Quantifying robust product performance

The in-use performance of consumer goods such as laundry detergents, shampoos, personal wash products and the like are a function of both the intrinsic properties of the product, and the conditions under which the end user (consumer) uses the product. The first are under control of the product manufacturer. The second are difficult to control (some conditions such as water hardness are not under the consumer’s control, and for those that are, use instructions as to e.g. dosage are rarely followed precisely); consequently usage conditions tend to vary widely.

This poses a specific problem for product innovation. Product performance in laboratory tests may be a number, or a set of numbers; but product performance in the market is a stochastic variable with a distribution of values. This issue is generally recognized, and the term performance robustness refers to the degree to which performance is unaffected by variations in use conditions.

However product robustness ignores our knowledge of how customers appreciate their products. E.g. one bad experience outweighs many good ones. The relevant question to ask when comparing prototype products during development is: “What percentage of targeted consumers will experience satisfactory performance?” By focussing on this question, multiple performance criteria and robustness aspects are all translated into a single number. This enables easy product comparisons and gives a method to combine market and technical aspects.

Novidec offers methodologies so you can design your product for customer satisfaction.

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