ABSTRACT

This chapter explores how an organization makes a final choice on a product to move forward into production. Different organizations have various methods for arriving at a selection. However, the brand, customer wants and needs, technical assumptions, and design goals all weigh heavily in the decision process. The chapter focuses on the Mustang as a case study of how an organization goes through a selection process. Once the design is frozen, a preproduction model must be prepared for theme selection and evaluation. After the Mustang development team had conducted extensive qualitative, quantitative consumer and market research, a decision was made to pursue a direction. However, it was quite clear that further design development needed to take place. After receiving various inputs from the design team and blending the best attributes, the Mustang design leadership had arrived at a final composition. This point in the process is known as a design freeze.