The Importance Of Efficient Design Process For Successful Products: A Case Study Of Apple's IPhone5

Detail of the importance of process design on the product or service

Critically evaluate methods of planning and organising efficient operations and networking.

Analyse the problems of controlling component activities and of controlling quality.

Critically discuss methods of project evaluation and of scheduling resources.

Apple is one of the companies which is unique in itself, and it is considered as one of the leading marketers of products through its creativity in design. According to market surveys, it is learnt that Apple products have attracted many customers achieving brand loyalty through its significant brand design challenge. It is discovered on a regular basis that Apple unveils a new innovative products into the market through its strength and competency in comparison to other mobile phone producers in the market.

Other mobile producing companies have always wondered regarding the mystery about the design process which highlights the features a particular. However, it is known that creativity is not always an adequate amount to transform a design into a successful product, it is always necessary to successfully implement a plan to achieve goals. One of the essential principles of Apple is that its core focus is on the design of the product. Apple general area of focus is quality because the quality is more important than quantity to make any product successful.

Apple’s product process has spellbound many over the years as it has defied all the odds while many have long held conventions how it has been so successful for a large company with high market expectations. A detail report is prepared regarding the every aspect of its Iphone5 process and it is worth going through its astonishing process of designing the product (Brown and Wyatt 2015).

Generating Ideas: This is the primary step in the process of designing the product. Senior authorities of the companies articulate their interest in creating a new product, and concise information is discussed regarding the product of the product. This stage defines the development process of the new product idea and drawing up the preliminary sketches (Pahl and Beitz 2013).

Products start up: Once the designers of the product have defined the design, the company has its internal start-up team that focuses on the development of the new product development process which is distinct from the rest of the team. It is learnt that new-product start-up team is separated from natural office barriers and sometimes receives a part of the company premises to focus entirely on the development of the process design of Iphone5. This course of action frees the new product team from the regulation of the company structure and helps them to focus on the core developmental process (Beatrice 2014).

The overall aim and objectives of the product or service using design process

Creating demo: This stage involves creating pixel-perfect demos and this stage marks the beginning of setting up the new product demos. However, this is a time consuming process and involves lot of effort, but it helps in creating a visual for the project. During the initial stages, the design team has absolute liberty to explore its member's creativity by developing ten demos of Iphone5. During the later stages the designers select three of those demos designed as a finalist, and finally, the designers select one product to move forward during this process.

Starting production: Once the demo is selected, the company starts the process of production. Apple's new product developmental process is an evident document which gives a detail description of the process and lays down the different stages of production. Apple's new product developmental process is owned by a team of engineering product manager and the global supply manager. The engineering team coordinates the work of engineers, on the other hand, the global supply team emphasises on the production of a product (Cavalieri and Pezzotta 2012).

Executive Team Reviews: Apple has its own team of experts who meets the production process team inside the company’s production house. The expert team conducts meeting on a regular basis and this enables them to review the small parts of production on a weekly basis, which means the manufacturing team is never more than two weeks away from the executive’s decision (Parraguez, et al. 2015.).

Design review meetings: Before the discussion of an executive in the meetings, a review meeting also takes place between the design team and the engineers who have a core area of focus for improving the design of the product. This session can be in the form of regular production meeting or go crazy about injecting new innovative ideas of creativity. 

Managing production: The engineering production team and the team of global supply manager toils hard for the manufacture of products and are always in touch with each other to ensure best for the product. Both teams spend most of the time in factories to where production takes place (Watson 2015.).

Testing: Once the demo of the product is created, both the Engineering team and Global supply manager takes the product back to Cupertino to gain reviews and feedback from the executives. The product goes back to production house to apply those necessary feedback obtained. This process can be repetitive in nature to achieve high quality standards.

Re-testing of Product: It is learnt that once the final product is made it is tested on numerous parameters to ensure that Iphone5 do not suffer from any technical glitches. The engineering team hands the device after examination to Cupertino in hope that the products meet the expectations and demands of the regular customers in the market. 

Packaging and Branding: Apple has set up a separate premise in the marketing building which dedicated in the packaging and branding of the device. The security in the premises matches only by the department of the buildings who devote their efforts to new products and design. At one point before the launching of Iphone5, there was an employee who used to spend hours every day for months to only open hundreds of boxes of prototypes to experience the feeling of unboxing the product (Klimchuk and Krasovec 2013.).

Objectives are principle statements about the route in which the company intends to move forward. When a corporation like an Apple has established its marketing strategies it begins to understand the four P's; Product, Price, Place and Promotion. It should then incorporate the objectives and design process which the company has aimed to achieve through its product. It consists of an action plan in meeting and accomplishing the goals.

Product: Apple continuous to produce groundbreaking products and has established its name by setting the trend in the market with every new product it introduces which always has something new and exciting features to offer its customers through its innovative ideas in a design process. Technology is an ever evolving process, and the consumers always buy the next best thing. Though Apple with the help of its team of engineers and designers remains dedicated to improving the design of the existing product through innovative ideas and keeps the customers brand loyalty with its trend setting designs.

Price: With apple’s every premium branded product there will be the existence of premium price. It is always known to the customers that with every superior quality Apple produces it will bring the highest price. Apple's primary objective is to sustain best pricing policy to gain market share and as long as it continues to deliver quality products the consumers hardly have any problem in paying more price. Apple has a great margin of profit, and it continuously makes an effort in reducing the production cost while holding the same retail price in the market. 

Place: Apple's product is found around every corner of the world, and that was the overall objective of the company in launching its products globally. The apple store is accountable for generating business revenues through selling bulks of products. Over the years Apple plans to expand its retail outlets and expand its business base by making products available online. Apple's objective is to ensure that its products are available to every consumer because of high demands.

Promotion: To start with nothing and building something which persuades millions of customers to buy your product is not an overnight miracle. Apple has clearly demonstrated that success cannot be achieved through rigorous marketing and promotional strategies. Every great product next version will certainly attract customers despite the fact that its functions are entirely based on the functions on of previous models. For example, if a consumer likes Iphone5 he or she will certainly like the next version which will have new features and designs. This enables the customers to create demand for the product before it hits the shelf of stores.

In every business developing a new product and bringing the product into the market is considered as a complete process. It is often described as the transformation of prevailing market opportunity by making the product available for sale. For a firm like an apple a good understanding of customer’s needs and wants along with keeping in mind the competition from other companies and the nature of market demonstrate those required factors for the success of a new product. Elements such as cost, time and quality are the main factors influencing the customers' demands. The eight stages of product development are listed below (Stark 2015):

Generation of an idea: Ideas for developing a new product can be generated by using basic research methodology. Several elements such as markets and consumers trends along with research and development teams display an enthusiastic effort to generate an insight idea of new products lines and product features. A firm like an apple is capable of brainstorming a new product through idea generation which can begin through opportunity analysis (Romiszowski 2016).

Screening of idea: Under this step the objective is to eradicate illogical concepts before devoting the resources to production. Several aspects are taken into account such as what could be the size and forecast of the market or whether the consumers will benefit from the product. It also takes into account the current expectations of the product and whether the technology will be technically feasible enough to manufacture the product?

Testing of an idea: This step involves the product concept and the product image which will be presumed by the potential customers. It inspects the elements of who the company is going to target in the market and what features the product is going to offer and how the consumers are going to react.

Business expectations: Under this stage Apple considers the expected selling price of the product while keeping in mind the competition and customers feedback as well. It also takes into account estimated sales volume and the profitable scenario which the firm will make this product (Laguna and Marklund 2013).

Market testing: Producing a physical demo and testing the product in live usage situations gives a proper feedback about the viability of the product. Any necessary arrangements can be made by producing a preliminary running of the product and selling it in the test market to determine the necessary customers reception.

Technical implementations: Initializing new programme through finalizing the quality of management system and resource implementation with estimated resources gives a complete review of the program. Planning engineering operations and logistics are an important contingent of technical implementations.

Commercialising the product: Under this stage launching the product along with proper advertising and promotions holds key for the success of Apple’s like a firm. Filing the distribution channel with products and critically analyzing the path is important at this stage.

Pricing of the product: Pricing of a new product creates an impact on the product portfolio as there are other firms competing with alternate competitive products of similar features with slight difference in price. The firm has to keep in my mind about the sales forecast unit and volume of sales revenue and profit.

A firm like an apple sees a new product development as an active process where resources are distributed to identify market changes capture the opportunity before the competitors introduce a new product.

The first parameters made under this section are impacted performance on the designs of the Apple products. Apple treats its designers with special royalty which forms the basic core of the success of a particular product. Operations management also has a role to play board of directors and stakeholders of the firm who have a general interest and is effected by the operations. A detail report is worth analysing the impact of performance objective of designs (De Cesare et al. 2015):

Quality- Quality is rated first in apple’s list of performance objectives since many top authorities have a belief that it is an important constraint on the success of its product. Apple external factors drive the company to produce quality products for customers through its operations who will have less opportunity to complain. However, the quality which Apple produces obtains customers satisfaction and hence they are more likely to buy the product again (Lewis 2015).

Speed- Speed is considered as a shorthand way of responding. It is regarded as the it takes to process the customer's request. There are two key aspects where Apple reduces the cost namely the cost of inventories and reducing the risk. For example processing products quickly through its retail outlets can reduce the cost of inventories.

Dependability- Dependability refers to the reliability the products offers to its customers. In reality, though the definition sounds simple it is also not easy to measure. Dependability is often perceived by the customers as a good thing. Regarding dependability customers brand loyalty is critical for Apple because it increases the chance of clients returning to more business.

Flexibility- It is one of the most critical objectives because one has to remember that flexibility offers a change in operations of products and services. Flexibility in operations allows Apple to develop new products and services through injecting new ideas which buyers often find attractive to buy. When a product like Iphone5 offers flexibility in operation, the customers want to buy more of the same product since the internal designs are directly associated with the performance objectives (Krajewski et al.).

Cost- There are two important elements are discussed under cost. The first being cost structure which can vary from other competing firms and the second being the other four attributes which contribute to reducing the cost of a product. For Apple cost has been one of the important factors contributing its elements of operations over the years. The company manages properly those attributes such as quality, high speed and dependability which not only benefits the organisation internally but also it save their cost of operations.

Conclusion:

Apple is always committed to ensuring that it attains the highest standard of social responsibility in any product they produce. It is focussed on creating a high quality, cost efficient and easy to handle products by providing products of highest technology and design. Apple designs its products which meet the needs of customers. Its engineering team is entirely focussed on measuring the performance while keeping mind the criteria of designs. With the ever changing technology, Apple has evolved itself in keeping and maintaining the brand loyalty among its customers as it always manages to land path-breaking products.

Reference list:

Beatrice, D.I., 2014. The importance of design for firms competitiveness: a review of the literature. Working paper series RMT-Grenoble Ecole de Management.

Brown, T. and Wyatt, J., 2015. The design was thinking for social innovation. Annual Review of Policy Design, 3(1), pp.1-10.

Cavalieri, S. and Pezzotta, G., 2012. Product–Service Systems Engineering: State of the art and research challenges. Computers in Industry, 63(4), pp.278-288.

Eccles, R.G., Ioannou, I. and Serafeim, G., 2014. The impact of corporate sustainability on organizational processes and performance. Management Science, 60(11), pp.2835-2857.

Klimchuk, M.R. and Krasovec, S.A., 2013. Packaging design: Successful product branding from concept to shelf. John Wiley & Sons.

Krajewski, L.J., Ritzman, L.P. and Malhotra, M.K., 2013. Operations management: processes and supply chains. Pearson.

Laguna, M. and Marklund, J., 2013. Business process modeling, simulation and design. CRC Press.

Lewis, S., 2015. Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. Health promotion practice, p.1524839915580941.

Pahl, G. and Beitz, W., 2013. Engineering design: a systematic approach. Springer Science & Business Media.

Parraguez, P., Eppinger, S.D. and Maier, A.M., 2015. Information Flow Through Stages of Complex Engineering Design Projects: A Dynamic Network Analysis Approach. Engineering Management, IEEE Transactions on, 62(4), pp.604-617.

Povilionis, A. and Bargelis, A., 2015. Structural optimization in product design process. Mechanics, 81(1), pp.66-70.

Romiszowski, A.J., 2016. Designing instructional systems: Decision making in course planning and curriculum design. Routledge.

Spangenberg, J.H., 2013. Design for Sustainability (DfS): Interface of Sustainable Production and Consumption. In Handbook of Sustainable Engineering (pp. 575-595). Springer Netherlands.

Stark, J., 2015. Product lifecycle management (pp. 1-29). Springer International Publishing.

Watson, G.H., 2015. The Strategic Importance of Sustainable Quality: The Role of Human Endeavor Through Effective Design. The Journal for Quality and Participation, 37(4), p.19.

De Cesare, A., Valero, A., Pérez-Rodríguez, F., Chemaly, M. and Manfreda, G., 2015. Derivation of performance objectives for Campylobacter in broiler carcasses taking into account impact of selected factors on pathogen prevalence and counts. Food Control, 47, pp.77-85.