Product Design and Development on Blackberry of the RIM Company - Case Study Example

PRODUCT DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT ON "BLACKBERRY OF RIM COMPANY" Name University Course name Professor Date due PRODUCT DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT ON "BLACKBERRY OF RIM COMPANY" Abstract The paper introduces and defines the multinational companies and introduces the RIM (Research In Motion). It gives a brief description of the company. It then speaks about the steps or processes followed by RIM in product design. The first step is planning, here; it elaborates the corporate strategies including the assessments of the development technology with the objectives in the market. It then talks about the concept development phase. It gives an account on the target market needs identification (Levitt 1960, p.41). The same phase also touches on different types of segments in market target. It further gives us the example of development concept and its testing globally. The system design level or phase gives a vivid description of product architecture and product decomposition of products into components and subsystem. After that, the paper goes on to talk about detailed design, a phase which includes complete geometry specification, materials and tolerances of all unique parts in products and standard parts to be purchased from the suppliers. Furthermore, it touches on the refinement and testing phase which involves construction and also evaluation of multiple pre-production versions. Lastly, the paper talks about production ramp-up as the last phase in product design or development. In this phase, products are made by the use of intended product system. The main aims of ramp-up phase is training the employees and boost the work force in working on the remaining production process problems. Introduction Product development/design The product development is defined as the process of creating new products that are sold by enterprise to the customers or business. Design is referred to as the activities which involve styling and creating, looking and feeling the product, and deciding on product mechanical architecture, selecting processes and materials, and also engineering various components that are necessary in making the product to work. On the other hand, development refers to the collective or entire process in identifying and market opportunity, creation of product in appeal to the identified market and then testing, refining and modifying products until it becomes ready for production (Pizzumo 2006, p.23). The paper generally focuses on the development of separate engineered product instead of works of art or the informational products. The multinational companies are companies with subsidiaries in different countries called multinational. The based example of the company BLACKBERRY OF RIM COMPANY RIM Company based in Ontario Canada. The company has branches in several countries. Obviously, the head office of the company is based in the country where the multinational company was founded or established. Subsidiaries always decide on the production of the company while the head office controls it. Subsidiaries are assigned in increasing the profits and production. The subsidiaries are able to increase profits and production for they have already entered local markets. RIM or Research In Motion Limited is a multinational Canadian telecommunications company that is based in Waterloo Ontario Canada. RIM Company was founded by Jim Balsillie and mike Lazaridis. Jim serves as the vice chair of the company’s board and chair of boards founded innovation committee. RIM Company is listed on NASDAQ stock exchange in USA addition to Toronto Stock Exchange in Canada. RIM (Research In Motion) is a wireless innovation global leader. Furthermore, it is a revolutionized mobile industry with introduction of Blackberry solution in 1999. The blackberry products and the services used with millions of consumers all over the world and stay connected to consumers and the content which matters most throughout the day. The line of BlackBerry product includes the “PlayBook “tablet, it is the award winning BlackBerry Smartphone’s, and the software for accessories and businesses. The companies began after the Second World War. These large companies always refer to countries with subsidiaries as the host countries. Product planning; Planning is an executive action which entails aspects such as influencing, anticipation and control with the specific objective of attaining a set of goals. RIM company uses a thoroughly thought of planning strategy when designing a product. The company’s management engages in wide consultations before they design any product. The company seeks views from consumers on what they would want the company to develop and also seek to know what their competitors have in the market so as to counter them. RIM applies rigorous corporate strategies to ensure that they remain one of the largest automobile companies in the world. Rigorous strategies come at a cost. The main corporate strategies that RIM uses include investing heavily on technology and having skillfully thought marketing strategies and objectives (Mattiacci 2005, p.17). RIM is steps ahead of its competitors due to its ability have product differentiation. The company has spent a fortune on technology which in turn enables it to develop new products at a faster rate as opposed to competitors. The company is willing to spend large sums of money investing in acquisition of technology as they are assured of returns. BLACKBERRY OF RIM COMPANY RIM has invested widely on robots and on financial services which acts as a shield against risks of mobile phone industry failure. The use of advanced technology enables the company to develop large quantities and high quality cell phones. RIM uses a set of objectives to market its products. The company’s management has set specific objective to guide the company in marketing its products hence producing spontaneous results in terms of sales. BLACKBERRY OF RIM COMPANY RIM identifies a target market and seeks to know the specific features that they want to be incorporated in the products. Under marketing objectives RIM also considers the pricing of their products to ensure they have a product for consumers at various financial capabilities. RIM has developed mobile phones for every social structure. This marketing objective has lead to sales increase as everyone across the globe has a product that suits them. Importance of planning for RIM RIM uses planning to ensure that the company has the ability to cope with future eventualities. The society today is dynamic and calls for frequent review of the products that are in the market to ensure that they match the changes in preferences. Hence planning to develop new products by RIM Company is inevitable. Planning provides the company with a systematic way of preparing to develop and introduce a new product in the market. Planning strategies applied by RIM aids the company to have crystallized objectives. When the company is preparing to develop a new product it has well spelt out objectives to guide the production to the point of a complete product otherwise the project fails. RIM sets clear marketing strategies which ensure that the newly developed product is accepted by consumers. RIM plans carefully to avoid oversight which would make the development of a new product fail. Although the company is unable to avoid mistakes entirely, it is highly possible to reduce the occurrence of these mistakes. Mistakes made when developing a new product could lead to major losses to the company. Concept development: Identification of needs of RIM target market The company selects and groups the target market and analyzes its demands. Here, consumers are with similar needs are grouped together. Also RIM Company studies the demand patterns whereby those with homogeneous demands or uniform or same demands are attended to as a group. The clustered demand ones are the ones with more than two identifiable clusters e.g. luxury and sporty are also put into consideration. Lastly, the ones with diffused demands who differentiate products are very costly and difficult to reach or communicate e.g. the cosmetic markets are also considered in the target market by the company (McDonough 1994, p.53). The company consumer needs are identified through the process called market segmentation. The targeted groups of potential buyers are divided into groups depending on their age and the manner of consumption. The target market needs are identified according to their attractiveness of segment and the fit between firm’s resources, objective and capacities with the segment. The market segment attractiveness is evaluated by the size or number of units or customers, segment competition, the growth rate of the segment, customers brand royalty, the attainable share with given promotional budget with expenditures from competitors and the margins of profit from the segment. The research in marketing and analysis can be instrumental in getting information. Also, the company majors on smaller segments with very little competition. RIM Company is targeting the urban youth in the market. These company manufacturers, designs and also markets wireless phones and solutions to telecommunications and mobile markets worldwide. The company provides solutions and platforms for information access which includes voice, email, instant messaging, intranet and internet based applications, short message service( SMS) and browsing. The company’s portfolio includes the tools for software development with other hardware’s and software’s, product line for RIM wireless and hand held, and the solution for wireless solutions. This narrow segment is considered to be notorious for it narrows the margins and comes with difficulties in branding. System-level designs of RIM Company Level design is a concept that RIM has embraced in trying to envision projects that it has the aim of undertaking. Level design begins from the point of concept art, drawing of sketches for the new product, renderings and creation of physical models representing the new product (Nelson 2003, p.87). BLACKBERRY OF RIM COMPANY (RIM) Company then transforms these concepts into documents that are very extensive explaining in detail the production process and creation of environment models. RIM’s management seeks professional help from level editors to help in creation of software models in three Dimensions (3D) to test suitability of products that they want to develop. When RIM is carrying out level design it considers two main factors: the definition of the new product and decomposing the product further into subsystems. RIM has to ensure that the new product has the appropriate properties and function as per the needs of the identified market segment. In product design, RIM has to verify and validate properties of the product and how it functions. At this point RIM will engage in feasibility tests to ascertain the future of the product they want to develop. If the feasibility test spells out a bleak product future the company goes back to the drawing board and seeks to produce another product. If feasibility is positive RIM is ready to engage in full development of the identified product. RIM should put emphasis on its products architecture. The company should seek insight from operations managers and the personnel that deals with the company’s technology. The main aim of carrying out product architecture is: a) RIM is able to compare the effects of having varying architectures. The company can produce various makes of mobile phones and compare the results arising from the various mobile phone makes. The result with the most favourable results is considered for full production. b) The company is able to have an in depth understanding of the various architectures and the roles that these architectures play when the company is preparing to developing a new product. Product architecture has the following impacts when a company seeks to develop new products. RIM has discovered the following impacts: a) It affects the structuring of platforms of the product. b) Affects the accomplishment of standardization of products. c) It spells out how the development of a new product is to be divided. d) It specifies how functions incorporated in a product are achieved. e) Influences the way facilities are shared so as to match the market demand. During production and assembling of product architecture influences: a) where the production of a new product occurs b) The strategies put in place to ensure that orders made by customers are delivered. c) The means by which the unforeseen eventualities are met. Products decomposition is the stage where product designers are forced to partition products into parts based on their functions. In making decomposition decisions RIM Company needs to consider how a product functions and its manufacturability. The company can then do away with the decomposed part that is too expensive to manufacture. In the RIM Company the product designer systematically decomposes the production of mobile phones. In decomposing, the designer evaluates the accessibility of tools to develop the product and how the product will be disseminated to its consumers. DETAIL DESIGN FOR BLACKBERRY OF RIM COMPANY The detail design for RIM or the RIM design for manufacturing is a stage whereby, there is necessary engineering application for every product component. During this stage parts are identified and engineered. There is definition of Tolerances, materials and finishes and design is thereafter documented or drawn kept in computer files. In the company, developers turned into three dimensions and solid modeling and used pro engineers. Below is the diagram showing torques and components together with resultant total torque of 2004. Testing and refinement RIM uses advanced research to select a statistical sample which represents the actual produce that the company wants to produce. After identifying the sample the product designers incorporate the features of the product to be developed in the sample for the purpose of testing. In testing for the suitability of a product RIM Company uses prototypes which have close resemblance with the product to be developed. These prototypes are created as software’s by engineers who ensure that the software automobile sample posses all the required features. Three dimensions is the main software program that is used in testing. These prototypes are used to determine the suitability of the product to the specifications of consumer preferences. The prototypes are used to test for the speed of browsing, the internet use, its ability to access the internet and its effects on the environment. The prototypes with the most suitable results are most favorable to carry out production on. The prototype results are analyzed keenly to ensure that the line of a cell phone that is chosen for production is the most suitable. Product designers have a huge responsibility of ensuring that their product tests are a success. They have to structure the preproduction product version in a way that will produce desired results. A product designer could be forced to undertake a number of preproduction tests before full production. RIM Company does water it takes to ensure that their consumers get value from their products as well as constantly improve the quality of their products. Carrying out preproduction test helps RIM Company to identify the areas that can be improved in their products. Production Ramp-up of RIM Company The production ramp-up is the process whereby workforce is being trained as first product is being assembled. The relatively slow product that the company builds always provides time for working out the remaining problems with the supplier’s fabrication, components and the assembly procedures (Wright 2005, p.11). The supervisory and staff team is always organized starting with the core team and line workers trained through assembly production units. RIM Company trained the workers on how to handle, store and maintain the parts of vehicle and the tools usage. The company went on to offer or teach skills and techniques of handling equipments by merging with technical colleges and universities that offered the production, management and development courses. This helped them to have professional and skilled workers who managed and developed their phones, also, boost the marketing of their products. Conclusion Product design and developments entails a number of steps that must not be overlooked when developing a product. Strategic well thought planning is the key element in the process of development of a new product. RIM Company has been in the world’s limelight for its commitment to develop innovative quality products for its consumers. Being a leading multination the global economy depends on it for production of quality products and provision of value of products to the consumer’s lives. RIM has to undertake six steps when preparing to develop a new product. The preparation steps by RIM company include: planning to develop the product, development of concepts that lead to product development, have a level design that is systematic for its products, have a detailed design that guides production, testing the product suitability and manufacturability and the last stage being developing of the product and introducing it to the market. The above stages entail extensive research so as to identify the preferences and the needs of the target market. In the research RIM Company spells out the procedures of developing a product and the specific features that are to be incorporated in developing the new product. As discussed for RIM to constantly supply the world with value adding products it requires having strategic product development mechanism which has given it an upper hand above its competitors. References Donohue, B. (1996). ‘It’s not easy being green: the new and improved environmental marketing guides, Environmental Quality Management, winter. Wales: University of Wales Press.p101 Levitt, T. (1960). Marketing Myopia'. New York: Harvard Business Review.p.41 Pizzurno, E. (2006). Assessing environmental product declaration opportunities: a reference framework. London: Business Strategy and the Environment.p.23 Mattiacci, A. (2005). IL marketing consumer-based: il modello della product offering. Washington D.C: Oxford University Press.p.17 McDonough, P. (1994). Towards an understanding of what constitutes 'green advertising' as a form of sustainable communication. Ulster: University of Ulster.p.53 Pastore A. (1996). Research in Motion Acquires Dash Navigation | News & Opinion. London: Pastores Ltd Nelson, J. (2003). Research In Motion Investor Relations. California: Richard Ivey School of Business.p.87 Wright, R. (2005). West of Laramie. New O’Neal: Communication Department of Wayne State University.p.11 Read More