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Chemical Engineering department

Production and project management

1. Product design and development

1.1. Introduction

Every organization has to design, develop and introduce new products as a survival and growth strategy. Organizations
objective of achieving growth of business is only through introduction of new products.

Organizations are required to design the new products for the following reasons;

• To be in business for a long time believing the fact that business is a long lasting institution
• To satisfy unfulfilled needs of the customer
• Company‟s existing product line becomes saturated and the sales are on the decline.
• To enter into new prospective businesses through diversification (related or unrelated
• Too much competition in the existing product line
• The profit margin is on the decline
Designing the physical manufacture of products involves three major phases or functions: marketing, design and product
development and manufacturing.

Set by: Tekleweyni G. MSc. in Material Science and Engineering

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1.2. Product life-cycle

The product once introduced into the market will undergo definite phases.

Figure 1 Product life-cycle

Product life cycle is an indication of time spans vary from few weeks or months (for novelty and fashion goods) to years.

Introduction stage: This stage marks the introduction of the product into the market. It may be an entirely new product in the market
or old product to the new market. The demand is low as customers do not know much about the product. So the organisations have to
invest heavily in advertisement to make the product familiar to the customer. The volume of sales will be low and if proper care is not
taken, the chances of product failures are high.

Growth: Once the product passes through the introduction stage, the sales starts increasing because of the acceptability of the
product by the customer. The sales growth rate is high because of limited or no competition.

Maturity (Saturation): The sales growth reaches a point above which it will not grow. This is due to the market share taken by the
competitor‟s products. Thus, the sales will be maintained for some period.

Decline: The competitors will enter the market with better product features, advanced technology and reduced prices. This is a threat
to the very existence of product and sales start declining. If proper care likes addition of special features, design changes are not
incorporated there comes a time when the products are to be taken back from the market.

1.3. Product design/development process

Product design deals with conversion of ideas into reality. Every business organization has to design, develop and introduce new
products as a survival and growth strategy. Developing the new products and launching them in the market is the biggest challenge
faced by the organizations.

Product development translates the needs of customers given by marketing into technical specifications and designing the various
features into the product to these specifications. Manufacturing has the responsibility of selecting the processes by which the product

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can be manufactured. Product design and development provides link between marketing, customer needs and expectations and the
activities required to manufacture the product.

It has five basic stages:

Stage I: Conception

The draft specifications for the product are laid down incorporating the user requirements at this stage. This stage provides the basis
for all subsequent design activities. The specifications of the proposed product must be prepared by marketing department in as much
details as possible. Eg: quantity, appearance, performance, processing cost, and date of introduction.

Stage II: Acceptance

This is a stage where the design activity of the product begins after the feasibility analysis and model making and calculations of the
product is accepted.

Stage III: Execution

The cost of the product is built at this stage which the production engineers always try to stick to it. Now the advanced techniques like
rapid prototyping technique (RPT) and experimental stress analysis techniques are available for prototype, modeling and testing.

Stage IV: Translation

At this stage the production engineering department is involved in design work. The manufacturing feasibility is tested at this stage.
The final manufacturing drawings are prepared1.

Stage V: Pre-production

In large scale production, it is recommended to carry out a pilot run under production conditions. This will consist of completely
assembling quantity of production from parts or components made by normal production method and using the same degree of skill in
the operatives which will be found in the final manufacture. The pre-production run will ensure the quality, reliability of product as per
the specifications before the production will be started on commercial basis. Thus the pre-production stage will check:

1. Drawings
2. Final tools.
3. Production techniques and estimates.
4. Specifications.

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1.4. Factors affect/ consideration new product design

Marketing Aspects

Once the product is selected, then it is very important to know the marketability of the product relates with acceptability to the
product. If there is no potential market, then it is a wasteful exercise to design and manufacture the product.

Functional Aspects

The functional scope of the product is to be carefully analyzed and the functions are to be defined properly. It includes what function
expected to perform and easily runnable.

Durability and Dependability

These two factors define the quality and reliability of the product. Durability refers to the length of the active life of the product under
given working conditions. Dependability refers to the reliability with which the product serves its intended function. Thus, quality of the
product is directly proportional to the quality of inputs (materials, men, etc.), the process of manufacture. Reliability is a measure of
the ability of a product, a part, a service, or an entire system to perform its intended function under a prescribed set of conditions.

Aesthetic Aspect

Aesthetic aspect refers to the “external look good‟ aspect of the product and it is concerned with molding the final shape around the
basic skeleton. Aesthetic aspects help the selling function of the product by attracting the customers and creating the first impression
about the product. For consumer goods aesthetics is the dominant factor in creating the demand for the product. Styling becomes the
important factor in product design in situations such as changes in fashion and taste, evolution of form and introduction of new ideas
to quickly outdate the old ones.

Economic Analysis

An economic analysis is the key to the management decision in product design policy. It deals with investment needed, expected profit,
and volume expected to produce.

1.5. Standardization

Standardization is a tool for variety reduction–“Standardization is a process of defining and applying the conditions necessary to
ensure that given range of requirements can normally be met with a minimum of variety and in a reproducible and economic manner
on the basis of the best current techniques.”

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Objectives of Standardization

1. Interchangeability of parts, components, etc.

2. Keeping the variety minimum.
3. Helps to achieve a better control due to reduced variety.

1.6. Quality control

Quality Control (QC) may be defined as „a system that is used to maintain a desired level of quality in a product or service‟. It is a
systematic control of various factors that affect the quality of the product. Quality control aims at prevention of defects at the source,
relies on effective feedback system and corrective action procedure. Quality control can also be defined as „that industrial
management technique by means of which product of uniform acceptable quality is manufactured‟. It is the entire collection of
activities which ensures that the operation will produce the optimum quality products at minimum cost.

Reference

1. TELSANG MT. Industrial Engineering And Production Management.; 2015.

2. Kumar SA, Suresh N. Production and Operations Management. 2nd ed.; 2008.

Set by: Tekleweyni G. MSc. in Material Science and Engineering