Lecture 2

Product Development

Product Development• Product development needs to be considered

at two levels:– Development of existing products– New product development

• The first largely involves design improvement, while the second involves new design.

• Both should be in response to customer requirements

Product Development (cont.)

• New product development occurs before “job 1” in the life cycle of a product

ProfitEnd of

Product Life Cycle

Job 1

Break Even

Sales

Time

Product 2Product 1 Product 3

grow

th

maturitydecline

Product Development (cont.)

• A manufacturing company must continually introduce new products to remain profitable

Why Rapid?• Products are becoming more complex.

• Intuitively, this would imply a longer product development time.

• Rushing the process could lead to mistakes.

• Why not allow the product development process to continue at its current pace?

Why Rapid (cont.)?• Product life cycles are shortening

Time

Year

Product Life

1970 1980 1990 2000

Why Rapid? (cont.)• More products are needed more often, e.g.

– in 1970s car models could have a ten year life– in 1990s some manufacturers were releasing

new models every two years

• Less time to make profits

• Late entry into market will hit profits, e.g. 6 months late could lose 33% of total profit

• RPD reduces time-to-market

Profits• Early Introduction Increases Market

Share and Hence Extends Product Life

Early Entry

Late Entry

Time

Sales Volume

Longer Sales Life

Larger Market Share

Source: Smith and Reinertsen

Profits• Initially Pricing Premium• Later Lower Manufacturing Costs

Competition Enters Market

Product Introduced

Market Price

Cost Advantage

Pricing Premium

Time

£

How Rapid is Rapid?• Product development times vary greatly

between manufacturing sectors, e.g.– Aircraft - 10 years– Automobile - 3 years– Consumer goods - less than one year

• Need to benchmark against competitors

• Aim for continuous reduction, e.g cut time-to-market by 50% every five years

How to Shorten Time-to-Market?

• Product development process typically covers several stages from concept design through to market launch

• EITHER shorten individual stage - minimal effect and only if on critical path

• OR increase overlap between stages - much more potential for saving time

• Second option is Concurrent Engineering

Concurrent Engineering (CE)

• Concurrent Engineering (CE) is a powerful strategy for reducing Time-to-Market

• CE must be adapted to specific company needs

• Certain critical elements remain constant, e.g. improved communication

Concurrent Engineering (contd)

• Simultaneous execution of product development tasks

• Typically includes design, design analysis, testing, process design, plant layout, production planning and marketing

• Replaces “sequential” engineering

Concurrent Engineering vs. Sequential Engineering

DesignAnalysis

TestingProcess Design

Plant LayoutProd. Planning

Marketing

Product Development using Sequential Engineering

Information

Changes Required

Concurrent Engineering vs. Sequential Engineering

DesignAnalysis

TestingProcess Design

Plant LayoutProd. Planning

Marketing

Product Development using Concurrent Engineering

Shared Two-way

Information

Main Features of Rapid Product Development

• Personnel from different functions work together within product development teams

• Decisions are made much sooner

• Early communication of information is vital

• Many tools (often computer-based) are available to support this process

How does RPD reduce

Time-to-Market?• Design takes into account all subsequent

activities, e.g. manufacture, marketing, etc.

• More people are involved in the early stages of product development

• More design iterations and changes are made during these early stages

• Hence, more time is required for early stages of product development

How does RPD reduce Time-to-Market (contd)? • Fewer design changes in later stages

• Total product development time is reduced

Numberof

Changes

Time

Job 1

With CE Without CE

Job 1

What RPD tools are available to help reducing Time-to-

Market?• Project teams

• Quality Function Deployment

• Engineering data management

• Computer aided design

• Design for manufacture and assembly

RPD Tools (contd)• Rapid prototyping

• Virtual prototyping

• Rapid tooling

• Rapid manufacturing

• High Speed Machining

• Agile Fixturing

Project Teams• Personnel from several disciplines are co-

located (physically or virtually)

• Inputs to designs reflect entire range of requirements

• Decisions can be made more quickly

• Designs satisfy all constraints and thus require fewer late changes

Project Team Members

Quality Function Deployment

• Customer requirements are incorporated directly into product development process

• Responses to customer objectives are prioritised

• “Voice of customer” is disseminated throughout all stages of process

• Much wasted effort is avoided as all activities are correctly focused

Engineering Data Management

• Enterprise-wide database system

• Stores all product-related information

• Version control and access control

• Can be used for work-flow management

• Promotes enterprise-wide communication

• Supports earlier and shared decision making

EDM Database Structure

AssemblyData

FEMFiles

Sub-assembly Part Data

3D CADModels

DataNCFilesFile reference list

Computer Aided Design• Geometric shape is fully defined

• Additional information can be added, e.g. tolerances, material, surface finish

• Changes can be made more quickly

• Data is available to support “downstream activities”, e.g. FEM, NC, RP

• Can act as a communication tool across the whole enterprise

Assembly Model using CAD

Design for Manufacture and Assembly

• Designs are created taking into account the manufacturing and assembly processes to be used

• Avoids late changes in the design

• Shortens time of preparation for manufacture

• Can also shorten manufacturing lead-time

Example of Design for Assembly

good design inferior design

Example of Design for Extrusion

inferior design good design

What experiences have

companies had?• Many companies have implemented rapid

product development

• Typical reduction in Time-to-Market has been from 30% to 70%

• Two examples will be used to illustrate this– Sunstrand Electric Power Systems– 3M

RPD at Sunstrand• Time-to-Market reductions for various

componentsComponents Prior to CE Using CE

Sheet metal parts 2 weeks 1-3 days Printed wiring boards

4-6 weeks 2 weeks

Investment castings

12-16 weeks 5 weeks

Machined plastic parts

2 weeks < 1 week

RPD at Sunstrand (contd)• Other benefits were also realised:

– Design cycle reduced from 7 to 4 months– Design costs reduced by 45%– Engineering changes reduced by 55%– Production cycle reduced from 35 to 18

hours– Mean failure time in field increased from

1800 to 8000 hours

• Improved reliability was attributed to more design iterations giving optimised design

RPD at 3M• 3M set goal of cutting Time-to-Market by 50%

within 5 years

• They achieved this after only 3 years

• Preliminary design time was increased by 300%

• This paid off with a greater time saving later in the product development process

• How?

RPD at 3M (cont.)• Taking previous Time-to-market as 100

units, this was reduced to 50 units:

Activity Prior to CE & RP Using CE & RP Preliminary design

5 20

Detail design 25 10 Build/test process

50 15

Documentation 20 5 Total time 100 50

Conclusions• RPD is an effective strategy for reducing

Time-to-Market

• More effort earlier will produce greater savings later

• There are many RPD tools available

• Selection of tools depends upon company circumstances