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Design and Improvement of Service Processes—Process Management 315
may be included in computing the life cycle cost for a product. Some
companies even include the costs due to pollution during the production and
use of the product as part of the holistic analysis of the life cycle cost.
Product development has a particular vested interest in keeping the life
cycle cost for any product as low as possible.
On a longer time scale, product development lead time, efficiency, robustness,
and life cycle costs will contribute a great deal to the level of customer satis-
faction, market share, and revenues that the company will have. These will in
turn translate into profitability and influence the organization’s long-term
business viability.
Product Development Process Analysis
Typical activities in product development start from the initial step of
market research, where the needs and wants of the market are determined,
to production launch, where the product manufacturing can start in earnest.
Product development activities include
• Market research
• Conceptual design
• Detailed design
• Prototype development
• Prototype testing and validation
• Process and tooling design
• Production launch
The common problems in product development process include
1. Excessive time to market
2. Excessive resources used to develop products
3. Chaos and confusion in the product development process
4. Market rejection of new product
5. Excessive product cost
6. Poor product quality and reliability
These common problems are often caused by
• Poor tradeoffs between product features, functionality, and cost
• Excessive complexity of product
• Poor understanding of the market
• Poor product and technology knowledge
• Poor coordination actions and decision making
• Excessive information flow delays
• Poor decision-making process