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Overview of the Design to retire process areas for introducing new products

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

The design to retire process is broken down into business process areas for categorizing products, introducing new products, maintaining product data, organizing and assigning product attributes and catalogs, designing and configuring manufactured products, controlling product engineering changes, defining product costing, managing product pricing, managing product assortments and catalogs, and managing product lifecycle. The following sections further describe these business process areas.

The design to retire process covers the process for introducing new tangible products. Learn more about bringing services to market at Concept to market.

Define product catalog and strategy

This business process area involves categorizing products based on various attributes, such as the product type, product line, service type, and brand. The exact categories in your organization vary, depending on the types of products that you offer, their complexity, and the industry. Categorization helps organize products and makes it easier for customers to find what they are looking for. Internally, categorization helps you report and analyze trends for your products. Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management and Commerce support the creation of category hierarchies to further enhance the discoverability of your products. Learn more at Define product catalog and strategy overview.

In addition, this business process area involves defining and managing product assortments and catalogs. These processes involve determining which products to offer, creating and maintaining catalogs, and managing inventory levels. Effective management of product assortments and catalogs can help organizations optimize sales and minimize costs.

Finally, this business process area involves organizing and assigning product attributes such as color, size, style, and configuration to products. Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management also supports unlimited custom-defined attributes that can be used for reporting and analysis. They can also be shown in the point of sale (POS) or website when you use Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management together with Commerce. Additionally, you can create catalogs to group related products together. When products are organized in this way, customers can more easily find products, and organizations can more easily manage and analyze their product data.

Learn more at Categorize, segment, and merchandise products and services by using Dynamics 365 applications.

Introduce new products

Every organization has a process for developing and introducing new products to the market. The process includes idea generation, concept development, product design, testing, and launch. Office 365 includes a variety of tools to help you remain organized, and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management includes tools, such as a configurable workflow, to help with the business process flow of introducing new products. For more basic products, you can also design a business process flow in Dynamics 365 Sales. When you're ready to test new products and advertise them, Dynamics 365 Customer Insights includes a variety of tools to help with the process. A well-managed introduction of new products can help organizations remain competitive and meet customer needs.

Organizations that design or manufacture products have additional processes. Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management supports these processes by helping with the design and configuration of manufactured products, including the creation of product designs, bills of materials (BOMs) or formulas, and routing information (manufacturing steps). We also support simpler scenarios where kits or bundles are assembled either in a store or warehouse, for example. Efficient product design and configuration can help organizations reduce costs and improve product quality.

This business process area involves controlling changes that are made to product designs and configurations, to ensure that the changes are properly documented, approved, and communicated to all relevant stakeholders. Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management includes a robust Engineering change management module to help organizations manage product changes. Effective change control can help organizations minimize the risk of product defects and improve product quality.

Learn more at Introduce new products overview.

Define product costing

All organizations must analyze and define the costs that are associated with manufacturing and delivering products. These costs include direct material costs, direct labor costs, and overhead costs. Dynamics 365 Sales includes functionality for assigning basic costs to products. Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management includes more robust costing capabilities. Examples include multiple costing methodologies, such as last in, first out (LIFO), first in, first out (FIFO), standard, and average costing, and cost calculations and roll-ups for manufactured or purchased products, including indirect cost calculations for overheads. An understanding of product costs is essential for setting prices and making informed business decisions.

Learn more at Define product costing overview.

Manage product pricing

After you define costs, you can start to manage and define product prices, based on factors such as cost, competition, and customer demand. Effective pricing strategies can help organizations improve profitability and maintain a competitive advantage. Dynamics 365 Sales includes basic sales pricing functionality. Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management has a pricing engine that includes trade agreements, price lists, customer loyalty programs, promotions, and discounts to help determine the best price.

Learn more at Manage product pricing overview.

Manage product lifecycle

This business process area involves managing the entire lifecycle of a product, from ideation to retirement. Management of the product lifecycle involves making strategic decisions about product development, pricing, and marketing, to help ensure that the product remains profitable and relevant to the market.

Learn more at Manage product lifecycle overview.

Next steps

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

  1. Design to retire introduction
  2. Design to retire end-to-end overview
  3. Learn about the business process catalog at About the business process catalog for Dynamics 365 apps and services

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