Assignment 2: Development of New Product (LCD Projector)

With the rapid progress in networks and digitalization, the trend of an information society has been spread not only in the business field but also in personal/home applications. Information itself has been transforming its form into multimedia, combining audio sound and visual image. While this transformation is under way, suitable tools with versatility and flexibility, besides computers, are required to handle the different kinds of multimedia information. LCD is a device that is most likely to perform as an interface between users and information, meeting the above needs. 

FantasticDesign Sdn Bhd, as a leading company of devices, has made continuous efforts on the development of LCD applied products and attempted to create those products that are easy to use for everyone. In the process of product design development we are trying to describe new life/business style by utilizing LCD-applied products from the user’s view point.

Product Development Process

Phase 0 is started with planning that should be done before the approval of the product development project. Usually there are two steps which is the first one is a quick investigation to determine the possible markets and whether the product is alignment with the corperate strategic plan. After this part was done and things look promising, the planning goes into detailed investigation to build the business case for the project.

Phase 1 is considers the different ways the product and each subsystem can be designed. This process determining the needs and wants of the customer by using tools such as as surveys and focus groups, benchmarking and Qualify Function Deployment (QFD).

Phase 2 is where the functions of the product are examining. It is also the stage where the form and features of the product begin to take shape, besides the selection of material and manufacturing processes involved.

Phase 3 is the detailing of the design which the missing information is added on the arrangement, form, dimensions, tolerances, surface properties, material and the manufacturing of each part in the product.

Phase 4 is concerned on testing many reproduction version of the product. They are extensively tested in-house and by selected customers in their own use environments.

Phase 5 is where the manufacturing operation begins to make and assemble the product using the intended production system. This is also the stage where the latest financial information will be reviewed once the launching of the product is done.

FantasticDesign Sdn Bhd Product Development Process

SIZE OF DEVELOPMENT TEAM

The size of development team will be the key of the successful of the new project. At one extreme, the number of people could be below a critical mass and the project is vulnerable to the loss of a key person. Very small teams are also highly dependent on the skills of the "individual". At the other extreme, large teams experience human communication complexities. Large teams quickly gravitate toward the average skill set of the group.

So, it is very important to us to know the exact size of the development team to minimize the cot and at the same time to gain profit with our new product. Based on these criteria we made a decision to develop our company organization follow the organization by project. Project organization consists of people with the various functional abilities needed for the product development.

We grouped together to focus on the development of the new LCD projector. Each of us will come on special assignment from the functional units of the company. Each development team has to report to the project manager, who has full authority and responsibility for the success of the project. The advantage of a project organization is that it focuses the needed talents exclusively on the project goal and it eliminates issues with communication between functional units by creating teams of different functional specialist. Thus decision making delays can be minimized.

Another advantage of the project organization is that members of the project team are usually willing to work outside of their specialty area to get the work done when bottleneck arise in completing the many tasks required to complete a design.

Product Development Cost


ANNUAL UNITS SOLD: 5000 UNITS/YEAR

COMPONENTS	COST
Lenses	RM 400
LCD projector  lamp	RM300
Power supply	RM200
Cooling fan	RM170
Motherboard circuit	RM250
Exterior components	RM200

1 unit LCD Projector                          = RM1520

Annual cost of LCD Projector            = RM1520 X 5000 units

                                                          = RM 7,600,000

Sales price of 1 unit LCD Projector    = RM 3000

Annual revenue of LCD Projector      = RM 3000 X 5000 units

                                                         = RM 12,500,000

Annual profit  = annual revenue – annual cost

          = RM 12,500,000 - RM 7,600,000

          = RM 4,900,000

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