Just like people, products too have their own lifespan. Labelled the product life cycle, this term encapsulates the period from when a product is first introduced to the marketplace, until it is withdrawn and taken off the shelves. The reason for no longer producing and selling a product can vary. For example, there may have been a decline in sales, a loss of market share, or the introduction of a new generation product.
As a mechanical design engineering company operating for over 25 years, we have been privileged to have worked on the design and development of countless products and components spanning many industry sectors. It never fails to impress us when a design project succeeds and lands on the shelves, so to speak, as there are so many hurdles to overcome, particularly in the field of medical device development.
So, why develop a new product?
In a rapidly changing world, where you stand still at your peril, there is an impending need to constantly keep moving forward; looking for the next best thing. Like being on a huge Ferris wheel that has a never-ending forward momentum, marketers and inventors alike are trying to anticipate what a customer is going to want or need next. It is therefore their job to satisfy and, if possible, exceed expectations.
A continual stream of innovation and new inventions are therefore essential. It is this spark of imagination nurturing an idea that grows into a physical thing that is finally delivered to the customer. Thus transforming the art of brainstorming into a reality. But bringing a completely new product to the marketplace is generally considered to be a high-risk initiative. So an accepted way of limiting or reducing this stake for businesses is to make a change to a product’s features and re-enter it in an already present, existing market.
As mentioned, product design and development is indeed a complex process. A product is far more than an actual tangible item, namely its function, design features, packaging and materials. Areas such as after-sales service, product warranty, the ability to fix or replace broken parts, safely dispose of or recycle components, must also be considered before any launch date is fixed. Sustainability and the creation of a more ‘greener’ product and a circular economy is high on the agenda for us design engineers, as customers, quite rightly, are demanding we design with the climate in mind. Thankfully, there are many innovations and research is constantly being undertaken, finding ways to produce items that limit waste and carbon output. A couple of examples of these 'green innovations' are the world’s first all-plastic bike, which was recently launched at The Engineering Design Show and the development of seaweed as a green source of energy storage.
So, what is the best way to develop a product?
Well, if we had the answer to this, then in the words of Del Trotter, this time next year, we could all be millionaires. Developing a new product is an extremely risky business, even for those companies that have been operating for a number of years. According to Harvard Business School, over 30,000 new products are launched into the market every year, out of which approximately 95% fail. Adding weight to the premise that there are no guarantees for success, despite all the extensive customer research and in-depth focus groups that are thoroughly carried out. Even something that appears to be insignificant, such as missing the optimum launch date or window, could be catastrophic. But despite all the dangers, thankfully, businesses do continue to design and develop new products and utilise the skills of design engineers to bring them to fruition.
A business will, of course, have a documented strategic direction in which to set out specific objectives to achieve, based upon what it already knows about its own customer base, in terms of who they are, what they want and how decisions are made. This will include, amongst other things, the quality of the product to manufacture and the retail price of the item, thus impacting on where the product will sit in the marketplace in comparison to the competition. However, a recent study by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) claims some businesses have gone one step further with their innovation process, and have created a specific part of the business purely for research and development. They allege this organisation structure, which allows for a clear separation between the core business and the innovation centre, makes provision for the organisation to facilitate and organise a constant stream of new ideas.
Having been involved with design and development projects for over twenty-five years now, we have seen a big change in how this process is managed internally by the company developing a product. The ‘old way’ of doing things, named over-the-wall design process, used to mean that the development project was worked on by a particular department, such as marketing, engineering, quality assurance/testing and manufacturing, then once they had completed their bit, so to speak, it was handed on to the next in line. Unfortunately, this meant that there was no overlap in creative or technical skills and that work areas were largely compartmentalized.
Thankfully, this has all changed. With the introduction of multi-disciplined teams, these departmental barriers have, in effect, but not completely, been broken down, and with it, the concept of separate departments essentially working in silos. Named simultaneous engineering, this ‘new way’ of doing things aids projects to move forward faster and is therefore deemed a more economical and viable way of operating, as issues can be debated by the various department heads and solved together as a think-tank.
So, the circle of life for products, the product life cycle, has a slightly different meaning in today’s world. There is, more than ever, an urgent necessity to produce a product that not only satisfies a customer in terms of how it operates or functions, but how green or climate-friendly it can be across the entire manufacturing process. It is critical that we continue to design and make products that are made from materials that are responsibly sourced and implement the necessary energy-saving processes to bring it to the marketplace. But not only that, we now must consider what happens to a product at the end of its lifecycle, in terms of how we can replace, recycle, reuse or repurpose parts and components.
Sources:
https://uk.kaizen.com/products/article-why-do-80-of-new-product-launches-fail-uk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del_Boy
https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2019-09-09-gartner-survey-finds-that-45-percent-of-product-launches-are-delayed-by-at-least-one-month
https://www.saasworthy.com/blog/top-product-launch-statistics-for-2022/
https://npdbook.com/introduction-to-stage-gate-method/the-era-of-specialization-and-over-the-wall-design/
http://npdbook.com/introduction-to-stage-gate-method/concurrent-engineering/
https://engineeringproductdesign.com/concurrent-vs-sequential-engineering/
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/product-life-cycle.asp
https://www.imeche.org/news/news-article/sustainability-in-design-engineering
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https://www.eurekamagazine.co.uk/content/news/world-s-first-all-plastic-urban-bike-igus-bike-at-engineering-design-show
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https://pharmaceuticalmanufacturer.media/pharma-manufacturing-news/pharmaceutical-sustainability-news/accelerating-action-on-environmental-sustainability-in-healt/
