HCLT Whitepaper: 10 Easy Steps Powerful Techniques To Select The Right Concept For Your Medical Device

10 Easy Steps & Powerful Techniques to
Select the Right Concept for your Medical

Device
February 2011
10 Easy Steps & Powerful Techniques to Select the Right Concept for your Medical Device |
February 2011
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract ............................................................................................. 3
Abbreviations .................................................................................... 4
Market trend ...................................................................................... 5
Other Challenges .............................................................................. 6
10 Easy Steps for Concept Selection ............................................... 7
Benefits of Implementing 10 Easy Steps for Concept Selection..... 12
Conclusion....................................................................................... 13
About the Authors ........................................................................... 14
2011, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.
February 2011
Abstract
Organizations that consistently struggle to meet the planned project
schedule and cost, simply cannot pinpoint the product designer on
why things are not working as they should. The current development
process may have an issue that needs to be evaluated. For a
product designer, selecting the right concept out of multiple
concepts will save a lot of time and project cost, and help
organization to launch the product to market on time. In many
projects cost and time lines exceed due to incorrect selection of the
concepts. This usually ends up in poor quality products and rework.
This paper provides easy 10 steps and some powerful techniques
that would help you select the best out of the multiple concepts
February 2011
Abbreviations
Sl. No.
Acronyms (Page No.)
Full form
CF (Page-7)
Critical Factor
KT (Page-7)
Knowledge
Transfer
February 2011
Design outsourcing
Market trend
Multinational
development team
Product launch at right

time
Why should you revisit the current development process?

What will happen if you do not have right process for concept
selection?
Over the last few years, the time taken to market products is
shrinking considerably when compared to past market development.
This has forced companies to launch their own high-quality products
in a short duration sustain their existing market and to improve their
present level. Now-a-days, business has become heavily dependent
on the launch of new product at the right time. Additionally,
companies must meet customer expectations that are changing
every day.
On one side, the new product design and development investments
are very high, and on the other side, the products get outdated very
quickly due to various reasons. Now, most of the organizations have
started design outsourcing to reduce timeline and project cost.
However, complications have increased further due to the
involvement of the multinational development team and different
concept selection processes. Therefore, new product outsourcing
trends need to implement a very successful concept selection
process.
February 2011
How to select the best

concept?
- 10 simple steps with
useful tips and templates
Are you confused about
selecting the best
concept?
- 10 steps to help you select
the best concept
Are you spending a lot of
time and money to select
the best concept?
- 10 easy steps that could
save your cost and time
Other Challenges
Additional challenges/questions that point the need of a good
concept selection process for the designer are as follows:
Usually, in most of the projects, the concept generation and

finalization phases not completed on time when compared to
the detailed design phase.
Why do you face project escalation and customer dissatisfaction
during the concept phase?
Why are projects terminated after the concept design phases?
Why are you missing the Water Fall approach in development
phase?
Why is it that some projects are doing well while others are not?
Why do some selected concepts miss critical requirements of
the customer?
How to involve customer or management team during the
concept selection phase?
How to meet new or unknown customer expectations?
How to gain customer or management confidence and improve
the customer relationship from beginning of the project?
There are several problems or challenges as these that are

associated with the mishandling of concept phase in new product
development project.
If organizations consistently mishandle projects particularly during
the initial phase of the project, the product launch and costing will
be affected and the organization loses revenue.
Fortunately, you have 10 steps for the best concept selection that
can help your organization to increase the success rate.
February 2011
10 Easy Steps
Identification of CF
Weightage allocation and

ranking on ideas
Establish Base concept
Team formation and KT
Generate Concepts
Concept Evaluation
Concept Ranking
Hybrid Solutions
Re evaluate
Selection and Sign-off
10 Easy Steps for Concept Selection

For any new product development project, the concept design
phase commences after the customer requirements are ready.
During this phase, the project team will be formed and different
concepts will be generated for evaluation. We have a unique
template for the best concept selection that will help handle the
concept phase to achieve best results.
Step 1: Determine Critical Factors (CF) for Concept Design
The concept generation process starts with preparation of the
criteria or critical concept selection factors based on understanding
customers requirements with respect to the following aspects:
Critical to performance
Critical to usability
Critical to product cost
Critical to reliability
Critical to manufacturability and assembly
Critical to safety
Critical to regulatory
This list can be customized based on the nature of products. For the
selected criteria, define the evaluation methods on how to check the
critical factors. These details will help the team to understand the
complete expectation on the new concepts.
Step 2: Weightage Allocation and Concept Ranking Scale
Definition for CF
Weightage allocation
The next step includes allocation of the weightage in the scale of 15 for each critical factor (CF). You must assign high weightage for
the most important CF and low weightage for the least important CF.
The best practice would involve the team to allocate weightage for
each of these critical factors. Additionally, the client and other stake
holders can also be involved in this exercise.
Ranking on ideas- Create a common

understanding
Once the allocation of weightage for each CF is done, define how to

rank each concept against these critical factors. The ranking score
scale can include 1-5 range, similar to CF weightage scale.
Since the ranking exercise is a collective team effort, the detailed
definition of ranking score scale is very important, to arrive at a
common understanding among the team members.
February 2011
The very important part of this exercise is to get the concurrence of

both the team members and client on CF weightage and ranking
score scale. The weighted score of each concept is arrived by
multiplying these two parameters which will be finally used to rank
the best concept.
Weighted score = CF scale x Ranking score
Another best practice is to involve the client team also in this
process. This will help the team to gain confidence on the process
of best concept selection. It will also ensure overall agreement on
the best selected concept.
Step 3: Establish a Base Concept and Communicate
The main objective of this step is to demonstrate the basic
understanding of the design requirements through a base concept.
This would be a guideline/template for the team members to
communicate the concepts. This could be in the form of:
Hand sketches,
Schematics,
Storyboard,
Process flow chart, and so on.
This step will ensure that each team member provides identical
output formats. This will help reduce unnecessary rework during
concept rating.
Step 4: Team Formation and Knowledge Transfer
Once the basic concept is ready and accepted by all stake holders,
the team will be formed based on various skills required for the
particular concept generation. The team composition will be arrived
based on the nature of the product.
The next activity is to transfer knowledge to the team. The
knowledge transfer would pertain to the following areas which are to
be addressed as part the new concepts:
Critical new product design requirements and its

applications
Demonstration of the basic concepts and expectations
with respect to new concepts
Finalized critical factors for concept selection and
rationale behind the allocated weightage
Concept rating scale definitions and rationale behind
the allocated score
The best practice is to provide hardcopies of the critical

requirements list and rating scale to the team along with concept
February 2011
review checklist to ensure 100% coverage of

requirements in the new concept.
the design
Step 5: Generate Concepts

Now team is ready for new concept generation. You can adapt the
following methodologies:
Brain storming - Capture all ideas
Web search - Understand information on relevant
patents, latest technologies and development, so on.
Study similar products in the market - Understand
factors such as usability, customer expectation, and so
on.
The project team also can develop its own methodologies to
generate new concepts.
Step 6: Concept Evaluation
Before getting on to the concepts evaluation, it is proposed to filter
or eliminate the ideas which are not potential for further concept
evaluation. This activity could be done as team deliberations. If the
number of concepts is not sufficient, then step 5 can be repeated to
generate some more potential concepts.
Once the required number of potential concepts is ready, the
following activities can be performed for concept evaluation:
1. Ranking on ideas
Ranking of ideas is a team activity. Here, each potential concept
is ranked on the scale of 1-5 based on the understanding of the
detailed definition of ranking score. Generally, rank 1 represents
Minimum and rank 5 represents Maximum. Higher the score,
better the advantage (For more details, refer to step 2).
Best practices:
Get the same exercise carried out by the client team or

the management team separately.
Capture the understandings and assumptions made

while ranking concepts against each CF, which could
be discussed and agreed with the client team.
2. Concept Average weighted score calculation

During this stage, the individual weighted score for the each CF
will be calculated automatically based on the ranking of each
concept. Once it is done, the total average weighted score for a
particular concept will be populated automatically.
February 2011
The same exercise will be performed for the rest of the

concepts and the total average weighted score for each concept
will be calculated.
Step 7: Concept Ranking

1. Concept Average Weighted Total Score- Team Review
Before concluding on the final average weighted total score for
the each concept, it is proposed to have a team walkthrough
along with the client on the outcome. This exercise will give a
common understanding and acceptance among the team
members about the concept ranking.
2. Select 2-3 best concepts based on weighted totals
Here, all the concepts will be ranked based on the total average
weighted scores (Highest rank = Max average weighted score
and Least rank = Min average weighted score). Once this is
done, the first two or three highest ranked concepts will be
considered for the next stage.
Step 8: Look for Hybrid Solutions
1. Prepare CF profile for the selected concepts
The purpose of this step is to highlight the ranking of each CF for all
concepts that can be represented in a single chart. This can be
done using a Web chart. This graphical representation will give a
better understanding on performance of each of the concepts
against each CF.
10
February 2011
2. Mix and match the best features of the selected concepts

Based on the Web chart representation, the best features among
the concepts can be selected and implemented in the maximum
ranked concepts. This will add more value to the concepts and may
reduce the cost. The suggested feature information can be captured
in the individual concept tab in the concept selection template.
3. Generate Hybrid Solutions
New concepts can be generated by using the best features of all
concepts. These concepts can be evaluated based on the CF to
address the advantages and disadvantages of combining the best
features. This evaluation will be carried out in the next step.
Step 9: Re-evaluate Ideas
After implementing the suggested improvements on the concepts,
the concepts can then be re-evaluated against the CF.
Step 10: Best Concept Selection and Sign-off

Based on the ranking, the highest ranked concepts can be selected
for further development.
11
February 2011
Product time to market
Avoid reworks in design

implementation
Documented in single file
Visual communication of
concepts
Easily adaptable
Benefits of Implementing 10 Easy Steps for Concept

Selection
Enables the project team to complete their concept

design phase successfully in every project
Improves the new product time to market success rate
Enhances the project team contribution and customer
confidence during the concept design phase of the
project
Enables systematic validation of concepts
Maximizes organizations value among competitors
Reduces project expense during concept design phase
Reduces organizational risks on the best concept
selection for new products
Simplifies the concept selection process
Avoids reworks during the design implementation
phase
Easily adaptable for any new product development
process
All the generated concepts are documented in a single
file that can be referred for future purpose
Acts as a visual communication tool for the evaluation
12
February 2011
Conclusion
Over the years, HCL has developed some very good tools for the
selection of concepts. These tools enable us to identify good
concepts easily. Depending on the types of product, the selection
process needs to be customized. It is imperative to develop a
process based on the product type. With rich experience in
developing products for different fields such as Aero and Medical
Devices, and a range of products within the Medical Devices field
such as Orthopedics and Diagnostics, HCL was able to implement a
proper and easy way of selecting good concepts.
13
February 2011
About the Authors
Tamilnambi N A has over 11 years of

experience in new product design and
development on electro mechanical products that
include 4 years of medical product design. He has
worked in Patient Monitoring VAVE project, Breast
Biopsy Device development, and Cryo Ablation
System development. He is a PMP certified
professional.
Sivaprakash S has over 6 years of experience

in new product design and development on
electro- mechanical products including 2 years of
medical product design. He has worked in Cryo
Ablation System development and Nerve
monitoring systems.
14
Hello, Im from HCLs Engineering and R&D Services. We enable

technology led organizations to go to market with innovative products &
solutions. We partner with our customers in building world class
products & creating the associated solution delivery ecosystem to help
build market leadership. Right now, 14500+ of us are developing
engineering products, solutions and platforms across Aerospace and
Defense, Automotive, Consumer Electronics, Industrial Manufacturing,
Medical Devices, Networking & Telecom, Office Automation,
Semiconductor, Servers & Storage for our customers.
For more details contact eootb@hcl.com
Follow us on twitter http://twitter.com/hclers
http://ers.hclblogs.com/
and
our
blog
Visit our website http://www.hcltech.com/engineering-services/
About HCL
About HCL Technologies
HCL Technologies is a leading global IT services company, working
with clients in the areas that impact and redefine the core of their
businesses. Since its inception into the global landscape after its IPO in
1999, HCL focuses on transformational outsourcing, underlined by
innovation and value creation, and offers integrated portfolio of services
including software-led IT solutions, remote infrastructure management,
engineering and R&D services and BPO. HCL leverages its extensive
global offshore infrastructure and network of offices in 26 countries to
provide holistic, multi-service delivery in key industry verticals including
Financial Services, Manufacturing, Consumer Services, Public Services
and Healthcare. HCL takes pride in its philosophy of Employee First
which empowers our 72,267 transformers to create a real value for the
customers. HCL Technologies, along with its subsidiaries, had
st
consolidated revenues of US$ 3.1 billion (Rs. 14,101 crores), as on 31
December 2010 (on LTM basis).For more information, please visit
www.hcltech.com
About HCL Enterprise
HCL is a $5.5 billion leading global technology and IT enterprise
comprising two companies listed in India - HCL Technologies and HCL
Infosystems. Founded in 1976, HCL is one of India's original IT garage
start-ups. A pioneer of modern computing, HCL is a global
transformational enterprise today. Its range of offerings includes
product engineering, custom & package applications, BPO, IT
infrastructure services, IT hardware, systems integration, and
distribution of information and communications technology (ICT)
products across a wide range of focused industry verticals. The HCL
team consists of over 77,000 professionals of diverse nationalities, who
operate from 29 countries including over 500 points of presence in
India. HCL has partnerships with several leading Global 1000 firms,
including leading IT and technology firms. For more information, please
visit www.hcl.com

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10 Easy Steps & Powerful Techniques to

Select the Right Concept for your Medical

Acronyms (Page No.)

Product launch at right

Why should you revisit the current development process?

How to select the best

Usually, in most of the projects, the concept generation and

There are several problems or challenges as these that are

Weightage allocation and

Establish Base concept

Team formation and KT

Selection and Sign-off

10 Easy Steps for Concept Selection

Ranking on ideas- Create a common

Once the allocation of weightage for each CF is done, define how to

The very important part of this exercise is to get the concurrence of

Critical new product design requirements and its

The best practice is to provide hardcopies of the critical

review checklist to ensure 100% coverage of

Step 5: Generate Concepts

Get the same exercise carried out by the client team or

Capture the understandings and assumptions made

2. Concept Average weighted score calculation

The same exercise will be performed for the rest of the

Step 7: Concept Ranking

2. Mix and match the best features of the selected concepts

Step 10: Best Concept Selection and Sign-off

Product time to market

Avoid reworks in design

Documented in single file

Benefits of Implementing 10 Easy Steps for Concept

Enables the project team to complete their concept

About the Authors

Tamilnambi N A has over 11 years of

Sivaprakash S has over 6 years of experience

Hello, Im from HCLs Engineering and R&D Services. We enable

Visit our website http://www.hcltech.com/engineering-services/

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