Product Integrity
Consider the headlines from the past few years. Leading automotive manufacturers have been forced to recall millions of their vehicles due to design issues, resulting in billions of dollars in losses ― along with devastating impact on their brands following a firestorm of lawsuits and negative publicity. The massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010, caused by a pipeline failure in a deep-water oil rig, dominated headlines for months and ravaged the reputations of several companies. Even leading consumer electronics providers have experienced financial setbacks and PR black eyes because of engineering and design issues.
Smart companies like yours understand the link between your products are actually a promise to your customers. They know that, in the age of YouTube, Twitter and the 24-hour news cycle, a single product failure can have devastating effects on your brand. Even in the absence of a formal recall, corporate reputations suffer every time a product fails to perform as expected.
One definition of product integrity comes from the Harvard Business Review: "Products with integrity perform superbly, provide good value and satisfy customers' expectations in every respect, including such intangibles as their look and feel." Simply put, these products live up to their promise. They don't fail unexpectedly. They work as advertised. And often, they exceed the expectations of their users. The positive value of these products on an organization's brand can be just as powerful.
The issue of product integrity is no longer relegated to the R&D departments or the production lines. It's become a C-level concern. At the end of the day, most brands live and die by their product. If that product doesn't perform, the brand suffers ― along with employee morale, the bottom line, shareholder value, etc. What could be more important to executives than those issues?
How can businesses realistically balance these pressures and also achieve high levels of product integrity ― products that perform superbly, provide good value, and satisfy customer's expectations in every respect? For a number of global leaders, the answer lies in using advanced engineering simulation tools to ensure product integrity from the earliest stages of development.
