The Principles of Product Development Flow - Essay Example

PRODUCT FLOW AND FACILITY DESIGN By Students Name Course Professor University State Date Overview The elementary meaning of facility, it is the space where business functions take place. The design, on the other hand, it's the layout of the place itself. The design has a great impact on work approach and the work flow information through the system and materials (Heragu, 2008). The product flow is also necessary in this case and it refers to a representation, steps or order that a product undergoes in the process of being created in accordance with product based plan principles which has a relationship with the product breakdown structure. In hospitality management the product is the services that form the main theme of this industry. The industry segments includes aspects such as hotels, restaurants, tourism, event related food services among others. More often the most purchased product is intangible or may be the perceived quality of the product being purchased. Therefore, in this case the product flow and facility management is more drawn towards this industry’s aspects. Product flow The product flow is crucial in showing the order in which sub-components in a product or service features that can be built with an aim of giving incremental and increased capability of a product. This back's up one of the core principles in active development that is aimed at delivering a working product as early as possible. There is a significant difference between delivering working ability other than presenting a component product that is derived from the user’s point of view (Sule, 2009). Once the capability is shown during a product development process, the product end user can apply the ability and fulfill a particular need. The product flow idea can be seen plainly through the utilization of product flow outline. This sort of an outline is normally a yield of the product layout transformation in management initial stage. The initial phase in the product flow is data assembling on what the end clients or users feels good and vital to them. Proper management of product flow can be a powerful profit lever due to its capability to increase earnings while at the same time raising customer service levels in hotels and other tourism areas. In order to succeed, the opportunity points should be identified by a business manager and then put in a systematic process that helps to manage day-to-day results (Heragu, 2008). Developing strong operations to operations relations with the business core customers helps in maintaining product flow and eventually reducing cost and variance even in case of extremely tight service intervals. This move results in a win-win for both the services providers and best customers (Reinertsen, 2009). As a result, a high opportunity is provided to facilitate the development of study bonds and working relationship at the operating level that leads to beefed-up intangible product sales increase in business best accounts. How it works Building a product comprises several steps that form the flow or order. There are two crucial steps that can be applied to a point of making sure that maximum satisfaction is attained by the planning team for developing a product iteratively. The first step is the product break-down structure (PBS). This is all about dividing each component of a product or service into sub-products that are functional or certain features that can depend on themselves. The second step is to come up with a clear road map through selecting the collection of elements from the assorted component products that will be useful to the end user (Reinertsen, 2009), for instance, in a road map illustrating a schedule for developing the constituents’ products for an e-commerce solution. The customer component product can be subdivided into numerous sub- components such as customer information and registration, then customer order information among others. Product flow relevance Once the channel is adequately coordinated, product flows smoothly and in a steady way from the start to the end of the channel. In order to increase its effectiveness delivery quantities can be reset into periodic meetings with the suppliers to put contingency plans in place in order to give customers a better chance to order for more quantities in case unexpected needs arose. A well-organized product flow has a capacity of affecting costs in a business, for instance operating cost, and inventory levels can be reduced. These positive effects are driven by a stable workload as well as standardized work practices. In a well organize product flow plan delivery patterns become predictable. The product flow also affects the sales procedure, for instance, the need for the sales rep (intangible and tangible) to respond to customers concerns can be eliminated, and they can focus more on the end user. It is important to have a well-outlined product flow process which is easy to follow and coordinate. The end user is likely to receive poor quality products in case a single step in the flow is omitted or mishandled. In case, product flow effects have to be felt in any business the previous, current and existing problems in a business must be identified. In such a case, a business performance has to be measured by its capability to create novel efficiencies for the both sides while importantly raising the service levels through customer order patterns alteration (Reinertsen, 2009). This implies that operations improvements should not be given a traditional introspective approach, and the likelihood of significantly enhancing execution through item stream administration did not surface as an issue in either the organization, its clients. Facility design Facility layout, as expressed before, is significant to the general operations of a business, as far as expanding the viability of the production activity and meeting the workers needs is concerned. The elementary objective of the design, in this case is to make sure that there is a smooth flow of work, information, and material within a system. It is clear that a facility design for tourism and hospitality facilities is a core issue that can contribute to value addition to the guest and the facilities operations (Kong, 1985). The key principle behind having a facility design that is conducive enough to all involved parties, all the stakeholders needs must be integrated in such a way that they manage to single well-functioning system. Design can be referred to as a human capability to make products that can to serve humans through the accomplishment of their personal and collective functions. This definition in facility design brings the critical part of design in tourism and hospitality industries. Hospitality/ tourism facility design can play part in the identification of business character, as well as, projecting to the operations vision and appeal potential and existing visitors. Some of these elements include tangible and intangible such as furnishings, architecture, and ambiance, among others. These elements also forms part of the decisive factors towards determining guests’ dissatisfaction and satisfaction in the course of their stay. (Hanna, & Konz, 2004). Essential elements to consider in deciding a facility layout There are several expressions that seeks to give a clear meaning of facility design. Many have suggested that it may entail aspects such as sizes, decorations, or all issues that can affect small factors such as a building ambiance, image, comfort, or hard factors like, cost, space, noise and safety concerns. There is an extensive literature design especially in hospitality and tourism industries that has underlined importance for both design dimensions for customers and other operations. For instance, for hotels, design is crucial tool in enhancing the attractive appeal in a building, and creating positive atmosphere in public areas like lobbies. This implies that there are numerous operational variables that entrepreneur’s hospitality and tourism sector should consider regarding the matter of planning or renovating a hospitality and tourism industry facilities to guarantee greatest format adequacy. These variables include: Future expansion and easiness; A design for a facility should be done in such a way that expanding them is easy and possible in order to meet any increased need for production. For instance redesigning a hotel, restaurant, tourist convergence areas is a key expensive undertaking and should not be done lightly. Movement flow, a facility must put into consideration the significance of having a smooth process flow. Backtracking should be avoided in any design pattern chose because visitors in a hotel, parks, tourist resorts and even personnel gets confused making the attainment of the condition complicated. Materials handling is another important aspect to consider in facility design. In this case, business managers should ensure that the facility design permits easy handling of materials in an efficient, orderly and preferably simplified manner (Ransley, & Ingram, 2001) The output concerns and needs are important such that the facility layout must be planned in a way that it's conducive to assisting a business achieve its production needs especially in the hospitality and tourism industry where the kind of service input visitors receive impacts a lot on the business output(Teicholz, 2001). Effective facility design is in most cases impacted on by space. Therefore space utilization is a key factor to consider because it's an aspect that is inclusive of everything. For instance, tourist and other visitors are likely to avoid crowded parks, hotels and restaurants for security reasons and also privacy concerns (Katsigris, & Thomas, 1999). Communication ease and support the nature in which facilities should be laid out in a way that communication inside numerous areas of the business and interactions with visitors can take place in an easy, effective manner. Likewise, the support areas must be placed in areas assist them in serving operating sections. Facility design has a nearby effect on the employees’ morale and occupation fulfillment. Innumerable exploration studies have demonstrated that spirit in workers holds in a real effect on profitability (Stephens, & Meyers, 2013) along these lines, entrepreneurs and supervisors should mind these features when anticipating facility plan choices mainly in hotels. The promotional value is another very important factor to consider. Hotels and other hospitality facilitates are common places for investors, and tourist customers. The business facility must be ensured that is attractive enough to burnish further the reputation of an organization (Teicholz, 2001). The facility design factors that have the capability of the business to operate effectively does not only include the production area design, however, the effect it has on aspects such as ease of fulfilling cleaning and maintenance task (Miller, Swensson, & Miller, 2002). According to the above points it’s clear that hospitality and tourism industry facility design is crucial all business set up in this business environment. Thus, it should be considered very carefully to avoid constant redesign inside the facility. A number of goals for designing a facility are usually to ensure that the least amount of materials is used with an aim of avoiding the bottlenecks, reducing operating, logistics and other possible costs (Stephens, & Meyers, 2013). It is also important to note that Facility design can differ dramatically depending on the nature of a business. In the service oriented business like in hotels, bars and restaurants, predictions are based on whether the customers can receive their services from a physical location of the business or the business takes their services to the customers’ location or business place. Therefore, a facility design depends on the unique needs and nature of a business (Miller, Swensson, & Miller, 2002). In conclusion, it is clear that both product flow and facility design plays a key role in the success of a hospitality and tourism business. That is they are a business profit levels. A well-organized facility design gives employees morale to continue working in an effectual way. On the other hand, with a well-outlined product flow quality of intangible and tangible services in a hospitality business is maintained because the process is made clear, and none of the programmed steps are missed. Therefore, these two hospitality aspects have a close relationship and either of them can contribute to the success and failure of any business in this industry. Reference list Hanna, S. R., & Konz, S. A. 2004. Facility design & engineering. Scottsdale, Ariz, Holcomb Hathaway Publishers. Heragu, S. S. 2008. Facilities design. Boca Raton, FL, CRC Press. Katsigris, C. & Thomas, C. 1999. Design and Equipment for Restaurants and Food service, John Wiley and Sons, New York. Konz, S. A. 1985. Facility design. New York, Wiley. Leavitt, P., & Scholtz, A. 2012. Improving the flow of knowledge in product development. Houston, Tex, APQC. Miller, R. L., Swensson, E. S., & Miller, R. L. 2002. Hospital and healthcare facility design. New York, W.W. Norton. Reinertsen, D. G. 2009. The principles of product development flow: second generation lean product development. Redondo Beach, Calif, Celeritas. Schutt, J. H. 2004. Directing the flow of product a guide to improving supply chain planning. Boca Raton, FL, J. Ross Pub. Stephens, M. P., & Meyers, F. E. 2013. Manufacturing facilities design and material handling. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10714297. Sule, D. R. 2009. Manufacturing facilities: location, planning, and design. Boca Raton, CRC Press. Teicholz, E. 2001. Facility design and management handbook. New York, McGraw-Hill. Read More