Strategies: new product or service design and development Flashcards
Why is this important?
An important strategy for the operations processes of business is the creation, or design and development, of new products (goods and services). The design, development, launches and sale of new products enables a business to grow and to attain a competitive advantage. There are a number of stages in this product and design process and can differ between goods and services.
Goods
Approach one: preferences and desires of customers. This is identified via market research
Approach two: arrises from innovative technology that enable new appealing products to be made
Factors such as quality, supply chain management, value, capacity management, utility of a product, and cost should be considered
Services
Service design, can be customised in nature, has always taken the position of the customer or client as the starting point in design e.g. customising a legal case as a lawyer
However, some services do not require interaction with the customer and therefore they tend to be largely standardised in nature e.g. McDonalds cook,
When designing a service business must consider the explicit service (tangible aspect such as time, expertise, and skill) what the anticipated implicit skill (physiological aspect such as the feeling of being looked after, and what, if any goods will be required fro the delivery of the service. Cost will be determined once the previously mentioned features have been determined
in design both, both the explicit and implicit aspects need to be adressed. All clients or customers using a service need to feel their particular need are being met. This would give implicit satisfaction
Services using goods
Sometimes in the delivery of goods, services may be required.
The additional aspects can also assist the delivery of a service. For example, technological breakthroughs in equipment can create a range of services that did not previously exist.
Case study
Standardisation is religiously practiced at Toyota to the extent that an engineer can go to any factory in the world and see identical processes being followed irrespective of anything. Further, the philosophy ofKaizen (continuous improvement) is based on standardisation and the management believes unless a process is stabilised and standardised any new improvement will be considered as just another variation used hence chances are that it will be ignored.
