9 DOS and Don 'ts for new product development

1. Application scenarios

Where there is demand, there is market. New products are developed to meet the needs of a particular scenario. Addressing the requirements in this scenario is not only the selling point of your product; it is the essence of your product. Of course, this also limits the target group of consumption, market positioning and scale. Because only certain people can appear in certain scenes. Fitting and playing. So is the product, so is the person. Therefore, in the early stage of product development, we should try our best to study these scenarios, distinguish the needs of the scenarios, design corresponding functions and applications, and develop humanized and convenient solutions.

For example, one year, LED was over-hyped by the market, so that all lighting related equipment sold well in the market, but the whole LED industry has been red sea, the company's products in the market fell into a price war. We finally on the basis of the LED flashlight, plus the hand automatic charging of machinery, phone charging, also can recharge itself, all of a sudden can solve the problem of battery life, and people outside the fears of a lack of energy, which gives new life to old products, the products in Japan, and Europe and the United States market sell very well. The scene is right, the person is right, find the scene that suits you, can find belong to your blue ocean.

2. Industry standards

The industry of the product is different, its design standards and acceptance standards are not the same, for example, the industrial application of the product is strong and reliable, in the appearance and shape is not so harsh. The end user products of consumer applications have much higher requirements for appearance, not only requiring fashion design, but also accurate to mm for volume and size.

A few years ago, I designed a product that was originally applied to end users. Due to the consideration of cost, many connecting parts were fixed with screws, and lightweight aluminum material was also used. Later, due to the company's product strategy change, the products directly from end-user products into industrial consumption products. The consequences can be imagined, a lot of materials and fixed position quickly wear and loose, the company has to spend a lot of money, regularly send someone to repair and replace the parts. And early, we pursue beautiful and those because of a few mm can not change the appearance, appears insignificant.

Moreover, industrial equipment, consumer appliances, and electronic equipment, have their different industry standards, for safety, life, reliability requirements are also different, so before developing new products, we must understand the product application industry, in order to design a good product out.

3. Experimental design

Most products fail because of inadequate experimental design. Just like the two problems mentioned above, they can be modified and improved continuously through designing experiments.

In the early stage, we can continuously improve the functional characteristics of the product through user experience design UE\UX, and verify the reliability and stability of the product through accelerated aging test ALT and life test.

Must not blindly empiricism and subjective judgment, we must do fuzzy problems to be specific, specific problems to be written, written problems to data, but now CAE software is more convenient, greatly reducing the cost of experimental design.

This is also the biggest difference between finished product Assembly and parts development. Parts, also known as parts, depend on molds, while other parts are secondary, but finished product Assembly is FATP,Final Assembly, Testing and Packing, so Testing is the center of finished products.

4. Technical change management

Technological change is essential in new product development. But be aware that when you change technology, you have to do a careful evaluation, not I think, I think, I think, you have to do validation, you have to have data, you have to have

Analysis. At the same time, it is also necessary to evaluate the impact of the associated parts. There are some changes. When moving a place, the parts of the coordination and the chain need to be changed. In addition, the processing of parts before the change, whether it is cut in or running change, needs to be carefully evaluated.

All changes must be managed in a closed loop. For design, it is not just about updating drawings, for manufacturing, it is not just about producing new parts, the most important thing is to verify results and solve problems. Of course, file management in the process is also crucial. Make sure you know why, how, and when you change.

5. Development process

Good development process, for the whole product development twice the result with half the effort. You can't rely on individuals to develop products; you have to rely on good systems. Gone are the days when trains could run fast and rely solely on locomotives. We have entered the era of bullet trains, which can run fastest only when each car works together.

At present, there are Agile,APQP,PDM,PLM and other well-known R & D process systems. These systems are very easy to use, but the most important thing is to have practical operation.

To run an organization efficiently, there must be a reasonable organizational structure and smooth flow. Secondly, there must be a corporate culture of unity and progress, so that everyone can work together. Finally, there must be strict discipline.

In reality, under the pressure of launching a product, many necessary evaluation and verification procedures are omitted in the development process, and the initial mistake can only be corrected with another mistake, which often outweighs the loss. A lot of things are like this, only do right at the beginning, is the most time saving effort. Einstein said the same thing. we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when wecreated them.

6. Technical data

Complete technical development materials shall include PRD, drawings, BOM, test acceptance criteria, process flow documents, etc. Special emphasis is placed on the drawing and test plan, which is the source of all technical data and the test plan is the basis to verify the success of the product.

The standardization of drawings is very important. Complete drawings should not only include graphics, dimensions and technical requirements, but also conform to GD/T specifications. Over the years, I have drawn thousands of pictures and examined thousands of them. To my surprise, many engineers still couldn't distinguish the first perspective from the third perspective, and the marked dimensions couldn't be measured, the datum was not unified, and the dimension chain tolerance was unreasonable, and some basic mistakes. Drawing is the face of engineering personnel, but also the basic quality of engineers. An excellent engineer should be able to draw an excellent drawing.

Test plan is the core content to ensure product quality, product design and manufacturing itself should be carried out around the product test plan, quality is not produced, is designed, and proved through testing.

7. New product standards are missing

Is there a brand new product? Yes and no. It's always a new bottle of wine, but rarely something from nothing.

For the development of such products, due to the advanced nature of the market, there may be no sound industry standards, but reference to similar products is certainly some. There are a lot of advantages to developing this kind of product, because if you follow the basic principles of development and design, there won't be much innovation, but there won't usually be anything wrong.

So how do you innovate? You have to be able to search for patents. You can search for relevant products or structures on the market and learn to imitate and optimize. Of course if your English is good, you can also scientific Internet, you can find more information. The advantage of the Internet is that others thousands of years of skill, you can spend ten minutes can control. Besides, innovation comes at a price, the price of experimentation and testing. Innovation without verification is useless.

8. Learn from others

There are many smart people in this world, many things, you think, others will also think, some mistakes, others have made, we do not have to make again. Before the development and design of products, it is necessary to study and analyze the market and similar products of such products, and take the essence and discard the dregs.

Just like the TEARDOWN technique invented in Japan, it is necessary and necessary to deeply cultivate an industry. The Great Wall is not built in a day, we do not need to start from scratch today's development, only to understand the current situation of the industry, to develop products to keep up with The Times, only to understand the existing technology, to walk in front of others.

9. Be open

In the company of three there must be a teacher. As a developer, you should be open to different voices. Especially for the suggestions and complaints of other departments, we should face up to, learn to criticize and self-criticism. Mould, injection molding, assembly, quality, testing and other front-line personnel's opinions are the most intuitive, we should dare to accept others' suggestions and criticism, in order to continuously improve ourselves, develop good products.

It's not ignorance that stops us from growing professionally. It's knowing. I know. When we get caught up in such blind confidence, we may end up not confident, but arrogant.

In the end, every road has a reason why it has to do so, and every future it has to go in has a direction it has to choose in that way. No matter where we are today, hope can still keep a warm heart and light up the world.