.g. the design team may feel that the requirements projected by
the marketing team are unrealistic in terms of technology and
resources. Further, the manufacturing team may find it difficult to
create a prototype as per design team’s specifications. Thus, they may
modify the design to suit the manufacturing process. The purchase
department poses its own problems about difficulty of procuring
materials as specified in the design.
• Thus, the end product is likely to turn out to be different fromm the
initial proposition
 Concurrent Engineering Approach
• Under this approach, the design teams are formed with
representatives of all the departments concerned
• Different departments work concurrently on a design
• For e.g. under the traditional approach, the supplier is required to
wait till all specifications and drawings have been finalized. On the
contrary, in concurrent approach, the supplier is given broad
specifications of the item and asked to prepared a prototype for
testing. Any changes in the design, if needed can be made
simultaneously because the supplier is a part of design team.
• This results in considerable reduction of development time and
resources
 Computer Aided Design Approach
• Computer aided design (CAD) is a software which enables the
designer to make three-dimensional design of a product on a
computer and visualize the design from various angles
• The design made on CAD can be viewed by different workstations
through intranet simultaneously.
 Steps in Design Process
1. Idea Generation
Draft specifications of the product in terms of product concept
and performance specifications in consultation with customer
Ideas for new product or improvement of existing product may
come from customers, employees, market research, competitor’s
product, salesperson, suppliers etc.
Specifications must include info about product appearance,
performance requirement, time be which product is required,
maximum cost of designing, likely selling price, special features
 Steps in Design Process (Cont’d)
2. Feasibility Study
Market Analysis- whether or not the market demand is sufficient to justify the
developing of the product
Economic Analysis- determines the cost of production and its estimated
profitability on the basis of expected selling price
Technical Analysis- considers what product can be produced by the existing
facility and if any new technology is required. Determines whether the
existing capacity is sufficient and the required labour skills are available
 Steps in Design Process (Cont’d)
3. Execution of preliminary design- involves making a number of
models, testing them, modifying them, retesting till a viable design is
produced
Form Design – refers to the physical appearance of the product in terms of
shape, size, color, aesthetics, market appeal of the product
Functional Design – Concerned with performance aspect of the product
4. Translation or production design- How the product will be actually
made. Also includes after sales services. Providing too many features
in a product may result in manufacturing difficulties. Sometimes the
features may not be useful for the customers. E.g. larger number of
features in digi cam leading to confusion for the end user.
 How to improve viability of a
product
• Reduction of unnecessary parts, material, processes
Simplification • Moulding together parts if it does not effect functionality
• Results in cost reduction, improved productivity, reduced production cycle

• Design cost and time can be saved by using standardized components

• For e.g. small components used by Maruti in its cars are all standardized
Standardization • This reduces unnecessary engineering design, inventory reduction, elimination of
unnecessary waste

• Creation of product from some combination of basic, pre-existing, subsystems

Modular Design
• Common sub-assemblies can be used to make a large variety of products
• For e.g. restaurants can prepare base ingredients and mix them in different proportion
to create a variety of recipes
 Factors Affecting Design of a
Product
• Requirement of Target Customers
• Availability and access to necessary production facilities
• Raw material to be used
• Cost/price ratio
• Quality Policy
• Availability of Plant and machineries
• Existing products
 Design of Services

Service Service Performance

Customers Concept Package Specifications

Design Delivery
Service
Specifications Specification
 Design of Services
1. Service Concept- The design process starts with the service concept which
describes the target customer and the desired service experience. It also
describes how the organization’s services will be different from its competitors
2. Service Package- This includes the physical aspects, sensuous benefits and
psychological benefits that the service will provide.
3. Performance Specifications- these outline the customer expectations and
customer requirements
4. Design Specifications- activities to be performed by service provider so that
service can be consistent. It also includes specifications as to the skills needed
by the service provider, cost and time estimate, location, layout and other
details of service facility
5. Delivery Specifications- these outline work schedules, deliverables of services
and location at which the service is to be carried out
 Product Development Process
• Idea Generation-Ideas can come from various sources
Internal sources- many a companies give incentives to their employees to
come up with workable ideas
Swot Analysis- company may review its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities
and threats to come up with feasible ideas
Market Research- companies constantly review the changing needs, wants
and trends in the market
Customers- Sometimes reviews and feedbacks from the customers can help
companies to come up with new product ideas
Competition- new product ideas can also be a result of the shortcomings in
the competitor’s product
 Product Development Process
(Cont’d)
1. Idea Screening- rank the ideas generated in the previous step in
descending order of their importance and utility and then select one
or more ideas from the sorted list. Many factors play a part here such
as, company’s strength, customers needs, expected ROI, Affordability,
etc.
2. Concept Testing- a concept is a detailed strategy or blueprint version
of the idea. All ideas that pass the screening stage are turned into
concepts for testing. Some customers from the target group are
chosen to test the concept. Information is provided to them to
visualize the product such as a 3-D view of the product constructed
through computers. It is followed by customer feedback and
recommendations on the concept
 Product Development Process
(Cont’d)
3. Business Analysis- It is an in-depth study of the estimated economic
feasibility of the product. The expected cost and revenue are
estimated in macro terms and economic feasibility is done to check
the viability of the product
4. Product Development- After the above steps a product prototype is
designed. Based on the prototype a few units are manufactured
first. All branding and other strategies decided previously are tested
and applied at this stage
 Product Development Process
(Cont’d)
5. Test Marketing-In this stage the product is formally introduced in a
small portion of the target market. Customers’ feedback is taken
and further changes, if required, are made to the product
6. Commercialization- this is the final step which aims to launch the
product into the market on full scale. The marketing mix is now put
to use. Markets are decided for the launch of the product. Different
departments are informed about their duties and targets
 Factors Influencing Product
Development
• Top Management Support- Without the support of top management
the required budget or resources for the project are not likely to be
granted
• Market Orientation – market orientation is a company philosophy
focused on discovering and meeting the needs and desires of its
customers through its product mix
• Technology – the development of new product to a large extent
depends on the availability and affordability of new technology
• Cost- Cost of material and labour are major determinants of new
product development. These will determine the price of the final
product. The price has to be in sync with the customer’s price potetial
Factors Influencing Product
Development (Cont’d)
• Material- the availability or non-availability of material, availability of
alternative material and cost of material will have an impact on the final
product design
• Aesthetics- The shape and form of product may determine the layout of
mechanism inside
• Environment- With growing awareness customers are becoming more
concerned about the effect of their product choices on the environment.
Companies should accordingly try to use recycled or reused material in
product development
• Product development teams- the company’s ability to come up with new
product also depends on a large extent on the enthusiasm and willingness of
the members on the product development team
 Steps in Process Design
A process is a set of actions which transform inputs into outputs.
Following are the steps involved in process designing:-
1. Organizing Process Flows- varies as per the type of conversion
process
Project required conversion process with features like problem solving,
teamwork and coordinated design and production of unique products
Job shop is used for manufacturing small batches of different products each
of which is custom designed and hence requires different routing and
processing steps. General purpose equipment is used. Elaborate job-tracking
and control systems are needed. Much time is spent in waiting for access to
equipment. Some equipments are overloaded while others are idle
depending upon the mix of jobs at hand
 Steps in Process Design (Cont’d)
Batch Technology facilitates production of a wide variety of products in wide variety of
volumes. The system must be flexible for low or high volume production
Assembly Line is suitable for producing a narrow line of standardized products.
Specialized machinery, skilled workforce and efficient management systems are
necessary
Continuous flow technology requires standardized equipment, material, sequence of
product build up, round the clock operations
2. Relation of Product Design to types of Process Flows- For continuous
production, the process flow has to be determined before the line is set up.
Once operational, changes in the line are difficult as it may lead to loss of
production. Thus the process design for continuous process must be
accurate and thorough. for intermittent process flow no line set ups are
required. Changes in methods can be easily effected without affecting the
overall productive capacity
 Steps in Process Design (Cont’d)
3. Evaluation of Process Design- The main objective in designing a
process is to ensure that goods and services are produced at the
minimum cost. Further, the process equipment also needs updation
with the changing technology. The work of the process engineer is
critical to this end. However, improvement of the process must not
come at the cost of hampering production shedules
 Factors effecting Process Design
• Capital intensity- Capital or labour intensive
• Vertical Integration- Backward or forward
• Flexibility- Rigid or flexible
• Quality level and degree of customer contact