Design for supportability: Essential component of new product development

OVERVIEW: During new product development, R&D engineers consider a wide ran ge of often conflicting requirements, including product features, cost, qua lity: and manufacturability. Another factor, which companies often neglect, is to ensure that products are easy and economical to service and support- i.e., to install, to maintain, to repair, to operatc, etc. Product support is essential for achieving customer satisfaction in many industries, includ ing high-tech sectors such as computing as well as "low-tech" sectors such as domestic appliances and the like. Lending companies recognize both the i mportance of product support and the significance of evaluating support req uirements at the design stage by using Design for Supportability techniques . This enables them to gain competitive advantage from customer support and earn significant revenues.