UNIT 1 FUNDAMENTAL OF PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

What is a product? A product is defined as any object which is exchanged by a consumer/customer in exchange of anything, for example money; for the goods/products produced by the producer or supplier. The product may be a good or a service.

Define Core benefit Core benefit represents the basic theme of any product. In other words it represents the main service or benefits which are derived from the consumers use.

Define Generic product It is the basic version of a product i.e. these products do not have various features which classify the product. These features enable consumers to receive desired benefits.

Define Expected product These products contain properties or characteristics which are usually expected and accepted by buyers.

Define augmented product. These products contain some additional benefits and services than the expected ones. Competitor producers compile each other on the basis of these additional benefits only.

Define Potential products. These products have undergone all possible augmentations with course of time and increase in demands. The potential product is the product which just does not meet all the consumers needs but also delight the consumers.

Give the classification of products. Consumer products, Industrial products and Specialty products

What are consumer products? Consumer product refers to any article or component parts which are produced or distributed for sale to a consumer to be used in or around residence, school, in recreation or for the personal use, consumption or enjoyment of a customer. Ex: Weight loss pills, digital cameras, iPods, laptops, smart cell phones, GPS navigation devices, beauty products, video games, DVD players and cable television.

What are Industrial products? These are the goods produced in a factory with the help of machinery and technology. These are used for production of consumer products. Examples: carts or dollies, tapes or adhesives, ladders, lifts, storage lockers, cabinets, scaffolding, personal protection equipment, office supplies and light fixtures or tools.

What are Specialty products? Specialty goods are unique in nature. These products are the unusual and luxurious items available in the market i.e. these products are the products for which buyers are habitual and may make special efforts for purchase of these products. Ex: house, holiday package, etc.

Define GDP and GNP. GDP Gross domestic product GNP Gross National product

How do you determine the GDP? Product (or output) approach Income approach Expenditure approach

Define Target cost. A target cost is a pricing method used by firms. It is a cost management tool for reducing the overall cost of a product over its entire life cycle with the help of production, engineering, research and design. It is the maximum amount of cost that can be incurred on a product and with it the firm can still earn the required profit margin from that product at a particular selling price.

Give some of the environmental regulations. Clean Water Act (CWA) Oil Pollution Act National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)

Define PESTLE Analysis. It is a popular tool to identify the external factors within the organisations environment that have impact on their operations. It is a strategic planning technique that provides a useful framework for analysing the environmental pressures on a team or an organisation.

What are the variants of PESTEL Analysis? ETPS, STEP, STEPE, STEEPLED, PESTLIED, STEEPLE & PEST.

What are the various factors of PESTEL Analysi? Political, Economical, Social, Technological, Legal and Enviromental

Give the classification of social media. Collaborative projects (Ex: Wikipedia) Blogs and micro blogs (Ex: Twitter) Content communities (Ex: YouTube and Daily Motion) Social networking sites (Ex: Facebook) Virtual game-worlds (Ex: World of War craft) Virtual Social Worlds (Ex: Second life)

What is a SWOT analysis? It is another widely used tool for planning. It is used to assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to an organisation. Strengths and weakness pertain to internal factors whilst opportunities and threats are the product of external factors.

What is NPD? NPD is stands for new product development.

List down the various factors which affect product decision. Social, Technical, Political, Economical, Environmental, IP trends

What are the various phases in new product development? Market research, Idea generation, Idea screening, Concept development and testing, Business analysis, product development, market testing and commercialisation.

What are the various idea generation methods? Brain storming, market analysis, futuristic studies, management think tank and global study.

What is Re-engineering? It is a field of engineering which deals with transformation and reconstitution of an existing product in order to derive improved performance, efficiency and capability of the product at low cost and maintenance.

What is Reverse engineering? It is the process of developing a new product/S/W for which only the physical product is available and there is no design documentation available.

What is design porting? Design porting or migration is the process of taking a design from a hardware prototype to a production cell-based, ASIC. It could include migration of a cost-reduction technology

What is design homologation? It is the certification provided for a product or specification to indicate that it meets regulatory standards.

What are the various product development methodologies? Waterfall methodology, Agile methodology, Over the wall methodology, V-model, Stage-gate methodology and Spiral methodology

What are the validation phases of the V model? Unit testing, Integration testing or interface testing, System testing, Acceptance testing and release testing.

Give one advantage and disadvantage of V model over Waterfall methodology? Advantage: Every stage is tested Disadvantages: It assumes that the requirements do not change The design is not authenticated The requirements are not verified At each stage there is a potential of errors The first testing is done after the design of modules which is very late and costs a lot.

What are the various stages in Stage-gate methodology? Idea, Preliminary instigation, Build business case, development and test and validate.

What are the tools and techniques to support the process of system engineering? System model, modelling and simulation, System architecture, Optimisation, System dynamics, System analysis, Statistical analysis, Reliability analysis and Decision making

What is DMADV? It is one of the approaches for product development methodology. It stands for Define, Measure, Analyse, Design and Verifiy.

What is DMAIC? It is one of the approaches for product development methodology. It stands for Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve and Control.

What are the product development methodologies used by Software companies? Software companies prefer to use Agile technology and Stage-Gate methodology considering their positive response to change and attempts to mitigate risks.

Define product life cycle? It is a series of different stages a product goes through beginning from its introduction into the market and ending at its discontinuation and unavailability.

What are stages in Product life cycle curve? The introductory stage, The growth stage, The maturity stage and the decline stage.

What is S curve? The curve depicting Sales vs Time resembles S shaped curve. It is called S curve. It consists of 4 stages.

What is a bathtub curve? It describes the relative failure rate of an entire population of products over time. It depicts increased failure rate vs time.

What is reverse bathtub curve? The demand of product in the market over time follows an inverted/ reverse bathtub curve. It depicts Demand/Sales volume vs Time

Define budget. It is written plan covering projected activities of a firm for a defined period.

What are the types of budget? Fixed budget, Flexible budget, Capital expenditure budget and Operating budget

Define risk management. It is the identification, assessment and prioritization of risks followed by coordinated and economical application of resources to minimise, monitor, and control the probability and/or impact of unfortunate events or to maximize the realization of opportunities.

What are the commonly used risk management techniques? FMEA, FMECA and Fault tree analysis

What are the different types of FMEA? Functional FMEA, Design FMEA, Process FMEA, etc.

What is CPM? It is a tool to analyse project and determine duration, based on identification of critical path through an activity network. It stands for Critical Path method. CPM is activity oriented.

What is PERT? PERT stands for Program Evaluation and Review Technique. It is a statistical tool used in project management that is designed to analyse and represent the tasks involved in completing a given project. PERT is event oriented

Define Optimistic time estimate to. It is the shortest possible time required to complete the activity, if all goes well.

Define pessimistic time estimate tp. It is the maximum possible time required to complete the activity, if all goes well.

Define Most likely time estimate tL. It is the time an activity will take if executed under normal conditions.

Define expected time or average time to in PERT. Expected time or average time is based on three time estimates of the performance of time of an activity. It is given by to =

Define Slack/Float. Slack and float both refer to the amount of time by which a particular event or activity can be delayed without affecting the time schedule of the network. Slack refers to events and is used in PERT. Float refers to activities and is used in CPM.

What are the features of Gate review? Gates can be at multiple points in the overall project management At every gate there must be approval to proceed for next stage Review of budget, Schedule, Risk and any other issue.

Define Change management. It is an approach handling the transitioning of individuals, a team and organisations to a desired future state.

What are the steps involved in Change management. Identifying the need for change Planning the change Executing the change Evaluating the change

What are the principles of effective product cost management? Spread the responsibility to all Spread the word and make it a habit Develop the cost management locally Benchmark continually Focus on managing rather than on instantaneous cost reduction

List some Product cost management tools. Product cost estimation systems Reporting systems for documenting and tracking cost management results Analytics systems to search large volumes of data and indentify cost outliers and trends BOM cost tracking systems to roll-up costs at any point in a products life cycle.