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Introduction to the design to retire end-to-end business process for introducing new products

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Applies to: Dynamics 365 Commerce, Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Dynamics 365 Customer Service Insights, Dynamics 365 Field Service, Dynamics 365 Marketing, Dynamics 365 Project Operations, Dynamics 365 Sales, Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, Microsoft Supply Chain Center

This article introduces the design to retire end-to-end business process. It outlines how Dynamics 365 products can help organizations manage and optimize their design to retire process. The design to retire process covers the process for introducing new tangible products. Learn more about service lifecycle management at Concept to market end-to-end overview.

Design to retire overview

Design to retire is the process of managing a product from its inception to its eventual end of life. The process typically begins with the development of a product offering idea, which is then refined and tested to ensure that it meets customer needs. After the product is launched, it's important to monitor its performance and make necessary adjustments to keep it competitive in the marketplace. As the product matures, you might want to update or refresh the design to maintain customer interest. Eventually, the product reaches the end of its useful life, and you retire it from the market. Throughout this process, product management requires careful attention to customer needs, market trends, and technological advancements to ensure that the product remains relevant and successful.

For the engineering-type products that are common in the manufacturing industry, the product and lifecycle management process can involve managing complex bills of materials (BOMs) or formulas. A BOM or formula lists all the parts and components that go into a product, and their relationships to each other. Management of a BOM requires careful attention to ensure that all components are available in the correct quantities, and that account lead times, availability, and cost are also considered. Some organizations offer products that are variable or configurable. In such cases, you can use the product configurator in Dynamics 365 to enable customers to select specific features and options for a product. The options that a customer can choose from are dynamically updated and control the BOM.

For retail organizations, the design to retire process often also involves merchandising. Merchandising is the process of selecting and presenting products to customers in a way that maximizes sales. It might include designing product packaging, creating promotional materials, and managing inventory levels to ensure that products are available when customers want them. Dynamics 365 Commerce includes several capabilities that help support the process of enhancing product information with attributes, categorizing products for easy navigation on a website, and relating products to each other. Examples include up-selling and cross-selling of products, and the use of AI to suggest products based on an analysis of products that other customers purchased. Effective product and lifecycle management requires collaboration among multiple teams, including engineering, manufacturing, marketing, and sales, to ensure that the product is successful throughout its lifecycle.

Important

The process that is defined here doesn't include the process for designing production routes. Learn more about that process at Plan to produce introduction.

Every organization has variations of the design to retire process. Here, we define the basic outline for any organization that is looking to implement a technology solution to support the design to retire process.

Impact

The design to retire process can have a significant impact on an organization's overall operations and effectiveness. A well-designed process can help organizations streamline product development, improve collaboration between teams, and ultimately deliver high-quality products to market faster.

By managing the entire product lifecycle in a single system such as Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, organizations can help reduce errors and delays that are caused by manual data entry or communication breakdowns between teams. The result can be more efficient product development cycles, because teams can quickly access and share product information, identify issues, and make necessary changes.

Moreover, the tools and features that are available in Dynamics 365 can help organizations better understand their products, the components of those products, and the performance of the products throughout their lifecycle. In this way, organizations can identify opportunities for cost savings, process improvements, and optimization of resources. By analyzing product data, organizations can gain insights into how to improve product design.

The design to retire process can help organizations improve their agility and responsiveness to changing market needs. By taking advantage of real-time visibility into product development and supply chain operations, organizations can quickly adjust to changes in customer demand, market trends, or supply chain disruptions.

By identifying potential issues early in the product development cycle, organizations can take corrective action before issues affect product quality or customer satisfaction. In this way, they can avoid costly product recalls or damage to their reputation.

Stakeholders

The implementation of Dynamics 365 to support the design to retire process requires involvement from multiple stakeholders across the organization. The following list shows some of the key stakeholders that should be involved in the implementation:

  • Product development teams: Product development teams are responsible for creating and managing product data, including BOMs, formulas, product configurations, and other related data.
  • Merchandising teams: The merchandising team is responsible for managing product assortments, product placement, and pricing strategies to drive sales and profitability. It must make sure that the system is properly configured to support its needs, including product categorization, a product hierarchy, pricing rules, and promotions management.
  • Manufacturing and supply chain teams: Manufacturing and supply chain teams are responsible for managing the production and delivery of products. They must make sure that the system is properly integrated with manufacturing and supply chain systems, and that data is properly managed.
  • Sales and marketing teams: Sales and marketing teams are responsible for creating and managing sales data, including pricing, promotions, and other related data. They must also make sure that the system is properly integrated with customer relationship management (CRM) systems.
  • Quality control teams: Quality control teams are responsible for ensuring that products meet quality standards, and that issues are identified and resolved. They must make sure that the system is properly integrated with quality control systems, and that data is properly managed.

In summary, the involvement of multiple stakeholders is critical for the successful implementation of Dynamics 365 to support the design to retire process. A cross-functional approach is needed to ensure that the system is properly configured, integrated, and optimized to meet the needs of the business.

Design to retire benefits

When your organization plans to implement Microsoft Business Applications to assist with the design to retire process, there are several benefits the solution can help provide. These key benefits should be used to determine whether the solution is a good fit for your business and to drive the specific business requirements for implementing the solution. As a side effect, these benefits can be used to create a baseline for your goals and objectives for the project, so that you can measure the success of implementing solutions to meet those business requirements.

Improved collaboration and productivity

When you use Dynamics 365 together with Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365, you can improve collaboration between teams by providing a centralized platform for managing product information. This approach can help reduce errors and delays that are caused by manual data entry or communication breakdowns between teams. Additionally, by automating manual processes for product development and supply chain operations, organizations can increase productivity and optimize resource use. By using Dynamics 365 and the real-time visibility that it provides into product development and supply chain operations, organizations can also be more agile and responsive to changing market needs.

Faster time-to-market

The Product information management module in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management can help organizations bring products to market faster. This module helps organizations streamline product development cycles, reduce errors and delays, and improve collaboration between teams. For manufactured products, the Engineering change management module can help support the design process and updates to products throughout the lifecycle.

Better quality and compliance

By managing the entire product lifecycle in a single system, organizations can identify and address quality issues early in the development cycle. In this way, they help reduce the risk of costly product recalls or damage to their reputation. Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management can help organizations improve compliance with regulatory requirements by providing a centralized platform for managing product information and ensuring that products meet regulatory standards.

Cost savings

Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management and Finance can help organizations identify opportunities for cost savings by optimizing product design, manufacturing processes, and supply chain efficiency. When you use Dynamics 365 together with advanced costing features such as Cost accounting or the Global Inventory Accounting add-in, even greater visibility and reporting capabilities are available.

Overall, the design to retire process can provide significant benefits to organizations, including improved collaboration, faster time-to-market, increased productivity, better quality, cost savings, greater agility, and improved compliance. Carefully consider these benefits when you evaluate whether Microsoft's business applications support the design to retire process in the right way for your organization.

Next steps

If you want to implement Dynamics 365 solutions to assist with your design to retire business processes, you can use the following resources and steps to learn more.

  1. Define the goals and objectives for a technology solution that supports the organization's need for a design to retire process. Learn more at Implementation strategy.

  2. Define the business process scope of your project. Learn more at Process-focused solution.

  3. Request a demo or get a free trial of Dynamics 365 solutions for the design to retire process. Learn more at Request a demo.

  4. Get an overview of the design to retire process. Learn more at design to retire overview.

You can use the following resources to learn more about the design to retire process in Dynamics 365.