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.

1
Product Life Cycle of Compact Disk
 Product life cycle of C.D

Product life cycle of Cassettes

Product life cycle of Vinyl

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

2
Product Life Cycle of Compact Disk
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

3
Product 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 growth

Compact disk 10 8
Digital video disk 25 16
Pen drives 30 30
Mobile phones 35 35
Usb Hard disk 8 17
Internet 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

4
Product 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

5
Product Life Cycle of Compact Disk
 • Mobiles
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

6
Product Life Cycle of Compact Disk
writer. The glass master is a positive image of the desired CD surface (with the desired
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

7
Product Life Cycle of Compact Disk
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.
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.

DVD material flow

CD material flow

M M
Product Flow

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.

8
Product Life Cycle of Compact Disk
  Flexibility in manufacturing system is of great need. Manufacturing more than one
similar product can bring cost to equilibrium.

9
Product Life Cycle of Compact Disk
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

10
Product Life Cycle of Compact Disk