Product life cycle:

The cycle through which a product goes through from development to retirement is called
the product life cycle. The variation of the sales volume during the life cycle of a product is
graphically shown in Fig.2.1.

The product development cycle starts with developing the product concept, evolving the
design, engineering the product, manufacturing the part, marketing and servicing. This is shown
in Fig. 2.2.
1. The idea of a product may come from a patent, suggestion of the customers, feedback
of the sales and service department, market research carried out by the marketing department or
from the R&D department itself.
2. The next stage is the conceptualization of the product. The cost at which the product
could be sold in the market is decided and the overall design in terms of shape, functional
specifications, ergonomics, aesthetics etc are considered in detail and finalized at this stage.
3. The work of product development is then taken to the next stage by the design
department who carefully designs each assembly and each component of the assembly.
Detailed design analysis and optimization is carried out at this stage.
A design may have several variants.
Examples:
A passenger car may have what is called a stripped down version with the bare minimum
options and luxury versions with several add on functionalities. Between these two
extreme versions, there will be a number of models or variants to meet the needs of
customers with
different paying capacities.
In a similar way, a satellite launch vehicle may be designed for different payloads.

 A fighter aircraft may have different versions.

A refrigerator will have to be marketed with different capacities.
The design department creates these designs through a top down approach or a bottom up
approach.
In top down approach, the entire assembly is designed first and individual designs are
done latter.
In bottom up approach, the component design is done first and the product is realized by
assembling the components suitably. The design also will involve preparation of detail
drawings.
Engineering the product consists of process planning, tool design, facility
design, capacity planning, quality assurance activities, procurement, assembly
planning, etc. Marketing department will have the responsibility of carrying out
appropriate product launch activities as well as planning the sales and service
network, advertising and training of sales and service personnel.

In actual practice product development activities form a spiral as shown in Fig. 2.3. The product
goes through a series of continuous refinement and improvements, additions etc. A typical
example is a software package improved versions of which are released as new versions at
periodic intervals. The feedback from the marketing and services leads to improvements in
design and/or evolution of new designs.
The design evolution however does not stop at any stage and is a continuous process.
Similarly one can observe the vast improvements that have taken place in the design of
entertainment electronic goods, computers, aircrafts and even domestic appliances like
refrigerators.
Often an altogether new concept may make a design obsolete.

 Songs were recorded at different times on discs, tapes, cassettes and CD-ROMS.