ch 4 ced (concept in engineering design)

CHAPTER FOUR

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Lecture notes of Concepts in Engineering Design

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Prepared by Prem Kumar Soni1

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LECTURE NOTE

ON

CHAPTER FOUR

PREPARED BY

PREM KUMAR SONI

ASST. PROF.

LNCTS

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PRODUCT

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An article or substance that is manufactured or refined for sale.

Such as "dairy products“

A good, idea, method, information, object or service created as a

result of a process and serves a need or satisfies a want. It has a

combination of tangible and intangible attributes (benefits, features,

functions, uses) that a seller offers a buyer for purchase.

For example a seller of a toothbrush not only offers the physical

product but also the idea that the consumer will be improving the

health of their teeth.

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Product (business): an item that ideally satisfies a market's

want or need

Product (project management): a deliverable or set of

deliverables that contribute to a business solution

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Product Life-Cycle

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Product life cycle (PLC) is the course that a product’ssales and profits take over its lifetime

Product development

Introduction

Growth

Maturity

Decline

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Product life cycle (PLC) describes:

• Product class

• Product form

• Brand

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Product classes have the longest life cycles, with sales ofmany product classes in the mature stage for a long time

Product forms have the standard PLC— shape, introduction,rapid growth, maturity, and decline

Brands have changing PLCs due to competitive threats

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Adoption : the action or fact of adopting or being

adopted.

Product Life-Cycle

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Introduction stage is when the new product is first

launched

Takes time

Slow sales growth

Little or no profit

High distribution and promotion expense

Product Life-Cycle

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Growth stage is when the new product satisfies the market• Sales increase

• New competitors enter the market

• Price stability or decline to increase volume

• Consumer education

• Profits increase

• Promotion and manufacturing costs gain economies of scale

• Product quality increases

• New features

• New market segments and distribution channels are entered

Product Life-Cycle

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Maturity stage is a long-lasting stage of a product that hasgained consumer acceptance

Slowdown in sales

Many suppliers

Substitute products

Overcapacity leads to competition

Increased promotion and R&D to support sales andprofits

Product Life-Cycle

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Decline stage is when sales decline or level off for

an extended time, creating a weak product

Maintain the product

Harvest the product

Drop the product

Additional Product and Service

Considerations

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Product Decisions and Social Responsibility

Public policy and regulations regarding developing and

dropping products, patents, quality, and safety

Additional Product and Service

Considerations

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International Product and Service Marketing

Challenges

• Determining what products and services to

introduce in which countries

• Standardization versus customization

• Packaging and labeling

• Customs, values, laws

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Identification of customer needs

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Why identify customer needs?

Ensure that the product customer-focused and no

critical needs are missed or forgotten

Identify latent (hidden) and explicit needs

Fact base for justifying the product specs.

Archival record of the customer needs

Develop a common understanding of customer

needs among members of the development team

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Concept Development Plan

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Subtle Distinction: Needs & Product

Specs.

Needs are largely independent of any particularproduct we might develop; a team should be ableto identify customer needs without knowing if orhow it will eventually address those needs.

Specifications do depend on the concept we select.The specifications for the product we finallychoose to develop will depend on what istechnically and economically feasible and on whatour competitors offer in the marketplace, as well ason customer needs.

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Similar Terms

Other terms used for Customer Needs in industrial

practice:

Customer attributes

Customer requirements

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Five-Step method to Identify

Customer Needs

1. Gather raw data from customers

2. Interpret the raw data in terms of customer needs

3. Organize the needs into a hierarchy of primary,

secondary, and (if necessary) tertiary needs

4. Establish the relative importance of needs

5. Reflect on the results and the process

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Mission Statement

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Step 1: Gather Raw Data from

Customers

1. Interviews

2. Focus groups

3. Observing the product in use

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1.Interviews

Development team members discuss needs with a

single customer.

Interviews usually conducted in the customer’s

environment and typically last 1-2 hours.

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2. Focus Groups

A moderator (a team member or a professionalmarket researcher) facilitates a two-hourdiscussion with a group of 8 to 12 customers

Typically conducted in a special room equippedwith 2-way mirror and videotaped

Participants are usually paid a modest fee ($50 to$100 each); total cost about $2500

Firms that recruit participants, moderate focusgroups an/or rent facilities are listed in thetelephone book under “market research”

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3. Observing the Product in Use

Reveals important details about customer behavior

For example, a customer painting a house may usea screwdriver to open paint cans in addition todriving screws.

Observation may be completely passive, withoutany direct interaction with the customer, or mayinvolve working side by side with a customer,allowing members of the team to develop firsthandexperience using the product

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3. Observing the Product in Use

For some products such as do-it-yourself tools,

actually using the products is simple and natural

For others, such as surgical instruments, the team may

have to use the products on surrogate tasks (e.g.,

cutting fruit instead of human tissue when developing

a new scalpel)

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Choosing Customers

Griffin and Hauser estimated that 90 percent of thecustomer needs for picnic coolers were revealedafter 30 interviews.

In another case study , they estimated that 98percent of the customer needs for a piece of officeequipment were revealed after 25 hours of datacollection in both focus groups and interviews.

As a practical guideline for most products,conducting fewer than 10 interviews is probablyinadequate and 50 interviews are probably toomany.

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Interview Logistics

For example, if a 10-person team is divided into five

pairs and each pair conducts 6 interviews, the team

conducts 30 interviews in total

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Lead Users

Needs can be identified more efficiently by

interviewing a class of customers called lead users.

Lead users are customers who experience needs

months or years ahead of the majority of the market

and stand to benefit substantially from product

innovations.

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Lead Users These customers are particularly useful sources of data for

two reasons:

1. They are often able to articulate their emerging needs, because they have had to struggle with the inadequacies of existing products.

2. They may have already invented solutions to meet their needs.

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Which customer to select?

The choice of which customers to interview iscomplicated when several different groups ofpeople can be considered “ the customer.”

For many products, one person (the buyer) makesthe buying decision and another person (the user)actually uses the product.

A good approach is to gather data from the enduser of the product in all situations, and in casewhere other types of customers and stakeholdersare clearly important, to gather data from thesepeople as well.

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Customer Selection Matrix

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The Art of eliciting Customer Needs

Data

Gathering needs data is very different from a sales

call: the goal is to elicit an honest expression of

needs, not to convince a customer of what he or she

needs.

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Interview Questions

When and why do you use this type of product?

Walk us through a typical session using the product

What do you like about the existing products?

What do you dislike about the existing products?

What issues do you consider when purchasing the

product?

What improvements would you make to the product?

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General Hints for Effective Interaction

with Customers

Go with the flow.

Use visual stimuli and props.

Suppress preconceived hypotheses about the product technology.

Have the customer demonstrate the product and/or typical tasks related to the product.

Be alert for surprises and the expression of latent needs.

Watch for nonverbal information.

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Documenting interactions with

Customers

1. Audio recording

2. Notes

3. Video recording

4. Still photography

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Audio Recording

Making an audio recording of the interview is very

easy.

Transcribing the recording into text is very time

consuming, and it can be expensive to hire someone to

do it.

Could be intimidating to some customers

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Notes

Most common method for documenting

Designate one person as the primary note-taker andhave the other person concentrate on effectivequestioning.

Notetaker should strive to capture some of thewording of every customer statement verbatim.

Transcribe notes immediately after the interview tocreate a description of the interview that is veryclose to an actual transcript; sharing of insightsbetween the interviewers.

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Video Recording

Almost always used to document a focus group session.

Useful for documenting observations of the customer in the use equipment and/or using existing products.

Useful for bringing new team members “ up to speed” and as raw material for presentations to upper management.

Multiple viewings of video recordings of customers in action often facilitate the identification of latent customer needs.

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Still Photography

Taking photographs provides many of the benefits of video

recording.

The primary advantages of still photography are ease of

display of the photos, excellent imagine quality, and readily

available equipment.

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Final Result of Data Gathering Phase

A set of raw data, usually in the form of customer statements

but frequently supplemented by video recordings or

photographs.

Please remember to: write thank-you notes to the customers

involved in the data gathering process.

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Step 2: Interpret Raw Data in terms of Customer Needs

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Customer Data Template

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Step 3: Organize the Needs into a

Hierarchy

The result of step 1 and 2 should be a list of 50 to

300 need statements.

The goal of step 3 is to organize these needs into a

hierarchical list: Primary needs

Secondary needs

Tertiary needs

Organizing the needs into hierarchical list is

intuitive

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Needs Organization Procedure

1. Print or write each need statement on a separatecard or self-stick note.

2. Eliminate redundant statements.

3. Group the cards according to the similarity ofthe needs they express.

4. For each group, choose a label.

5. Consider creating super groups consisting of twoto five groups.

6. Review and edit the organized needs statements.

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Hierarchical List

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Step 4: Establish the Relative Importance

of the Needs

Useful in making trade-off decisions

Assign numerical importance weights for needs

Two basic approaches to the task:

1.Consensus of the team members based on their

experience with customers

2. Importance assessment based on further customer

surveys

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Importance Weights: Consensus or

Customer Survey?

Obvious trade-off between the two approaches iscost and speed versus accuracy.

Few customer will respond to a survey askingthem to evaluate the importance of 100 needs.

Typically the team will work with only subset ofthe needs. A practical limit on how many needscan be addressed in a customer survey is about50.

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Example

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Step 5 : Reflect on the Results and the

Process

Some question to ask include:

Have we interacted with all of the important types of

customers in our target market?

Are we able to see beyond needs related only to existing

products in order to capture the latent needs of our target

customers?

Are there areas of inquiry we should pursue in follow-up

interviews or surveys?

Which of the customers we spoke would be good

participants in our on-going development efforts?

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Step 5 : Reflect on the Results and the

Process

Some question to ask include:

What do we know now that we didn’t know when we

started? Are we surprised by any of the needs?

Did we involve everyone within our organization who

needs to deeply understand customer needs?

How might we improve the process in future efforts?

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THE END

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