Keinonen / Takala Product Concept Design

A Review of the Conceptual Design of Products in Industry
1. Auflage 2010
ISBN: 978-1-84628-126-6
Verlag: Springer
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 204 Seiten, eBook

Globalisation of the world’s economy is leading to rapid change and uncertainties in society, politics and markets.

Product design strategies need to respond to these developments. "Product Concept Design" meets the needs and expectations of academia and practitioners working in design by focussing on the methods for creating products and design strategies in today’s fast-changing business environment.

"Product Concept Design" has been written by a collection of researchers and practising designers from leading companies such as Nokia and Volvo and provides a goldmine of ideas for designers and managers in industry, as well as lecturers in design and design engineering and their students.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Keinonen, Turkka Kalervo

Takala, Roope

Inhaltsverzeichnis

to Concept Design.- The Concept Design Team.- Processes of Product Concepting.- User Information in Concepting.- Strategic Concepts in the Automotive Industry.- Concepts in Uncertain Business Environments.- Vision Concepts.

Leseproben

"7 Vision Concepts (p. 178-179)

Mikko Saaskilahti, Roope Takala

7.1 Concept development outside the research and development time frame

Almost all companies find themselves at some pOint in a situation where they are unable to provide the right products to address the existing market demand!. The company has perhaps failed to anticipate market changes, and so when it eventually comes face-to-face with the new competition it has no time, no skills and no resources available to respond to it. Vision-based concept creation and concept development outside the normal R&D time frame is a means of preparing for changes in the business environment.

Vision concepting (see the description in Chapter 1) aims to sketch out future products and product portfolios far beyond the normal product development perspective, up to 15 to 20 years ahead. These concepts can be used to answer the question: "What kind of business will we be in in 15 years time?" Creating a vision concept gives a view beyond the blinding, close-range blur, which includes factors such as the current competition, the prevailing operational practices and the existing set of resources and competences.

It enables the taboos oftodays business to be challenged and modified in order to identify possible future paths. This book discusses several reasons for generating concepts. One of these is that, by introducing concepts such as Volvos concept cars (see Chapter S), the manufacturer can propose new ideas that the public can become familiar with and take on board. The company can also study the reactions and feedback from the market.

Concepting can be used to generate a dialogue between the company and its customers. In the case of vision concepts, the customer base for the futuristic ideas is not yet in place and consequently it is not necessary to communicate these concepts outside the company. Instead, the material created is intended to support strategic decision-making and the long-term development of the company, rather than to achieve short- or mid-term gains by creating the foundations for the next few product generations - the objective is to create motivational targets to aim at. Product concepts for the future cannot be created without observing the signs of change in the present.

This can be done by linking the product concepts to future scenarios. Future scenarios have been used as a tool to probe the possibilities of different futures in futurology!3]. The main industrial use of these studies has been to describe the possible changes in the business environment at a macro leveIl4]. However, these scenarios can also be used to determine the corresponding feasible product concepts. For different scenarios the company needs specific survival strategies and, of course, the companys product portfolios will also differ.

Using vision concepts gives the company a new angle for analysing its responses to future challenges at a product portfolio level. A company that has made its preparations by developing scenarios and vision concepts can adjust its strategy with the aim of making the chosen vision the reality of the future. It will be able to analyse the type of product offerings that will give it the flexibility to survive and succeed in any of the various future scenarios. Implementation of the strategy may lead, for example, to new operational policies being created, new technologies being adapted, company functions being developed and new knowledge being gained or acquired from other companies."

Über Autor(innen)

has been written by a collection of researchers and practising designers from leading companies such as Nokia and Volvo. The book explains the process of conceptual design of new manufactured products and shows these the principles involved are employed in real examples of consumer products from some of the world’s most important corporations detailed by the designers themselves. The Nokia Research Center employs 20,000 people in 11 countries and has a turnover of €3.76bn.