Product Development Process- Samsung Air-conditioners

Technology has achieved greater heights, and every now and then new technologies enter in to the market and those which cater to customers’ needs receive favorable response from the customers. Here, we study the Air Conditioners’ market and collect information regarding the same through the steps involved while developing a new product.

The process of developing a product involves following stages:

Idea Generation:-It is the first step in the development process. Any product developed is started as an idea. This is the initial stage where various ideas are generated. This step is important as it lays the foundation of a new product.

Every organization has some sets of ideas which they work upon so that the most feasible ones could get be converted into successful products or services.

To maintain the comfort of the customers, Samsung has planned to manufacture air conditioner, which proves to be an all round solution for consumers’ problems. The idea generated here, at this stage is to develop a product to comfort the customers.

Screening of the idea: – Once the ideas are generated, the next step involves screening of the proposed ideas. All the proposed ideas are screened properly, their pros and cons are studied by the experts and the most feasible ones are retained and the ideas with more loopholes are rejected. A number of factors determine which ideas a company should work upon. Technology plays an important role in selecting the suitable ideas.

Here, Samsung closely study all the ideas as to produce what kind of a product for egg. The one which consumes less electricity, should the company provide more connectivity options (a consumer can control the product using their mobile phones), hot and cool facility in a single product eliminating the need of a separate heater. These are some of the factors based up on which the company screens the ideas generated.

Developing a concept: – Once the less profitable ideas are rejected, now the company is left with the most feasible ideas, which they can focus their energy on. This step involves research. An idea is a thought when it is on paper, and to make it a reality, detailed research is necessary. In this step, various researches are conducted, like consumers’ demand, SWOT and PEST Analysis of the company, reception of products offered by the company in the past etc. The market today is customer oriented; therefore every decision is taken keeping the customer in centre. But this factor, alone cannot determine the success or failure of a product. Market trends are needed to be studied properly.

Air Conditioner is a luxury product, and hence, only a selected section of the society can afford it, therefore, a company should always see through a product through its customer’s eyes only.

Samsung’s main focus is on offering an effective solution to its customers in this unpredictable weather. The company is also working on keeping the product eco-friendly so that the harmful gases/ effects it has can be minimized and the customers get more benefits and that too without compromising with their health.

Business Analysis: – During the process of product development, companies should keep an eye upon the time taken in building the process to monitor the progress of the same. If the taken in process building is longer than estimated, companies should review the product as in today’s changing environment a product takes longer time in development then by the time it reaches market may have become obsolete.

The ideas even if not developed successfully but are shelved in the middle due any reasons, the details of the same must be preserved by the companies as they may help in future.

Samsung’s Research team has experts and they look after that the ideas after screening should start well on time to avoid any unnecessary delays. Air conditioners are used in summers therefore; the company should plan one season before for the new product so that by the time summers approach the company is ready with the new product to offer to its customers. Offering air conditioners in winter is wastage of time, resources and energy as it will not attract the customers and eventually turn out to be a failure.

Beta Tests: – Before starting large scale productions, the companies often produce one or two test versions of the new products to check if the research work done for the product will give favorable results. Private test groups are arranged for this purpose, which tests the products and report if the product is falling short on any parameter. This has proved to be a beneficial step as it requires fewer resources and the results can be judged out and then after alterations, if required, the company can go ahead with mass production.

Air conditioners are consumer products, therefore, the company should first produce test versions of the same and check if they are working effectively and look for any defect and if there is any, they should rectify the same and if the product is working fine then the company can go ahead with large scale production.

Product Development and Commercialization: – While the earlier stages involve extensive research, this step involves actually developing the product based on the research conducted in the previous steps. Huge costs are involved here, as this process completes the product development.

The costs involved in ideas generation, screening, and development are lesser as they are based on research, while developing a product requires raw materials and other resources which are comparatively costlier, therefore, a company should carefully observe all the market trends before developing a new product or service. The decision of choosing the right market to launch the product depends upon the results of the research conducted in the previous steps.

Samsung is a technological company and deals in consumer products and therefore, it is all the more important for the company to undertake a detailed research before manufacturing any new product.

The demand here is to produce a cost-effective air conditioner which can also be used as room heater so that the consumers’ needs may get fulfilled by a single product only. Extensive research has been conducted to develop a product which not only fulfill above mentioned demands but should not harm the environment also.

Post Launch Review: – Once the product reached the market, the next task is to keep a check on the response of the consumers. If the consumers like the product then the product or service developed is successful and if not then the company has to take necessary corrective action to identify the shortfall and also rectify it on time so that it may not hamper the reputation of a company. This is a backward looking stage where the company looks at its past actions. The feedback provided by the customers is valuable as it helps the company to find out the errors committed while developing a new product.

Samsung is a big brand and has a dedicated team of professionals who keeps a close check on various products offered by the company and through online and offline surveys try to obtain customers’ feedback and apprise the same to the production team so that they can improve the new product that the company is offering. Here, the company gets direct judged by its end-users on the basis of the products it offers, hence, polite, customer friendly and attentive people are required to carry out the task of contacting the customers so that the customers can freely communicate their views and the same can be forwarded to the research team for future references.