PRODUCT AND SERVICE DEVELOPMENT AND ORGANIZATION & SERVITIZATION Flashcards
What is the relationship between creativity, innovation and design?
Explain the technology S-shaped curve
When new ideas are introduced in services, products or processes, they rarely have an impact that increases uniformly over time. Usually, performance follows an S-shaped progress. So, in the early stages of a new ideas introduction, although (often large) amounts of resources, time and effort are needed to introduce the idea, relatively small performance improvements are experienced. However, with time, as experience and knowledge about the new idea grow, performance increases. But as the idea becomes established, extending its performance further becomes increasingly difficult
What are some of the more significant reasons why product and service
development is seen as increasingly strategically important?
How can the link between product/service development be modeled?
product/service change is easier when the underlying processes that produce them are not being changed at the same time, and vice versa. The Figure also shows three service/process developments at a bank. Making changes to the services offered in a bank branch involves relatively minor ‘product’ and process changes compared with the redesign of both product and process involved in a major new call centre. This, in turn, is less than the development of a totally new internet banking service
How can an operations strategy analysis be done on product/service development?
The generic performance objectives of quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and cost can be used to describe the impact of new or modified products and services in the marketplace. In order to achieve competitive ‘production’ of product and service designs, the resources and processes that are used to develop them will themselves need organising along the lines of any other operation. The company’s design capacity will have to be matched to the demand placed on it over time; relationships with an external supply network for design and development knowledge will have to be established; process technologies such as computer-aided design (CAD) systems, expert systems, simulations and so on, may be needed; and also the resources technology and processes used to develop products and services will need organising and themselves developing over time. All decision areas are of some relevance to most companies’ development efforts.
Why is the way in which companies develop their products and services so important?
Competitive markets and demanding customers require updated and ‘refreshed’ products and services. Even small changes to products and services can have an impact on competitiveness. Markets are also becoming more fragmented, requiring product and service variants developed specifically for their needs. At the same time, technologies are offering increased opportunities for their exploitation within new products and services. Nor can one always separate the development of products and services on the one hand from the development of the processes that produce them on the other. Thus, product and service development influences and is influenced by almost all other decisions and activities within the operations function.
