In recent years, faster product development has emerged. Thus, today’s post explores some of the tools to accelerate product development.
First, take a look a look at our past posts related to this topic.
- Product Launch Timeline: Tips and an Infographic
- Fast Fashion Getting Faster
- What Is Next for Smartphones
- Levi Strauss Adopts New FLX Operating Model
- Artificial Intelligence Insights from Intel
- Behind the Scenes Nike Just Does It
McKinsey Tips: Tools to Accelerate Product Development
McKinsey’s Mickael Brossard, Hannes Erntell, and Dominik Hepp describe tools to accelerate product develop. In the charts below, we feature three McKinsey exhibits.
“Companies issue many different versions of their products. For example, models tailored to requirements that vary across geographies. The challenge? To keep track of all these versions. Thus, some incumbents address these limitations with “digital twins,” virtual counterparts of physical products. By closely syncing existing information with real-world data on the usage and performance of an actual product throughout its life cycle, firms precisely monitor problems and discover unmet needs.”
“Now, visualization technologies like VR, augmented reality (AR), and 3-D printing bring improvements in the rate and flexibility of R&D efforts. Whereas designers might spend five or six weeks assembling a physical prototype, they may build a VR prototype in days.
“To break down the silos that stymie rapid innovation, we see firms use cross-functional R&D teams. In fact, one such team is the ‘innovation garage.’ And it is a self-contained group that quickly generates new ideas with low overhead. To succeed, executives must make clear that the garage isn’t a showroom. But a space for meaningful work, performed according to the new rules of digital competition.”
When thinking about the process of making a product, the first and most important part of the process that comes to mind is marketing and selling the product because if the product doesn’t sell well, then it’ll hurt your business. But I feel this article brings attention to the production area of a product. This point in a product’s life cycle is just as important as any other part, and it’s cool to see how techniques like virtual-reality hacking make this process faster and cheaper and how it contributes to the product as a whole.
Creating a prototype and showing it to clients is nowadays becoming a mandatory thing for the business. Through the prototype we can effectively see how the product will be come out to be. This way we can save the cost of producing ineffective products. Also, with virtual reality, designing a product and selling it to final consumers is becoming easier and effective way of doing business. Many companies today develop prototype and try to get consumer feedback and if it is approved then they can start manufacturing the product.
This post interested me because it’s incredible seeing how technology constantly changes the way we approach and do things. I had known what digital twins were prior to reading this post, but exhibit 1 did a great job of describing what digital twins are and how they can be used accelerate product development. It’s amazing that digital twins can be used to record data for real products and then be used to test and fix problems for the actual products. Also, the use of virtual-reality hackathons to speed up the process of creating prototypes is also really interesting. By using virtual reality hackathons, companies not only create working prototypes in a shorter amount of time, they also are able to reduce their R&D costs because everything is digitalized and can be easily changed.
Companies ability to innovate their products has become a major vector in market competition. Many technology companies, car companies, and online companies use their abilities to update and change their products as a part of their marketing strategy. They are able to do this because of the advancements in manufacturing technologies. Software is something that is huge in the industry. Like the virtual twin that car companies use many other companies can use software to make edits to a product and accurately translate that into real product changes. Many of these programs allow for the accurate measurement of structural forces which can cut down on the time it takes to test prototypes. This reduction of time allows companies to make more money which can be reinvested into the advancement of manufacturing, marketing, and PR. Its amazing how important it is for a company to invest in manufacturing efficiency. I love how amazing the market has become in response to this. All this innovation means more competition and more options for consumers across the world!