I am sure many of you will appreciate that bringing a new product to the marketplace is quite a challenging process, with a number of obstacles to deal with along the way. These unknown elements that hit during the new product development (NPD) process prevents a large proportion of products ever being manufactured.
Turning a vision into a reality sounds easy, doesn’t it? With a business case sewn up and your idea pitched to investors, then comes the really hard part. At the market research stage, scoping out an actual need and target market for your product, customer feedback can sometimes be difficult to attain, especially if it relates to a completely new innovation, with potential clients occasionally unable to articulate their unknown desires or providing a list of too many needs, wants, and must-haves.
At an early stage in the development cycle, a Freedom to Operate (FTO) analysis will be undertaken to investigate as to whether there is a possible patent infringement. In cases where there is a problem, a change to a product’s design may have to be initiated. Another pathway to a resolution might be to pursue a licensing or patent agreement with a competitor.
Any delays in the project management calendar will inevitably impact the whole NPD process, putting the entire project in jeopardy. The biggest factor, of course, is the additional financial burden, but any hold-ups could provide an opportunity for another product to swoop in and enter the market first, thus stealing your thunder. Getting the timing right in bringing any product successfully to the manufacturing stage, is fundamental to its success. Getting it wrong can risk the entire project running aground.
The conceptual designs, which are passed onto a design engineer to produce a detailed CAD design and associated data, are the fine tuning, or sink or swim stage. Once a prototype has been built, its functionality can be tested to see if it meets the initial technical requirements. It is at this stage when products can be redesigned, adapted, and materials altered, for example, but scaling development costs during this time can sometimes lead to a product getting pulled from manufacture and beached entirely.
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