Product development (PD) is the process of creating a new product idea or a product to meet specific needs. It includes the whole steps from the concept development stage to the market launch stage.
PD requires collaboration with experts in various disciplines. The key to product success is careful planning in all stages of the process starting from concept development. Planning ensures that optimal products that meet customer and market needs are created through the identification and control of possible risks.
Today, technical quality of a product does not guarantee market success. Users demand visually pleasing designs as well as consistent technical features. Thus, industrial design, one of the collaborating disciplines, plays a significant role in PD. Industrial design has to consider not only aesthetic concerns but also engineering facts because an aesthetically pleasing trend concept may not be suitable for production or may involve expensive production methods.
It is essential to clearly identify the needs from the very beginning. The solutions that make a real difference in a highly competitive environment can be created only with systematic work and new PD.
The product concepts usually aim to be only aesthetic. Industrial product designers may not be as experienced as production engineers in manufacturing and mass production. It is not surprising that production engineers who are not involved in design activities experience difficulties in producibility issues that may emerge in the later stages of the process. In these situations, revisions and suggestions of production engineers cause major changes in concept designs, and even require that the designing stage start from the beginning. This approach damages the PD process, increases the costs and causes a delay in the market launch of the demanded product or (even worse) it may lead to cancellation of the project completely.
Tulga serves its customers with a simultaneous engineering approach which is very different from the “we do design only, the production is your business” attitude. This attitude is unfortunately very common in conventional industrial product design. While we do industrial design for your new products, we also use our knowledge and experience to reduce restarts.
In an age in which industrial 4.0 revolution is discussed, competition has increased and companies try to present better products, we develop the most innovative products for you as TULGA.
Tulga considers three main steps in PD process:
One of the main targets of product development is that the product should respond to the needs. We pay attention to determining the needs of end-users, understanding their aesthetic expectations, actual trends, other needs that may arise in user environment, and creating more value for the product. In order to analyze customer needs better, we identify the root causes of problems to be solved using the most effective research methods.
After the specifications of the product are set, visuals, sketches and drafts are prepared. Among the alternatives, the most feasible concept is selected and detailed, then its prototype is produced. Evaluating the prototype, necessary engineering updates are applied to the design, and 3D model is finalized by converting it to a producible design.
Production method is determined according to desired features of the final product for instance visual impression, functionality and material type. We create technical manufacturing drawings and produce molds if necessary. After production method is selected, mass production begins and new PD is thus completed.
You can examine the examples on our webpage for our product development services, and contact us for your questions and inquiries.