When learning about the product life cycle, it made me think about the different stages products experience. The stages are: Introduction, Growth, Maturity, and Decline. There are lots of different aspects that are considered during each stage and the long hours that are invested to extend the product life cycle for a product as long as possible.

The stage that interests me the most is the introduction stage. The introduction is a very important stage. It is the start to the whole cycle and once the product has made it out of the introduction stage it can then extend its life through the cycle. But there are many products that don’t get the chance to make it past the first stage. Since this year has only just begun I was interested in looking at all of the products that had been introduced or launched within the last couple years.

One product launched that did catch my eye was the iPad. There are lots of key bullet points within the introduction stage that developers need to pay close attention to: product design and development critical, frequent product and process design changes, attention to quality, high production costs, short production runs, limited models, etc. The introduction stage is the most important because it is the chance to finally get your product out in the open for everyone to see. But, if the product does not successfully make it through this stage it will not continue on a journey through the cycle with many years to come. The iPad has clearly made it past the introduction stage in the present year and did a great job at executing all of the key points when it was first being introduced. The developers at Apple Inc. has to endure a long list of questions and prototypes to nail down the touch-pad tablet. They also used a series of promotion techniques with videos of conferences and commercials to make the new device known and distinguish it against their competition. They needed to understand what was important to their customers and competitors to be able to release the product with a bang. Apple isn’t new to the market and had the advantage after already being established. But what about other products that enter the introduction stage? New products or product launches endure a similar process to Apple’s when first being introduced and can experience the same types of questions and challenges.

So my question to you is…

Which out of the four stages (introduction, growth, maturity, and decline) do you feel is the most important? and why?

Or

Can you think of a product that did a good job in the introduction stage or any other stage? and why?

 

Last class we learned about the ten critical decisions in operations management and how businesses use these decisions for success.

The decisions made me think about my work. I am a sales associate and a specialist. Being a specialist you have to learn everything there is to know about the merchandise that you sell (sizes, materials, collections, what we carry and what we don’t, etc). The ten critical decisions made me think about the process for the company I am a specialist for and how they pick their merchandise, what they want to sell and how they want it to be arranged in each store. I am constantly talking to my vendor about our upcoming collections and how they are decided. The way that they design the collections and the locations they use didn’t come as a shock. Most of the decisions were interesting, but the one I found the most interesting was the way that they use the layout strategy. All of the vendors are always in constant communication (conference calls, phone calls, emails, etc) to ask questions and hear the latest news. All of the vendors get trained to know how the floor is supposed to look in general – color order, collection order, what needs to be hung up or laid down etc. – along with how to dress and display mannequins. They attend seminars all around the United States to be trained. The vendors also get to learn fun facts and they educate their specialist with all the knowledge they learn. Then, they receive photos of how the sales floor should look from their boss to mimic on their own floor. Each photo is only of a collection alone so there is room to be creative. After being trained, the vendors are trusted to rearrange the floor to maximize the space. The vendors have to rearrange all of the merchandise to best look like the photo. With the help of their specialists they can complete the shifting of merchandise in time to meet their deadlines. It is up to the vendors to move all of the fixtures and make sure they receive all of the merchandise. After completing the arrangement process they then take a photo of their own department to send to their boss for approval. The vendors are constantly being flown to other stores around the country to help each other with their layouts during the busier times. And a couple of times a year their boss comes to their store for a formal visit to asses the floor to make sure nothing is out of place.

This is just one aspect of the ten critical decisions. It really makes me wonder about all of the different aspects of a company that I didn’t used the think about.

Does anyone else notice how the ten critical decisions are used in a company? Share what you’ve learned.