3.5 Service in product development

The previous sections discussed new product development in general, but sometimes new services have to be developed as well as the physical product. In these cases, a product and a related service are developed together.

In developing new industrial products, the new product benefits and the service to the customer need to be developed in tandem to give the optimum integrated product. In food service, the service component is of major importance; for example in a high-class restaurant, the service of individual attention, and in a take-away chain, the service of fast convenience, is all-important.

The basic four-stage PD Process is the same for new product and service development, but the activities and the organisation can be different. An integrated process including product and service needs to be used where product and service are developed together.