...The Product Life Cycle A product's life cycle (PLC) can be divided into several stages characterized by the revenue generated by the product. If a curve is drawn showing product revenue over time, it may take one of many different shapes, an example of which is shown below: Product Life Cycle Curve The life cycle concept may apply to a brand or to a category of product. Its duration may be as short as a few months for a fad item or a century or more for product categories such as the gasoline-powered automobile. Product development is the incubation stage of the product life cycle. There are no sales and the firm prepares to introduce the product. As the product progresses through its life cycle, changes in the marketing mix usually are required in order to adjust to the evolving challenges and opportunities. Introduction Stage When the product is introduced, sales will be low until customers become aware of the product and its benefits. Some firms may announce their product before it is introduced, but such announcements also alert competitors and remove the element of surprise. Advertising costs typically are high during this stage in order to rapidly increase customer awareness of the product and to target the early adopters. During the introductory stage the firm is likely to incur additional costs associated with the initial distribution of the product. These higher costs coupled with a low sales volume usually make the introduction stage a period of negative profits...
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...4. Managing the customer life cycle. Theory and practice in the company. Customer life cycle (CLC) is a representation of the stages that customers go through in their relationship with a company, as seen from the customer perspective (Buttle & Maklan, 2015). The lifecycle can be separated into main 3 stages which are customer acquisition, customer retention and customer development. 4.1 Customer Acquisition Customer acquisition is the first stage of CLC. Customer acquisition is the process of acquiring new customers for business or converting existing prospect into new customers (Customer Acquisition - Meaning and its Process, n.d.). New customer is a must to be acquired by a company no matter you are new company or well established company....
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...Costing Systems 2 Identifying the full range of sustainability impacts a vital stage in better decision making. A number of companies have begun the transition to improved social and environmental cost accounting using methodologies such as activity-based costing (ABC), life-cycle assessment (LCA), and full cost accounting (FCA) (Epstein, 2008). ABC assumes that activities related to products, services, and customers cause the costs. ABC first assigns costs to the activities performed by the organization (direct labor, employee training, regulatory compliance) and then attributes these costs to products, customers, and services based on a cause-and-effect relationship (Epstein, 2008) The main advantages of ABC include an assessment of costs of individual activities, based on their use of resources; accurate costing of activities to be obtained throughout an organization; ease of identification where high (and low) costs are being incurred (and the cause), and serving as a valuable tool for both business and process improvement. It also helps with future product planning; ie: the cost of all activities associated with a product or service can be accurately determined before it is launched. This can then help with determining pricing, and any associated expenditure. However there are disadvantages to ABC as well. It may be difficult to set up or establish, particularly if an organization is using more traditional accounting methodologies. It can be time consuming if...
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...evolution of their sustainability principles and broad plans for implementation. In the 1980s the environmental concerns were primarily pollution control and prevention with a focus on reducing emissions from existing manufacturing processes. During this period the company made significant improvement in pollution control and prevention, risk management, and facility improvements such as reducing toxic materials and emissions. In the 1990s the focus shifted to product stewardship, which emphasizes earlier intervention to minimize environmental impacts associated with the full life cycle of a product. The product stewardship function focused on developing global processes for tracking and managing regulatory compliance issues, customer inquiry response systems, information management, public policy shaping, product take-back programs, green packaging, and integrating “design for the environment” and life cycle analysis into product development processes. Today the company realizes that pollution prevention and product stewardship have become baseline market expectations and that to be an environmental leader in this century, a company needs to integrate environmental sustainability into its fundamental business strategy. This company realizes that it must redefine its core business utilizing the principles of the 3 “E’s”: Environmental, Economic and Equitable (social) sustainability. The reasons...
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...future activities. Consequently decisions in this area are some of the most fundamental that managers must make. 2. List some of the things that product and service design does. 1)Translates customer wants and needs into product and service requirements. 2)Refine existing products and services. 3)Develops new products and/or services 4)Formulates quality goals, and cost targets. 3. Give a few examples for each of these major reasons for design or redesign: Economic -low demand, excessive warranty claims, the need to reduce costs. social and demographic -Aging baby boomers, population shifts. political, liability, legal -Government changes, safety issues, new regulations. Competitive -New or changes products or services, new advertising/promotions cost or availability -Raw materials, components, labor, water, energy Technological -Product components, processes 4. What are the key questions of product and service design? 1)Is there demand for it? What is the potential size of the market, and what is the expected demand profile? 2)Can we do it? Do we have the necessary knowledge, skills, equipment, capacity, and supply chain capability? 3)What level of quality is appropriate? What do customers expect? What level of quality do competitors provide for similar items? 4) Does it make sense from an economic standpoint? What are the potentional liability issues, ethical considerations, sustainability...
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...Life Cycle Assessment study of starch products for the European starch industry association (AAF): sector study Vercalsteren An, Dils Evelien, Boonen Katrien Study accomplished under the authority of the European starch industry association (AAF) 2011/TEM/R/104 August 2012 All rights, amongst which the copyright, on the materials described in this document rest with the Flemish Institute for Technological Research NV (“VITO”), Boeretang 200, BE-2400 Mol, Register of Legal Entities VAT BE 0244.195.916. Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents ________________________________________________________________ 3 List of Figures ___________________________________________________________________ 4 List of Tables ____________________________________________________________________ 5 CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2 2.1. 2.2. 2.3. Introduction ________________________________________________________ 7 Definition of goal and scope ___________________________________________ 9 9 9 10 Introduction Goal definition Scope definition CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4 4.1. Life cycle data inventory _____________________________________________ 15 life cycle impact assessment __________________________________________ 19 19 LCIA methodology 4.2. Environmental profiles of starch products 20 4.2.1. Environmental profile of native starches _________________________________ 20 4.2.2. Environmental profile of liquid glucose (including Glucose and Fructose syrups) __ 20 4.3. Carbon...
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...master thesis work at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg. The project was performed at Akzo Nobel Surface Chemistry Sweden and at the department of Environmental System Analysis (ESA) at Chalmers. Sver ker Molander at ESA and Karin Sanne at Akzo Nobel have been the supervisors for this thesis work and we’d like to thank both of them for their support and their many good ideas. Additional thanks goes to the employees at Akzo Nobel Surface Chemistry Support Unit Sweden and to everyone we have been in contact with when collecting data to this thesis. Thank you! Göteborg, May 2004 Stefan Bengtsson Li Sjöborg Summary As the awareness of environmental problems increases so does the demands and guidelines from legislations and customers that deal with the environmental problems of the industries products and manufacturing processes. For a large international chemical company such as Akzo Nobel these increasing demands lead to costs for administrative work, taxes, testing, additional staff and investments. The aim of this study is to determine the properties of these “environmental costs” for the products of a chemical company. The study has focused on the production of two colorants. A surfactant (Berol 09), used in the older colorant formulation, contains nonyl phenol ethoxylate, a substance with potentially toxic properties. The newer colorant formulation contains another surfactant (Bermodol SPS 2532) that was developed as an environmentally favorable alternative to...
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...FedEx and the Life-Cycle Cost Embry-Riddle University Worldwide MGMT 422 Stephen Walker 26 January 2013 By Ahmadou Diallo Abstract Life cycle cost LCC is a management accounting tool used is a method for assessing the total cost of system from costs of acquiring, owning, and disposing of it. This methodology is essential in predicting cost-effective solutions though it not guaranteeing a particular result; therefore allowing the firm initiate rational comparison between alternative solutions. Introduction Life Cycle Cost (LCC) is the total lifespan cost incurred by an organization in purchasing, installing, operating, maintaining, and disposing off any equipment used in daily operations of the firm. In regard to this, estimation of LCC encompasses using a particular approach in identifying and quantifying components of an LCC equation (Pehnt, 2006). The use of LCC as an assessment tool when selecting possible design alternatives results in the provision of a cost-effective solution within limits of available data. In addition, a standard LCC comprises initial and operation costs, installation and commissioning costs, energy costs as well as disposal costs among others. System Requirements The management of FedEx gives particular emphasis on the initial purchasing and installation cost of new systems. In line with this, the firm’s top managers are supposed to explain LCC of various solutions prior to the installation of new equipment. The initiation of strong LCC...
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...Industry Life Cycle Evidence on entry, exit, firm survival, innovation and firm structure in new industries is reviewed to assess whether industries proceed through regular cycles as they age. A leading depiction of the evolution of new industries, the product life cycle, is used to organize the evidence it is shown that the product life cycle captures the way many industries evolve through their formative eras, but regular patterns occur when industries are mature that are not predicted by the product life cycle. Regularities in entry, exit, firm survival and firm structure are also developed for industries whose evolution departs significantly from the product life cycle. Definition of 'Industry Lifecycle' A concept relating to the different stages an industry will go through, from the first product entry to its eventual decline. There are typically five stages in the industry lifecycle. They are defined as: i. Early Stages Phase - alternative product design and positioning, establishing the range and boundaries of the industry itself. Ii.Inovation Phase - Product innovation declines, process innovation begins and a "dominant design" will arrive. iii. Cost or Shakeout Phase - Companies settle on the "dominant design"; economies of scale are achieved, forcing smaller players to be acquired or exit altogether. Barriers to entry become very high, as large-scale consolidation occurs. iv. Maturity - Growth is no longer the main focus, market share and cash flow become...
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...3 Case study on Plastics : PET Bottle Life Cycle of Plastics Crude Oil Polymer Product Use Waste Recovery Polymer Product Use Overview of PET bottle recycling Containers and Packaging Recycling Law Specified business entities Fiber Industry (wash, crash, melt, spin) Bottle Industry Obligation to recycle Local governments (deporimerization) Consumers Selective collection and storage Selective discarding Players Producers n n n n Plant designers Product designers Energy suppliers Related industrial sectors Consumers Municipal and governmental authorities Waste treatment agencies Role of KIH ‘configuration engine’ To inform players of their role in life cycle as a stakeholder To accumulate knowledge/information of life cycle from information suppliers To interpret massive life cycle data with transparency for rational decision making 1. 2. 3. Overview of PET bottle recycling Containers and Packaging Recycling Law Specified business entities Fiber Industry (wash, crash, melt, spin) Bottle Industry Obligation to recycle Local governments (deporimerization) Consumers Selective collection and storage Selective discarding Objective of this case study To develop a ‘configuration engine’, which takes LCA as an environmental metric concurrently with an economic metric, for chemical process designer, To clarify steps, tools and information in a form of business-model. To show actual design...
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...fleet, three scenarios of introduction of 10–30% fuel cell vehicles including plug-in hybrids configurations were analysed. Considering the scenarios of increasing hydrogen based vehicles penetration, up to 10% life cycle energy consumption reduction can be obtained if hydrogen from centralized natural gas reforming is considered. Full life cycle CO2 emissions can also be reduced up to 20% in these scenarios, while local pollutants reach up to 85% reductions. For the purpose of estimating road vehicle technologies energy consumption and CO2 emissions in a full life cycle perspective, fuel cell, conventional full hybrids and hybrid plug-in technologies were considered with diesel, gasoline, hydrogen and biofuel blends. Energy consumption values were estimated in a real road driving cycle and with ADVISOR software. Materials cradle-to-grave life cycle was estimated using GREET database adapted to Europe electric mix. The main conclusions on CO2 full life cycle analysis is that lightduty vehicles using fuel cell propulsion technology are highly dependent on hydrogen production pathway. The worst scenario for the current Portuguese and European electric mix is hydrogen produced from on-site electrolysis (in the refuelling stations). In this case full life cycle CO2 is 270 g/km against 190 g/km for conventional Diesel vehicle, for a typical 150,000 km...
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...Individual Assignment 2: LCA of two products Life Cycle Assessment of Nissan Cars *ASR: Automobile Shredder Residue. ASR is what remains after material recycling is done to recover as much ferrous and non-ferrous metallic material as possible from the automobile shredder residue. Nissan conducted LCAs since the early 1990s, and made quantitative comparisons to understand the environmental impact of materials that were changed in the following parts. * Radiators * Air conditioners * Front-end modules * Back doors Based on the results of the LCA Project carried out by the LCA Committee of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association from October 1997 to March 2001, Nissan reviewed in-house LCA methods and calculated results for major models. * May 2005: Inventory analysis was certified as being in accordance with the LCA method stipulated in JIS Q14040 by the Japan Environmental Management Association for Industry. Models that have undergone LCA: Skyline (made in Japan), Dualis (made in England) To develop more environmentally-friendly vehicles, LCAs are also conducted for new technologies that are introduced. These results are used to achieve the goals set out in the Nissan Green Program 2010* and the Nissan QCT-C* management policy, which clarify our environmental efforts. * *Nissan Green Program 2010: An environmental program that establishes activity plans and specific numerical targets for Nissan to...
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...The Life Cycle Project for Envi Studies 101 – Due April 3, 2013 Part 2 – Supplemental Information RVCC – Spring - 2013 The over-arching concern is where does a product come from, how is it made and used, and where does it ultimately go in old-age? And how do all these stages and elements of the process impact the environment? The real world is also complicated by the fact that it is not just a composite or final product that has a life cycle, but generally a number of the components within the product have a cycle that plays out too. Our goal then is to gain some degree of understanding of how everything we use goes through a chain of causation and usage that has potentially many impacts on resources, human life and planetary ecosystems. One approach to the research component of this project is given further below for a generic cell phone. You don’t have to follow the approach given for your product as long as what you do is logical, reasonably complete, clearly written and covers the key elements in a Life Cycle Analysis, which are: What are 2-3 key raw materials required to make the product? Perhaps Hydrocarbons (oil, coal or natural gas) are needed somewhere in the process of extracting, refining or processing of raw materials. Such carbon resources may be needed to make fuel, electricity, plastics, industrial chemicals, medicines, etc. Perhaps concrete or other industrial materials are required. Ore may be needed and require smelting for metals such...
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...optimize energy usage. This report is divided in two parts, carbon footprint calculations and water footprint calculation for major materials and recourses. Methodology and assumption This report is included some calculations based on assumption .Also some information about SMART building has been acquired from the builder. Complementary data, namely embodied factors has been obtained from recent reports and government website. The methodology has been applied in this report is based on analysing carbon foot print and water footprint in two main concept. First, embodied energy of materials has been used during the construction and then estimated energy consumption during operational time of SMART building. The building life is assumed to be 50 years. Carbon footprint of the SMART building In this...
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...the well being of both adults and children; this includes calcium, vitamins A, B & D. The history of milk began in the Neolithic age (the new stone age), a time when humans started the transition from hunting and gathering to a more settled way of life. Life Cycle of Milk Supply Chain: Environmental and societal impact of Milk; The dairy industry poses a number of challenges to the health of the environment- * Methane emission- this is release from cows’ during the digestion process either by belching or flatulence. Statistics vary on how much methane an average dairy cow expels on a daily basis. Some experts say 100 liters to 200 liters, while others say it's up to 500 liters a day. This amount of methane is comparable to pollution expelled by a vehicle * Carbon emission- according to studies carried out by the U.S dairy carbon footprint study, it showed that carbon footprint of a gallon of milk is approximately 17.6 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalents. This will usually occur during milk freight and distribution. * Water pollution-Disposal of organic wastes without treatment leads to pollution of water resources hence, causing a rapid growth of microscopic algae that kill fishes and other aquatic life. Furthermore, ammonia released from manure can lease to acid rain causing environmental harm. * Land conversion - The dairy industry is also responsible for majority of land conversion, particularly in the tropics, to grow the feed...
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