CHAPTER
5
Product Design and Process Development
Product Design and Process Development
5.10 SUMMARY
Product design and process development is a vital part of the product development project, combining product, process, market and consumer research. These multi-disciplinary activities are completely interconnected and form a highly creative part of the project. The knowledge base is very wide, although sometimes there is little depth to parts of it.
At the end of product design, a factual feasibility study has to be produced from this mass of information. Therefore, product design needs to be systematically planned and controlled, while still allowing space for creative behaviour.
In the food industry in the past, this was a rather an ad-hoc, empirical procedure. With the introduction of computers and the greater basic knowledge becoming available, it is now developing into a technological process with a strong consumer base element. Consumers are an integral part of product design, and are included in the testing of the prototype products.
Three test factors in product design are consumer acceptability, technical feasibility and costs; these must be considered at all stages of the design.
Product design finishes with the first attempts at defining the product specifications and the marketing strategy which will be the basis for the commercialisation. The financial aspects of cost, price and sales potential, are predicted, as well as the investment needed for further development.
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