Product Description
Treating such contemporary design and development issues as identifying customer needs, design for manufacturing, prototyping, and industrial design, Product Design and Development by Ulrich and Eppinger presents in a clear and detailed way a set of product development techniques aimed at bringing together the marketing, design, and manufacturing functions of the enterprise. The integrative methods in the book facilitate problem solving and decision making among peo… More >>
Product Design and Development
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This book demystifies design and the product development with practical examples of how others have been successful in every phase and activity of the process. Clear, easy to read, well illustrated. Strongest on the engineering and manufacturing perspective, but Ulrich is also sensitive to aesthetics, marketing and consumer experience issues (a rare find!).
After 20 years consulting in the field, I still found lots to learn here. I’d call it a major contribution to the field.
Rating: 5 / 5
Ulrich and Eppinger have done a great job of presenting a usable framework with a functional set of tools for product development. Their book is easy to read, easy to apply, yet very powerful for aiding the product development process. I refer to it often in my own work. The many examples from a variety of industries provide a richness not present in many other works in this field. Read it before your next project meeting.
Rating: 5 / 5
This book provides a great hands-on approach to product development. Unlike other product development books that dwell too much on the philosophical aspects of product development, this book gives you practical advice on how to define meaningful product specifications to meet your customer needs and develop successful products. The book provides a very nice concept development process that I’ve found very useful.
This book is mainly focused on product development processes and does not provide much information on technology development. In addition, the book lacks depth in the strategic aspects of product development(such as market segmentation, strategic management of technology).
If you are looking for a very useful and powerful handbook for product development, this is the book you are looking for. However, if you are interested in the strategic aspects of product development, you may need other references.
Rating: 4 / 5
This is a good reference manual for understanding the various techniques that are available for the fuzzy front end of product design. It would be a good text for project managers in product development.
PROs
1) It is well written and easy to assimilate.
2) Seems complete for the traditional manufactured consumer product.
CONs
1) Not strong on a current pre-emptive DFSS techniques for robustness and quality (such as QFD and axiomatic design).
2) Does not address system complexity issues and tools (software vs hardware, interface issues, complexity, functional flows).
Rating: 4 / 5
Product Design and Development is a very practical, tools-based book. It is written in a way that each chapter can be used on its own (e.g., identifying customer needs, generating product concepts). We require all of our new engineers and designers to read the book and ask them to adhere to the methods associated with several of our “stage/gate processes.” This is not a high-level strategy book; it tells you how to do product design and development in the trenches. Excellent book and worth every penny.
Rating: 5 / 5