Design

Products and Services

TRUE/FALSE QUESTIONS

1. Design cannot provide a competitive advantage.

2. Product design specifies what sensual or psychological benefits the customer is to receive.

3. Service design specifies what materials are to be used.

4. The quality of a product or service is ensured when design specifications are strictly followed.

5. An important aspect of a quality design process is to be first to market, even if the initial design is not quite
perfect.

6. Traditionally, different personnel from separate departments in a company have performed the design
process sequentially.

7. Traditionally, the design process brought together people from various departments and functions to work
on the design simultaneously.

8. Concurrent design has proven to be more effective than the sequential design process.

9. If a company's strength is innovation, ideas may be derived from following competitor leads.

10. Anyone who comes into contact with a company's product is a source for generating new ideas.

11. Benchmarking refers to the procedure of dismantling and inspecting a competitor's product to improve
one's own product.

12. Reverse engineering refers to finding the best-in-class part, product, or process and comparing one's
performance to it.

13. Perceptual maps refer to visual approaches of profiling customer preferences.

14. Market analysis assesses whether there is enough demand for the proposed product to invest in further
development.

15. The economic analysis portion of the feasibility study looks at estimates of production and development
costs.

16. Technical analysis is the first step in completing a feasibility study.

17. Creating a preliminary design for a new product is part of the last stage of the feasibility study.

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 Products and Services l CHAPTER 3

18. Functional design is concerned with how the product performs.

19. Form design refers to how the product will look.

20. Reliability is the probability that a part or product will perform its intended function for a specified length
of time.

21. Reliability is generally defined as the expected length of life of the product.

22. The probability that a product will perform on a given trial is determined by examining the reliability of
each component part and using the lowest value.

23. If a product has three components, each with a reliability of .99, then the reliability for the product will be .
99.

24. Maintainability refers to how long the product will perform its intended function.

25. Maintainability refers to the ease with which a product is maintained or repaired.

26. If a product is cheap to manufacture and priced so low that customers throw it away when it fails,
maintainability may not be a matter of great significance.

27. In fashions, form design is often more important than functional design.

28. Form design is more relevant for industrial goods than consumer goods.

29. Standardization refers to reducing the number of parts in a product.

30. One of the risks of standardization is losing the product's market advantage of variety and uniqueness.

31. The team approach to product design involves lawyers and accountants as well as people from marketing,
manufacturing, and engineering.

32. Concurrent design improves the quality of early design decisions.

33. Concurrent design increases the length and cost of the design process.

34. One difference between sequential and concurrent design is that concurrent design uses a "cost-plus"
approach rather than a "price-minus" approach.

35. One problem with concurrent design is that scheduling of parallel tasks is very complex.

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36. In many cases, design engineers do not have a good understanding of their company's manufacturing
capabilities.

37. The term "design for manufacture (DFM)" involves designing a product so that it can be produced easily.

38. Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) is a systematic method of analyzing product failures.

39. In the future, manufacturers may be faced with environmental legislation assigning them responsibility for
the complete life cycle of a product, including disposal of the product.

40. QFD stands for "quality function deployment.”

41. QFD is basically a communications and planning tool.

42. QFD fosters individualism.

43. QFD forces management to spend more time defining new product changes.

44. Taguchi methods for robust design concentrate on quality of conformance rather than on quality of design.

45. Robust design yields a product or service designed to withstand variations.

46. Taguchi methods for robust design argue that being within tolerances is more important than consistency.

47. Superior quality is derived from a robust design.

48. According to Taguchi, customers perceive no difference between a product characteristic that is at the
tolerance limit from those at their ideal values.

49. Parts within tolerance limits may produce assemblies that are not within tolerance limits.

50. Consistent mistakes are difficult to correct.

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51. Consistency is unimportant for assembled products.

52. Taguchi insists that all parts within the tolerances are of the same quality.

53. Changes in product design are more frequent today.

54. Product life cycles are longer today.

55. Services tend to be intangible.

True (easy)

56. Customers generally perceive services to be more risky to purchase.

True (moderate)

57. The quality of a service experience depends largely on the customer’s service expectations.
True (moderate)

58. Services tend to be perishable.

True (easy)

59. Services tend to be consumed more regularly than products.

True (easy)

60. A well-designed service system needs to be user-friendly.

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61. The service system should be consistent with the strategic focus of the firm.

62. Service delivery specifications outline the steps required in the work process.

63. Design simplification refers to reducing the number of parts, assemblies, or options in a product.

64. Modular design combines standardized building blocks or modules in a variety of ways to create unique
finished products.

65. Value analysis is an analytical approach for eliminating unnecessary design features and functions.

66. The service concept involves creating a service package that includes only sensual and psychological
benefits.

67. Mean time between failures is a measure of reliability.

68. One quantitative measure of maintainability is mean time to repair.

69. One metric for design quality is percent of parts to be recycled.

84. Extended producer responsibility (EPR) is a concept that holds companies responsible for their product
even after its useful life.

MULTILE CHOICE QUESTIONS

85. Organizations can gain a competitive edge by
a) designing a product that is easy to manufacture
b) bringing new ideas to the market quickly
c) designing a product that does a better job of satisfying customers
d) all of the above
(easy)
86. An effective design is one which
a) satisfies customer requirements
b) facilitates manufacture of the product
c) sells in the marketplace
d) all of the above
(easy)

87. Which of the following is true about the design process?

a) Traditionally, representatives from various departments and functions worked together on the design.
b) The design process involves four basic steps, which, when followed in sequential order, ensure success.
c) The better way to work on a design process is to separate marketing, engineering, and production
personnel from each other so each can work in their own area of expertise.
d) Concurrent design has proven to be the more effective method for design.
(moderate)

88. Which of the following refers to dismantling a competitor's product in order to improve one's own product?
a) cluster charting

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 Products and Services l CHAPTER 3

b) benchmarking
c) reverse engineering
d) concurrent design
(moderate)

89. Which of the following refers to comparing a product or process against the best-in-class product?
a) cluster charting
b) benchmarking
c) reverse engineering
d) concurrent design
(moderate)

90. Which of the following is not part of market analysis in a feasibility study?
a) focus groups
b) cost/benefit analysis
c) interviews
d) customer surveys
(moderate)

91. Which of the following is not a quantitative technique used in the economic analysis portion of the
feasibility study?
a) cost/benefit analysis
b) decision theory
c) MTBF
d) net present value
(moderate)

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92. Which of the following is not a question that concerns technical and strategic analysis in the feasibility
study?
a) Does the product provide a competitive advantage?
b) Does the company have sufficient labor skills?
c) Does the product require new technology?
d) Is the price range compatible with the image of the new product?
(moderate)

93. The last step of the design process is the final design stage, which includes all of the following except
a) functional design
b) form design
c) production design
d) preliminary design
(moderate)

94. Which of the following statements is true concerning reliability?

a) Reliability is the probability that a product will perform its intended function for a specified period of
time.
b) Reliability may be viewed as performance over time.
c) Reliability may be viewed as mean time between failures.
d) All of the above are true.
(moderate)

Table 3.1

.95 .90 .98

95. Using the data in Table 3.1, what is the system reliability?
a) .0001
b) .729
c) .8379
e) none of the above
(moderate)

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 Products and Services l CHAPTER 3

Table 3.2

.99 .98 .99

96. Using the data in Table 3.2, what is the system reliability?
a) .0000
b) .9605
c) .9703
d) none of the above
(moderate)

Table 3.3

.95 .95 .95

97. Using the data in Table 3.3, what is the system reliability?
a) .0001
b) .8573
c) 2.8500
d) none of the above
(moderate)

98. Product reliability can be improved by all of the following except

a) simplifying the product design
b) improving the reliability of individual components
c) adding redundant components
d) ensuring that form design dominates the final design
(moderate)

99. Which of the following issues in functional design does not address maintainability?
a) assembling products in modules
b) specifying regular maintenance schedules
c) specifying how long the product will perform the intended function
d) planning for availability of critical replacement parts
(moderate)

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100. The significance of maintainability is diminished when
a) the product is very cheap to manufacturer
b) the product is perceived by the customer as disposable
c) the product is extremely reliable
d) all of the above
(moderate)

101. Form design refers to

a) how the product will perform
b) how the product will look
c) how the product will be made
d) how easily the product can be maintained
(moderate)

102. Which of the following statements concerning form design is false?

a) Form design refers to a product's shape, color, and size.
b) Form design is more relevant for consumer goods than industrial goods.
c) Form design includes image and market appeal.
d) All of the above are true statements.
(moderate)

103. Production design refers to how

a) the product will perform
b) the product will look
c) the product will be made
d) easily the product can be maintained
(moderate)

104. Historically, which of the following statements concerning production design has not been a problem?
a) Engineers tended to design products with too many parts or tolerances that were too tight.
b) Production personnel often found themselves redesigning products on the factory floor so they could
actually be produced.
c) Production design was considered after functional and form decisions were completed.
d) Focus on simplification and standardization significantly slowed productivity.
(moderate)

105. Standardization refers to

a) using modules to create unique finished products
b) interchangeability of parts among products
c) reducing the number of parts in a product
d) converting product designs into workable instructions for product manufacture
(moderate)

106. In the team approach to product design, which of the following do not have involvement on the team?
a) manufacturing and engineering
b) customers and suppliers
c) marketing
d) All of the above should be included on the team.
(moderate)

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107. Concurrent design

a) calls for one stage of design to be finished before another begins
b) calls for the manufacturer to prepare detailed design decisions of all component parts
c) uses the "cost plus" approach to set prices
d) demands complex scheduling techniques
(moderate)

108. Which of the following involves designing a product so that it can be produced easily and economically?
a) CMI
b) DFA
c) EMI
d) DFM
(moderate)

109. Which of the following terms is a procedure for reducing the number of parts in an assembly, evaluating
methods for assembly, and determining the assembly sequence?
a) VA
b) FMEA
c) DFE
d) DFA
(moderate)

110. Which of the following involves designing products from recycled material, using materials that can be
recycled, and minimizing unnecessary packaging?
a) VA
b) FMEA
c) DFE
d) DFA
(moderate)

111. Which of the following involves a systematic method for analyzing product failures?
a) VA
b) FMEA
c) DFE
d) DFA
(moderate)

112. Which of the following is a visual method for analyzing the interrelationships between failures?
a) FMEA
b) DFE
c) DFA
d) FTA
(moderate)

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113. Which of the following helps eliminate unnecessary features and functions?
a) VA
b) FMEA
c) DFE
d) FTA
(moderate)

114. Which of the following components in a "House of Quality" drives the entire QFD process?
a) roof matrix
b) product characteristics
c) relationship matrix
d) customer requirements
(moderate)

115. Which component in a "House of Quality" has an engineering orientation?

a) roof matrix
b) product characteristics
c) relationship matrix
d) technical assessment and target values
(moderate)

116. Which component in a "House of Quality" looks at the impact of changing product characteristics?
a) roof matrix
b) customer perceptions of competing products
c) trade-off matrix
d) relationship matrix
(moderate)

117. Technology which provides the ability to combine, copy, translate, scale, and rotate designs is called
a) CAE
b) CADFM
c) CAM
d) CAD
(moderate)

118. Mass property analysis, finite element analysis, and kinematics, when combined with a computer-aided
design system, is called
a) CAE
b) CADFM
c) CAM
d) CAPP
(moderate)

119. Computer technology that involves the actual manufacturing process is known as
a) CAE
b) CADFM
c) CAM
d) CAPP
(moderate)

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120. Which of the following statements concerning services is false?

a) Services are consumed more often than products.
b) Services are perishable.
c) Services have high customer contact.
d) Service design does not involve robustness.
(moderate)

121. The design process begins with

a) ideas
b) mass production
c) finance
d) coordination
(moderate)

122. The systematic reliability of a series system with two parts and having reliability (.80) is
a) .08
b) .64
c) .80
d) none of the above
(moderate)

123. A well-designed service system is

a) user-friendly
b) cost effective
c) easy to sustain
d) all of the above
(moderate)

124. A product has failed 4 times over the last 500 hours. What is its mean time between failures (MTBF)?
a) .002 hours
b) .008 hours
c) 125 hours
d) 500 hours
(moderate)

125. A product has MTBF or 200 hours and a MTTR of 10 hours. What is its system availability?
a) .048
b) .050
c) .952
d) 1.050
(moderate)

126. Extreme programming

a) uses teamwork
b) is used for software design
c) changes the office layout
d) all of the above
(moderate)

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127. Which of the following is a metric for design quality?
a) percent of revenue from new products or services
b) percent of process initiatives yielding a 50% or more improvement in effectiveness
c) Percent of parts that can be recycled
d) all of the above
(moderate)

128. Collaborative product commerce (CPC)

a) loosely refers to software systems for collaborative design
b) provide interconnectivity and translation capabilities
c) manages product data
d) all of the above
(moderate)

PROBLEMS
129. Norcim Manufacturing builds a subassembly from four major components. These components can be
purchased from three different vendors, who have supplied reliability data for each component. The
arrangement of the subassembly and vendor reliability data is below. Component D is a backup to
component C.

Table 3.4
Vendor
Component 1 2 3
A .95 .95 .93
B .95 .93 .90
C .90 .80 .86
D .92 .95 .94

A B C

130. Using the data in Table 3.4, calculate the system reliability for each vendor. Which vendor should Norcim
select to supply all four components?

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 Products and Services l CHAPTER 3

A subassembly incorporates eight major components arranged as follows:

Table 3.5

.98 .95 .90

.95 .95 .99 .99 .99

131. Using the data in Table 3.5, determine the reliability of the subassembly.

132. Using the data in Table 3.6, what is the system availability for each of the providers?

Table 3.6
Provider MTBF (hours) MTTR (hours)
A 100 10
B 70 2
C 60 4

SHORT-ANSWER QUESTIONS
133. Name four objectives for effective product and service design.

134. Name four aspects of an effective design process.

135. Name five sources of ideas for new products or improvements to existing products.

136. Name three ways a company can gather information for the market analysis portion of the feasibility study.

137. Name four ways a company can quantitatively evaluate the profit potential of a new product in the
economic analysis portion of the feasibility study.

138. What are four questions addressed by a company completing the technical and strategic analysis portion of
the feasibility study?

139. Identify three ways product reliability can be improved when considering functional design.

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140. Design for manufacture (DFM) guidelines are statements of good design practice. Name these guidelines.

141. List six characteristics that distinguish services from manufacturing.

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