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Product development is a complex process that calls for addressing short-term fads and trends while planning for long-term shifts in markets, end-user needs and demand, and materials sourcing. It draws data from both ends of the supply chain and finishes in the middle, with decisions on design and manufacturability.

Sustainability and certification, regulatory activity, and macro-economic conditions, especially in a downturn, add complexities to the basic process. So do rapid shifts in retail and distribution channels.
It’s harder in a downturn like the current situation, but that doesn’t change the basics — or the need to get even better at it.

“Today’s economic times are an adverse climate for innovation,” says Paul Winistorfer, professor and head of the Department of Wood Science and Forest Products at Virginia Tech. “That doesn’t mean that people are not innovating.”

If anything, innovation and new thinking in product development are essential for maintaining competitiveness. CNC, JIT and lean concepts all factor into the wood industry’s increasing attention to the marketplace’s pull on the supply chain.

“If you can’t sell it, why are you making it?” Winistorfer asks. “Product development can’t be in a box anymore. It has to incorporate the whole supply chain to the point where the customer opens the box.”

Product development, says Michael Lambright, Sauder Woodworking director of marketing, requires designing “the right product, with the right service, at the right time, with the right look, at the right value. If you can get it all right, and consistently deliver, you will win placement at your targeted retailer, and that will put you in front of the consumer, at the head of the line for purchase consideration.

“It comes back to getting everything right for the forecast conditions, and getting it placed where it will be seen by and available [to] the targeted consumer,” says Lambright.

Economic and market conditions change the focus and direction of the product development process. They don’t change the way Sauder approaches it.

“The same general process and information will lead us in a different direction based on current and forecast conditions,” Lambright says.

RTA is especially well-positioned for downturns, says Lambright. It provides practical and affordable solutions for existing customers while offering value-driven appeal for people who haven’t previously considered it.

But effective market placement is always essential.

“With less and less control over branding, POP messaging and consumer advertising on the part of manufacturers, getting your product to the right retailer is critical,” Lambright says.

Demand shifts, new technologies and the inevitable delay between design and retail means there could be features that won’t fit the market by the time the product gets to the store. Then add in the cost and time pressures on the consumer.

Consumers want to organize their “stuff,” and they don’t want to spend a lot of time and money doing it. Oh — and they want to link the functionality with styles they like.

CONSUMERS PULL THE SUPPLY CHAIN

Those are just some of the demands consumers are making these days, says Earl Kline, Virginia Tech Wood Sciences Department professor of industrial systems and engineering. They have less time to look for what they want or need, and less money to pay for it.

“The supply chain has been extended. You can’t turn the key and get exactly the right thing,” Kline says.
A basic question is whether the design meets some kind of traditional or historic demand or “some kind of guess as to what someone will want in the future,” he says

Two things must happen, Kline says, to solve and overcome the inherent design and development issues. “You have to figure out what the customer wants, and you need a supply chain that lets you customize the product, deliver it and install it if need be, in a reasonable time frame.

“The more complex the supply chain, the harder it is to respond to customer need,” says Kline.

Communication is central in both directions along the supply chain, and among all departments of the manufacturer. Any product, whether it’s a workstation or a chair, should deliver thought-out functionality. But there are a lot of shifts today on style and looks, and sometimes more difficulty in meeting that part of end-user demand. That’s where sourcing, pricing and species availability come into the process.

“You need the latitude to say ‘you want this in mahogany, but we have oak and mahogany is much more expensive and takes longer to get,’ ” says Kline. This gets into delivery timing and into sustainability. Both could have customer appeal. “If all this is presented to the consumer, he might go for poplar or oak with a mahogany stain,” Kline says.

Focus on fast turnaround and sustainability adds emphasis to issues and decisions about domestic species and local sourcing.

“Managing the whole supply chain for local sourcing is something to think about,” says Winistorfer.

Local sourcing can compress delivery time down to weeks.
“Can you afford a one-year supply chain? Longer times translate into missed opportunites,” Kline says. “If the supply chain is fragmented, it’s harder to deliver flexible, more customized design.”

In effect, Kline says, the supply chain has to include the final, end-user customer as a partner.