Production Process
Let us begin our discussion with the production process. The production process for any project begins soon after the research and development department finalises the design/development of the product. The project under reference may be any one of the following types or combination of any of them:
- Collaborative project: In this type, the project collaborator will arrange to provide the complete know-how to the project producer/contractor. The transfer of know-how will be in the form of detailed technical drawings, processes, technology, equipments used and so on, for the producer to manufacture the equipment and market the same directly or through the collaborator. Transfer of technology in case of complex projects takes place in phases, spread over a period to facilitate organising/absorption of the same by the recipient. On many occasions, the producer develops a part of the equipment or units and the collaborator develops a part of it .The project shapes to total equipment for an application after integration. This normally happens when a project design involves a multidisciplinary technology, where each one of the company is specialised in their field. The benefits of collaborated projects are easy availability of technology for projects with no development hassles at a cost of course. However, the producer/marketer should hasten up to absorb the technology, produce and market the same to get returns to cover up investment before it is outdated.
- Total in house development project: In this type of project, the project is totally developed in house with each Research and Development (R & D) group specialising in their own field and developing their part of the equipment. The development cycle for the project takes its own toll due to the cycle time, with the result that only companies existing in the product field can afford to take up.
- Integrators: In the present age of high tech equipment for complex projects, companies resort to design a system with bought out units and sub unit from different manufacturers specialised in each of them. The system designer integrates these units, tests them and conducts field trials before installing the same to complete the project. Any new product has to go through the product life cycle of introduction, growth, maturity and decline. Time scales in each of these stages vary depending on the nature of the project, the technology involved in it and so on. Projects of certain nature like drugs and pharmaceuticals involve a long cycle and extensive field trials before the approvals by statutory authorities prior to release.