What is product development?

OIM Sweden follows our own certified product development process, where we guide our customers through all steps from idea to finished product in a quality–conscious way. OIM is unique in that we have many years of experience in running product development projects in–house and also have an ISO certification that guarantees quality and structure.

Visualization/Design

Our industrial designers always start from both our customer’s requirements and from the user’s needs together with their ability to innovate. In this way, we create a product with a focus on the right expression and the right function. A good design thus helps to strengthen your brand and thereby increase your competitiveness and profitability. Many elements may be included in this phase, such as:

• development of mood boards
• user studies
• sketches
• simpler CAD-rendered images

Product visualizations in 3D that are tailored to the customer’s needs, are powerful as early tools to create interest and understanding in an idea that does not yet exist in reality. They give the customer a good basis for making the right decisions about important choices regarding design, function, and the feeling that the product should convey.

Development

In the development stage, the product itself is developed. There are many phases to go through before reaching the actual stage of development and it is first here the product takes a real shape. For many companies entering the development phase, the product only exists in, for example, a word, a drawing, a raw model, or a prototype. Some companies have dedicated departments to do research and develop prototypes for possible products. Sometimes it can take many spins and years to develop a successful prototype, it is an iterative process – where time also depends on how complicated the product is. For a product to succeed in a market, it is required that it comes with a design that convinces customers that it can be manufactured with a short lead time and within the limits of the budget.

During this stage, the real investments come in, the development phase occupies the majority of the cost for product development. In order for a company to be sure that a product is working and safe, most products undergo many tests before they reach the market. These tests are often about quality, safety, and effectiveness. During product development, important parameters are things as technical specifications, prototypes, production of test products, conducting tests, as well as testing to sell the product on the market. Central documents are manufacturing documentation and product test reports.

Validation

Validation is used to secure that the product we’ve developed meets the actual user needs on which the product requirement specifications are written. In principle, validation always takes place when the product is fully developed and should be based on the intended end user.

Validation can start by creating a number of questions that you want to be answered. Based on these questions, a test case is created. In order to answer the question, measurements may be needed, the measurement results must then be analysed. In some cases, it can be quite extensive to validate, and thus it is important that the questions are well thought out before starting the validation.

Production

Now the manufacturing of the product starts. We assemble, and deliver assembly instructions, drawings, and documentation to make sure to either deliver a finished product or ensure that you can manufacture your product in your own production. It is also very important to be able to ensure that each individual product and batch produced is of the same high quality. Therefore, routines such as arrival control and documented final tests are important elements during the production.