Product planning and selection Introduction Product development refers to the process of creating new products or modifying the

existing ones. The needs and requirements of consumers keep on changing over the period of time. Therefore, to meet these needs successfully, new products n eed to be introduced in the market. The objective to achieve customer satisfacti on or improve the feasibility in production, calls for modification in the exist ing products. Product design and analysis Product design is the first step immediately after accepting the concept of a pr oduct. It has direct bearing on plant layout and in process material flow. It is concerned with critical analysis of different design features with relevance to place of use, substitute materials and careful planning equipment alternative f or manufacturing the products. It is a repetitive task and it is strategic in na ture. Product design has significant impact on profitability competitiveness. Needs for product design and development 1. Introduction of new products As mentioned new products are developed to meet the changing needs of the consum ers. To understand the need to develop and introduce new products to the market, you need to keep in mind the micro level objectives of an organization as: Addressing the changes required by the consumers, thereby providing them wit h complete satisfaction. Growth in the market share or keep the existing market share in place for th e existing products by adding more variety and new design to the product range. Attracting the consumers that are sensitive to changing fashions, thereby pr oviding better marketability to the product range. Filling in the missing products in the product range to provide consumers wi th all the possible options with in the same brand, thereby keeping the brand lo yalty intact with the consumers. Breaking the monotony in the designs and features of the product such as the appearance or functions of a product. We can say that the introduction of new products in the market is mostly for the reason to increase sales and provide an organization with better marketability of products. 2. Modify the existing products We have just discussed the reason to introduce new products in the market, along with this design and development also perform an important role in modifying th e existing products. These modification are made for reason such as: Improving the life cycle of the product in the market. Providing economics, since the expenses pertaining to developing new product s are generally much higher than for modification. Keeping the advantage of already established product in the market by improv ing time to time. Utilizing the production resources effectively. Increasing market share with economical pricing, by passing on the advantage of reduced cost of production. To summarize, we can further sat that introducing new product adds to the profit

ability for an organization with an increase in sales. Modification of the exist ing products provides sustainability in the market also cost reduction to mainta in the profitability.

Steps in new product development New product strategy development: - new product strategy provides corporate strategic guidelines for the new product development process through assessment of internal experience and external opportunities. Idea generation: - it involves the use of various idea sources and idea gene ration technique required to identify new ways to satisfy needs and monitor the evolving technologies. Screening and evaluation: - New product screening is the development and sys tematic use of criteria to evaluate the potential of new product ideas. It is al so known as cost benefit analysis. Business analysis: - is an in-depth study of the estimated economic feasibil ity of new product ideas. It is also known as SWOT analysis. Development: - it involves developing the product (or service) itself (with attention to attributes preferred by customers) and further development of manuf acturing, packaging and distribution cost estimates. Testing: - testing stage thoroughly evaluates potential market acceptance th rough the use of market research. Commercialization: -it is the actual introduction of the product into the ma rket place, with all the related decisions and resources commitments. Example of product development Some common examples of product development are listed as follows: Product development of... Wheat flour into retail packets for household consumption, Cooking oil into retail pouches for household consumption, Land line phones into Cell phones for communication. Desktop computers into smaller Laptops for easy portability. Traditional library into an online library to facilitate faster searching an d accessibility to e-books and other digital documents. A simple airplane into a fighter jet aircraft to achieve a greater speed.

Characteristics of good product design Functionality: - while designing a product, the most important consideration lies with the function that the product is expected to perform. Products are de signed with the objective of meeting a customer need. Reliability: - in this context can be termed as the dependability on the per formance of a product for a designated period of time, without deterioration in the quality of performance of the product. Productivity: - the possibility of producing the product under consideration in the required quantity, at a feasible cost. Maintainability: - products are designed to perform reliably for the designa ted period of time, but still some amount of maintenance is required.

Cost effective: - the cost of a production for a product is influenced at th e designing stage and plays an important role in economical manufacturing of tha t product. eg

Product development techniques To develop a good product, a company needs to follow a particular development te chnique. Various product techniques are that can be used to develop a product, w hich meets the market requirement: Standardization: - in which company establishes a standards, such as product dimensions, equipments used, and quality for its product to maintain consistenc y. Simplification: - it involves decrease in the number and variety of product of a company. It is mainly concerned with the reduction of diversity among produ cts, assemblies, parts, materials and design features. Specialization: - it involves concentration of efforts upon a limited field of endeavour. The activities are divided and subdivided and allocated to the emp loyees concerned. This technique enables the employees to gain specialized knowl edge of that activity. Diversification: - it involves introducing new products and new models of th e old products. This technique also involves introducing new markets, new techno logies and new product line in accompany.