Technology assessment etc. Flashcards
What is a SWOT-analysis?
Used for understanding the strengths and weaknesses of a product.
- An analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities
and Threats, that could apply to the company as well as
to the product idea - In SWOT analysis, you first look internally at the
business (company, organisation, product) to identify its strengths and weaknesses. - You then review the external business environment in
which the business (company, organisation, product) unit operates and identify opportunities presented by that environment and the threats posed by that environment.
What are some typical questions when doing a SWOT-analysis?
Strengths:
- What does the company do well?
- Is the company strong in its
market?
Weaknesses:
- What does the company do poorly?
- What problems could be avoided?
Opportunities:
- Are industry trends moving
upward?
- Do new markets exist for the company’s products/ services?
Threats:
- What are competitors doing well?
- What obstacles does the company face?
What is benchmarking?
Understanding your competitors’ products and
technologies and your comparative position.
Provides a standard or point of reference to measure and
judge product quality, value or performance.
How do you perform benchmarking?
- Form a list of relevant design issues and properties
- Identify competing or related products
- Conduct an information search
- If possible, buy exemplars of competing products
- Test, take apart, document in detail - Systematize the product information, e.g., in Excel
- Analyse the information, e.g., for
- Best in class per property
- Identifying clusters of properties or competitors
- Identifying opportunities for obtaining unique selling points
- Predicting industry trends
Why is benchmarking useful throughout the development process?
- For identifying customer needs
- For improving concept generation
- For embodiment design
- For establishing product specifications
- For detailed design
What is patent landscaping?
Using patent information to determine filing trends
and areas of interest, leading actors, etc
What is target-setting?
Using parameter-based ”technical models” to
set quantitative targets for product development
What is technology readiness level (TRL)?
- Used to assess and communicate how mature
and ”ready” a technology is to deploy - Minimises risk by suggesting the next
development and verification steps - TRL 6 typically required for use of technology
when formally starting to develop a complex
product (car, aircraft, etc) - Proposed by NASA (Mankins, 1995) but has
since then been widely adopted, also outside
space and aerospace.
What is manufacturing readiness level (MRL)?
- MRL addresses the readiness to
manufacture a product. - MRL 1 - Basic Manufacturing
Implications Identified - MRL 10: Full Rate Production
demonstrated and lean production
practices in place
What are primary information sources?
Information that you gather yourself direct
from customer, users etc for your project:
- Interviews
- Observations
- Customer visits
- Focus groups
What are secondary information sources?
Information gathered by someone else for another purpose but nevertheless useful for you:
- Census Bureau statistics
- Journals
- Company websites
- Trade magazines
Should be systematic, rigorous and repeatable
What does the information search analysis process look like?
- Set scope for search
- Plan the search
- Carry out the search
- Screen results for relevance and quality
- Analyze relevant, high quality publications
