Product Cycle

The complete process of developing a product from the initial concept stage to the final marketing of the same is relatively long process with a variety of departments collaborating in the process. The major components that would be of interest are the Design and manufacturing departments. However, in addition to these two major components the other departments such as planning, purchasing, etc. will all make a sizable contribution to the total process? A typical division of activities in a product development cycle is shown in Figure1.

Figure 1: Typical Stages in the Product Development of a Product

The starting point of the design process is the identification of the needs of an unsatisfied demand for the product or conceptually a new idea to start a fresh demand. At this stage it is possible to identify some of the basic questions related to the product such as who, what, where, when, why and how many should be answered with fair accuracy.