Pom Unit-2
Pom Unit-2
1. Idea generation: Idea generation involves brainstorming for new product ideas or ways to improve
an existing product. During product discovery, companies examine market trends, conduct research,
and dig deep into users' wants and needs to identify a problem and propose innovative solutions.
A SWOT Analysis is a framework for evaluating your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities,
and Threats. It can be a very effective way to identify the problematic areas of your product and
understand where the greatest opportunities lie.
There are two primary sources of generating new ideas. Internal ideas come from different areas within
the company—such as marketing, customer support, the sales team, or the technical department.
External ideas come from outside sources, such as studying your competitors and, most importantly,
feedback from your target audience.
Some methods you can use are:
• Conducting market analysis
• Working with product marketing and sales to check if your product's value is being
positioned correctly
• Collecting user feedback with interviews, focus groups, surveys, and data analytics
• Running user tests to see how people are using your product and identify gaps and room for
improvement
Ultimately, the goal of the idea generation stage is to come up with as many ideas as possible while
focusing on delivering value to your customers.
2. Idea screening: This second step of new product development revolves around screening all your
generated ideas and picking only the ones with the highest chance of success. Deciding which ideas to
pursue and discard depends on many factors, including the expected benefits to your consumers,
product improvements most needed, technical feasibility, or marketing potential.
The idea screening stage is best carried out within the company. Experts from different teams can help
you check aspects such as the technical requirements, resources needed, and marketability of your idea.
3. Concept development and testing: All ideas passing the screening stage are developed into
concepts. A product concept is a detailed description or blueprint of your idea. It should indicate the
target market for your product, the features and benefits of your solution that may appeal to your
customers, and the proposed price for the product. A concept should also contain the estimated cost of
designing, developing, and launching the product.
Developing alternative product concepts will help you determine how attractive each concept is
to customers and select the one that would provide them the highest value.
Once you’ve developed your concepts, test each of them with a select group of consumers. Concept
testing is a great way to validate product ideas with users before investing time and resources into
building them.
Concepts are also often used for market validation. Before committing to developing a new
product, share your concept with your prospective buyers to collect insights and gauge how viable the
product idea would be in the target market.
4. Marketing strategy and business analysis: Now that you’ve selected the concept, it’s time to put
together an initial marketing strategy to introduce the product to the market and analyze the value of
your solution from a business perspective.
• The marketing strategy serves to guide the positioning, pricing, and promotion of your new
product. Once the marketing strategy is planned, product management can evaluate the business
attractiveness of the product idea.
• The business analysis comprises a review of the sales forecasts, expected costs, and profit
projections. If they satisfy the company’s objectives, the product can move to the product
development stage.
5. Product development: The product development stage consists of developing the product concept
into a finished, marketable product. Your product development process and the stages you’ll go
through will depend on your company’s preference for development, whether it’s agile product
development, waterfall, or another viable alternative.
This stage usually involves creating the prototype and testing it with users to see how they
interact with it and collect feedback. Prototype testing allows product teams to validate design
decisions and uncover any flaws or usability issues before handing the designs to the development
team.
6. Test marketing: Test marketing involves releasing the finished product to a sample market to
evaluate its performance under the predetermined marketing strategy.
There are two testing methods you can employ:
• Alpha testing is software testing used to identify bugs before releasing the product to the
public
• Beta testing is an opportunity for actual users to use the product and give their feedback
about it
The goal of the test marketing stage is to validate the entire concept behind the new product and get
ready to launch the product.
7. Product launch: At this point, you’re ready to introduce your new product to the market. Ensure
your product, marketing, sales, and customer support teams are in place to guarantee a successful
launch and monitor its performance.
To better understand how to prepare a go-to-market strategy, we spoke to Ganna Kryklii, Senior
Product Marketing Manager at Type form. Here are some essential elements to consider.
• Customers: Understand who will be making the final purchasing decisions and why they will
be purchasing your product. Create buyer personas and identify their roles, objectives, and pain
points.
• Value proposition: Identify what makes you different from the competition and why people
should choose to buy your product
• Messaging: Determine how you will communicate your product’s value to potential customers
• Channels: Pick the right marketing channels to promote your products, such as email
marketing, social media, SEO, and more
You will need to constantly track and measure the success of your product launch and adjust if
it doesn't achieve the desired goals.
2.1.2 MODULES OF PRODUCT DESIGN AND ANALYSIS: Product design may be classified into
design for new products (new product development) and design for modifications of existing products.
Product design is a repetitive task. A careful analysis of the product attributes would reduce
obsolescence and extend product’s life. The following are the various aspects of product design and
analysis:
• Process planning and design
• Value analysis/Value engineering
• Standardization and simplification
• Make or buy decision
• Ergonomic considerations in product design
• Concurrent engineering
Since a new product development requires special emphasis, its concepts and steps are presented before
discussing the aforementioned aspects of product design and analysis.
The following six factors influence process selection from among the processes shown in Table 2.1.
• Market conditions
• Capital requirements
• Labour
• Management skills
• Raw materials
• Technology
A good process selection requires a careful analysis of each of the above factors through several
types of studies. A market research study should be done to assess potential demand and other market
conditions. Future sales should be projected in terms of a range of possible estimates like, ‘pessimistic’,
‘most likely’ and ‘optimistic’.
In this process, there are following two important aspects as listed below, which deserve main
attention:
• The type of the furnace to be used for melting the charge mix
• Controlling the chemical composition of the molten metal
For the second aspect, a suitable testing instrument is to be used for checking the chemical composition
periodically till the molten metal attains the required state.
5. Pouring molten metal into mould: The molten metal is to be quickly carried in ladle to the mould
area using a overhead travelling crane. If the time between the point of tapping the molten metal from
the furnace and the point of pouring the same into the mould is more, the hot metal will start
solidifying very quickly and will form slag at the top of the ladle, which will become as a waste. So, an
efficient schedule is to be devised so that the entire operation of pouring the molten metal into the
mould is carried out very quickly.
6. Doing fettling operation: Once the molten metal in the mould solidifies and attain the normal
temperature, the casting is lifted from the pit and moved to fettling area, where the raiser and runner are
removed and the unwanted foreign particle which are adhering to the outer surface of the casting are
removed by sand blasting.
In this process, utmost care is to be exercised while removing the raiser and runner because a careless
cutting will lead to dent/projection in the casting.
7. Doing gouging operation: The external surface of the casting may have cavities which are to be
filled. This is done by the gouging operation. It uses rods with flux material, which will be heated using
welding gun. The semi-solid at the tip of the rod in the heated condition will be allowed to flow into the
cavities of the casting to bring smoother surface. A better filler material may be identified for this
purpose.
8. Doing annealing operation: The internal gain structure of the casting may be misaligned during the
cooling process in the mould, which will offer more resistance while cutting teeth in the gear blank. So,
it should be heat treated. Annealing is the process which restores the original grain structure of the
casting. So, this operation is performed at the end, before taking the gear blank to the machine shop to
cut teeth. In annealing, the temperature in the furnace will be raised to a high value and then it will be
cooled at a slower rate up to point. Then, the temperature will be kept at that level for some time.
Again, the temperature will be reduced slowly to an other point and the process will be continued till
the room temperature is attained in the annealing furnace.
The design and construction of the annealing furnace is to be done with utmost care such that it
consumes less power/fuel and at the same time, the gear blank is heat treated properly.
In terms of automation/material handling system design, overhead travelling cranes may be suggested
for the entire shop to carry out the material movements. Depending upon the length of the bay of the
foundry, one or two overhead travelling cranes may be used. The lifting capacity of these cranes should
be more than the maximum weight that will be handled in the foundry.
A desirable layout of the foundry to manufacture the castings for gear blanks is shown in Fig. 2.9.
2.3.2 Pilot Development:
The idea of the processes in making the castings for gear blanks may be tested using a pilot plant. The
given example is a well proven one. So, even without pilot development, one can go to commercial
plant transfer stage. But, in a case, where the processes are new and requires prototyping of the
facilities and try pilot run using the proto type version, one should use pilot development for the
assumed combinations of the processes that have been designed during the process research phase.
2.3.3 Capacity Consideration:
Based on the forecast of the demand of the product, the facilities which are to be used in different
processes are to be designed so that the integrated output of the system matches with the forecasted
demand of that product.
2.3.4 Commercial Plant Transfer:
After having convinced about the integrated functioning of the processes using the pilot development
phase, the process design may be transferred to commercial plant where the regular production can take
place.
2.3.5 Enhanced Capacity Using Optimization:
Once the plant starts producing the product, over a period of time, the performance of the operations of
the processes will be available for the integrated function of the plant. Based on such data, one can try
to optimize the process design in the plant to increase the capacity. One may use some model/process
improvement based on the available data.
Some of the attempts in this direction are explained below:
The preparation of the molten metal with the required chemical composition may be prepared such that
the total cost of the ingredients added to furnace is minimized. One can develop a mathematical model
to minimize the cost of the charge mix to prepare the molten metal.
Several products will be loaded into the annealing furnace to maximize the utilization of the
volume of the annealing furnace. But, they will be loaded and unloaded at different points in time. On
these occasions, the door of the annealing furnace is to be opened and closed, which will lead to heat
loss. So, the concept of batch scheduling may be used to minimize such heat loss. In the batch
scheduling, the products will be grouped into different batches such that the loading and unloading
times of the products are more or less the same within each batch. Further, the batch which has the least
annealing time should be loaded at the front portion of the furnace so that it can be unloaded without
affecting the arrangement of the products in the other batches of products.
Such exercise will improve the capacity of the system, which is designed to produce the
product.
2.4.4 FUNCTION:
Function identifies the characteristics which make the product/component/part/item/device
work or sell. Work functions lend performance value while sell functions provide esteem value.
Identification of the basic functions and determination of the cost currently being incurred on them are
the two major considerations of Value Analysis.
Verbs like “support”, “hold”, “transmit”, “prevent”, “protect”, “exhibit”, “control”, etc., are
used to describe work functions, while “attract”, enhance”, “improve”, “create”, etc., are used to
describe sell functions.
For example, in a “Bus Driver Cabin”, the functional analysis of some of the parts are given in
Table 2.2.
Table 2.2 Functional Analysis of Some Parts of Bus Driver Cabin
Functional Analysis
Component of Study Verb Noun
Steering wheel Control Direction
Gear box Change Speed
Brake system Stop Vehicle
Wiper Clear Glass
Horn Make Sound
Side mirror Show Side traffic
Classification of functions: Rarely all functions are of equal importance. Usually, some functions are
more important than others. Functions can be classified into the following three categories:
• Primary function,
• Secondary function,
• Tertiary function.
1. Primary functions are the basic functions which the product is specially designed to perform.
Primary functions, therefore, are the most essential functions whose non-performance would
make the product worthless, e.g. a photo frame exhibits photo, a chair supports weight, a
fluorescent tube gives light.
2. Secondary functions are those which if deleted would not prevent the device from performing
its primary functions, e.g., arms of a chair provide support for hands. Secondary functions are
usually related to convenience. The product can still work and fulfil its intended objective even
if these functions are deleted and yet they may be necessary to sell the product.
3. Tertiary functions are usually related to esteem appearance. Sunmica top of a table gives
esteem appearance to the table.
Let us consider a single example of painting a company bus to explain all the above three
functions. Here, the primary function of painting is to avoid corrosion. The secondary function
is to identify the company to which the bus belongs by the colour of the paint (e.g. blue colour
for Ashok Leyland Ltd.). The tertiary function is to impart a brilliant appearance to the bus.
2.4.5 Aims:
The aims of Value Engineering are listed below:
1. Simplify the product.
2. Use (new) cheaper and better materials.
3. Modify and improve product design.
4. Use efficient processes.
5. Reduce the product cost.
6. Increase the utility of the product by economical means.
7. Save money or increase the profits.
The value content of each piece of a product is assessed using the following questions:
• Does its use contribute to value?
• Is its cost proportionate to its usefulness?
• Does it need all its features?
These three questions relate to the function of the part which may decide the elimination of parts.
• Is there anything better for the intended use?
• Can company or vendor standard be used?
• Can a usable part be made by a lower-cost method?
• Is it made with the proper tooling, considering volume?
• Does the part yield suitable profit?
• Can another vendor furnish the same at a lower cost?
2.6 SIMPLIFICATION:
Simplification means elimination of superfluous varieties, sizes, dimensions, etc. Product
simplification means reducing the number of varieties. The other names for simplification are
unification or variety reduction.
Simplification will be advantageous to manufacturers, suppliers and buyers. Reduced inventory,
better plant utilization, greater use of storage space, reduction of buying/selling efforts are the
advantages to manufacturers. Suppliers can concentrate on the sale of fewer items and thereby increase
their turnover. Buyers can have better after sales services due to the use of less number of parts.
Simplification is the first step towards standardization.
Considerations in simplifying items
1. Can simplification be effectively achieved depending upon the nature of item?
2. How simplification will affect customer demand and volume of sale?
3. Does market competition permit simplification or it encourages product diversification?
2. Design for Manufacturing (DFM): DFM aims to estimate the cost of the proposed product based
on rough geometry of the product. The purpose of DFM cost estimating analysis is to enable design
teams to weigh alternative designs and various production process, quantify manufacturing cost, and
make the necessary trade-off decision between parts consolidation and materials/manufacturing costs.
The benefits of design for manufacture are listed below:
• It serves as a cost estimator.
• It is considered to be a key to concurrent engineering.
• It is an effective vendor negotiating aid.
• It is considered to be a competitive bench marking tool.
3. Quality Function Deployment (QFD): QFD is an add-on to TQM by designing and manufacturing
product or service as per customer preference and satisfaction. Design engineer can convert customer
needs into engineering specifications using QFD. A QFD matrix helps in translating customer needs
even before finalizing concept specifications. The conceptual definition of the product is done in a
better way by QFD. So, QFD translates the preference of customers into products features and also
establishes quality based on fitness for use.
4. Failure Mode Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA): FMECA is a technique for assessing
the risk associated with defective products reaching the market. The technique assesses the following
three aspects of the system and optimizes them:
• Every possible failure mode.
• Effect of each failure mode on the product.
• The criticality of the effect of each failure mode on the product.
Also, it suggests the action to be taken to compensate for the effect due to every failure mode.
5. CAD/CAM/CAE: The application of computers in design and manufacturing constitutes the most
significant opportunity for substantial productivity gains in industry today. It is expected that this trend
towards computerization will ultimately lead to the ‘computer integrated automatic factory’ very soon.
Companies implementing concurrent engineering should possess CAD/CAM systems. It is
advisable to have at least CAD system in the organization to speed up the design and redesigning
procedures. With right application of hardware and software, it is possible to develop the final design
with fewer prototypes which, in turn, will reduce the lead time of product development.
CAD/CAM refers to the integration of computers into the entire design to production cycle of a
product.
Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) is the analysis of a design for error checking, or optimize
manufacturability, performance and economy. Information drawn from the CAD/CAM database is
used to analyze the functional characteristics of a product, part or system and design and to simulate its
various performance.
Concurrent engineering provides common database for new products or existing products to all
departments in the form they require and processing of these data as required. The type of data that are
available in the database are as follows:
• Design data for product and component supplier,
• Functional design specifications for specialist suppliers,
• Manufacturing data for manufacturing engineers,
• Specification for cost analysis for accountants,
• Specification in product features for marketing.