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- QUESTION
This project offers you a chance to research a real product case. In this project, you are responsible for identifying a real-life product that, by your definition, failed. You can document the product development process and identifying product failure
reasons. People very often pay attention to the easy to find excuses, such as the color of a product, the lack of a function, and/or the shape of a product, etc. In this project, I would strongly recommend you to dig into the development process and the management that failed the product. The point here is the root cause within the overall system that introduced a failed product to the market. If the process/management were to continue, future products to come would, with good probabilities, keep failing. Analyze why the process/management was in place and recommending what could be done differently to avoid repeating the mistake. In summary, you will need to include in your project:
2.A product that failed by your definition. So, define the failure.
O The market/technological condition and economic environment at the time of the product.
O Firm history and related operational issues at the time
3.Document the process and product management.
O The development process that gave birth to the product.
O Noticeable process and management mistakes and/or deficiencies
o What/why process/management system was followed at the time
o How the mistakes and/or weaknesses led to failure.
4.Your suggestions and recommendations:
O What to change
O What would you do, i.e., suggested changes
5.Search for third party information, such as professional journal/magazines, website discussion, and/or analyst’s opinion etc., to support your argument.
6.Submit your write-up as a position paper.
O Format: No more than 3 pages, No less
O Title page: Not required
Microsoft Word format
O Font: Times New Roman or Book Antiqua, Font Size: 12
O Spacing: Double, Margin: 1”
O Three to Five references from reputed sources journals/magazines (Wikipedia, Blogs not acceptable)
| Subject | Business | Pages | 5 | Style | APA |
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Answer
Product Failure: Samsung Galaxy Note 7
Introduction
The adverse effects of product failure in an organization and within a market cannot be underestimated. Product failure can not only translate to loss of revenue for an organization, but it can also lead to loss of lives since the failure can in fact be hazardous for consumers. This was the case with Samsung Galaxy Note 7. The phone is an android Smartphone and it was considered as one of the latest gadgets in the global market. It was first released in August 2016 and its display/type size is super capacitive touchscreen. Although this was considered a sleek gadget, it ended up being a product failure because a considerable number of the phones would overheat and explode, and this posed a grave hazard to users. The end result is that the phones were recalled by the manufacturer. This paper will provide an illustration of the product development process for Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and the reasons behind the product failure.
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Failure
Throughout the course of investigations appertaining to the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 failure, one hypothesis that was being considered was whether the failure was brought about by the phone's battery. The phone was being powered by a Lithium-ion battery (Loveridge et al., 2017).The investigations revealed that there was "evidence of cracking of electrode material in tightly folded areas, combined with a delaminating of surface coating on the separator, which itself is an unusually thin monolayer" (Loveridge et al., 2017, p. 1). It was further revealed that although the batteries being used were considered statistically safe, the electrode damage within the tightly folded areas coupled with the fact that there was a weak interfacial bonding within the ceramic layer, there was sufficient proof that the mishap had been brought about by the batteries that were being used (Loveridge et al., 2017). There was also evidence to the effect that the damage had not been caused by Samsung's manufacturing procedures since the "thermal measurements of the cell under charge and discharge showed temperature differentials within the cell which are within expected ranges, and gave no evidence that thermal design was a contributory factor" (Loveridge et al., 2017, p. 9). A formidable argument was essentially brought forth to the extent that the failure was due to the batteries that had been used by Samsung.
A management crisis that further exasperated the failure emanated from the omission from accepting and valuing customer feedback. When customers provided their account of the problems they were experiencing with Samsung Galaxy Note 7, the company was skeptical about accepting the information, reviews and feedback provided by customers. Samsung officials did not endeavor to document, evaluate, and act upon the problems that had been presented in a timely fashion (Thomas, Zeron, & O’Rourke, 2017). This meant that the product failure continued to be publicized even as more and more people came forward with the same complaint. Considering the fact that the company provide their products and services directly to the clients, it is imperative that a clear customer feedback policy is available. The lack of such a policy is a systemic issue that ought to be addressed.
Given that Samsung has presented a formidable argument to the effect that the product failure they experienced arose from the phone’s batteries, the suggestion and recommendation is that whenever Samsung employs the services of a third party, such as the producers of the phone batteries, it is imperative that they take their due diligence and ensure that their quality management system thoroughly evaluates the efficacy of the product they are receiving (Green, B., & Passenger, 2017). This will reduce the possibility of engaging in blame-shifting. When this is done, it is plausible that the rate of failure will reduce.
As aforementioned, when customers first reported the problems they were experiencing with Samsung Galaxy Note 7, Samsung was skeptical about receiving the information in a positive manner. The result is that more and more cases continued to be reported, and before the product was finally recalled, the failure had brought about tremendous negative publicity. In light of this, it is imperative that Samsung establishes a comprehensive plan that pertains to the manner in which customer feedback will be received and acted upon (Mourtzis et al., 2018). This will serve to protect the company's popularity.
Product failure carries numerous adverse consequences because it not only translates to loss of revenue but it can also pose a hazardous risk to consumers. Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was first released in 2016 and although it was regarded as a sleek product, signs of product failure started showing soon after even as the phone would overheat and explode. The failure is said to have been brought about by the batteries used to power the gadgets as well as with lack of proper reception of customer feedback and an effective problem solving procedure. This paper suggests that Samsung's quality management system should thoroughly evaluate the efficacy of the smartphone parts and components they receive. Moreover, a more comprehensive customer feedback system should be adopted.
References
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Green, B., & Passenger, S. A. F. (2017). Samsung Electronics Company, Ltd.: Galaxy Note 7 Crisis. Mourtzis, D., Vlachou, E., Zogopoulos, V., Gupta, R. K., Belkadi, F., Debbache, A., & Bernard, A. (2018). Customer feedback gathering and management tools for product-service system design. Procedia Cirp, 67, 577-582. Loveridge, M. J., Remy, G., Kourra, N., Genieser, R., Barai, A., Lain, M. J., ... & Ellis, M. (2018). Looking deeper into the Galaxy (Note 7). Batteries, 4(1), 3. Thomas, E., Zeron, A., & O’Rourke, J. S. (2017). Samsung Electronics Company, Ltd.: Galaxy Note 7 Crisis. The Eugene D. Fanning Center for Business Communication, Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame.
Appendix
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