Modeling of the Shrinking Product Life Cycle

Abstract

Generally, it is considered that the products have five phases in their life cycle, namely, introduction, growth, maturity, saturation and decline. But with the rapid advancement of technology and globalization, the product life has dwindled. This paper studies the life cycle of the products whose life cycle has been reduced to only three phases. The life cycle of the various products especially electronic goods (mobile phones) has been studied and it has been observed that life span of these products has been reduced drastically. Another observation is that the introduction and the growth phase have been clubbed into one. Many of the products either will have the growth in the initial part of their life cycle or will be unable to survive, so there is no possibility of the other phases of life cycle. This study formulates a model for the products having only three phases of the life cycle and having a very short life span. While the earlier models have considered five phases of product life cycle with longer duration. The mathematical model considered here has only three phases of life cycle which matches with the life cycles of the electronics products, whose demand increases rapidly during the growth period and declines exponentially during the decline phase.