State of Design: The Canadian Report 2010

Product Design and Development Drivers

Several pressures are driving firms to invest in PD&D to create innovative products. In general, North American firms perceive changing customer preferences and shortening time to market windows as the main drivers to invest in PD&D (Figure 2). Consumer preferences often dictate innovation as firms strive to deliver timely products to satisfy the changing needs of consumers. In addition, time to market windows are becoming tighter as businesses seek to launch products ahead of their competitors to capture increased market share and higher margins. There are also internal pressures prompting firms to invest in PD&D such as the need to control product and technology development costs.³

With numerous pressures driving firms to invest in PD&D, diverse design requirements must be balanced in the strategize, conceptualize, and develop stages of the PD&D process. For this reason, many firms use Design for X (DfX) tools within their PD&D processes. In general, DfX is an approach to PD&D directed at maximizing the product requirements demanded (such as assembly, quality, disassembly, manufacturability, safety, and environmental friendliness) and simultaneously minimizing cost.⁴ As an example, with increased consumer concern for the environment, some Canadian firms are implementing Design for Environment (DfE) practices within their operations to meet changing consumer preferences while increasing access to foreign markets and decreasing costs.^{Footnote A}

PD&D is not without challenges. One key difficulty is to minimize the gap between the design and engineering departments. The voice of the customer needs to carry through to the end product, while the product itself must be manufacturable and meet production cost targets. Another substantial challenge lies in making the PD&D process seamless with minimal time and expense spent modifying the design. Iterations are a natural part of the process; however, correcting problems in the early stages is optimal.²

The details of a PD&D process are industry– and firm–specific. However, several core approaches to PD&D are central to industrial goods manufacturers and demonstrate the importance of PD&D to the success of a firm. One major approach to PD&D is Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA), which focuses on making production as easy and economical as possible in the design stage. This can include designing a product to have fewer parts overall and more standardized parts and materials. Other guidelines within the DFMA approach include designing for parts orientation and handling to minimize effort in adjusting and merging parts, and designing for ease of fabrication. A focus on DFMA can significantly improve the manufacturing process by reducing assembly time and costs.⁴

Another approach to PD&D is to take a broader perspective and identify the needs of all stakeholders, including those of the end user, the manufacturer(s), sales, retail, marketing, and regulatory compliance. Common ground and priorities are established and agreed to, and PD&D efforts are then focused on generating solutions that best satisfy the range of requirements.²

Footnotes

Footnote 1

See Industry Canada's Design for Environment: Innovating to Compete for a complete overview of the use of DfE practices and their business benefits for Canadian firms.

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