Page 47 - DMGT501_OPERATIONS_MANAGEMENT

Unit 2: Product and Service Design

2.4.7 Product Introduction Notes

During this stage, the organization needs to monitor customer satisfaction and detect product
weaknesses so as provide feedback to the design team.
The product is also monitored for field performance and failure data. This stage is customer
support intensive. Support systems might be used to:
1. Educate users on specific applications of the product,
2. Provide warranty and repair service, and

3. Ensure easy availability of replacement parts.
This information is used to monitor, analyze, and modify the product, if necessary.

2.4.8 Concurrent Engineering

The basis for concurrent engineering is the significant overlap among the different phases of
product development. This can be seen from Table 2.1. A significant number of companies are
already identifying where there is a need to communicate and work together both within the
company divisions and with other organizations so as to reduce the time between the finalization
of the definitive design and the introduction of the product or service.

In high clock-speed industries, this is critical. Many companies, in this category, use the concurrent
engineering approach to speed up the product development process. Teams are constituted that
integrate the CE program. There can be three types of teams: (i) program management team, (ii)
technical team and (iii) design-build team. Concurrency involves the parallel completion of
project phases.
With an integration team ensuring the exchange of information between the teams working on
different aspects, it is possible to considerably reduce development times and create high quality
product designs that meet customer expectations. Using this technique, some companies boast
that they have reduced, by a third or more, the time needed to develop and launch new products.
They have injected more customer-related information into the process and to make it flow
better.

Example: Some instances of time-savings that have already been achieved are presented
below:

1. Chrysler, Ford, and GM have reduced the interval from concept approval to production
from 5 to 3 years.
2. Fourteen engineers at the Tank and Automotive Research and Development Center designed
a low-silhouette tank prototype in 16 months. By traditional methods, this would have
taken 3 years and 55 engineers.
3. Northrop Grumman's CAD systems provided a first-time, error-free physical mockup of
many sections of the B2 aircraft in less than one half the time compared to conventional
methods.
Numerous examples point that increased and improved communications between all phases
will significantly reduce the time from concept to delivery of the product or service to the
marketplace.
By improving the quality, timing, and synthesis of information throughout the development
cycle, companies can free themselves from prescheduled project time lines and formalized

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