Transcript for EO403 - Product Development Today.PDF

Graduate Apprenticeship - Engineering Design and Manufacture Class: EO403 - Design for X Product Development Today In this video, we will be looking at product development today. We will be discussing the nature of design, what is product development, and what are the characteristics of successful...

Graduate Apprenticeship - Engineering Design and Manufacture Class: EO403 - Design for X Product Development Today In this video, we will be looking at product development today. We will be discussing the nature of design, what is product development, and what are the characteristics of successful products. So let's start with the nature of design. And let's think about the question, why do we design things? There's a variety of reasons that we might design something. Examples including to make life easier, to make things look good, to make things the way we want them to be. The truth is we do it to modify our environments to suit our own purposes. If we don't like something, we do something to develop a solution to solve our problem. As far as history can tell, people have always designed things. Everything around us, except untouched pieces of nature, has been designed by someone. However, even when we've got all this design effort going on around about us, we still end up with situations where we have products and solutions that aren't fit for purpose. We have oversized packaging and wasted materials. We have products that have safety hazards and safety issues. So why does all this still happen? A key reason in many cases is lack of customer understanding. Designers often fail to understand, what is the problem to be addressed? What does a customer need the product to do? What does the customer care about and prioritise, for example, finances, health, environment, safety, social aspects, politics, etc? Often designers forget about that third point-what does a customer care about and prioritise? Ensuring you understand your customer and can confidently answer these three questions is key to developing a successful product solution. This leads us onto the topic of product development. Design is defined as an activity the principle goal of which is to give shape to an artefact. In product development to design is to transform a set of criteria or requirements into a solution, physical or theoretical. To effectively perform design, many different methodologies, methods, and tools are employed and at various different stages in the overall design process. In the world in which we live, products are becoming even more complex. Customer expectations are higher than they've ever been before. The increased functionality of products is more than it's ever been before. Supply chains now operate across multiple borders more than ever before. As a result, modern product development requires experienced multidisciplinary and collaborative project working. And industry requires better prepared professionals in the sectors of business, engineering, and design who can think holistically and are able to understand design process and apply integrated solutions. Page 1/2 Today, characteristics of successful products are products which meet the customer requirements and aspirations. The manufacturer's reputation for quality, reliability, and service also needs to be embedded into the product but also embedded into the business at every level, for example, customer service and after care. It's not enough to just focus on the product. You have to think about the overall business that surrounds that product too. And the product has to be available at the right time and at the right place. Ensuring we design products which address these characteristics will increase our probability of success. Page 2/2