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New
Product Success - Our Series on
the Six Pillars of the New Product
Process
Continues
By David Clark, New Business Development
Manager,
the Malco Design & Deliver Group
This is the fifth installment on the importance of
project
pre-design preparation. If for some reason you
missed
a previous installment, please view
back issues
of
the newsletter.
In April,
we kicked-off our series on the six pillars of the new
product process with the importance of having a solid
understanding of the customer through market
research.
We followed-up in May with the second pillar, documenting
customer
performance
requirements. In June we talked
about
the third pillar, projecting
unit volume, and how this
will
drive every major design, manufacturing, and marketing
decision
you will make. Last month we talked about the fourth
pillar,
physical
properties, and how your customer will
interact
with the product.
Our
fifth pillar is safety.
Designing a safe product is more than just meeting a legal
requirement; it is good business. Safe products reflect well
on
your brand and your reputation.
There
are best practices
that
will help ensure
that
you design a safe product. Here are a few:
Understand
your customer and how they will use the
product. This will allow you evaluate product stress
points
and ergonomic issues. This is commonly referred to as a
failure mode effect analysis (FEMA).
 Identify
and anticipate
foreseeable misuse. Every
one of us at some point in our
life has tried to drive a nail with
a tool handle, stood on a
chair to reach something, or
used a product for something
other than it was intended.
This is called foreseeable
abuse and your design
must take this into account.
Perform a hazard analysis.
Identify potential hazards,rate
the risk factor and develop a mitigation plan.
Research and comply with applicable
standards and
regulations. For example, electrical products needs
UL
listings, medicines will require FDA approval, radio emissions
must comply with FCC regulations, cleaning compounds will
have to meet OSHA standards, etc.
 Develop
and use warning
labels, safety instructions,
and user manuals whenever
possible. Make your best
effort to communicate safe
practices and potential hazards
to your customers
Test
your product. Verify it
will work and last as promised
in the
conditions which your customer will use it.
While
it may not be possible to design a product that will be
perfectly
safe in all situations, following these best practices
will
give you the necessary tools to design and market a safe
product.
For more information on determining and designing for
safety, please feel free to call a member of our staff.
Next
month, the sixth pillar: Quality.
Go
back to Malco Newsletters
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