Product and Service Design: Key Factors & Processes

Posted on Feb 28, 2025 in Business Administration and Innovation Management

Steps to Design a Product

Product design involves several key stages:

• Functional Design: Also called *conceptual design*, this stage focuses on developing a product that fulfills a specific need, regardless of its appearance.
• Industrial Design: This stage addresses aesthetic considerations and aims to meet user needs through visual appeal and usability.
• Design for Manufacturing (DFM): DFM ensures the product can be manufactured efficiently using available resources and materials.

Key Features of Product Design

Successful product design considers the following factors:

• Functional Factor: The product must effectively fulfill its intended purpose and satisfy consumer needs.
• Value: The perceived value of the product should align with the benefits the consumer expects to receive.
• Ease of Use: The product should be easy for the consumer to handle and operate.
• Quality of Design: The design should be compelling and motivate the consumer to purchase the product.
• Appearance: The aesthetic value of the product, which can be crucial for purchase decisions in many cases.
• Reliability: The product should perform its function satisfactorily for a specific period considered normal for its use.
• Maintainability: The product should be easy to maintain and repair.
• Durability: This refers to the expected lifespan of the product, impacting the overall cost of use.
• Feasibility: This depends on the availability and cost of materials, as well as the availability of appropriate manufacturing equipment.
• Simplification: Simplifying the design is crucial for efficient production, avoiding a complex schedule with numerous products, diverse materials, and specialized equipment.
• Standardization: Standardizing the design facilitates the production process.

Product Design Process Types

Product design processes can be categorized as follows:

• Continuous: Processes that operate continuously without stops or starts.
• Repetitive: Processes that produce goods in large quantities over an extended period.
• Intermittent: Processes that handle items in small quantities based on customer requirements and individual orders, requiring frequent stops and starts.

Service Design

Service design follows similar steps to product design:

1. Identifying a consumer need.
2. Developing a service concept to meet that need.
3. The engineering stage differs, as many services lack a physical component.

Service Design Process

Key considerations in service design include:

1. Customer Contact: The customer’s presence in service creation occurs in two ways:
   • Design or Custom Service: The client is actively involved in the design or opts for a standard design.
   • Creation of Service: The client participates in the service delivery.
2. Labor Intensity: Labor intensity varies. Some services, like childcare, are labor-intensive, while others, like ATMs, are not. There are four process types:
   • Near-Manufacturing: Capital-intensive, low customer contact.
   • Bulk Services: Labor-intensive, low customer contact.
   • Personalized Services: Capital-intensive, high customer contact.
   • Professional Services: Labor-intensive, high customer contact.

Technologies can be categorized as:

• Rigid Process: Little customer contact.
• Flexible Process: High customer contact.