Benchmarking Within the Product Development Process
Abstract One cannot design in a vacuum; the goodness of a product is almost always (except in the case of a novel design) measured with respect to an existing design. It is logical, therefore, to have a design process that takes competitors into account. Competitor’s hardware is a rich source of design information providing concept and design solutions, current market trends, cost and quality drivers, missing functionality and unwanted functionality. This paper presents a methodology to systematically evaluate existing designs using a process called benchmarking. In addition, a methodology for incorporating the benchmark information into the specification, concept, embodiment, detail design phases of the product development process is described.