Hewlett-Packard Company: Network Printer Design for Universality

Hewlett-Packard Company: Network Printer Design for Universality

Many businesses began competing on other product dimensions than technological innovation alone which was HP’s main strength in the early 1990s. These other dimensions included product lines, low prices, broad availability and ease of use. In addition, customer service needed to improve during these times in order to stay competive, improve order fulfillment, increase customer satisfaction and reduce expenses. Apart from that, product life cycles have been shrinking to under three years since the 1990s because several considerable competitors had entered the market. Furthermore, other factors such as product availability and the quality of the product have resulted in an increasing pressure on HP’s competitiveness.

PH decided to improve its product development process. They decided to make use of cross-functional teams in order to stay competitive. The cross-functional teams bring specialists from all functional areas together to create a new product. These teams can solve problems early in the design cycle when the costs are still low. Furthermore, the different perspective of the team members make sure that the design decision is well chosen because of the balance that results from the combination of all the different perspectives involved.

The main benefits of the universal power supply for Rainbow is the decrease in product lead time. Currently, they use two distinct power supplies; one for North America and the other one for the European market. These are both produced in Japan. However, due to the long lead time for the printer engine manufacturing, HP had to specify the requirements of the two types of printers at least 14 weeks ahead. The time that it takes from the point of making the order by the Japanese partner to the point of receiving the product is in total about four weeks. If HP...