Product Specifications

Teaching materials to accompany:

Product Design and Development
Chapter 6
Karl T. Ulrich and Steven D. Eppinger
5th Edition, Irwin McGraw-Hill, 2012.

MME 9601b - Winter 2020 1

 Concept Development Process
Mission Development
Statement Identify Establish Generate Select Test Set Plan Plan
Customer Target Product Product Product Final Downstream
Needs Specifications Concepts Concept(s) Concept(s) Specifications Development

Perform Economic Analysis

Benchmark Competitive Products

Build and Test Models and Prototypes

Target Specs Final Specs

Based on customer needs Based on selected concept,
and benchmarking feasibility, models, testing,
and trade-offs
May not be achievable

MME 9601b - Winter 2020 2

 The Product Specs Process
• Set Target Specifications
– Based on customer needs and benchmarks
– Develop metrics for each need
– Set ideal and acceptable values
• Refine Specifications
– Based on selected concept and feasibility testing
– Technical modeling
– Trade-offs are critical
• Reflect on the Results and the Process
– Critical for ongoing improvement
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Product Specifications Example:
Mountain Bike Suspension Fork

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MME 9601b - Winter 2020 5
Start with the Customer Needs

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Establish Metrics and Units

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Engineering analysis

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Link Metrics to Needs

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Benchmark on Customer Needs

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Benchmark on Metrics

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Assign Marginal and Ideal Values

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 Concept Development Process
Mission Development
Statement Identify Establish Generate Select Test Set Plan Plan
Customer Target Product Product Product Final Downstream
Needs Specifications Concepts Concept(s) Concept(s) Specifications Development

Perform Economic Analysis

Benchmark Competitive Products

Build and Test Models and Prototypes

Target Specs Final Specs

Based on customer needs Based on selected concept,
and benchmarking feasibility, models, testing,
and trade-offs

MME 9601b - Winter 2020 13

 Trade-offs
• Improving one metric almost always
makes another one worse
• E.g.
– Performance versus price
– Performance versus weight
– Weight versus price
• Trade-offs are required
• The optimal trade-off depends on the
relative importance of the metrics

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 Example: Camera Lenses
Specification Canon EF 50 1.8 Zeiss Otus 50 1.4
Focal length 50mm 55mm
Max aperture F/1.8 F/1.4
Min. focus distance 0.35m 0.5m
10 Groups / 12
Groups/Elements: 5 Groups / 6 Elements
Elements
Autofocus Yes No
Weight 159g 1030g
Price $150 $5,500
Image quality Excellent at most Outstanding at all
settings settings
Value as status symbol Very low Very high

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MME 9601b - Winter 2020 16
A cost-mass trade-off plot for bicycles. The tangent to the trade-off surface at any point gives an estimate of the exchange
constant. It depends on the application. To a consumer seeking a cheap bike for shopping, the value of weight savings is low
($20/kg). To an enthusiast who wants performance, it can be high ($2000/kg).
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Set Final Specifications

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 Quality Function Deployment
(House of Quality)
• Developed in Japan in 1966

• Intended to include customer input into the engineering design

process

• Intended to take qualitative attributes and transform them into

qualitative attributes and to deploy methods to embed quality into
components and subsystems and the manufacturing process

• Desired attributes are weighted just as in the Pugh Weighted

Decision Matrix method

• http://www.webducate.net/qfd/qfd.html

Source: Wikipedia
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Quality Function Deployment
(House of Quality)
6. Technical
2. Relative Correlations
Importance
to Customer

4. Technical
Requirements

5. Relationships Between
1. Customer Customer Needs and 3. Benchmarking
Needs Engineering Metrics of Needs

7. Target and Final Specs

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 Quality Function Deployment
(House of Quality)
1. Customer Needs

• This is the first portion of the House of Quality to fill out. It is the voice
of the customer

• It is structured list of customer wants

• It usually starts with a customer brainstorming session of what they

would desire in the product

• The wants are categorized before they are entered into the House of
Quality

• Tree diagrams can be used to do this to establish a hierarchy of needs

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Source: http://www.webducate.net/qfd/qfd.html
 Quality Function Deployment
(House of Quality)
1. Customer Needs

Desired
Attribute
A
B
C
D

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Source: http://www.webducate.net/qfd/qfd.html
 Quality Function Deployment
(House of Quality)
2. Relative Importance to Customer

• This is a ranking of the relative importance to the customer of each

attribute

• The rankings are usually obtained through the use of a

questionnaire

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Source: http://www.webducate.net/qfd/qfd.html
 Quality Function Deployment
(House of Quality)
Desired Importance 1= Not Important, 5 = Very Important
Attribute
A 5 4 3 2 1

B 5 4 3 2 1

C 5 4 3 2 1

D 5 4 3 2 1

Desired Importance
Attribute

A 2
B 5
C 3
D 1

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Source: http://www.webducate.net/qfd/qfd.html
 Quality Function Deployment
(House of Quality)
3. Benchmarking of Needs

• This is a ranking of competitors in relation to your present products

• The rankings are usually obtained through the use of a

questionnaire or market intelligence
5 = Satisfied, 1 = Not Satisfied

Desired Importance Desired Us Competitor Competitor Competitor

Attribute Attribute 1 2 3

A 2 A 5 4 3 2
B 5 B 3 5 3 1
C 3 C 3 3 3 1
D 1 D 2 2 1 3

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Source: http://www.webducate.net/qfd/qfd.html
 Quality Function Deployment
(House of Quality)
3. Benchmarking of Needs
•This can be graphed to provide a visual representation of your product’s
position to others
5 = Satisfied, 1 = Not Satisfied

Desired Us Competitor Competitor Competitor

Attribute 1 2 3

A 5 4 3 2
B 3 5 3 1
C 3 3 3 1
D 2 2 1 3

Score

Desired 1 2 3 4 5
Attribute
A
B
C
D

26
Source: http://www.webducate.net/qfd/qfd.html
MME 9601b - Winter 2020
 Quality Function Deployment
(House of Quality)
3. Benchmarking of Needs
•This can be graphed to provide a visual representation of your product’s
position to others Score

Desired 1 2 3 4 5
Attribute
A
B
C
D

Desired 1 2 3 4 5
Attribute
A
B
C
D

27
Source: http://www.webducate.net/qfd/qfd.html
MME 9601b - Winter 2020
 Quality Function Deployment
(House of Quality)
3. Benchmarking of Needs
• Other measures can be included by the design team including
planned satisfaction rating, including sales point, improvement factor,
recyclability, etc

• These measures are combined with the customer importance ratings

to derive an overall weighting for each desired attribute
Sales Points
Design Team’s can be added to those Improvement Factor
Envisaged Desired Factors that can help in = Planned Satisfaction –
Performance marketing the product Existing Score x 0.2* + 1
(usually between 1 and 1.5)
* This is an arbitrary fraction
Score

Desired 1 2 3 4 5 Planned Sales Improvement

Attribute Satisfaction Point Factor

A 4 0
B 5 1.4 1.6
C 4 1.5 1.2
D 4 1.2 1.4

28
Source: http://www.webducate.net/qfd/qfd.html
MME 9601b - Winter 2020
 Quality Function Deployment
(House of Quality)
3. Benchmarking of Needs
• An overall weighting can be calculated by multiplying the Importance
Weighting by the Improvement Factor by the Sales Point

Desired I Us Competitor Competitor Competitor Planned Sales Improvement Overall

Attribute m 1 2 3 Satisfaction Point Factor Weighting
p
o
r
t
a
n
c
e

A 2 5 4 3 2 4 0 0 0
B 5 3 5 3 1 5 1.5 1.6 12
C 3 3 3 3 1 4 1.5 1.2 5.4
D 1 2 2 1 3 4 1.2 1.4 `1.68

29
Source: http://www.webducate.net/qfd/qfd.html
MME 9601b - Winter 2020
 Quality Function Deployment
(House of Quality)
4. Technical Requirements
• These are the engineering characteristics, or Voice of the Company

• These are measurable characteristics of the product that the company

perceives will meet the specified customer requirements

• The same characterization procedure applied to customer

requirements are also applied to these requirements

• An additional row is usually included to indicate a desired change in

direction to these characteristics that will result in a performance
improvement

MME 9601b - Winter 2020 30

Source: http://www.webducate.net/qfd/qfd.html
 Quality Function Deployment
(House of Quality)
4. Technical Requirements

E F G H

MME 9601b - Winter 2020 31

Source: http://www.webducate.net/qfd/qfd.html
 Quality Function Deployment
(House of Quality)
5. Relationship Between Customer Needs and Engineering Metrics

• The purpose is to translate customer requirements into technical

requirements

• Each combination of customer requirements and technical requirements

is considered by the QFD Team.

• The level of interrelationship is weighted on a four point scale (high,

medium, low, and none) and this level is entered into the matrix

• Each level is assigned a value agreed upon prior to completing the matrix
which should be chosen to suit the individual project (e.g. 9, 5, 3, 0)

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Source: http://www.webducate.net/qfd/qfd.html
 Quality Function Deployment
(House of Quality)
5. Relationship Between Customer Needs and Engineering Metrics

Desired
Attribute
Importance E F G H

A 2 0 9 0 9
B 5 5 0 5 3
C 3 3 0 9 5
D 1 0 0 3 3

Number indicates level of

interrelatedness between
customer and technical
requirement.

MME 9601b - Winter 2020 33

Source: http://www.webducate.net/qfd/qfd.html
 Quality Function Deployment
(House of Quality)
5. Relationship Between Customer Needs and Engineering Metrics

E F G H

MME 9601b - Winter 2020 34

Source: http://www.webducate.net/qfd/qfd.html
 Quality Function Deployment
(House of Quality)
6. Technical Correlations
• This is the roof of the house where the technical requirements support or
impede one another

• The question to ask is whether or not the one technical requirement will
cause a deterioration or improvement of another feature, or no influence
at all
+
0 0
0 -- ++
E F G H

35
Source: http://www.webducate.net/qfd/qfd.html MME 9601b - Winter 2020
 Quality Function Deployment
(House of Quality)
7. Target and Final Specs

• This is the final section of the House of Quality to be completed

• It is comprised of 3 parts: Technical Priorities, Competitive Benchmarks, and Targets

Technical Priorities

• Calculate the relative importance of each technical requirement of the product in

meetingthe customer’s needs from the weightings in the planning and intterrelationshio
sections

• Each interrelationship weighting is multiplied by the Overall Weighting from the planning
matrix.

• These values are then summed down the columns to give a priority score for each
technical requirement

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Source: http://www.webducate.net/qfd/qfd.html
 Quality Function Deployment
(House of Quality)
Desired
Attribute
Importance E F G H Overall
Weighting

A 2 0 9 0 9 0
B 5 5 0 5 3 12
C 3 3 0 9 5 5.4
D 1 0 0 3 3 12.68
Technical 76.2 0 146.64 101.04
Priority
Percent of 23.5 45.3 31.2
Total

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Source: http://www.webducate.net/qfd/qfd.html
 Quality Function Deployment
(House of Quality)
Competitive Benchmarking

• Each of the technical requirements that have been identified as

important characteristics to the product can be measured both for the
company’s own existing product, and the available competitive
products

• This is used to identify the technical position of the existing product

and help to identify the target levels of performance of the new
product

MME 9601b - Winter 2020 38

Source: http://www.webducate.net/qfd/qfd.html
 Quality Function Deployment
(House of Quality)
Competitive Benchmarking
Desired Importan Meets E F G H Overall
Attribute ce Standards Weighting

A 2 0 9 0 9 0

B 5 5 0 5 3 12
C 3 3 0 9 5 5.4

D 1 0 0 3 3 12.68

Technical 76.2 0 146.64 101.04

Priority
Percent of 23.5 45.3 31.2
Total
Competitive Us Y
Benchmarking
Comp. 1 Y
Insert Competitive
Comp. 2 Y Information Here
Comp. 3 Y

Source: http://www.webducate.net/qfd/qfd.html MME 9601b - Winter 2020 39

 Quality Function Deployment
(House of Quality)
Target and Final Specs

• This is the final output of the House of Quality

• It is a final set of engineering targets set by the team to be met by the

new product design.

• Building the house of quality enables these targets to be set and

prioritized based on the customer’s needs, the competitor’s
performance, and the organization’s current performance. All of these
inputs are used to set the design targets

MME 9601b - Winter 2020 40

Source: http://www.webducate.net/qfd/qfd.html
 Quality Function Deployment
(House of Quality)
Target and Final Specs
Desired Importan Meets E F G H Overall
Attribute ce Standards Weighting

A 2 0 9 0 9 0

B 5 5 0 5 3 12
C 3 3 0 9 5 5.4

D 1 0 0 3 3 12.68

Technical 76.2 0 146.64 101.04

Priority
Percent of 23.5 45.3 31.2
Total
Competitive Us Y
Benchmarking
Comp. 1 Y

Comp. 2 Y

Comp. 3 Y

Design Targets Us Rev.

2.0
Y
Insert Design Targets Here
Source: http://www.webducate.net/qfd/qfd.html MME 9601b - Winter 2020 41
 Quality Function Deployment
(House of Quality)

Source: www.Wordpress.com
MME 9601b - Winter 2020 42
 Power Transmission
Translation of Customer
Needs into Design
Specifications

MME 9601b - Winter 2020 43

 Concept Development Process
Mission Development
Statement Identify Establish Generate Select Test Set Plan Plan
Customer Target Product Product Product Final Downstream
Needs Specifications Concepts Concept(s) Concept(s) Specifications Development

Perform Economic Analysis

Benchmark Competitive Products

Build and Test Models and Prototypes

Target Specs Final Specs

Based on customer needs Based on selected concept,
and benchmarking feasibility, models, testing,
and trade-offs

MME 9601b - Winter 2020 44

 Power Transmission Example
• Often an engineered product or system
must satisfied well defined needs
• These might be stated as design
requirements
• These must be translated into specific
design specifications

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Power Transmission
Specifications
(These are equivalent to customer needs)

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Power Transmission
Specifications
(These are equivalent to target specifications)

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47
Power Transmission
Specifications

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