Product Design: Techniques in Reverse Engineering and New Product Development

I've purchased this book from Allied Publishers Pvt. Ltd., Chennai, on 01/03/2004 at 3150/-! I read it only partially setting aside engineering aspects of product design, since these were redundant for my Marketing course. It really helped me alot both for my course and to inform about the massive unknown world of product development at large.

This is the book those of us teaching product design in universities have been waiting for. I can't think of any area of product design and development that Otto and Wood haven't covered, and in real depth. I teach a course in product design at Ohio State, and this will be the book we'll use from now on. I especially appreciate the extensive references, and the emphasis placed on looking at real products to learn how to design better products. The chapter on product architecture is really a godsend - these are concepts that most engineering students don't run into in the standard curriculum, but they're crucial to sound product development. In short, an amazingly useful book, and one that will certainly be around for a long time to come.

I am a long-time NPD practioner and have supported teams on developing and launching products from diagnostic instruments to cell phones to heavy constructin equipment to jet engines.I first came across Otto and Wood while supporting DFSS teams at Ford where they proved themselves to me. Otto and Wood have a solid, book that takes the reader through the launch / commercialization steps from the "S-Curve" of product evolution discussed by Christensen's Disruptive Innovation to Capturing the Voice-of-the-Customer to Function Analysis through Product Architecture and Robust Design / Taguchi Experimentation.A solid resource if you are a serious NPD practicioner whether on the product managment or engineering side.However, I do wish the editors has done a better job. The book has sections which are easily-to-read, topics well articulated and easy to understand while other sections are unnecessarily dense and while the content is in the book, it must be extracted with tweezers and dental picks.Still, overall worth the read and effort.

At the risk of being overly dramatic, If you buy no other book for new product development, buy this one. Whether you are just building a new product development process or trying to step up to Design for Six Sigma, Kevin Otto's book describes a clear process and the right tools at the right time. As a Chief Engineer or R&D V.P. this is a must for your toolkit.Joe Sener, V.P. Business ExcellenceBaxter International

Great reference text. Only reason it's not a five star is at times it lacks detail. It has a lot of content but at times seems to be trying to cover too much at once. Therefore it's a great single book to have, but if you want detail look else where to start your collection

it's a text book. buy it. use it. resell it.