Industrial Product Design

Unit 1: Introduction
1.1 Challenges of Product Development

Product design and development is a challenging task. One has to face the following
challenges during product development stage.

Trade Offs: The design and development of a product is always governed by its cost, quality,
functionality, aesthetic aspects, and various special features. The designer needs to decide
about the acceptable levels of all these parameters before a product is manufactured and
released to market. Thus the responsibility of balancing or trading off between these
parameters depends on intellectual capabilities of a designer.

Dynamics: We live in a society where things keep changing on regular basis. The customers’
needs, tastes, expectations, purchasing power, country’s economic situations, government
rules and regulations, and competitors’ plans and strategies keep on changining at various
levels and magnitudes. Then the product design and development activity should be able to
take care of all such changes to be realistic in different situations.

Details: A designer has to take care of every finer details of a product during its design and
development stage. Whether to provide a screw fit or snap fit for a cap or cover in a product is
an example to decide. Such decisions have to be made keeping in view profile of product
users and available products in market.

Time Pressure: The time available for product design and development is always finite. A
designer has to finish his task in a best possible way within the available time. Hence, a
designer has to work always under pressure to satisfy all the stakeholders.

Economics: The design and development of a product requires adequate fund availability
with the company. Further the financial aspects such production cost, sales price, margin of
profit have to be analyzed critically before deciding to go for the design and development of a
product.

Creativity: The design and development activity calls for enough creativity of the involved
persons and teams. Further, creating something innovative or new is a matter of great joy and
pride for designers. The activity brings a sense of accomplishment among designers.

VII SEM B E – Elective II Dr. N C Hiremath, SITCoE (Yadrav) Ichalkaranji

 Industrial Product Design

Satisfaction of Societal and Individual Needs: The task of designing and developing a
product helps to satisfy the needs of people of the human society. Thus, designers feel part
and parcel of the human society through this activity.
Team Diversity: The task of designing and developing a product calls for variety of skills
and capabilities. All the required skills and capabilities cannot be harnessed with few
available persons and /or teams. Hence, the task demands for various teams with required skill
sets.

Team Spirit: The persons involved in the task of designing and developing a product will
always work as a self motivated and cohesive team to achieve their targets and end objectives.
Hence, there will be a team spirit among the persons involved to finish the task as mission on
hand.

1.2 Identification of Customer Needs

Every manufacturing firm must always be able to identify customer needs. The sales and
marketing department of every firm will be in direct touch with the customers and can thus
collect their feedback about the firm’s products. This feedback will be passed on to design
and development department of the firm. The design engineers then will make out useful
inferences from the feedback for further improvement in the firm’s products. They will make
suitable modifications in the design of exiting products based on the customers’ needs and
requirements. The improved products will be released to the market to satisfy the existing
customer base as well as to attract new customers.

In addition to this routine procedure the design engineers of the firm must also be able to
foresee the needs and requirements of the customers through ongoing technological
developments and breakthroughs. They should think which new and versatile products can be
designed and developed to cater to evolving trends in the market. The design engineers will
always have a moral responsibility and obligation of converting technological breakthroughs
into useful products for the benefit of community.

1.3 Successful Product Development

The successful product development is governed by the following characteristics:

Product Quality: How good is the product resulting from the development effort? Does it
satisfy customer needs? Is it robust and reliable? Product quality is ultimately reflected in
market share and the price that customers are willing to pay.
VII SEM B E – Elective II Dr. N C Hiremath, SITCoE (Yadrav) Ichalkaranji
 Industrial Product Design

Product Cost: The cost of a product plays a vital role in its acceptance by the customers and
finally its success or failure in the market. The cost of a product comprises of direct material
cost, indirect material cost, and fixed overhead cost. The cost of the product must be decided
very judiciously considering the level and intensity of the competition in the market as well as
the image and goodwill enjoyed by the firm. The cost should not be too high or too low. The
cost which is decided finally should ensure better sales and better return on investment for the
product.

Development Time: The design and development team of any firm must be very responsive
and be able to complete its tasks in least possible time so that the competitive forces and
technological developments are better understood and addressed by it. Further, it is also
equally important for the firm how quickly it can receive the economic returns for its
investment by the development effort of the team. Therefore, the development time must be
as less as possible.

Development Cost: The amount spent for the development tasks of a product must be as least
as possible. If the cost is too high then the firm has to make a compromise on the profit
margin. Hence, the cost must be kept under control for better sales and better revenue.

Development Capability: The capability of design and development team of a firm is very
vital for the successful standing of the firm in the market. How far the team is capable to
develop future products in response to changing technological developments is a big question.
The true capability of the team is always an asset of the firm.

Apart from these characteristics the success of product development also depends on the
following performance criteria:

a. Generation of employment for the community

b. Use of safety norms and standards in product development and in final usage of the
product
c. Better and judicious usage of natural as well as synthetic resources
d. Better maintenance and/or retention of ecological balance
e. Better product development with recyclable and/or reusable components in the product
f. Strict adherence to the prevailing pollution as well as environment norms

VII SEM B E – Elective II Dr. N C Hiremath, SITCoE (Yadrav) Ichalkaranji

 Industrial Product Design

1.4 Quality Aspect of Product Design

Quality of a product or service is defined as “fitness for purpose”. The success of a firm
depends upon its ability to supply products of right quality.
The main aspects of quality are:
- Quality of Design
- Quality of Conformance, and
- Quality of Performance

Quality of Design: It refers to designing product based on deriving specifications so as to

meet the customers’ needs. This aspect of design is functional.

Quality of Conformance: How well a product meets the specifications derived in stage one
determines its quality of conformance. In order to ensure quality of conformance, it is
essential to control the quality of incoming raw material as well as monitor the product quality
during processing. Sampling plans are the tools for controlling the quality of incoming raw
material and Control Charts are the tools for monitoring the product quality during
processing.

Quality of Performance: How well a product performs in tough environmental conditions is

determined by the following metrics of product quality:

a. Reliability: It is the probability that a product shall perform the assigned function for a
time called “mission time”.
b. Maintainability: It is the probability that a product can be maintained and brought back
to working condition in the shortest service time.
c. Availability: Availability of a design is the multiple of reliability and maintainability.
Mathematically, it may be given as

Availability (A) = Available time of Equipment / Run Time

= MTBF / (MTBF + MTTR)

Where MTBF is the mean time between failures and MTTR is the mean time to repair.

VII SEM B E – Elective II Dr. N C Hiremath, SITCoE (Yadrav) Ichalkaranji

 Industrial Product Design

1.5 Market Research

Market research is a must and an important task before actively considering an idea for
product design and development. The market research lets the firm to understand and realize
the real demand and potential for the product under consideration.
First and foremost, it is necessary to establish that whether the proposed product will fulfill a
demand in the market or not, what is supposed to do, and the services it can offer to the
consumers.
The demand for the product in the market may already exist, and its volume can then be
assessed by market research and sales figures for similar products. Demand can also be
created with the introduction of a new product, either by filling in a gap in the market or by
offering new attributes like novelty, form, and shape. The volume of such a demand is more
difficult to forecast. Market research is a useful tool in such cases, but experience and sound
judgement are required to evaluate and apply the results of such research, and in some cases a
certain amount of speculation cannot be avoided.

1.6 Survey

Whenever a new idea or new concept is generated for a potential product design and
development, it must be tested through a thorough and detailed market survey. A market
survey can be conducted in two stages:

a. Choose a survey population

b. Choose a survey format

Choose a survey population: The very first task to be undertaken during the process of
testing a potential idea or concept is identifying and deciding the population of potential
customers for the new product to be produced. Such population will be the target market for
the new product. This population must be surveyed for assessing the type and level of
demand.

For example, for a new scooter the two primary consumer segments are college students and
urban commuters. The secondary segment includes transportation for industry and airport
employees. However, the entire population of such markets cannot be surveyed for concept
testing. A sample size needs to be selected for effective surveying. It is so because market
surveys consume lot of time, money, and effort. Hence, a sample size as less as 10 or as high
as 1000 may be selected for concept testing.

VII SEM B E – Elective II Dr. N C Hiremath, SITCoE (Yadrav) Ichalkaranji

 Industrial Product Design

Choose a survey format: The following survey formats are commonly used in concept
testing:

i. Face-to-face interaction: In this format, an interviewer interacts directly with the

respondent. Such interactions take the form of intercepts i.e. stopping people at a mall,
in a park, or in a street.
ii. Telephone: Telephone interviews may be prearranged and targeted at very specific
individuals like college students or urban males. It may also be “cold calls” of
consumers from a target population.
iii. Postal Mail: In mail surveys, concept testing materials are sent and respondents are
asked to return a completed form. This method is very slower and evokes relatively
poor response. So, some kind of incentive like cash discount or gift is offered to
increase response.
iv. Electronic Mail: The response through such survey is quicker compared to postal mail
format. However, the survey team should initiate and establish a positive relationship
with the target population.
v. Internet: The survey team may create a temporary and virtual concept-testing site and
may request the target population to submit its responses.

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VII SEM B E – Elective II Dr. N C Hiremath, SITCoE (Yadrav) Ichalkaranji