Introduction to Modern Product Development

Abstract

The application of systematic design methodologies, together with ­relevant advances in computer-aided design, engineering and manufacturing technologies, novel materials and micro/nano-manufacturing resources, has reshaped product development in the last 20 years, greatly improving aspects such as time-to-market and overall project costs, as well as final product or device quality and overall performance.

These methodological and technological improvements have also a remarkable impact in the development of novel medical devices and all kinds of products in the biomedical field. The main objective of this handbook is to cover them in depth, as an aid to teaching-learning tasks and with the intention of helping researchers facing their first projects linked to biomedical engineering and to the development of biodevices.

This first chapter is focused on providing a general description of the product development process, covering its typical stages (detection of a relevant need, planning and specifications, conceptual design, basic engineering, detailed engineering, production and product market life) and the systematic methodologies commonly applied, providing a schematic historical perspective, together with an overall view of additional methods for ensuring end quality.

This introduction to modern product development is complemented by the additional information provided in the following chapter, regarding specific relevant aspects to be taken into account when the development process is linked to a medical device. The overview of novel technologies and advances in materials science included in the third chapter provides for the introductory section of this handbook, before explaining in detail the different advanced design and manufacturing technologies of interest in the subsequent chapters.