1.1 Research & Development (R&D)

The Research & Development Department controls the company's product line. The line currently has five sensor models and can grow to as many as eight.

Your customers are concerned with four product characteristics:

• Size: How much the sensor weighs and the amount of space it takes;
• Performance: How fast the sensor measures and reports physical conditions;
• Reliability: How long the sensor lasts before it fails;
• Age: The amount of time since the sensor was invented or revised.

As time goes by, customers want smaller, more powerful sensors. Keeping customer requirements in mind, the department updates existing sensor designs. R&D also invents new products by assigning a name (the first letter must be the same as the first letter of the company name), performance, size and reliability.

Tip: The Production Department must purchase capacity and automation for all new products one year prior to release.

The length of time required to revise a sensor varies. Slight revisions can complete in three or four months; more comprehensive projects, the better part of a year. Inventing a sensor always takes more than a year. The longer the project, the greater the cost: a six month project costs $500,000; a 12 month project costs $1,000,000. Products with production lines that have higher automation require more time to revise than products with lower automation.