No matter what industry you are in, you must refresh your “product” periodically. And in today’s hyper fast changing world, you must bring new product on before your current product has reached its early maturity.
The realization of a product is the End to End; Side to Side approach an organization must go through to assure success of new product. Processes have been developed to address the steps within the development cycle: business case, concept, design, prototype, field test, pilot and commercialization. But often these look more at the technical – functional aspects and not the entire organization and its readiness to contribute to the success of a new product.
This becomes critical when a company is aiming for a disruptive new product or technology introduction. Often the worst enemy of these efforts is the company infrastructure itself. Product Realization is not an additional process to the existing technical processes but an augmentation to these processes. It provides an in-depth examination of the entire organization for readiness to launch a new product.
The Internet of Things (IOT) has become part of our everyday lives. There is not an aspect of life today that is not seeing a smart device being used. For decades manufacturers have been working to make their machines “smart” machines. Many rotating and reciprocating machines utilize electric motors for drivers. Most of those motors are controlled by smart variable frequency drives. Data can be acquired from these controllers that can be used to operate the machine in a more sophisticated and efficient manner than just turn-on / turn-off, through embedded sensors. But how do you structure your product plan to achieve this new level of differentiation ?
Successful product launches are built in the early stages of the project. For example, a new technology may require a new business model, methods of sale, and/or manufacturing process and supply chain.
Your new product may be viable and robust, but the customer may be confused by the way it’s being offered. Your existing business model may not be a good fit.
Often the easy assumption is made that existing manufacturing methods and tools will produce the new product. If your new product is differently disruptive to a legacy product; your manufacturing / supply chain may default the change back to old design parameters to accommodate the existing processes.
Major differentiation may be lost, without a full commercialization plan.