Design evolution through customer interaction with functional prototypes

Abstract

There can be a tendency, even within companies who practice concurrent engineering, to limit customer involvement to the initial and final stages of the new product development process only. This invites the possibility that the customers' opinions will be lost or at least diluted during the intermediate stages of the process. A joint research project involving Loughborough University and the Central University of Technology, Free State has provided evidence, through several case studies, that physical models created via rapid prototyping enable the customer to be involved throughout the development process. The benefits associated with using physical models are discussed, showing that these models have a unique role to play in promoting customer involvement. The authors propose the method termed Customer Interaction with Functional Prototypes, which has been implemented during several new product development projects carried out in both academic and industrial environments. At present, the Customer Interaction with Functional Prototypes method is suitable for facilitating customer interaction primarily with the aesthetic and ergonomic aspects of simple consumer products or with stand-alone subsystems of more complex products. The method compliments the use of virtual prototyping and design analysis required to optimize the functional aspects of a product through the application of engineering science.