Broadening the Focus

Other Stakeholders

Our focus has been on the user. Fundamentally the end customer is the one who will use the product and, generally, will pay for the product. Of course there are multitudes of people that interact with the product during the development process. Within a company, warehouse and distribution, sales, and facilities management all interact with the product. At times these seemingly secondary functions can have a major effect on the development process. For example, if a new car cannot fit on specially designed vehicle transport trailers, then the company might need to spend money and time to redesign trailers. Similarly, shipping of many products is a significant added cost. Truck sizes are standard and so a slight increase in a box size might significantly reduce the number of products that can ship in a given truck. As another example, the lifecycle costs of the product, often not a focus in the design process, might have huge financial effects on the company. As discussed in the sidebar of Chapter 3, European companies are given some responsibility for the disposal costs of products. By taking into account the disassembly and disposal costs of a product during its development, the overall cost effects can be reduced.

Outside the company are distributors and point-of-sale issues such as the packaging size, the look of the packaging, and the means of displaying the product. Many times, especially in the medical industry, support individuals (nurses, family, etc.) need to operate the product in addition to, or even instead of, the targeted user. In terms of purchasing, there are many situations where the end user does not make the decision to purchase the product. A major aspect of this issue is the approach to sales of the product.