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Ducati Case The Making of A Grand Prix Motorcycle
Ducati Case The Making of A Grand Prix Motorcycle
SUDHA (1816062)
What are the various elements (at a firm/business level) of a design strategy?
The various elements of a design strategy are first – modularity, this would ease
the
development process by reducing the testing time and helps quickly bring
incremental changes
where the major components and subsystems would be more independent and in many
cases
could be changed without affecting the rest of the bike as envisioned by Preziosi,
unlike the
GP3 and GP4 bikes. Second - limit design changes, changes should be incremental and
minimal, no major changes should be done from one release or generation to
generation as it
could bring inconsistences and overall product instability. Third – products should
have
minimal changes at the user interface, like in bikes, it could be controls that the
rider should
use, it should never change otherwise it brings distraction to the rider making him
loosing focus
from riding or in the case of Boeing planes leading to crashes which could be
averted if the
pilots were trained to use the new technology unlike Ducati’s introduction to new
changes for
a rider to use weeks before the race (2 weeks before) is a huge risk.
Fourth – designs have to be simulated first to get through the best and worst case
scenarios
along with the interface testing stubs ahead of starting real testing with the
users involved, this
could speed up the process and bring in stability in the system. Fifth – the design
architecture
and subsystems would contribute to the organizational structure (Refer Exhibit-2),
as the
organization structure is directly derived from the product or process
architecture. Sixth –
design strategy should be inline with the bigger picture of the organization as
seen in the case
of Ducati, the technology and designs that were being developed for the MotoGP was
to be
eventually incorporated into commercial road bikes, the best knowledge that could
be
borrowed would be the 4 stroke engine inspiration for road bikes, to do away with
pollution
and increase efficiency through complete combustion of fuel.
Seventh – Testing should always be planned, and it is the most important component
of a
design, since testing suites determine the quality of the product, improper testing
could lead to
product failures and negative brand reputation as was the case with Ducati in 2004
MotoGP.
Eighth – The rider’s feedback is very important to overall design restructuring, as
it closes the
loop for results perceived from the simulations, and brings entirety to the product
testing.
Eventually riders determine the quality of the product (also in a broad sense a
rider is a
consumer here, like with most products). Ninth – Design maturity to accommodate
components that would be traded off after contemplating the final design, like here
the power
and engine tradeoff in preliminary design, designs should be flexible. Tenth –
Finding the right
balance between the feedbacks given and the engineer’s advice, since some of the
feedbacks
could be just false alarms, and if the design changes were done based on false
alarms, then this
could lead to product instability and re-work ending up with huge debug time and
increase in
time to market, as a solution to counter this Ducati employs a mechanism of taking
feedback
from 2 riders to determine the credibility of the feedback, if both feedbacks are
good only then
the product qualifies, and each rider’s feedback is pitted against the other to
find the genuine
and accurate feedback of them both, factoring the human factor to it.
Lastly, the design should always be user friendly and empowering the customer to
have a better
control of the system as a whole, but this should be achieved subtly with minimal
controls
(Like in the case of UI designs, the most impactful UIs are the ones that are
simplest to use)
1
TOS – PGPEM 2018-2020 HAGAR
SUDHA (1816062)
Do you agree with Preziosi’s decision to move to the modular design strategy? What
are
trade-offs inherent in that strategy?
The modular design strategy move by Preziosi is the right decision keeping the
larger picture
in mind. The biggest change as contemplated by Preziosi was to incorporate highly
modular
design which would bring in flexibility since major sub systems would be more
independent
and in many cases could be changed without affecting the rest of the bike and
reducing design
cycle time and using modules designed earlier at the same time facilitating
parallel design
changes. Preziosi’s vision for Ducati to out perform its competitors with superior
engineering
and design would require quick modifications in designs and technologies from
subsequent
vehicle generations of GP bikes and easing testing by testing various modules one
at a time
which can be achieved by modular design strategy alone by decoupling different
modules.
Eighth – interfaces between modules are often common sources of errors, since there
could be
connectivity issues, wear and tear or unexpected exceptions at interfaces that are
not handled
accurately, primarily because output of one module could sometimes be the input to
the other.
Ninth - supplier risk is involved, since the supplier base and the services needed
would change
and companies have to share information and technical expertise to ensure suppliers
deliver
according to the new specifications and cost. Tenth – for architecture flexibility
alone if
integrated designs are used for low cost products then it could be a cost additive
and would
eventually translate into a heavy product.
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TOS – PGPEM 2018-2020
HAGAR SUDHA (1816062)
EXHIBITS
Product architecture