When I was in College, I used to work with 5.25" and 3.5" floppies for storing data. These days those floppies are not to be found, instead we have CDs or the pendrive and more recently everything is going to the all pervasive CLOUD .. The earlier typewriters, VCR, analog cameras etc have all disappeared - they have gone past their life cycles. Products have their life cycles.
The product life cycle (PLC) is the period of time over which an item is developed, brought to market and eventually removed from the market. It is an important tool for analysis and planning of the marketing mix activity - ijert.org
Click here to understand the different stages in the Product Life Cycle ..
How can we prolong the life of a product ? What are the benefits that acrue to the organisation producing it ? What are the bad impacts of not allowing things to die out a natural death ?
What is the role of innovation in shortening the PLC ? What role can Operations play in the PLC ? Is prolonging of the PLC beneficial ? Does customers have an important role to play in deciding the PLCs ?
I was surprised to read the other day that the PLC of an electronic consumer gadget is just 7 months. ie. right from the start of the design, to development, useful life and withdrawal stage, it is just 7 months. The manufacturer thus has to plan to plan for an effective 4 months effective product usage period in the market which yields the greatest returns.
PLC analysis thus needs to be carried out to ensure better returns.
George
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