PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE OF COMPACT DISK

Introduction

Compact disc technology is one of the fastest growing industries of all time. Compact

discs became popular in the early 80’s due to its ability to offer increased audio performance

over traditional magnetic recording media. In 1983 over 30,000 players and 800,000 discs were

sold [6]. By 1990, this number had grown to a staggering 9.2 million players in the U. S., and

close to 1 billion discs worldwide. In 2004, the annual worldwide sales of CD-Audio, CD-ROM,

and CD-R reached about 30 billion. Today, Sony DADC is the leader in the industry and

produces about 410 CDs per day and ships up to 6.4 million discs daily. [1]

Compact disks are majority used for storing music. The study concentrated on life cycle

of Music CDs from the perspective of manufacturing process needed.

3.1 Product life cycle model description for C D

All products and services have certain life cycles. The life cycle refers to the period from

the product’s first launch into the market until its final withdrawal and it is split up in phases.

During this period significant changes are made in the way that the product is behaving into the

market i.e. its reflection in respect of sales to the company that introduced it into the market.

The unit sales of all the memory devices used to store the music are plotted in graph

shown in Figure 1. From the figure we can identify that a development of new product is threat

for existence of the present products from history it is clear the product growth of castes

vanished Vinyl storage devices. Then cassettes where replaced by compact disks.

1Product Life Cycle of Compact Disk

Figure 1 U S Music sales in Vinyl, cassettes and CD during 1975-2005 [2]

3.2 Product Life cycle stages in Compact disk

The compact disk product life or any products life contains five major stages. They are

1. Product development

2. Product introduction

3. Product growth

4. Product maturity

5. Product decline

Introduction Phase

The introduction phase of a product includes the product launch with its requirements to

getting it launch in such a way so that it will have maximum impact at the moment of sale.

Growth Phase

The growth phase offers the satisfaction of seeing the product take-off in the marketplace.

This is the appropriate timing to focus on increasing the market share

Maturity Phase

When the market becomes saturated with variations of the basic product, and all

competitors are represented in terms of an alternative product, the maturity phase arrives

2Product Life Cycle of Compact Disk

Product life cycle of C.D

Product life cycle of Cassettes

Product life cycle of Vinyl

Decline Phase

The compact disk presently is in Decline stage. In this stage market will see drastically

down words change in the unit sales. This happens due to new product entry, obsolete of

technology and cost factors. In music storable compact disk industry is in decline phase. The

existence of product will be for very less amount of period .The product is phasing rivalry in its

market with the other storage devices.

DVD

Digital video disk whish has same size as compact disk but can store 5 time more then

compact disks. Product life is more but ir requires a special devices to read like DVD

player which is now stored as standard features in most of the laptops , desktops and

music systems.

Pen drives

Pen drives are USB accessed small devices which have capacity same from 1 GB

16GB.Very easy to carry. But the disadvantage is cost in the market is 125/GB of

memory which is huge. The device can be written and erased n number of times.

USB hard disk

Huge capacity device from 120 to 320 GB accessed through computers. Cost is more and

need of USB protocol is must in Music system. Which is introduced in market recently.

IPods

Music storage devices as well as music players the capacity is choice.

Internet (Direct download from)

Music can be downloaded directly from the web sites.

Figure 2 Competitions to Compact disks

3Product Life Cycle of Compact Disk

3.3 BCG matrix for different storing devices

The BCG matrix is a chart that had been created by Bruce Henderson for the Boston

Consulting Group in 1970 to help corporations with analyzing their business units or product

lines. This helps the company allocate resources and is used as an analytical tool in brand

marketing, product management, strategic management, and portfolio analysis.[2.3] Attributes of

BCG are

Relative market share

Versus market growth rate

Products/Attributes Market share Business growthCompact disk 10 8Digital video disk 25 16Pen drives 30 30Mobile phones 35 35Usb Hard disk 8 17Internet downloading 15 38

Table 1 Market share and product business growth

Data source: From the news articles from websites. (In Indian context)

Figure 3 The BCG matrix music storing devices

4Product Life Cycle of Compact Disk

3.3.1 BCG analysis result

Based on data from Table 1 a BCG matrix is obtained as shown in Figure 3. From the

available result BCG matrix shows different products are in different stages. Products fall in

following categories

Dog Business

In this category business low market share ,slow-growing industry. The product are may be in

introduction or decline stage. They depress a profitable company's return on assets ratio, used by

many investors to judge how well a company is being managed. The best way to manage is to

sell of or to employee harvesting strategy. The business products fall in this category are

USB hard disk

Compact Disk

Cash Cows

In this category business are with high market share in a slow-growing industry. These units

typically generate cash in excess of the amount of cash needed to maintain the business. The

business products fall in this category are

Digital video disk

Question marks

These product businesses are growing rapidly and thus consume large amounts of cash, but

because they have low market shares they do not generate much cash. The result is a large net

cash consumption. By investing and marketing the products can be moved to star category. The

business products fall in this category are

Internet downloading

Stars

The business with a high market share in a fast-growing industry. The hope is that stars become

the next cash cows. The business products fall in this category are

Pen drives

Mobiles

5Product Life Cycle of Compact Disk

3.4 Manufacturing system

3.4.1 Construction of Compact disk

A compact disc is basically a piece of polycarbonate plastic with a thickness of around

1.2 mm and diameter of around 120 mm and consists of 15 mm hole right at the center for

locating propose. Figure 4 shows cross sectional details of CD and figure 5 shows bottom view

of a CD.

F

i g

u r

e 4

Cross section of CD[5]

Figure 5 Bottom view of Compact disk

3.4.2 Manufacturing process

Replicated CDs are mass-produced initially using a hydraulic press. Small granules of

raw polycarbonate plastic are fed into the press while under heat. A screw forces the liquefied

plastic into the mold cavity. The mold closes with a metal stamper in contact with the disc

surface. The plastic is allowed to cool and harden. Once opened, the disc substrate is removed

from the mold by a robotic arm, and a 15 mm diameter center hole (called a stacking ring) is

removed. The cycle time, the time it takes to "stamp" one CD, is usually 2–3 seconds.

This method produces the clear plastic blank part of the disc. After a metallic reflecting

layer (usually aluminum, but sometimes gold or other metals) is applied to the clear blank

substrate, the disc goes under a UV light for curing and it is ready to go to press. To prepare to

press a CD, a glass master is made, using a high-powered laser on a device similar to a CD

writer. The glass master is a positive image of the desired CD surface (with the desired

6Product Life Cycle of Compact Disk

microscopic pits and lands). After testing, it is used to make a die by pressing it against a metal

disc.

The die is a negative image of the glass master: several are typically made, depending on

the number of pressing mills that are to be making the CD. The die then goes into a press and the

physical image is imposed onto the blank CD, leaving a final positive image on the disc. A small

amount of lacquer is then applied as a ring around the center of the disc, and fast spinning

spreads it evenly over the surface. Edge protection lacquer is also applied before the disc is

finished. The disc can then be printed and packed.

Manufactured CDs that are sold in stores are sealed via a process called "polywrapping"

or shrink wrapping[2.4 ]

Figure 6 Compact disk manufacturing process [5]

3.4.3 Suitable manufacturing systems

Due to the high demand of compact discs, the volume of CD’s manufactured has become

one of the most pressing issues. One of the major concerns is speed. Speed is a major concern

because CD manufacturing industries must be able to meet the demands. That is, they must be

able to produce CDs at astronomical rates to satisfy the multiple tastes of CD consumers and the

large number of artists in the music industry [2.5].

To reach this performance level, the system applies a high speed assembly-line type

process. It is necessary to maintain a production system which allows shifting back and forth

from the production of one disc to another to accommodate the vast number of artists, albums,

and rapid and increased variation of the consumer’s taste.

7Product Life Cycle of Compact Disk

The other major concern is cost. Because a compact disc is a consumer’s product, prices

must be kept low to stimulate demand. Therefore, it is necessary to avoid costly, exotic, and

inefficient production practices. The Standard Stamper Injection Molding process is the method

which is used most commonly used in the production of the compact disc. There are specific

industrial concerns regarding energy used and solid wastes generated from this process as well as

the manufacturing of polycarbonate.

Due to change in customer expectations and new products growth in the industry, by t

analyze the similarities between CD and DVD it is necessary to setup High speed line type

flexible production system. Flexibility must for the input of materials keeping the

manufacturing methods same.CD and DVD manufacturing process can be standardized the only

flexibility is coating material the production system must be capable of fulfilling this flexibility

issues.Figure 7 is symbolic representation of required production systems.

M= Flexible Machines

Figure 7 Flexible multi product production system for compact disk

3.5 Conclusion

Every product has its own life cycle. To attain the profits it is very necessary to setup the

manufacturing setup based on the future needs. The compact disk study shows these conclusions

Compact disk is in decline stage in product life cycle.

Compact disk is in dog business in BCG matrix.

Flexibility in manufacturing system is of great need. Manufacturing more than one

similar product can bring cost to equilibrium.

8Product Life Cycle of Compact Disk

Product Flow

M MDVD material flow

CD material flow

Referencing

1. Thomas Gale., Compact Disc, http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Compact-Disc.html,

Retrieved on 26 Feb 2009

2. http://www.swivel.com/graphs/image/20067394%20width= , Retrieved on 26 Feb 2009

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth-share_matrix , Retrieved on 26 Feb 2009

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_disc , Retrieved on 26 Feb 2009

5. Vickie S. Durrah,” Life Cycle Assessment of Emissions for Compact Discs”, Parkman

Elementary School, Chicago,2006

6. LeMaster, E.A. Compact Disc Manufacturing: Procedures and Processes, University of

Washington, 1994, Retrieved on 26 Feb 2009

9Product Life Cycle of Compact Disk