Examples of flexible product development in the following topics:
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- For some more complicated products, a large amount of uncertainty makes it impossible to plan the complete project before starting it, and thus a flexible approach is required.
- Flexible product development is the ability to make changes in the product being developed or in how it is developed, even relatively late in development, without being too disruptive.
- Flexibility is important because the development of a new product naturally involves change from what came before it.
- The more innovative a new product is, the more likely it is that the development team will have to make changes during development.
- Flexible development counteracts the tendencies of many contemporary management approaches to plan a project completely at its outset and discourage change thereafter.
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- For example, if a manufacturing company believes that automation will increase the firm's flexibility to adapt to a changing competitive environment, questions should be asked, such as:
- Does it need to quickly switch production across a wide variety of products (product mix flexibility)?
- Does it need to quickly produce new products for a rapidly changing marketplace (product development flexibility)?
- Does it need to be able to quickly ramp up production during times of high demand, and quickly scale down production when cyclical or seasonal demand hits downturns (volume flexibility)?
- Deere managers use a mix of low technology/labor intensive production methods and automated/programmable technologies in its manufacturing plants.
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- Organizations assess the current market for new product opportunities and, when potentially profitable, develop new product prototypes to test feasibility of production.
- The process of identifying consumer needs within a market, and innovating towards developing a product to fulfill those needs, is referred to as new product development.
- Cost, time of development, price points, ability to scale, distribution, legalities, and competition should all be considered during the product development period.
- Another useful concept to learn in regards to product development is referred to as the minimum viable product (MVP).
- Refining production for a new product requires consideration of a variety of factors, including productivity, quality, economics, flexibility, and sustainability.
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- During this time period, theorists developed the theory of value or price which allowed for further analysis of markets and wealth.
- Flexible prices: classical economics assumes that prices are flexible for goods and wages.
- Production will generate an income enough to purchase all of the output produced.
- Equality of savings and investment: classical theory assumes that flexible interest rates will always maintain equilibrium.
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- In general, small firms have greater flexibility than larger firms and capacity to respond promptly to industry or community developments.
- The senior engineers were no longer supervisors; instead, they were designing products.
- In general, small start-up firms have greater flexibility than larger firms and the capacity to respond promptly to industry or community developments.
- Customers can even have a role in product development.
- The senior engineers were no longer supervisors; instead, they were designing products.
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- While financial accounting fits the mold expected by stakeholders, managerial accounting is flexible and strives to meet the needs of management exclusively.
- Financial accounting looks at the company holistically, while financial accounting can zoom in at various levels (i.e. product level, division level, etc.)
- Throughput Accounting: Production processes have a great deal of inter-dependency.
- Some simpler examples of common managerial accounting tasks include developing business metrics, cost-benefit analyses, IT cost transparency, life cycle cost analysis, strategic management advice, sales forecasting, geographically segmented reporting, and rate and volume analysis.
- Managerial accounting is inherently flexible, and drives towards maximizing internal efficiency through careful consideration of opportunity costs and various customized metrics.
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- New ways of developing and using software have led to higher efficiency and productivity through greater interaction between users.
- Collaborative software has produced major gains in productivity.
- It promotes adaptive planning, evolutionary development and delivery, a time-boxed iterative approach, and encourages rapid and flexible response to change.
- Each iteration involves a team working through a full software development cycle when a working product is demonstrated to stakeholders.
- Multiple iterations might be required to release a product or new features.
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- Employers can offer flexible working arrangements in the form of flextime and telecommuting work.
- Flexible working arrangements such as flextime and telecommuting work are becoming increasingly popular.
- This allows employees the flexibility of adapting their work schedule to their living situation.
- Develop a daily schedule.
- It can also make it easier for supervisors to monitor staff activities and can lead to increased productivity.
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- Common examples of outsourced functions for companies in the developed world are software development and call centers.
- However, quality controls must be maintained to ensure that the products and services provided are returning the expected results.
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- Taiichi Ohno is credited with developing JIT and perfected it for Toyota's manufacturing plants in Japan.
- waste from product and service defects (rework, scrap, warranty, etc. )
- In a manufacturing setting, there are six major ways to pursue JIT goals: inventory reduction to expose waste, use of a "demand-pull" production system, quick setups to reduce lot sizes, uniform plant loading, flexible resources, and cellular flow layouts.
- By gradually lowering inventory, the weaknesses of the production system can be revealed and addressed one by one.