Book Description
Treating such contemporary design and development issues as identifying customer needs, design for manufacturing, prototyping, and industrial design, Product Design and Development, 3/e, by Ulrich and Eppinger presents in a clear and detailed way a set of product development techniques aimed at bringing together the marketing, design, and manufacturing functions of the enterprise. The integrative methods in the book facilitate problem solving and decision making among people with different disciplinary perspectives, reflecting the current industry trend to perform product design and development in cross-functional teams.
Customer Reviews:
Is OK, but there are better options........2006-11-10
I have the pleasure of taking a seminar with the author, but I was disappointed at his writing. The book is hard to follow, and lack structure.
Clearly Better Than Stage-Gate.......2006-08-21
Ulrich has created an understandable companion text for product development. What is refreshing about this text is that it guides the developer through the elements of product development that are essential to reducing the concept of the product to practice. It is a great instructional guide.
Good reference text.......2005-03-16
This is a good reference manual for understanding the various techniques that are available for the fuzzy front end of product design. It would be a good text for project managers in product development.
PROs
1) It is well written and easy to assimilate.
2) Seems complete for the traditional manufactured consumer product.
CONs
1) Not strong on a current pre-emptive DFSS techniques for robustness and quality (such as QFD and axiomatic design).
2) Does not address system complexity issues and tools (software vs hardware, interface issues, complexity, functional flows).
Great product development handbook!.......2004-01-04
This book provides a great hands-on approach to product development. Unlike other product development books that dwell too much on the philosophical aspects of product development, this book gives you practical advice on how to define meaningful product specifications to meet your customer needs and develop successful products. The book provides a very nice concept development process that I've found very useful.
This book is mainly focused on product development processes and does not provide much information on technology development. In addition, the book lacks depth in the strategic aspects of product development(such as market segmentation, strategic management of technology).
If you are looking for a very useful and powerful handbook for product development, this is the book you are looking for. However, if you are interested in the strategic aspects of product development, you may need other references.
great for teaching at any level, great methods.......2002-09-26
I have used this book extensively to teach undergraduate industrial design students, and graduate marketing, and engineering students who take small product development courses. It's focused, down to earth, practical, and students find they can grasp design issues better than in a more theoretical-philosophical way. I use it myself to guide my design consulting work, has helped me understand other product development (not design) issues that are relevant to me, and I have read it over and over.. great handbook. Production/design of the book is also very nice. It's a pitty McGraw Hill doesn't want to translate it to spanish (so the author told me once).
Book Description
A complete and practical, how-to exploration of each step in the strategy, opportunity identification, design, testing, launch, and profit-management stages of new-product development.
Revision of over 75% of the book ... offers a managerial focus - with an emphasis on understanding the issues and solving the problems by implementing a variety if state-of-the-art methods and perspectives ... integrates marketing, R&D, production engineering, and financial aspects of new product design and marketing ... uses real-world examples to illustrate issues and solutions.
Customer Reviews:
content OK, but printing and structure is bad.......2003-04-19
Content is OK, but 10 years old, so no recent new insights. The book is no fun to study. The quality of the printing is bad (like someone printed it on an old printer an then made some copies), some diagrams are hardly readable. Furthermore the structure is not recognizable in the formatting (for example paragraph titels), which makes it hard to know on which abstraction level you are reading.
Must read for marketing majors.......2002-09-11
I found this book very helpful for the marketing tools discussed for designing and marketing new products. It covers most issues for the pre-introduction phase of the product life cycle. Consumer measurement techniques are quite elaborate and simplified.
The only drawback is that the edition is old (1991) and hence misses out completely the high-tech products from the dot-com age. Can be used a good resource for most non-high tech products.
A good book.......2001-01-23
Its really a good effort to cover the product management.
Book Description
Creating Breakthrough Products identifies key factors associated with successful innovation, and presents an insightful and comprehensive approach to building products and services that redefine markets -- or create new ones. Learn to identify Product Opportunity Gaps that can lead to enormous success; control and navigate the "Fuzzy Front End" of the product development process; and leverage contributions from diverse product teams -- while staying relentlessly focused on your customer's values and lifestyles.
Customer Reviews:
Still, a great book for product development.......2003-03-04
Although I agree with several of the concerns by other reviewers, I recommend this book for product developers because it offers usable information that can improve the liklihood of success for a new product.
First my concerns:
- There's too many unrelated topics,
- There's too many acronyms,
- It reads like a textbook, it's a little hard to read as it feels disjointed somewhat.
Now the things that I like and recommend:
- Great reviews of successful product case studies (I particularly liked the OXO product one),
- Although trite, their 2x2 matrix was quite interesting,
- Their emphasis on how to put "style" into your product (this is not really covered in many other books),
- Their concept of Product Opportunity Gaps (POG, whoops there's another acronym).
I think the authors, who are quite astute, should rewrite this book. I recommend that they boil down the material and rewrite the book thinking of it as an instruction book from them to some MBA/Engineer (Hewlitt/Packard) who's working out of his garage on some new product. They should not see this as a college text, or some book that's a supplementary reading for college. They have great material and great ideas, but it needs focused. They can completely drop Chapter 6 on Teams. Their Chapter 7 on Understanding User Needs seemed weak. They should drop the case studies in Chapters 8 and 9 and integrate that great material into the core text -- otherwise it's just too repetitive.
There was an excellent article about the authors in Fast Company magazine, July 2002. page 123. "How to Design the Perfect Product". I recommend reading that article as well.
These smart guys from Carnegie Mellon's design school have a unique approach to "Value is all about fulfilling fantasy" and their methodology for getting that into your product.
John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX
Great topic but too superficial.......2003-02-02
Cagan and Vogel are addressing a critically important topic. Isn't that every company and entrepreneur's dream to actually create breakthrough products? Are they going to find the formula in this book? Well, yes and no.
The good news is that there are some interesting insights on what makes breakthrough products, like the importance of providing compelling usefulness, usability, and desirability features, or the key role of style, technology, and branding in the success of new products, or the need for an integrated new product development process.
Can you read this book and start applying these principles? The answer is no. To start with, the authors resort to the universal 2x2 business tool to unveil their magic formula: the combination of style and technology is the way to create breakthroughs because these two attributes create value. It is what they call "moving to the upper right" or to the "value quadrant". This is a very simplistic if not erroneoous view of how value is created. This might be true for consumer items where value is mostly in the psychological and emotional realm but it definitely does not help most industrial and business applications where value is more in the economic, solution, and service realm.
The author presents a list of value opportunities that are supposed to be universal but they are brought without any justification. Why does adventure, independence, or security make the list and not other emotions? Isn't that the key to success to fist find what the potential customers really value before jumping to conclusions instaed of trying to fit a model on reality?
Central to breakthrough products is the importance of user-centered research and product development. The overall process is adequately covered in my opinion and since I am not a product development expert I learned some interesting things in these sections but again the tools do not seem very useful.
Regarding user-centered research, I do not feel it is given the importance nor the depth it deserves. It is the last chapter of the main text like if it were something to do after everything else.
Cagan and Vogel use many examples to illustrate their approach and several case studies at the end. It is a good side of the book. On the other hand, these examples are presented to fit the model, something they do more or less convincingly and in a way that does not generate great insights.
In summary, Cagan and Vogel wrote a good introduction to the topic, something that might be useful to newcomers to the field or to MBA students. The practitioners may learn the importance of integrating all disciplines and gained a few insights here and there. The book might make them think but they will find few practical tools and tips to apply on the job.
Useful to anyone in Marketing.......2002-12-29
Apple Computers/imac, VW/Beetles, OXO/Good Grips and Herman Miller/Aeron Chair are just a few examples of companies/brands that saw their sales rocket due to introduction of new products with unique packaging or design. This book highlights most of these examples and does a good job of showing that no long term strategic marketing plan can overlook the function of quality design. Great design makes a difference to a company's bottom line. People want to own products that not only function well but also look cool.
Mark H.
Art Director / Ming Diamond Price Consulting
Substantial, long-overdue contribution to Industrial Design.......2002-07-22
Cagan and Vogel make a substantial contribution to the field of Industrial Design with "Creating Breakthrough Products." This book admirably strikes a difficult balance between theory and practice. The concepts, theories and frameworks presented are based upon substantial practical experience that is insightful as well as inspiring. It avoids academic/technical jargon and allows the reader to get right to the meat of their arguments. The book both reminded me why I became an industrial designer and motivates me to do more to get "to the Upper Right Quadrant" with the projects I am working on. The examples and analysis of past success stories like OXO GoodGrips, the new VW bug, and Starbucks hit home, really making their point. Their concern and analysis of User-Research struck me as quite valid as well.
If you are concerned about making products that serve people in a significant way, then this book is a must-read and hopefully marks the beginning of a new wave of insightful Industrial Design research that is capable of positively affecting theoretical discourse as well as everyday practice.
Creating Breakthrough Products: Innovation from Product Plan.......2002-07-02
Cagan and Vogel's book Creating Breakthrough Products is long overdue in the fields of business and (industrial)product design. It provides a realistic view of product development and a "behind the magic curtain" look at product successes and failures. The arguments, visuals, and product case studies provided in the book helped me envision a mental map that I can use in my work. It is a great read...one that every hardware and software product manager should read. The book is a solid contribution to the design field and would be great for industry and academia. Students learning this stuff will have a faster start toward more effective product design.
Customer Reviews:
It's Worthy.......2006-08-03
A plethora of points and specific examples are examined in "The Design of Things to Come," by Craig M. Vogel, Jonathan Cagan, and Peter Boatwright. Each chapter has several sub-chapters that describe a variety of different concepts and case studies pertaining to innovation, marketing, branding, and invention. Some of the sub-chapters are: The New Breed of Innovator: Global Brand and Industrial Design, Apple: Trend Reader, Powers of 10, The Redesign of the (Ford) F-150, and PayPal.
Chapters:
1. The New Breed of Innovator
2. Pragmatic Innovation - The New Mandate
3. the Art and Science of Business
4. Identifying Today's Trends for Tomorrow's Innovations
5. Design for Desire - The New Product Prescription
6. The Power of Stakeholders - People Fueling Innovation
7. B-to-B Innovation - The New Frontier of Fantasy
8. Making Decisions for Profit - Success Emerging from Chaos
9. A Process for Product Innovation
10 Creating a Blanket of IP to Protect Your Brand from the Elements
11 To Hire Consultants or Build Internally - That is the Question
Epilogue: The Powers of Innovation - The New Economy of Opportunity
One sub-chapter is called "The Fantasy Economy." This title has meaning; it says a lot. One quote from page 92: "The increase in global consumption has driven the pursuit of desire, or fantasy to achieve everyone's pursuit of happiness." I witness this, and this fantasy is directly related (as the authors note) to the acquiring of consumer products. Fantasy, may be what it is.
Another statement is: "The end of communism and the overthrow of dictators around the world has increased the potential of the individual to achieve a life where liberty is a basic right" (Vogel, 92). This is true in some countries in Eastern Europe but for other parts of the world, this is simply not true. Market economies do not necessarily coincide with individual freedom, civil and political liberties, legal protection, and the freedom of speech. I'd like to know what specific nations and regions of the world these authors are referring to.
The authors also comment on the "Dummy" series books. ('This and that' for Dummies.) There are over 2,519 entries on a major website vendor selling "Dummy" books. But I don't agree with the book's claim that those who buy and read the Dummy-series books just want prescribed step-by-step information, and want to learn and do without any risk or thought, as the authors claim. These books are superior to many other "info." and "how-to-do" books because of their succinctness and organization. The authors go on to claim that those who read the Dummy series book carry out task without the need to think, hence the name "Dummy" in the title. This series of books is merely a foundation of which a person can build upon in one's own informational pyramid.
Over-all there is a lot of relevant and current concepts and case studies in "The Design of Things to Come." It's worth the read.
How trends are fostered.......2006-04-13
Many successful products represent a revolution in product design which is driven by customer need and self-image, and there's a new generation of inventors out there who are using this inspiration and vision to create new products. THE DESIGN OF THINGS TO COME: HOW ORDINARY PEOPLE CREATE EXTRAORDINARY PRODUCTS charts their efforts, discussing trends, innovations, fantasy designs, and more. Particular products are featured throughout along with case history examples of their inventors' unique routes. An intriguing, inspiring survey examines the roots of trend-setting products.
In Praise of Multidisciplinary Innovation Teams and Leaders.......2006-02-28
If you're wondering what that object is on this book's cover, wonder no more. It's a walking toaster of course! Surely you want one.
That robot is a walking irony for this book's theme: Apply pragmatism to innovation. The alternative is innovation that amuses but doesn't sell.
I first heard the mantra of multidisciplinary teams for new product development in 1976 from Perdue's Mike Pessemier based on his pioneering research. I was surprised to see these authors argue so strenuously for the same thing. It seems like some lessons have to be relearned before they stick.
Of more novel significance are other aspects of this book:
1. The assertion that the next arena for intense competition that makes a difference will be in design rather than quality, production and delivery;
2. Seeing fantasy desires as being worthwhile needs to satisfy for even the most mundane, non-consumer goods;
3. Recognizing that multidisciplinary teams will work best if led by people who have multidisciplinary backgrounds, experiences and interests; and
4. Factor of 10 perspectives to help those involved see the bigger . . . and small pictures of who else is involved with a new product or service.
All the best books about new product development emphasize process, communication, understanding and adding new perspectives. The Design of Things to Come is a winner, too, in those departments.
Like all good books about product development, this one has lots of entertaining stories about interesting new offerings and how they were developed. Most of the examples were new to me or contained details I hadn't heard or read about before.
Many books that argue for more of a design perspective in new products tend to be somewhat unconvincing. They frequently sound like a pitch from those who sell such services. The Design of Things to Come follows that theme, but the book's arguments and examples are more credible than other pro-design product development books I've read.
It Takes More Than a Good Idea...a Helpful Guide Toward Innovations That Enthrall.......2006-02-18
Yesterday I bought a conically-shaped plastic measuring cup called the Perfect Beaker. I like the concept behind the shape because its aesthetically pleasing design combines the function of a standard measuring cup with a tablespoon and fluid ounce measurement all in one container. Silly, I was thinking to myself, but the product actually reflects the tenets of this insightful book by three academics - Craig M. Vogel from the University of Cincinnati and Jonathan Cagan and Peter Boatwright from Carnegie Mellon. Separately, they are each experts in design, engineering, and marketing, and together they propose an integrated approach to design that combines everything from chaos theory to fantasy fulfillment. Their concept is deceptively simple but like all good ideas, complex to execute, which is why the book is helpful beyond the examples of innovation provided here.
According to the co-authors, each successfully innovative product exhibits a discernible value which fulfills wishes and meets expectations of fantasy. Users of such products see the value as a way to augment their lifestyles. Toward that objective, companies should take seven considerations into account when innovating - emotion, ergonomics, aesthetics, identity, impact, core technology and quality. While the categories may sound like marketing-speak, they resonate clearly when seen as parts of the whole equation. More specifically, the trio asks the innovator what fantasy do people expect from use of the product (emotion), how easy and intuitive is the product to use (ergonomics), how sensory is the product for a user (aesthetics), how compatible is the product to the established brand (identity), how will the consuming public will accept the product and influence each other to buy the product (impact), how does the product function for best performance (core technology) and how long the product will last beyond the initial purchase (quality). Consequently, innovation is a synthesis of these seven considerations and not simply a good idea, as there is a network of decisions that depends on others to fulfill toward a successful product.
Given the number of like innovations in various stages of development, the trio provides helpful guidance on the different kinds of patents available to innovators. Some product designs can be subject to personal interpretation. Design patents have been developed to protect the effort to create aesthetic innovation by protecting the form of an article of manufacture, i.e., a violation occurs if another design looks like the one drawn in a figure that is patented. For products in an even more nebulous state, there is a trade dress, which provides trademark protection for the look of a product or service that associates the product with the manufacturer. In either case, design patent or trade dress, as long as one can use it, one can maintain it. Finally, there is a provisional patent, which gives a company a year of protection at a reasonable cost before it needs to invest in the more expensive full patent. These nuances help motivate what could be a long gestation period before a product is ready to launch.
Seeing what is not obvious to others is what it takes to succeed to innovate. While this is not exactly a ground-breaking conclusion, the co-authors offer a strong stepwise tome to ensure the journey toward fruition is a thoughtful one. As another fine book from the Wharton School, "Making Innovation Work: How to Manage It, Measure It, and Profit from It" states with compelling evidence, the future of competition is innovation and creativity. By refining products with insights into what consumers want, companies will gain a market edge in the new millennium. The Perfect Beaker is a good example of this trend, as it conveys a sense of delight to me, which is the core of pragmatic innovation.
Practical Observations about Invention and Innovation .......2006-02-01
We recommend this fascinating book to anyone directly engaged in innovation, working in a related field (from marketing to engineering) or curious about how new products come into being. Craig M. Vogel, Jonathan Cagan and Peter Boatwright share many case studies, which they generalize into rules for innovation. They offer useful, practical observations about current social changes. And, they do it all in lucid, personable prose; their obvious affection for innovators gives the book warmth. However, despite their many examples, the authors don't - in the end - convince readers that the process they outline is really how innovation actually happens. They use author J. K. Rowling's successful Harry Potter books as a primary example of the role of fantasy in design - but they do not establish that her writing process resembles the pragmatic innovation methods they outline. Readers also may wish that they had answered one other question: why do some products that are not especially innovative do better in the marketplace than some that are truly new? This aside, the book's insider stories and advice are interesting, well focused and immediately applicable.
Average customer rating:
- Requirements management best practices for big projects
- Good primer on product development
- Essential reference for anyone in product management!
- Good book on requirements
- Practical, To-the-point Requirements User Guide for Managers
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Customer Centered Products: Creating Successful Products Through Smart Requirements Management
Ivy F. Hooks , and
Kristin A. Farry
Manufacturer: AMACOM/American Management Association
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ASIN: 0814405681 |
Book Description
A powerful system for getting the right requirements--and creating products faster, better...and cheaper!
"Never time enough to do it right, but always time enough to do it over." In today's "faster-better-cheaper-at-any-cost" world, this is not just a joke, but an all-too-frequent reality. And, most often, a poor understanding of the requirements for a product is the reason it must be done over.
CUSTOMER-CENTERED PRODUCTS is a highly practical new book that helps readers gain a clear understanding of how to elicit the right requirements early on in a project--and make the right product the first time. Packed with useful information, enlightening real-life examples, and money-saving solutions, this book shows readers how to:
* Identify where their current requirements process is weak * Bridge communication breakdowns that lead to muddy requirements * Eliminate costly mistakes and rework * Improve product quality without increasing cost * Use operational concepts to improve requirements quality * Improve the fit between the product and the customers' needs * Prove that faster, better, cheaper is possible, and more.
Customer Reviews:
Requirements management best practices for big projects.......2007-05-15
I thought this was a decent overview of the requirements process of a large project. It does not go into great depth but it does cover a wide range of topics and the implications of doing poor requirements.
Good primer on product development.......2002-08-06
A thorough and straight forward primer on developing new products. Where it lacks creativity and a wealth of examples, it provides a solid understanding and approach. Recommended reading, but I would check your local library before shelling out money for this book. A good read but not one that I would necessarily keep on my shelf for future reference.
Essential reference for anyone in product management!.......2002-05-27
I was looking for a book that efficiently summarized the process of defining requirements. This book begins by establishing a need for requirements, and proceeds to give practical advice on improving the planning process of any project, be it software or manufacturing. The writing is very conversational, and the examples are pertinent to most competitive planning environments. Highly recommended for anyone involved in planning projects!
Good book on requirements.......2002-04-27
I work in the defense requirements generation business, and this book really helped me get to some important breakthroughs in working with several programs. The authors bring experience from government and commercial programs - experience that can be applied to any situation. Hooks and Farry present their common sense approach to requirements development and management which should benefit anyone researching requirements.
Practical, To-the-point Requirements User Guide for Managers.......2002-02-13
Ivy F. Hooks and Kristin A. Farry give their audience a clear methodology about how to eliminate rework and unnecessary features rooted in poor requirement definition for making product development or procurement faster and cheaper without sacrificing the better. Good requirement definition is more important than ever to especially fast-paced high-tech companies for which researching, developing, and commercializing products on schedule and within budget is key to be, become, and remain competitive. Interestingly, Hooks and Farry explain to their readers the profound impact that culture, education, and management have on requirement definition. Their critical examination of the "seven cultural forces that define Americans" in chapter 2 helps their (foreign) audience better understand why some (American) marketers have no time to do it right the first time, but endless time and a company bankroll to do it wrong over and over again to quote Kevin J. Clancy and Peter C. Krieg in their excellent Counter-intuitive Marketing. Hooks and Farry remind their audience that nothing can change for the faster, cheaper, and better without a management commitment. Management must make very clear through their entire organization that quality products begin long before design and manufacture. These products find their genesis in quality requirements. To summarize, Customer-Centered Products is a must read for anyone involved/interested in product development or sourcing. The only weakness of the book lies in the concentration of examples from a few industries about which Hooks and Farry are very knowledgeable.
Book Description
Product Development begins with an understanding of market needs, within a sound business model, a well-defined financial strategy, and well-thought-out strategic goals. This new book by industry-expert Marc Annacchino, will help the professional engineer, manager, marketer, and all others who must come together as a working team, to better understand their respective roles and responsibilities in that process. Today, speeding the right value proposition to the market can make all the difference between success and failure. With case examples, organizational analysis and project planning tools, this new book looks at that longer, organizational view of product development, and how that view can improve product development cycle times and better take advantage of new market opportunities. It will help the product development team better adapt to change and a dynamic market in todays global economy through product platform management, and do so rationally and reliably. And it will help product development professionals to look for hidden value in existing product lines as they plan for that change and growth ahead.
· Provides product development professionals with the concepts and tools for a more integrated, successful product development cycle
· Promotes a more coherent deployment of managers, engineers, marketers, and sales personnel to achieve results within market opportunity in terms of time, cost and performance.
· Shows how to better identify and target product value propositions in product line extensions and in securing new markets
Book Description
The man who launched a revolution in product development with his bestselling Developing Products in Half the Time is back with a new book that's also certain to be a classic. In Managing the Design Factory Donald G. Reinertsen presents concepts and practical tools that will be invaluable for anyone trying to get products out of the pipeline and into the market.
The first book to put the principles of World Class Manufacturing to work in the development process, Managing the Design Factory combines the powerful analytical tools of queuing, information, and system theories with the proven ideas of organization design and risk management. The result: a methodical approach to consistently hit the "sweet spot" of quality, cost, and time in developing any product. Reinertsen illustrates these concepts with concrete examples drawn from his work with many leading companies across different industries.
Fresh and thought-provoking, the book challenges many of the conventional approaches to product development. "There are no best practices," Reinertsen writes, "the idea of best practices is a seductive but dangerous trap." Unlike other books that promote rules and rituals based on benchmarking "best practices," this book focuses on practical tools that account for varied situations. He breaks new ground with a disciplined, quantitative approach for making decisions on critical issues: When should we use a sequential or concurrent process? Centralized or decentralized control? Functional or team organizations?
Full of practical techniques, concrete examples, and solid general principles, this is a real toolkit for product developers. Moreover, it is written with the clarity, precision, and humor that are Reinertsen's trademarks. He promises to challenge the thinking of anyone involved in product development.
Customer Reviews:
An excellent guide to product development.......2007-08-27
"Managing the design factory" provides an excellent set of practices which can improve your product development and optimize your product development on the dimension you want it to. It provided me with key insights and fresh ideas on how to think about product development.
The book consists of four parts. The first part is a general introduction to product development and clarifies some assumptions made in the rest of the book. The second part is a set of thinking tools for product development. The third part provides concrete practices, called action tools. The last part summerizes the rest of the book and suggests actions to take.
The thinking tools in the second part are key-insights in product development. The first thinking tool is to try to think of product development economically. This also provides four ways to optimize your product development: lowest expense, lowest unit cost, highest performance and shortest time. In the rest of the book Reinertsen uses these four optimizations to show how each action tool will need to be used differently. The second thinking tool is queueing theory. It provides a view of product development as a series of queues. Managing the product development queues becomes essential. The third thinking tool is information theory. What is the value of information and how to optimize for the value. The last thinking tool is systems theory. Think of whole product development as systems, look for feedback loops and look for assumptions behind your current thinking. The thinking tools were the most interesting part of the book (in my opinion) and I thoroughly enjoyed any of these chapters.
The actions tools in part three provide concrete things to do in your product development. This part will use the thinking tools provided in part two to explain the action and also explain how they are different in the different optimizations. The tools were clear and useful. The only criticism could be that there is some duplication between "Developing products in half the time", but that was expected. Also, the tools are just introduced in one chapter and most of them could have filled a book on its own.
Conclusion. "Managing the design factory" is an excellent book on product development and provides key-insights and tools for looking at product development. I would recommend it for anyone who is involved in product development.
Best book on product development and agility around.......2004-07-02
I don't think they use the word agility once, but this book clearly enunciates all of the reasons that agile processes often show success, without prescribing a specific set of items to do. This book will enable managers of development teams to look at the product they're building, its impact on the business's bottom line, and make both long-term and daily decisions about how to run their team. Individual developers will also gain an understanding of how to better streamline processes -- for instance, people often think that introducing large processes to "prevent an error from happening again" is a good idea. However, this book will help you to learn why that can be bad; that it can introduce queues and actually result in a process slowdown, especially if it happens early in the development process and on the critical path.
I just can't say enough about this book; some other specific books on Agile software development are helpful to give you ideas of specific things to do, but this book is absolutely crucial to learn and use in your daily decision-making process.
World-class information for product development managers.......2003-05-06
I have never seen so much good advice about product development in one place. Applying concepts from manufacturing, finance, queuing theory and communications theory, Reinertsen proposes many ways in which we can design better processes for development.
For example, if we were to view the investment in design work as a depreciating asset, like work-in-process inventory in the factory, we would be able to make better decisions about time, manpower, and project delay tradeoffs.
Key concepts include: valuing design work based on its financial impact on the organization; learning as much as possible as early as possible in the development cycle; managing queues in the development process; creating specifications which are flexible for as long as possible, so that evolving customer requirements can be accommodated.
He clearly shows that we can optimize development work on only one of the following parameters: Product cost, product performance, speed of development, development expense. The approach for each one is different, and it is important to be clear which one is primary.
There is a wealth of useful and practical advice in this book. For example, here are some comments on testing:
"Too often testing is viewed as a necessary evil in the development process. It only exists because we make mistakes. If we made fewer mistakes, we would not need to do all this testing. We should spend our money on `designing in quality' instead of finding defects by testing. The result of such an attitude may be a test department that is under-resourced and under-managed. Unfortunately, by viewing testing as a problem, rather than an asset, we miss the opportunity to capitalize on the extraordinary improvements that can take place in product testing.
"Let us start by putting testing in perspective. The elapsed schedule time for product testing is typically 30 to 60 percent of overall development cycle length. This is not another minor activity, it is a major design activity. ... text results have inherently high information content. In fact, testing is usually the stage of design process that generates the greatest amount of information.... ...Most companies misunderstand the role of testing ... because they fail to distinguish between design testing and manufacturing testing. ... Manufacturing testing is done to identify defects in the manufacturing process. ... Design testing is done to generate information about the design. A good outcome is high information generation early in the design process. ... We want a failure rate close to 50 percent...." [pp 230-232]
I highly recommend this book to senior managers in product development, and their Marketing and Finance counterparts.
Reviewed by John Levy,
...
Real thinking and action tools you can use.......2002-02-25
If you're looking for a book to arm you with the latest buzzwords and easy answers, this is not for you. If you're looking for a useful framework for thinking about product design and tools for applying principles, this is an excellent buy. This book is clearly written, well-organized, and full of useful information.
Unlike many management books, it's not 20 pages of information stretched out to 200 pages in order to make a book. Also, unlike most product development books, this book is of great value not just to product managers and designers, but would be a great read for financial managers and marketing managers. A manufacturing manager reading this book will smile with satisfaction at seeing common modern manufacturing principles well applied to the design realm.
The only weak points I can think of are: 1) That it may be useful for the author to break out case studies rather than keeping them in the same typeface intermingled with the rest of the text. 2) No real advice is given on how to overcome real-world resistance to these ideas. Some sage advice on how to introduce these concepts and tools into organizations with existing biases and cultures could be a real benefit to practitioners. These are minor objections though.
Whether you're in a software start-up or part of a Fortune 500 company design team doing existing product improvement, this book contains useful information that will enhance your understanding of what you're doing right and what you could do better - and WHY!
every design engineer should read this book........2001-05-06
Managing the Design Factory; A Product Developer's Toolbox, by Donald G. Reinertsen, is an important book on how successful companies should develop new products. Many popular management books share some common themes such as; JIT, kanban, lean manufacturing, reducing WIP, quick turn times, low inventory. Unfortunately, the development process in most companies has been slow to apply these insights to their engineering and design practice. Reinertsen does a superb job of showing how this is done. The Design Factory exists for one purpose - the same as the manufacturing factory - to make a profit. The focus of the book is on tools, not rules and rituals. These are practical tools that account for varied situations. The information is presented in a form that an engineer can understand and appreciate, but without unnecessary difficulty. There are excellent sections on queue and information theory, and capacity utilization and batch size, and on eliminating useless controls. I agree completely with the `do it, try it, fix it' approach to development, and not being burdened with trying to make it right the first time. Every practicing design engineer should read this book.
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Accelerating New Food Product Design and Development (Institute of Food Technologists)
Manufacturer: Blackwell Publishing Professional
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To compete in today's marketplace, food product developers are under pressure to create innovative new products at a time when there are demands on them to do more with less of everything. In Accelerating New Food Product Design and Development, a group of seasoned food industry business professionals and academics show today 's food scientists, technologists, and product developers the contemporary R &D processes they need to maximize speed, quality, and efficiency.Part one, "Understanding Product Development in Today 's Food Industry, " provides an anchoring as to what is actually happening in the food business today and how marketers, business designers, newer professionals and more seasoned workers and managers are coping.Part two, "Accelerating Food Product Design and Development, " presents specific processes and techniques for developing improved systems for creating product ideas, consumer evaluation of concepts, and identifying greater opportunities for success. Critical steps in the new product development process are explored so that scientists and developers can effectively speed up their development activities.Part three, "Optimizing Food Product Design and Development, " gives a practical overview of the most important tools and approaches that food designers and developers are using to make products better, cheaper, and faster:criteria to use for the development of the product design brief,proper experimental designs that yield the most optimized solutions for product development,factors that must be included in any optimizing study,how discriminant and logistic regression analysis can drive more consumer focus during product optimization,where response surface methods fit into the product development process today, andhow simulations of operations are producing better designed products and processes more rapidly and completely.Accelerating New Food Product Design and Development is of value to a number of audiences. For food industry executives, it offers a summary of perspectives of the business they are in from unique viewpoints. Academics and students gain a real world perspective of what is occurring in the food industry at the beginning of the 21st Century. And for practicing food scientists and allied professionals, the book provides strategic frameworks for problem solving and the R &D strategies, processes, and methods needed to accelerate and optimize new product development.
Book Description
No company can succeed without a great product or service, but in today's competitive market it also needs a brand. Transcending the tangible aspects of a commodity and nurturing a brand to build a deeper and more enduring emotional connection with customers has become one of the most critical and complex challenges facing businesses today, whether they are multinational corporations or small, local enterprises.
How did a company like Nike use "Just Do It" to launch its way to success and become part of global culture? How did Starbucks reinvent a familiar 900-year-old product and change the way people drink coffee around the world? In A New Brand World Scott Bedbury, who was at the heart of both companies as they became two of the greatest branding success stories of our time, explains how to apply the principles that grew these companies more than fivefold and established their trademarks as leaders in their categories.
With fascinating anecdotes from his own in-the-trenches experience and dozens of case studies (including companies like Harley-Davidson, Guinness, the Gap, and Disney), Bedbury offers practical, battle-tested advice and an analysis of why some brands succeed where others fail. A New Brand World will show any business-whether a Fortune 500 corporation or a neighborhood store-how it can begin to realize its full brand potential and build lasting value.
Inspiring, visionary, and witty, A New Brand World will become the key book for building brands in the twenty-first-century economy.
Customer Reviews:
A really delightful read.......2006-11-11
A New Brand world is mildly entertaining and provoking. It overdelivers in simple plain language and is easy to read. I finished reading this book within a few hours during my flight. I would highly recommend this book to any advertising, marketing or branding expert. It's really good and easy to comprehend and there are lots of real life situations thrown in as well. Plus I got this book at less than USD 10 ! A real bargain !
Halifax Chamber of Commerce Book Club.......2005-03-18
What's It About
The book takes the importance of branding to a new depth as it raises awareness of how a matured brand and its genetic makeup create an ever lasting experience between a business and it customers. It places much emphasis on the author's experience in the world of big business, so we caution readers that it has no mention of small business. It is a set of principles that can help improve a company's brand beyond a logo and letterhead. The author explains how a brand lends itself to everything from the day to day operations of a business right down to the smallest detail. A brand cannot be defined by any one thing. Whether a brand is built unwittingly or purposely, it can be subject to criticism, dilution, or it may achieve greatness. This book gives many examples of the principles he presents, giving a lasting experience and emphasizing the gravity of each principle.
Overall
The author is at the top of his vocation. He shares an insider's view of a decade spent developing both the "just do it" brand with Nike and helping Starbucks become an internationally known coffee experience. It was disappointing in the lack of examples of building brands in SME's and largely represents only one viewpoint. The members felt that it was a worth while read and they recommend it to others with the warning that this does not place any emphasis on SME. It gives valuable principles and important examples for building a brand that can evolve over time with a business's beliefs and values. The book was creative, sustaining, and it maintained the interest of our readers.
Style
The book was very well written and the principles flowed in an intuitive manner. It is not a handbook or guide to building and implementing a brand, but an overview of the principles involved in developing and nurturing a brand that delivers the essence of a company. The book clarified what a brand is for those members with limited knowledge in the area and included many stories on household names and their pursuit to stay on top.
Applicability to the Workplace
Even though this book focused on larger corporations, the information is valuable for organizations of all sizes and everyone felt that they will remember the book for years to come. The book explained the thought process behind building a great brand and stressed the importance of having a brand no matter the size. Everyone and everything has a brand, figuring out what the brand is and how it is to be executed successfully is another story. The book helps to raise and answer some of these questions, and its principles provide a foundation for building and maintaining a solid brand.
Rating
The opinion of the book and its rating did not vary much. Everyone gave it a credible value and the team felt it was one of the top books on branding. The club gave an overall rating of 7.9.
Packed With Knowledge!.......2004-06-03
This pretty good book about brands and brand management is not as neat and orderly as the subtitle suggests - the so-called "8 principles" are rather vague meandering digressions. But the digressions are immensely entertaining and even educational. Learning how Nike and Starbucks handle marketing is quite worthwhile. Of course, the author oversimplifies, over-promises and over-promotes himself. But what do you expect of a marketing maven? The book's big virtue is that it repeatedly reinforces the fact that brand building boils down to having the common sense to think first about what you are trying to accomplish, and then set about doing it without getting distracted. How simple to say, how hard to do. If you want to try, we say this is just the book for you to read over your morning cup of coffee from guess who.
This may be the best book on branding ever written.......2003-11-27
I have read dozens and dozens of books on branding. They are largely worthless drivel. I have taught marketing, pr and advertising for 20 years in addition to owning and running an agency for eleven years. This is the best book on branding I have ever read by far. A New Brand World is well written, insightful and filled with brilliant examples of how it is actually done by a master.
If you care about branding you must read this book. I gave a copy to every employee in my agency.
I'd give it six stars but they won't let me.
BRANDING, FOR EXECUTIVES. READ IT FOR THE CASE STUDIES........2003-10-14
It is difficult to review a book that one has enjoyed reading and then say that it was not up to the mark (in terms, of course, of only my expectations.)
No doubt that Scott Bedbury's work is a fast paced read, his writing is lucid and quite frequently quotably light-hearted. There is a lot of material here for people in larger corporations or even general marketing folks. And where Bedbury truly shines is in the case studies he presents in the 8 chapters.
But if, like me, you set off on this book looking for some newfangled insights into the world of branding, this is not the book for you. The title claims to proffer "8 principles". Let's face it -- at the end of the day, principles are not that hard to create, and this becomes quite clear when you reach the end of the book and wonder if you have learnt something new.
But I am being unfairly critical. From his style, it seems an approachable business book was precisely what Bedbury's intended?
As a comprehensive introduction to the field of branding, I'd recommend "Strategic Brand Asset Management" by Keller. For a discussion of some innovative yet reasonable forms of brand creation, especially on a shoestring, I'd usually point to a PR related book or "60-minutes Brand Strategist."
But as a business book, to be read by executives on a plane and have ample to talk about, or as a non-technical introduction for neophytes to the branding industry who place less emphasis on a structured analytical framework and are more interested in a soft springboard into the field, "Emotional Branding" and this book from Bedbury are pretty near the top of my list of recommendations.
Good stuff, if you aren't expecting a summary of last decade's JCR.
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CE Conformity Marking: and New Approach Directives
Ray Tricker
Manufacturer: Butterworth-Heinemann
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Practical Guide to Low Voltage Directive
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CE Marking Handbook : A Practical Approach to Global Safety Certification (Test and Measurement World Series)
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EMC for Product Designers, Fourth Edition
ASIN: 0750648139 |
Book Description
CE Marking can be regarded as a product's trade passport for Europe. It is a mandatory European marking for certain product groups to indicate conformity with the essential health and safety requirements set out in the European Directive.
The prime aim of the CE Directive is to ensure that "all industrial products that are placed on the market do not compromise the safety and health of users when properly installed, maintained and used in accordance with their intended purpose. Users and third parties should be provided with a high level of protection and the devices should attain the performance levels claimed by the manufacturer."
This book explains the meaning of CE Marking, its history, how the Directive can affect all manufacturers of industrial products, its current status, its associated quality management requirements, and how manufacturers can easily and cost-effectively meet the requirements for CE Conformance.
Essential information for any manufacturer or distributor wishing to trade in the European Union.
Practical and easy to understand.
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