Introduction to operations management and Dell Computer design

¶ … product design is applied in decision-Making of that organization?

At Dell, the decision of which product areas to pursued is defined through the use of the concept of "profit pools" that define the relative level of profitability each product area has the potential to produce (Krishnan, Bhattacharya, 2002). This approach to product design decision making is mentioned often by founder and CEO Michael Dell in speeches and investment banking conference briefings (Dell Investor Relations, 2011). Dell also has one of the most advanced supply chains globally, with the ability to plan and launch a new laptop, server or complete network within months while it takes competitors years to accomplish the same (Gunasekaran, Ngai, 2005). The Dell internal culture is heavily reliant on analytics and the intensive use of key performance indicators (KPI) to track supply chain performance (Fields, 2006). This reliance in metrics and KPIs also influences the product design process, as the Return on Investment (ROI) by each project is used to prioritize each new product design. All of these factors are taken into account to create a 360-degree of the product design and the potential market it has globally (Fields, 2006).

Can you describe a Product Life Cycles in the organization?

At Dell, the typical product lifecycle will often be 18 months or less as the pace of new product innovation component and assembly manufacturers including Intel, disk drive makers Seagate and Quantum have in their product lines (Fields, 2006). In many respects the Dell business model is designed to soften the risk factors and disruptions of an inherently disruptive series of technologies that comprise the end products sold (Krishnan, Bhattacharya, 2002). The product lifecycles are also defined by the overarching pricing and margin requirements by product line, and are indexed against the relative levels of saturation in each geography that Dell sells into globally. The use of forecasting and supply chain management techniques is also pervasive throughout Dell's product life cycle planning programs (Fields, 2006).

How different Issues for Product Development are applied in the organization?