The Sources And Formation Of Equipment Product Concept

Product concept is the description of the form, function, and feature of the new product to be developed. The success of product innovation often depends on the product concept development. With the rapid change of demand and prompt expansion of technologies, the development of the equipment product concept is increasingly becoming a key point for local equipment enterprises to gain competitive advantages. Therefore, how to develop efficient concept of equipment product is becoming an important and urgent issue. Taking equipment products as the research object, the conclusions provide operational guidance for the development of concept of local equipment products.Literature analysis and case study, as well as statistical analysis were adopted in this paper. The study begins with a comprehensive review of literature on product concept, technology integration, and complex product system. The review not only provides a sound theoretical foundation, but also reveals the breakthrough point for this study. Then, the pre-survey questionnaire is designed. The data sources were collected through expert interviews and field study. Finally, adapted from prior studies, a questionnaire investing equipment products concept from 133 development projects were developed, followed by case study reports and statistical analysis. The main contributions of this paper are as following.First of all, based on data analysis, the distribution rules and its typical characteristics of sources of equipment product concept were explored, and the roles of user on the equipment product concept were analyzed based on case study. The paper proposes that manufacturers are the main sources of equipment product concept. Users, competitors, third-party technology providers, suppliers, and universities, are important complementary sources. Accordingly, the formation of local equipment product concept requires collective participation and cooperation among all these parties. The case study demonstrates that users play an important role in providing demand information, promoting idea generation, and speeding up the development of product concept.Second, a formation model of equipment product concept based on multiple-case study is proposed. As presented, the formation of equipment product concept includes the following five phases, namely, demand trend analysis, user needs identification, prototype identification, technical module clarity, technology assessment and selection. Specifically, demand trend analysis involves extracting demand, demand analysis and needs confirmation; user needs identification includes identification of lead user, accessing to lead user and inviting lead user to participate in an interactive research and development; prototype identification consists of selection of prototype, adaptive improving and goal product determination; technical module clarity contains module partition, module conversion and module determination; finally, based on product development goals, technological selection are made, followed by product design evaluation index system for evaluation of the related technical modules.Third, the formation mechanism of equipment product concept is studied on the basis of theoretical and empirical analysis. It indicates that market orientation positively affects the performance of product concept, as well as the performance of product development. In addition, market orientation indirectly affects the performance of product development by working on the performance of product concept. Technological uncertainty negatively affects the performance of product concept and the product development. Technological uncertainty indirectly acts on the performance of product development through affecting the performance of product concept. The performance of product concept positively affects the performance of product development. The empirical results show that, market orientation promotes demand identification through customer orientation, competitor orientation, and interfunctional coordination within enterprises, and consequently improves the performance of product concept. In addition, technological uncertainty promotes the use of prototype, and sequentially improves the performance of product concept.