Effective Product Design

Introduction

Organization success is dependent on customer satisfaction and delight. Customer satisfaction is achieved through development of product and service, which have all attributes required by the customer. A success product or services do not only have attractive package design but should be also able to provide robust performance.

Thus, product design must be practical enough for production and powerful enough to provide a competitive advantage.

Product Design

A good product design has following common features:

• Utility: The product design should make product utility as per expectation of customers and provide steady performance through the product life.

• Aesthetics: Product aesthetics is important in success of the product. The product aesthetics is dependent on market and end customer.

• Producible: Product design should enable effective production of product through available production methods.

• Profitability: Product design should make economic sense as to deliver value to customer and sustainability to the organization.

• Differentiable: A good product design should enable product to be differentiate among its competition. This can be achieved by attractive packaging and also by providing additional service on the product.

Objectives of Product Design

The essence of product design is to satisfy customer and maximizes the value for the customer at minimum cost. The product or service should also be able to meet primary needs and desire of the customer. This may not require development of new product, but enhancement to existing product or service.

Stages of Product Design

Product design is a creative process which looks at all the available options and beyond. The process is can be divided into three stages:

1. First stage: His stage involves brainstorming, bringing ideas and analysis of customer and market feedback.

2. Second Stage: Idea is converted into a feasible solution to satisfy the customer expectation, using available resource and technology.

3. Third Stage: This is the last stage in which the product is introduced in the market.

Factors Affecting Product Design

A successful product design is combination factors as follows:

Correct Team Selection: This is very essential to get the correct team in place which has expert designers who are not only aware and comfortable with technology but also understanding of customer expectation.

Customer Involvement: Involvement of customer in product design and testing can provide insight into the direction of the project

Prototyping and testing: Product design is high risk concept as it involves commitment of capital and man-power; therefore, it is imperative that extensive prototyping and testing are done with customer and market.

Raw Material: It is essential that raw material to be used in the production meets the quality standards of the end product. Furthermore, procurement system needs to be in place to ensure continuous, cost effective supply.

Production method and process layout: Feasibility of production method and process layout determines future success of the product.

External Factors: Environmental and government regulations plays an important part in product design. And these norms are updated from time to time, so product design should have the flexibility to adapt.

Product Selection

Production selection process is done through a combination of financial analysis, risk analysis, existing product portfolio, raw material supply and pre-determined product criteria.