Delia Vazquez and Margaret Bruce
Food retailers invest heavily in design expertise to create exciting packaging and to develop store environments to entice customers to buy premium food products, and to…
Abstract
Food retailers invest heavily in design expertise to create exciting packaging and to develop store environments to entice customers to buy premium food products, and to strengthen their competitive edge. The process by which food retailers manage design has not been documented and this is an oversight in the field of design management that this paper addresses. Cases of four UK retailers are presented and their approaches to design management are compared and discussed. A model of retail design management is presented which represents current “better practice” in UK food retail; in addition, a model of the seven Ps of design management is presented to foster better understanding of the role of food retail design management function.
Details
Keywords
An area about which we in further education are most complacent, and from which we still recruit most of our students, is the evening class. It is the area, too, where we are most…
Abstract
An area about which we in further education are most complacent, and from which we still recruit most of our students, is the evening class. It is the area, too, where we are most vulnerable. Where else but in a technical college would such shoddy methods of enrolment persist?
It is a new and strange experience for a 15‐year‐old, full‐time student of domestic science to sit down to lunch opposite a fellow student who happens to be a 35‐year‐old…
Abstract
It is a new and strange experience for a 15‐year‐old, full‐time student of domestic science to sit down to lunch opposite a fellow student who happens to be a 35‐year‐old, part‐time cost and works accountant. The size of a technical college does not make for compactness or intimacy, and to a student used to the small and homogeneous world of a school, a technical college can seem an impersonal, unfriendly place.
The July 1963 issue of TECHNICAL EDUCATION carried an account of an Induction/Guidance course planned for full‐time students who were entering a General Studies Department in a…
Abstract
The July 1963 issue of TECHNICAL EDUCATION carried an account of an Induction/Guidance course planned for full‐time students who were entering a General Studies Department in a technical college for the first time. This account aroused wide‐spread interest throughout the British Isles and as far afield as Rhodesia, judging by the requests for copies of the report on the course.
This paper proposes a holistic, resource-based strategy framework for design-oriented industries consisting mainly of small firms. It consists of three main concepts: (1) sources…
Abstract
This paper proposes a holistic, resource-based strategy framework for design-oriented industries consisting mainly of small firms. It consists of three main concepts: (1) sources of competitive advantage, especially core competencies, (2) competitive advantage, and (3) competitive strategy. The idea behind the framework is that sources of competitive advantage form the competitive advantages of firms, and these together influence the choice of competitive strategies. The proposed framework was developed on the basis of interview results from the jewellery industry in Finland. A total of 44 small firms each employing less than 25 people were interviewed. Respondents felt that the two most important core competencies were in the area of manufacturing. They were the abilities to design and manufacture products of high technical quality and to offer a broad range of products and attractive models. For the jewellery industry, competitive advantage was largely achieved through various aspects of design. The competitive strategy type most employed was the differentiation-based strategy. The proposed framework should be of value in integrating some of the diverse research in this area and suggesting specific relationships that might be the focus of future empirical studies.
Ricardo Chiva‐Gómez, César Camisón‐Zornoza and Rafael Lapiedra‐Alcamí
Examines the relationship between organizational learning and product design management while, at the same time, analysing the repercussions they may have on performance, in the…
Abstract
Examines the relationship between organizational learning and product design management while, at the same time, analysing the repercussions they may have on performance, in the Spanish ceramic tile sector. A comparative case study of four companies from this sector enabled the construction of a theoretical model, which linked the factors that facilitate organizational learning, in the context of product design management, with the activities of this practice. In this model, 14 factors are seen as being essential to the existence of organizational learning and may be divided into two groups: one related to the activities that have to do with the conceptual‐analytical phase of the product design process, and the other linked to the activities related to the creative‐technical phase. All these factors are positively associated with efficient product design management and with improved business performance.
Details
Keywords
Ricardo Chiva‐Gómez, Joaquín Alegre‐Vidal and Rafael Lapiedra‐Alcamí
Product design is an essential aspect of the process of new product development and innovation, the efficiency of which depends on the existence of some kind of management…
Abstract
Product design is an essential aspect of the process of new product development and innovation, the efficiency of which depends on the existence of some kind of management. However, there is no generally accepted agreement as to exactly what activities this management involves, nor any analyses of the most suitable context for it to develop in or of the relationships that link these activities with performance. In this paper, we study product design management in depth and examine in what way and in which contexts it contributes to an improvement in performance. In order to do so, we carried out a case study of four companies from the Spanish ceramic tile sector that also revealed the activities of an efficient product design management. These were divided into two phases of the product design process: the analytical‐conceptual and the technical‐creative phases.
Details
Keywords
David Eaton, Rifat Akbiyikli and Michael Dickinson
This paper identifies the theoretical stimulants and impediments associated with the implementation of PFI/PPP (Private Finance Initiative/Public Private Partnership)projects. A…
Abstract
This paper identifies the theoretical stimulants and impediments associated with the implementation of PFI/PPP (Private Finance Initiative/Public Private Partnership)projects. A current defect of this procurement approach is the unintentional constraint upon the innovations incorporated into the development of PFI projects. A critical evaluation of the published literature has been utilized to synthesize a theoretical model. The paper proposes a theoretical model for the identification of potential innovation stimulants and impediments within this type of procurement. This theoretical model is then utilised to evaluate four previously completed PFI projects. These project case‐studies have been examined in detail. The evaluation demonstrates how ineffective current procedures are. The application of this model before project letting could eliminate unintentional constraints and stimulate improved innovation within the process.The implementation of the model could improve the successful delivery of innovation within the entire PFI/PPP procurement process.
Details
Keywords
James Moultrie, P. John Clarkson and David Probert
The creation of well‐designed products is widely acknowledged as an important contributor to company success. In principle, an effective design process, as part of the wider new…
Abstract
Purpose
The creation of well‐designed products is widely acknowledged as an important contributor to company success. In principle, an effective design process, as part of the wider new product development (NPD) process, should result in well‐designed products. This paper aims to present a tool to enable a design team to evaluate their design process in a workshop setting, with a view to targeting improvements.
Design/methodology/approach
This tool is based on literature and has been iteratively developed using a mixed research approach, including detailed exploratory cases and application in action research mode.
Findings
The resulting tool comprises two main components. A “process audit” based on process maturity principles, which targets the design‐related activities in NPD. The process audit enables a company team to identify improvement opportunities in the design process. A product audit enables perceptions towards product characteristics to be assessed. The audit tool does not seek to be a benchmarking tool, but aims to capture “good design” principles in a form which is accessible and useful to practitioners.
Practical implications
In use, the tool enabled managers to balance their concern with meeting budget and timescale demands against the importance of producing well‐designed products. By first focusing on the tangible output of the design process – the product – practitioners are better able to understand the way in which design decisions influence product usability, desirability and producibility. Evidence from cases confirms the value and originality of this tool.
Originality/value
Previous tools addressing product development have focused on strategic and managerial concerns. This novel assessment tool focuses explicitly on design issues, within the wider context of NPD.