Concept Development: The Front-End Process

Because the concept development phase of the development process demands perhaps more coordination among functions than any other, many of the integrative development methods presented in this book are concentrated here. In this section we expand the concept development phase into what we call the front-end process. The front-end process generally contains many interrelated activities, ordered roughly as shown in Exhibit 2-3. Rarely does the entire process proceed in purely sequential fashion, completing each activity before beginning the next. In practice, the front-end activities may be overlapped

in time and iteration is often necessary. The dashed arrows in Exhibit 2-3 reflect the uncertain nature of progress in product development. At almost any stage, new information may become available or results learned which can cause the team to step back to repeat an earlier activity before proceeding. This repetition of nominally complete activities is known as development iteration.

The concept development process includes the following activities:

• Identifying customer needs: 

The goal of this activity is to understand customers' needs and to effectively communicate them to the development team. The output of this step is a set of carefully constructed customer need statements, organized in a hierarchical list, with importance weightings for many or all of the needs. A method for this activity is presented in Chapter 4, Identifying Customer Needs.

• Establishing target specifications: 

Specifications provide a precise description of what a product has to do. They are the translation of the customer needs into technical terms. Targets for the specifications are set early in the process and represent the hopes of the development team. Later these specifications are refined to be consistent with the constraints imposed by the team's choice of a product concept. The output of this

stage is a list of target specifications. Each specification consists of a metric, and marginal and ideal values for that metric. A method for the specification activity is given in Chapter 5, Product Specifications.

• Concept generation: 

The goal of concept generation is to thoroughly explore the space of product concepts that may address the customer needs. Concept generation includes a mix of external search, creative problem solving within the team, and systematic exploration of the various solution fragments the team generates. The result of this activity is usually a set of 10 to 20 concepts, each typically represented by a sketch and brief descriptive text. Chapter 6, Concept Generation, describes this activity in detail.  

• Concept selection: 

Concept selection is the activity in which various product concepts

are analyzed and sequentially eliminated to identify the most promising concept(s).

The process usually requires several iterations and may initiate additional concept generation

and refinement. A method for this activity is described in Chapter 7, Concept

Selection.

• Concept testing: One or more concepts are then tested to verify that the customer needs have been met, assess the market potential of the product, and identify any shortcomings which must be remedied during further development. If the customer response is poor, the development project may be terminated or some earlier activities may be repeated as necessary. Chapter 8, Concept Testing, explains a method for this

activity.

• Setting final specifications: 

The target specifications set earlier in the process are revisited after a concept has been selected and tested. At this point, the team must commit to specific values of the metrics reflecting the constraints inherent in the product concept, limitations identified through technical modeling, and trade-offs between cost and performance.Chapter 5, Product Specifications, explains the details of this activity.

• Project planning: 

In this final activity of concept development, the team creates a detailed development schedule, devises a strategy to minimize development time, and identifies the resources required to complete the project. The major results of the front-end activities can be usefully captured in a contract book which contains the

mission statement, the customer needs, the details of the selected concept, the product specifications, the economic analysis of the product, the development schedule, the project staffing, and the budget. The contract book serves to document the agreement (contract) between the team and the senior management of the enterprise. A project planning method is presented in Chapter 16, Managing Projects.

• Economic analysis: 

The team, often with the support of a financial analyst, builds an economic model for the new product. This model is used to justify continuation of the overall development program and to resolve specific trade-offs among, for example, development costs and manufacturing costs. Economic analysis is shown as one of the

ongoing activities in the concept development phase. An early economic analysis will almost always be performed before the project even begins, and this analysis is updated as more information becomes available. A method for this activity is presented in Chapter 15, Product Development Economics.

• Benchmarking of competitive products: 

An understanding of competitive products is critical to successful positioning of a new product and can provide a rich source of ideas for the product and production process design. Competitive benchmarking is performed in support of many of the front-end activities. Various aspects of competitive benchmarking are presented in Chapters 4-8.

• Modeling and prototyping: 

Every stage of the concept development process involves various forms of models and prototypes. These may include, among others: early "proof-of-concept" models, which help the development team to demonstrate feasibility; "form-only" models, which can be shown to customers to evaluate ergonomics and style; spreadsheet models of technical trade-offs; and experimental test models, which can be used to set design parameters for robust performance.

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References and Bibliography

Many current resources are available on the Internet via

www.ulrich-eppinger.net

Stage-gate product development processes have been dominant in manufacturing firms

for the past 30 years. Cooper describes the modem stage-gate process and many of its

enabling practices.

Cooper, Robert G., Winning at New Products: Accelerating the Process from Idea to

Launch, third edition, Perseus Books, Cambridge, MA, 2001.