This years Integrated Product Development featured 1,071 votes tallied from around the world in the web competition (a new high), and 233 votes cast in the physical trade show.

The product class was very challenging this year, resulting in some teams being unable to complete their product in time to photograph it for the web. This resulted in variable levels of polish in the web sites, and a divergence of market shares. This situation was corrected in the physical trade show where all teams launched finished, functional products, and market shares flattened a bit. Still, the correlation between the web and physical trade show market shares was .67, so some ideas came through in both media.

The overall results in order of descending profits (web and trade show combined) are:

The market shares garnered by each product are
as follows:

The differences between market shares and final profitability were driven by:

a) Margins, some products were less costly to produce than others, and retail prices also varied widely. The margins for each product are as follows:

b) Inventory decisions, for example Quik Switch did very well in market share and had respectable margins, but overstocked by $1.6M which hurt their profitability. Bento stocked out and saw 6,776 units of potential demand go to other teams. Hip Grip hit it just about perfectly, not stocking out and having only 154 units remaining at the end of the competition!

Feedback to the instructors on product innovativeness, polish and functionality was overwhelmingly enthusiastic. Having trade show participants actually use these products to prepare food added a new dimension to the high level of excitement and engagement typical of IPD shows. This was, by all measures, a very successful year.

Hip Grip




Bento Kitchen




Su Chef




Enjoy




Omni




High Five




Quik Switch




Express Cuisine

For more information about the IPD course or trade shows,

please contact Tauber at (734) 647-0308 or email tauber.info@umich.edu