Integrated Product and Process Development – Meaning, Advantages and Key Factors

Introduction

Objective of any organization is to provide customer satisfaction by building product and services, which not only satisfy needs and want but also create value for them.

This requires product design based on the customer feedback and production process which not only minimizes cost but also provides a competitive advantage. However, most organizations tend to follow conventional production method and process.

However, in the global age of new technology and competition organization have to re-invent the way they cater to needs of customer, focus on specialization and customization is ever increasing. Given this scenario it is imperative for the organization to integrate technology and innovation within the framework of integrated product and process development.

Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD)

Integrated product and process development combines the product design processes along with the process design process to create a new standard for producing competitive and high-quality products.

Integration of new technologies and methods provide a complete new dimension to product design process. This process starts with defining of the requirements of products based on the customer feedback while considering the design layout and other constraints. Once the finer details are finalized, they are fed into CAD models where extensive testing and modeling are done to get the best product.

With integration of production method and technology with product design, it is natural for integration of product design and process design. Therefore, integrated product and process development can be defined as a process starting from product idea to development of final product through modern technology and process management practices while minimizing cost and maximizing efficiency.

Advantages of Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD)

Organization stands to benefit greatly from the implementation of IPPD. Some of the advantages are as follows:

• Using modern technologies and implement logical steps in production design, the actual production is likely to come down, thereby reducing product delivery time.

• Through optimum usage of resources and using efficient process, organizations are able to minimize cost of production thus improving profitability of the organization.

• Since extensive uses of CAD model are employed chances are of product or design failure are greatly reduced thus reducing risk for organization.

• As the focus is solely in delivering value to customer, quality is paramount importance and achieved through technology and methods.

Key Factors for IPPD

There are certain factors, which can vastly improve IPPD. These factors are as follows:

• IPPD success is greatly dependent on agreement on the end objective which is the successful address to customer requirements. All the stakeholders and management should be aligned to the single objective.

• Since this is a scientific approach, its success dependent on building up of plan, implementation of plan and constant review of the implemented plan.

• With implementation of modern methods and technology comes usage of modern tools and systems. This tools, and systems need to be integrated within the organization framework.

• Skilled manpower is another essential; therefore, organization need to make investment in human capital.

Customer is the focal point of IPPD. Therefore, constant feedback from them is essential for IPPD to be a success.

Therefore, IPPD is approach design to address all the concern of modern organization in the globalized world.