Chapter 4

PRODUCT DESIGN

(Slide 1)
INTRODUCTION
● Design is a critical process for a firm. It capitalizes on a firm’s core competencies and
determines what new competencies need to be developed.
● The design process itself is beneficial as it encourages companies to look outside their
boundaries, bring in new ideas, challenge conventional thinking, and experiment.

(Slide 2)
AN EFFECTIVE DESIGN PROCESS:
● Matches product or service characteristics with customer requirements;
● Ensures that customer requirements are met in the simplest and least costly manner;
● Reduces the time required to design a new product or service; and
● Minimizes the revisions necessary to make a design workable.

(Slide 3)

4.1   Figure 4.1 The Design Process

(Slide 4)
IDEA GENERATION
A process of generating new ideas through understanding the customer and actively
identifying customer needs.

Sources Of Ideas For New Products Or Improvements To Existing Products:

● R&D Department
● Customer Complaints or Suggestions
● Marketing Research
● Suppliers
● Salespersons in the Field
● Factory Workers
● New Technological Developments
● Competitors

(Slide 5)
Methods Or Processes That Can Help Companies Learn From Their Competitors:
● Perceptual Maps
A visual method for comparing customer perceptions of different products or services.

● Benchmarking
The process of comparing a product or process against the best-in-class product.

● Reverse Engineering
The careful dismantling of a competitor’s product to improve your own product.

(Slide 6)

Figure 4.2 A Perceptual Map of Breakfast Cereals

(Slide 7)
FEASIBILITY STUDY
An assessment of all aspects of the proposed products that includes several types of
analysis.

Types of Analyses:
● Market Analysis
● Economic Analysis
● Technical and Strategic Analyses

(Slide 8)
Market Analysis
- Assesses whether there’s enough demand for the proposed product to invest in
developing it further.

Economic Analysis
- looks at estimates of production and development costs and compares them with
estimated sales volume.
- A price range for the product that is compatible with the market segment and image
of the new product is discussed.

(Slide 9)
Technical and Strategic Analyses
Answer such questions as:
● Does the new product require new technology?
● Is the risk or capital investment excessive?
● Does the company have sufficient labour and management skills to support the
required technology?
● Is sufficient capacity available for production?
● Does the new product provide a competitive advantage for the company?
● Does it draw on corporate strengths?
● Is it compatible with the core business of the firm?

(Slide 10)
Performance Specifications
- Are written for product concepts that pass the feasibility study and are approved for
development.
- They describe the function of the product—that is, what the product should do to
satisfy customer needs.
RAPID PROTOTYPING
 Is the method of creating, testing and revising a preliminary design model.
 The design models can be physical or electronic, rough facsimiles or full-scale working
models.

Figure 4.3 Concurrent Design, Breaking Down Barriers

Concurrent Design
 Involves the simultaneous design of products and process by design teams
 It improves both quality of the design and the time-to-market.

Three Types Of Concurrent Design

 Form Design
It refers to the physical appearance of a product—its shape, colour, size, and style.

 Functional Design
Is concerned with how the product performs. It seeks to meet the performance
specifications of fitness for use by the customer

 Production Design
is concerned with how the product will be made.
Three Performance Characteristics Considered During Functional Design
 Reliability
is the probability that a product will perform its intended function for a specified period of
time.
 A product’s or system’s reliability is a function of the reliabilities of its component parts and
how the parts are arranged. If all parts must function for the product or system to operate,
then the system reliability is the product of the component part reliabilities.

 Reliability System Formula:

Rs = (R1)(R2) . . . (Rn)
 Where:
Rs is the reliability of system
R1 is the reliability of component one
R2 is the reliability of component two
Rn is the reliability of the nth component
 Examples:

 Reliability can also be expressed as the length of time a product or service is in operation
before it fails, called the mean time between failures (MTBF). It is concerned with the
distribution of failures over time, or the failure rate. The MTBF is the reciprocal of the failure
rate (MTBF = 1/failure rate).

Maintainability
 It is also called serviceability
 It refers to the ease and/or cost with which a product or service is maintained or repaired.
 One quantitative measure of maintainability is mean time to repair (MTTR). Combined with
the reliability measure of mean time between failures (MTBF), we can calculate the average
availability or “uptime” of a system as

MTBF
System Availability=
MTBF+ MTTR
USABILITY

 the ease of use of a product or service.

 a combination of factors that affect the user’s experience with a product, including:
- ease of learning
- ease of use
- ease of remembering how to use
- frequency and severity of errors
- user satisfaction with the experience

PRODUCTION DESIGN

 concerned with how the product will be made.

Approaches To Production Design

- Simplification
- Standardization
- Modularity
- Design for manufacture

Simplification

 attempt to reduce the number of parts, assemblies, or options in a product.

Figure 4.4 Design Simplification

Standardization

 the process in which commonly available and interchangeable parts are used.

Modular Design

 the process that combines standardized building blocks, or modules, to create

unique finished products.
Design For Manufacture (DFM)

 the process of designing a product so that it can be produced easily and

economically.

DFM Guidelines Promote Good Design Practice, Such As:

1. Minimize the number of parts and sub-assemblies.

2. Avoid tools, separate fasteners, and adjustments.

3. Use standard parts when possible and repeatable, well-understood processes.

4. Design parts for many uses, and modules that can be combined in different ways.

5. Design for ease of assembly, minimal handling, and proper presentation.

6. Allow for efficient and adequate testing and replacement of parts.

Design For Supply Chain (DFSC)

the process of designing the supply chain to strike the right balance among the cost of
inventory, freight charges, and production costs.
FINAL DESIGN AND PROCESS PLANS

Design Specifications

 considered how the product is to be produced

Manufacturing Or Delivery Specifications

 more closely reflect the intent of the design.

Final Design

 consists of detailed drawings and specifications for the new product or service.

Process Plans

 workable instructions for manufacture, including necessary equipment and tooling,

component sourcing recommendations, job descriptions and procedures for
workers, and computer programs for automated machine.

4.2 Technology in Design

 computer-aided systems available for the design of new products and
their related production processes.
 It begins with computer-aided design (CAD) and includes related technologies
such as computer-aided engineering (CAE), computer-aided manufacturing
(CAM), and collaborative product design (CPD).

Computer-aided design (CAD)

 software system that uses computer graphics to assist in the creation,
modification, and analysis of a design.
 Facilitates standardization of parts, prompts ideas, and eliminates building a
design from scratch.

Computer-aided engineering (CAE)

 a software system that tests and analyzes designs on the computer screen.
 retrieves the description and geometry of a part from a CAD database and
subjects it to testing and analysis on the computer screen without physically
building a prototype.
Computer-aided design/ computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM)
 the ultimate design-to-manufacture connection.
 involves the automatic conversion of CAD design data into processing
instructions for computer-controlled equipment and the subsequent manufacture
of the part as it was designed.
 enhance communication and promote innovation in multifunctional design teams
by providing a visual, interactive focus for discussion.
 can more thoroughly test rapid prototypes, and these systems can also test more
prototypes.
*With so many new designs and changes in existing designs, a system is
needed to keep track of design revisions. Such a system is called
product life cycle management (PLM).
Product life cycle management
a system for managing the entire life cycle of a product.

Collaborative product design (CPD)

 a software system for collaborative design and development among trading
partners.
4.3 DESIGN QUALITY REVIEWS
 Is the use of two techniques for analysing design failures and one techniques for eliminating
unnecessary design features.

 Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA)

 Is a systematic approach for analysing the causes and effects of product failures.
 The objective of FMEA is to anticipate failures and prevent them from occurring.
Table 4.1: Failure Mode and Effects Analysis for Potato Chips

 Fault tree analysis (FTA)

 Is a visual method for analysing the interrelationship among failures.

Figure 4.5 Fault Tree Analysis for Potato Chips

 Value Analysis (VA)

 Also known as value engineering in 1947.
 Is a procedure for eliminating unnecessary features and functions.
4.4 Design for the Environment
> Explain why and how each step of the product life cycle can be changed for
improved environmental stewardship and provide examples of programs that
support green efforts.

SLIDE 1

Sustainability - the ability to meet present needs without compromising future generations.

SLIDE 2

Design for environment (DFE) - the process of designing a product from material that can be recycled or
easily repaired rather than discarded.

SLIDE 3

Green Sourcing

SLIDE 4

Nike’s Flyknit Design

 SLIDE 5

Green Manufacturing -is the renewal of production processes and the establishment of environmentally-
friendly operations within the manufacturing field.

SLIDE 6

Carbon Footprints -a measure of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warning and climate
change.

SLIDE 7

Green Consumption - is based on consumer health protection and resource conservation and conforms
to people’s health and environmental protection,

SLIDE 8

Extended producer responsibility -a concept that holds companies responsible for their product even
after its useful life.

SLIDE 9

Recycling and Reuse

●Recycling means turning an item into raw materials which can be used again, usually for a completely
new product.

● Reusing refers to using an object as it is without treatment.

SLIDE 1 – Title 4.5 Quality Function Deployment

 Is the use of quality function design as a design tool.

QUALITY FUNCTION DEPLOYMENT ( QFD)

- Is a process that ranslate the voice of the customer to technical design requirements.
SLIDE 2 –

QFD uses a series of matrix diagrams that resemble connected houses.

The 1st matrix dubbed the “HOUSE OF QUALITY”

SLIDE 3

SIX SECTIONS OF HOUSE OF QUALITY

1. Customer requirements section,

2. Competitive assessment section,
3. Design characteristics section,
4. Relationship matrix,
5. Trade-off matrix,
6. Target values section.

SLIDE 4

1. CUSTOMER REQUIREMENTS SECTION

GROUPS

 “Irons well” and its categories

 “Easy and safe to use” and its
categories
RATE – from scale 1 to 10 (with 10 being
the most important)
SLIDE 5

2. COMPETITIVE ASSESSMENT SECTION

X = Steam Iron

A and B = competitors

RATE – scale 1 to 5 (5 highest, 1 lowest)

SLIDE 6

3. DESIGN CHARACTERISTICS SECTION

To change the product design to better satisfy customer requirements, we need to translate those
requirements to measurable design characteristics.

4. RELATIONSHIP MATRIX
In the body of the matrix, we identify how the design characteristics relate to customer requirements.
 Slide 1
The Trade-off Matrix: Effects of
Increasing Soleplate Thickness
Figure 4.10
● Increasing the thickness of the
soleplate would increase the weight
of the iron but decrease the energy
needed to press.
● A thicker soleplate would decrease
the flow of water through the holes,
and increase the time it takes for
the iron to heat up or cool down.
● Designers must take all these
factors into account when
determining a final design.
Slide 2
Targeted Changes in Design
Figure 4.11
● Measuring our iron X against
competitors A and B, we find that
our iron is heavier, larger, and has
a thicker soleplate. Also, it takes
longer to heat up and cool down,
but requires less energy to press
and provides more steam than
other irons.
● To decide which design
characteristics to change, we
compare the estimated impact of
the change with the estimated cost.

Slide 3
The Completed House of Quality for a Steam
Iron
Figure 4.12
● Shows the completed house of quality
for the steam iron.