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INDEX
S.No. Topic Page No.

WEEK- 1
1 Brief introduction of Design systems 1

2 Product Development 8
3 Basic protocols of industrial design 15
4 Design thinking and innovation 18
5 Brain Storming 20
6 22
Design prototyping
WEEK- 2
7 26
Generic Phases of the Design
8 Configurational Design Aspects 37
9 Concurrent Engineering 45
10 Concurrent Engineering part-2 48
11 Concurrent Engineering Approaches 49
12 Concurrent Engineering Approaches 54
WEEK- 3
13 Benefits of concurrent engineering 59

14 Concurrent engineering environment influencing 64
dimensions
15 Concurrent engineering environment influencing 69
dimensions-2
16 Program & product Interface Dimension in 74
Concurrent engineering
17 Product Development Methodology 79
18 Elements of concurrent engineering: Optimization in 82
product development
WEEK- 4
19 Business relationships in concurrent engineering 87

20 Organizational elements in concurrent engineering 92
21 Techniques for the Implementation of concurrent 99
engineering environment
22 Average quality loss 103
23 Robustness in Design 110
24 Robustness in Design – 2 118
WEEK-5
25 Material selection in Engineering design 124

26 Material selection in Engineering Design 130
27 Basic steps in Material Selection Process 135
28 Design of Work Systems 141
29 Motion Study 148
30 Axiomatic Design 153
WEEK- 6
31 Introduction to Group Technology 161

32 Failure Mode Effect Analysis 166
Design Practice
Prof. Shantanu Bhattacharya
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
Lecture – 01
Brief introduction of Design systems
Hello and welcome to this course on design practice. I am Shantanu Bhattacharya I will be
the instructor for this course. So, let us look at design what is really design and what is design
or what is the status of design in the world today. So, design basically emerged more as a
discipline I would say from almost when people started looking into sensibly design as an
organized subject was from post World War two, where there were several mishaps which
happened to all the airplanes and people realize that there is a human side of all the story, we
and engineering cannot cater standalone to every requirement.
So, there has to be some kind of a confluence or merger between the human side and the
engineering side. So, the challenge today that our country really has is that you know we are
lacking in trained manpower as regards global designers who can change businesses go in a
certain direction because businesses today are treated as you know more about people, they
are not about what really you sell or what are the added advantages that we will come to you
if you sell something, but it is about whom you are selling, and what are their aspirations and
can we track that aspiration back into our designs and our products or our systems.
So, the need really is this that producing global designers with some Indian sensibilities
where the aspects of more or less everything that is related to this side of the world the
Southeast Asian economy, can be trapped somehow with the spirit of design in center of it.
So, my course that I am going to teach a design practice would actually first look into some
definitions related to design or what are the requirements of a design and this is an academic
course.
So, we would start pointing out different aspects of product design as well as partially maybe
user experience design along the way; learning some basic tools and techniques which would
be needed by individuals who try to get trained in the area of designing systems or products
or experiences for people.
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And so, these are some organized tools which the knowledge of which is probably important
for all the new beginners in the area of design to start designing for different situations. So,
the basic objectives here are to create design thinkers, design entrepreneurs, design leaders so
on so forth. So, what is really the state of design in the world today if I were to look at a
design as an opportunity.
(Refer Slide Time: 02:59)
So, the best example is an article from New York Times that got published about a couple of
years back when the new wave of design came as one of the dominant forces in the industry.
So, this article actually drafted by or written by Rob Walker says that it is a golden age of
design and thanks to the convergence of creativity technology and big money that finally, the
heyday of the field may be upon us.
So, there are a lot of underlying facts, which are covered in this article because of which you
know this article got published. So obviously, the whole field of design has kind of changed
from just designing something which is just sort of a basic you know mass customization
based or need based to something which is actually related to the experience related to using
of a product. So, it is missing the worldwide recognition as an essential component for what
we today called people centered innovation and people centered design.
For example the best example can be can be pointed out here in this particular image which
talks about this remote you know which is like mostly used for VCRs or telephones and
people find it so much unwanted and with so many features, which can typically drive all
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consumers crazy that this concept of a remote although it makes life easier and it satisfies the
basic need that you could sit at certain place and relax while operating equipments, without
going up to the equipment and switching on, but instead of the fact that it addresses the basic
needs it is highly confusing on the layout for the consumer. So, that people would simply not
like to use it.
So, how can I make a difference to it, how can I use this peoples thought of designing
something where it will be very easy for a person to handle this issue never got into business
before the new design wave started occurring. And so, today the exact map of perception of a
consumer’s mind is what is needed for doing good designing or actually what we know today
as designing.
So, today products embedded with software is becoming a norm, the idea here is to make the
usability easy. The idea also here is to somehow we able to get into the brain or mind of a
consumer, and find out what exactly is this liking. And that liking should be somehow
mapped into the product so that, you know through the innovative strategies that people build
and that is what design should be about.
So, typically all the service distinctions of features related to the product or you know the
post productization service requirements of a product, they are all blurring slowly and fading
away towards what we know as experience of a product. So, the main theme here the central
theme here today in design is how to shape that experience by, you know shaping or the
product or shaping the design that you are actually building based on the exact aspirations or
needs and that is quite psychological as a process you need to be able to make a mental map
of the thinking of an individual. And so, obviously you need so many different tools to get to
the nerve center of the problem about what aspiration a user has that; obviously, it has to be
studied as a new discipline so of called design.
So, they basically target user experience to begin with, and try to map that into all the you
know you know your innovations that go into a product and this way as I will show you in
the following few examples, products simply change definitions, products simply change
those boundaries , but what can be visualized as a product about let us say tens of years back,
is no longer considered to be a product anymore or a good product anymore; because there
are so many different variants, because of the usability and the user sense and the user
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aspiration that, the shape the size, the form of the product has probably gotten completely
changed in the current day.
So, currently it is it is strongly felt that they are more than about 10,000 our designer trained
designers which are needed by our nation, and probably at this level we are producing not
more than about 300 trained designers. So, there is of course, a gap and so, this as a discipline
needs to be inculcated into the Indian academic domain. So, that people can evolve with
design sensitivity and design sensibility towards the global arena.
So, let us look at some of the very basic innovations related to the user experience design that
I have been talking out about in the last few minutes.
So, when we talk about design and innovation, the best example that we can think of is the
company PepsiCo we all are aware that PepsiCo is in the produce in the habit of producing
and selling their main line of products are junk food, but still they are in business. although
the fact remains that the junk food you know is bad everybody has this aspiration in mind
today, it has this know how in mind today and then it is not a healthy practice to eat much
junk food, but still they happen to be in business.
And if we look at the underlying agenda that PepsiCo has or in building its products and the
underlying need mapping that they do and the kind of efforts that they put in order to be in
business, we will actually be able to appreciate what a designer can do which can change
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something irrespective of a very strong driving force about not about a consumer not
approaching a product still they can approach this and they can be in business.
So, if so, this is what the chief design officer of PepsiCo Mauro porcini has to say that, I
strongly believe that design and innovation are exactly the same things design is more than
the aesthetics and artifacts associated with the product, it is a strategic function it focuses on
what people want, what people need, what people dream off that crafts experiences across the
full brand ecosystem that are meaningful and relevant for the customers.
So, according to a recent article which came up in Harvard business review, PepsiCo has
made a lot of strides towards mapping the snacking behavior of women. One of the reasons
why PepsiCo wanted to do that is they wanted to change their product line from the earlier
catchphrase, which was available to people to design things for you know producing the
snack pouches for this particular consumer segment that either shrink it or pink it .
So, basically what it meant is that either you make the snack packet small carry able into a
small purse probably carried by the consumer or you know painted pink. So, that pink is the
color which is quite light by women folk’s women consumers so on so forth. So, then the new
study has shown the new snacking behavior study has shown that typically women folk
would hate to stain their fingers as the two.
They would hate the crunchy chewing sounds, which come during the chewing process or
they would like to have a small pack which can be stored somewhere neatly when you have
not consumed or when the concerned person is not consumed it fully and so, basically they
had give a lot of definitions about how you can design the right package size or design the
packaging in a proper manner or.
For example, for avoiding chewing sounds or crunchy sounds, the snack maybe designed in
the manner. So, that it is otherwise comfortable it gives a good feeling, but it avoids this
problem of creating sounds while chewing etcetera. So, a lot of this research has actually
technically gone into the PepsiCo products for it to be in business. So, that is how closely the
user segment is being mapped for building products which are likable by all.
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So, the same comes true for this mixing spire which was you know made because people at
the requirement of picking and choosing the drink that they like mix it in a proper manner
you know with lot of flexibility. So, that a variety of taste ranges could be had prior to this
probably there would be only certain tastes, which would be available for products discreetly
available in the market.
So, these are the kind of innovations that lead you forward to be frontline in the business,
where you know the act of designing comes into picture. And so, from that aspect the
experience design of a particular product by a certain consumer becomes the forefront of
carrying out design. Now it is a separate issue that which will also be a part of this course is
that how underlying manufacturing capabilities or experiences could be packed together so
that you could do everything at a low price structure.
So, the details that I will make during the course here is that how you could make differences
to a way that the aspiration is mapped into a product, from the market side into the basic
process side . So, that a complete realization may happen a realization of an experience
associated with the product may happen really quickly at a low cost.
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So, there are few more examples which show about how design can really improve this right
here shows the Indian market you know the it is it is something like you know this super
market, which is somewhere you know in one of these western countries. Visible this the new
form of the supermarket which happens here is offered by big bazaar, which according to
Kishore Biyani the CCO of big bazaar is a form of organized kiosk.
So, if you look at this particular structure right here of the famous big bazaar layout design, is
that this targets the largest middle class consumer segment, which is used to such kind of you
know chaotic marketplaces with all these containers for example, you know any shop that
you will go today in a local grocer, would resemble something like this.
So, this resemblance gives them sort of a homecoming feeling which enables probably a
shoot up in the total sale and purchase index and therefore, design per say is so important,
because you are able to map a certain usability requirement in terms of attracting a segment
you know to a certain layout, comes very clear from this instance quoted here.
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In fact, if you look at the new catch line of big bazaar it says Naye India ka bazaar . So, it is
like what resembles the Indian marketplace here, this is a vegetable section of the big bazaar.
And you can see that how very nicely as it generally happens in a normal vegetable market
things have been put in place so that, that organized kiosk can sort of attract consumers and
make them at home. And they do not really mind paying a little bit extra for the additional
facilities which are available to over and above this organized kiosk.
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So, that is what people center design today’s in the world another very important example;
that I would mention here is this tool Nano Ganesh developed by an entrepreneur Santosh
Ostwal. So, this is actually a small electronic module which is connected through mobile and
an app. So, that farmers could control the switching off and on of pumping stations which are
quite far away into the fields by you know using a GSM module and giving an instruction to
a small controller, which is otherwise present a near the pump.
So, this gives you a sort of an innovation which happens to be the answer for a need which
was underlying for several decades of farmers having to take this trouble to walk, miles into a
field in order to switch on and off a pump so, that they could irrigate suitably their crops .
So, this now is possible by sitting at your room and trying to control. So, so this need never
got mapped before this kind of a technology evolved and the technology per say is very
simple with simple options. So, this is what today's design is in the world that design for the
need and design in a manner so that the market comes to you, because of the innovation that
you put in your product. This is what the Nano Ganesh really looks like and it is operated
through a GSM module and it is basically used for starting on off a pump set.
Another very useful example can be for this product sold by P and G. So, Procter and Gamble
spent as much time to ask this question or ask the right question that people spend so much of
time to clean the mop so, that it sometimes even much more than spending time to clean the
floor . So, there is got to be a better way out to design the mop in a way so, that you know
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this whole issue of cleaning the mop, gets eliminated and this led to the development of this
mop with a stick concept, where the mop is disposable it could be removed after every
mopping and so, it puts together because of the users small use of convenience that you have
made into this product based on the aspirations of people who are actually using these for
sweeping or cleaning purposes, just make a small difference that they do not have to clean the
mop anymore.
So, you are sending a line of business making another you know supply chain which is
actually profitable to your organization and it is mapping the need. So, people are buying it
you could of course, create a manufacturing situation where this comes over all at a very low
cost. So, that people who are cost conscious also get attracted into this market segment.
So, the new problem that people started thinking off at P and G, when the design this product
is how to provide a better cleaning tool than a mop with less time spent on cleaning the mop
itself. So, the solution is right here a wet towel on a stick that could be thrown away one soil.
So, basically having a use and throw kind of product here. So, this product by the by the
sweeper was an instant success it led to a chalking up about 100 million dollars in sales,
giving an annual sales revenue of about 500 million dollars, which shows the power of
innovation into mapping the thought of the consumer into any product that could exist.
So, this event actually happened in 2014 when a banker in a financial firm capital one in the
in the US bought this design path this design company adaptive path when the bay area
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(Refer Time: 19:23). If we look at the basic reason for this acquisition it was that the banker
wanted to get the right kind of user experience design spirit in its services that it would offer
which would be again digital as well as non-digital to the customer, because of which they
acquired a whole design firm in order to provide the requisite design support or design help.
So, this is what the general trend in business is today that if we invest in design, if we invest
at the right time particularly during the inception of a business, then your sale and purchase
index happens to almost go to three times almost two and a half to three times as has been
seen by various companies.
So in fact, what a company motive strategy is along with working along with an institute of
design is to Luma institute has actually gauged something called design value index, which is
a term based on the overall sentiment within a company that how design friendly a company
could be. And they have identified close to about 15 companies where the major returns
which come back to a company or the way that the product line changes is based on the user
experience design aspect of the products.
So, what they find out is that there is a jump in the design value index which has been
mapped by company called motive strategies recently about a year back while working in
collaboration with the design firm a design management institute in US. Basically what they
have found out that in 10 years almost a 10000-dollar investment in a in design centric
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companies would have yielded returns, which are probably 228 percent greater than the same
investment in the sale and purchase .
So, basically it is the design which drives the business it is very clear from that strategy. So,
the work study that has been done here is mostly from about 75 publicly traded firms out of
which 15 which are again listed here are the ones which really value design or they are able
to introduce more of design interventions towards their final sales.
And it has been found that out of those 75 publicly traded companies, the 15 that are selected
here have tremendous amount of improvement in sale and purchase index because of a small
investment in the design area. So, that is how design can drive exceptional returns for its
shareholders.
So, basically the thinking that should be in today's business is that one has to ask the question
why not . Why not is that golden band between research based design and creative design,
that we as designers are super on the positioned to maximize. So, of course, Tony Fadell we
all know as the famous guy associated with the iPod Lebanese American inventor designer
entrepreneur and also now an angel investor.
So, that is what the basic question in design thinking businesses is that why not . Because of
this why not several things have come up by the by for example, procter and gamble asked
why not that why not somebody uses a mop with an idea of a use and throw mop and a stake,
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which retains between people . So, changing the product from the main product line which is
the mop to that of a stick which is retained is a very bold decision, but it makes wonders.
So, that is why in the sweeper or the basic concept of Uber anyone can drive anyone why not
that has to be a question that has to be again asked and unless people who have this design
thinking into place and people who can in influence company decisions or board decisions,
with this idea of think out of the box only they can make businesses happen business
successful, businesses grow.
Look at the iPod for example, music library outside the player why not somebody asked the
question why not. That is why probably Tony Fadell could have his way into the apple
incorporated and made what is very popularly known as the iPod.
So, that is how one has to understand the design thinking process. A little bit of history about
how design really happened so, far and continued. It grew probably if you look at. So, this
really dates back all the way to 1870 when on the very famous Frederick W Taylor and
Dilbert introduced what is known as ergonomics in a work environment.
So, basically they did the redesigning of the work atmosphere and environment. So, that was
geared towards productivity. So, of course, the whole area of ergonomics was found by
Jastrzebowski in the very same year. Then of course, there was this Bauhaus movement
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which was actually another ye sort of a pointer towards how design could be important and
what could be the relationship between art craft and society.
The more important need for a design intervention came up during the World War 2 because
of repeated plane crashes and the increased need felt by mankind to have man machine
interaction to a probably a better level. So, aspects which are related to human engineering or
let us say engineering and psychology merger came up in 1940s, again the ergonomics
research society in UK was heavily involved in the fifties to look at some of the industrial
problems human safety was a very major concerned raised and then you know human factors
led to aspects related to redesigning of products.
For example from the general Alexander Graham bell telephone which is based on dial the
push button telephone emerged as a possibility the design the impact of environmental
aspects on creating productivity, in the work atmosphere or reduction of stress in the
workplace became almost a very very common matter of study and common purview.
So, in 1980s again if we move forward we see the specialization related to man machine to
human computer interaction, the cognitive side or the let us say the man machine interaction
also known better as human computer interaction interface was necessitated again
ergonomics was interfaced with all this and then there were other concepts, which generally
emerged which led to finally, what we call the user experience concept, which is actually
merged now with design thinking and design innovation process.
So, in between in the 90s there was usability engineering, user centered design which actually
converged into this user experience design, which has now for the last about one decade or
so, for more than a decade I would say continues to be the central theme of all design
practices.
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So, if we look at this earlier, probably back in these 1800s people used to ask the very
question that users what is the need of users in making products or designing products. Then
people started thinking that products do have capabilities and they also have limitations and
so, therefore, the users somehow would define what are the capabilities of those products,
because the usability of the product is dependent on the user and his inability to handle the
product properly may result in some limitations or may arise in some kind of failures, which
was felt you know during handling of machinery.
Then of course, there was a series of you know or series of decades starting from sixties
onwards where the concept was how to aesthetically make things pleasant. So, that they can
sell for example, the automotive design if we look at was by and large very rugged prior to
the 60s, but after 60s there was a gradual improvement in the aesthetics and more compact
spaces were envisioned within the automotive which made lightweight very user friendly city
driven automobiles quite commonplace in business which we also known as small cars or
small segments.
So, then in the 80s again users were treated to be almost similar to computers. So, therefore,
there would be a compatibility of the users with the products which would be worked upon
finally, people started realizing in the 90s that emotions also are a very important part of a
user and you can treat users are simply computers or robots who are bound to perform
something while handling an equipment, but they do have some emotions and there is a factor
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of carelessness or carefulness in how you design the interfaces you know with such machines
or such engineering tools. So, that people can give a bit of deliverance and then finally, in
today's light with all this presentation that I have made for the last few slides, it so, seems that
it is the people who impact heavy the business and they change and refine and redefine.
And therefore, if I design rightly for the people I think great strategies can work out for
businesses to be really successful. So, this is a kind of an introductory talk which I wanted to
deliver today based on why the whole idea of design or what should be followed in design.
Now in the following lectures we would focus more on product design aspects, also aspects
related to when you look at the design process what are the kind of tools that you should be
used to in order to realize a product or a system.
And the next lecture that I would give following this would be almost dedicated to what is a
product or what are the kind of products or what are the values associated with such products
and what could be the kind of features or aspects engineering aspects associated with the
product, which would lead into an organized way of design thinking so, that a layout of a
product can be planned.
So, thank you very much for patiently listening to me.
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Design Practice
Lecture – 02
Product Development
Hello and welcome to the course Design Practice. This is module 2 for the course. So, last
lecture we were talking mostly about why design is so highly needed to develop businesses in
the current context connect scenario and what we figured out is, it is all based on only one
component which is the user.
So, in these changing days of competition the dimension of competition has also changed
quite a bit. If I looked at sequentially in the 60’s probably people were very conscious about
cost or quality and from 60’s to 90’s there has been a phase, when the phase manner earlier
people who are just buying low cost products, but then they realize later that if we invest
slightly more in the product and it comes at a better quality than the overall money cycle,
which is needed to be engaged in such investments goes down because of the persistence of
the product over a longer amount of time.
So, issues which are related to cost and quality almost got figured out by 90’s and then, there
was a need that, how you could develop products quickly with different features and
functions and not only that, how you could develop based on the customer’s needs or user
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needs and improve the product. So, there was an aspect of customization, there were some
commonality between products were felt upon the major majority opinion in the market about
how a product should be, but again, because of intensiveness in the competition, people have
gone into a domain now when brings about personal customization that, if I want to use a
product that is convenient to me, I should be able to dictate out the needs that I have into that
product. So, that it can serve you in every aspiration that I have associated with use of the
product.
So, now, you know competitiveness today is more about the product development capability
in terms of adding features and functions which are scaled down to the mass to the to the
actual need or aspiration of the user. So, having said that, let us look at some of the very basic
definitional aspects associated with the product, what really is a product.
So, obviously, product is a set of attributes which are offered to consumers to fulfill their
needs or requirements and they act as vehicles which provide or which help in providing
some benefits to the users because of which the very existence of the product is . And the
requirement of a product mainly depends on how to satisfy the inherent need of a consumer.
Sometimes, the consumer may not be very well informed about the need because, he is not
aware of the current status of products available to him in the market.
And so, therefore, his needs also get sort of construed to a direction of the most available
products in the market, which actually because of the new information age and because of the
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fact that now at a click of a button you can scan and know about what exists there, even if it
is a very small thing which is existing there. So, therefore, the consumers now want you
know, they have a very high highly skewed level of need which has to be satisfied.
So, the consumer satisfaction mainly will depend on the utility that person derives from a
product that he uses and whether the utility maps to his aspirations. And therefore, the
benefits of consumer-oriented marketing activities are to satisfy the consumer and to also
achieve of course, the organizational objectives of success growth and benefits and in a way,
all these goes into what we call the product. So, there are some examples here of different
products which are available in the market.
For example, there is this job master screwdriver, which is a very simple product yet I would
like to discuss with you some aspects related to this product, particularly some quantitative
aspects. Probably, the sales life or how many people are involved in development process or
design process and well sales revenue. So, on so, forth this right here is the Hewlett Packard
desk jet printer, there is a roller blade, skate’s and Volkswagen beetle and a Boeing triple
seven airplane.
So, these are all products from all different size ranges all different market segments. And if
you were to look at some quantitative basis to classify such products, we can actually classify
them in terms of their annual production volume maybe, their sales overall sales lifetime,
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sales price, a number of unique parts which should be there in such a product and again
development time.
So, the internal development team, a peak size of the team which probably is related to within
the organization, how much how many number of people are involved or associated with the
product development. And similarly, the vendor base associated with the organization which
is used mostly for setting up the supply chain.
So, external development team associated with the product a product like Boeing for
example, would depend mostly on suppliers because, each and every part that is there that
goes into a plane it is so much, so less backwardly integrated that, there are specializations by
different vendors who will have or suppliers who will differently will be differently able to
cater to different aspects of parts associated with an airplane and the precision the accuracy
the performability of what they produce, is what makes the super functionality associated
with such a product as an airplane. Mind you, if the airplane is in air there is no control. So, it
needs to be all functional and well to do and highly reliable whatever gets into such a system.
So, probably the external development team size in this case would be much more. Then the
development cost and the production investment that is needed for starting of these products
on or selling these products on the market. So, there has been modules earlier with students
that have personally carried out where, some students have answered these in their own
manner.
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And, what I request the audience here to do is, to without proceeding further in this video if
you could actually answer it yourself. And then, later on compare with the numbers that I will
share just in the next slide you may know what is your apprehension of some products of
different ranges or capacities as I showed before in terms of these numbers or quantizations.
For example, the student group working on this problem just last semester with us here
recorded the different products, the screwdriver, the skates, the printer, the beetle and the
Boeing airplane to have these numbers. So, for example, the annual production volume was
recorded as 5 million for the screwdrivers, about 1 million for the skates ok, for the printer
another million, beetle about 2000, Boeing airplane about 50.
And similarly, all the different aspects like sales lifetime, sales price, number of unique parts,
development time, etcetera were recorded. Note how the thinking process is that people do
think that, development time needed for a smaller system like screwdriver is probably much
lesser in comparison to that which is used for development of an airplane although, they are
very optimistic estimates and the probably way of the actual values which should be there.
So, this is a kind of a psychological map about what you know about products and what you
would typically respond to when you talk about discussing products. And when you actually
see, what these numbers are has furnished by from the manufacturers well the annual
production volume, for example, which was recorded in the last slide by the student
responses is about 5 million, is not even 100000.
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So, it is about close to 1 lakh units per year. So, they are off shifted quite a bit in terms of
understanding of the market size. I hope that you probably do better in terms of your
estimates.
Similarly, the rollerblade is again 100000 the Hewlett Packard desk jet is actually 4 million
units. It is pretty close to what people approximated here they said 1 million is about four
times the size. And the Volkswagen new beetle automobile is about 100000 and of course,
Boeing airplane is quite accurately mapped to 50 units per year, but when we talk about the
years of development or the total development time, as you can see, a Boeing airplane takes
about close to 4.5 years about 5 years to get developed whereas, the Volkswagen beetle about
3 and a half years or if I just talked about a Stanley screwdriver, it will actually take about 1
year to develop and make this product, come into place or come into production.
So, the estimates given by again this workgroup were quite off centered or what quite off
values, particularly because, they mentioned 3 months to be the development time of an of an
airplane. So, it gives an idea of what is the gauging behind different products which exist in
society by a general group of audience which is untrained in the area of product design.
So, having said that I would urge all of you to actually compare the values; that you have
written down probably in our earlier slide and you know, you could actually compare now
and see, how you know about products or how you know about new products and that exists
in the society of all different scales. A similar exercise could be done with other products as
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well, just to find out your apprehension about how useful products in the society map with
respect to these quantities right here.
So, when we talk about how to classify products, there are 2 different types of classifications
that could be possible. The first of course, is classification based on whether it is going to be
something which you use directly or something where there is a there is a value addition
overall to your aspiration. But you cannot use something physically directly.
So, such physical products are known as tangible products, like for example, goods like pen,
cycle, a car. These are some things which you use. There is a thing and this thing can be used
directly by a user and so that is why, you can call it a tangible product. On the other hand,
there are certain products, where you know you can actually get services out of them. For
example, let us say, a doctor is a person per se, but he provides service to you or so does an
airline so does the airlines or the hoteling industry that they do product they do provide their
products, but products are in terms of services , which can be used again by the user.
So, this is the basic classification of the first type, that is something which is more in a goods
form a tangible product which you are able to touch, feel, associate with perform and then
have a sense of satisfaction out of it the other one is where you actually use something which
is a service provided by a system which is already in place and through that satisfaction, you
derive mental pleasure or satisfaction.
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So, this is the first type of product classification. The second one of course, is based on who
are the buyers or the users. So, there can be products bought by individual users. Particularly,
for personal or household use or consumption so, these are known as consumer products or
consumer goods. And then there of course, industrial products which are developed for a
large-scale application mostly used for business purposes. So, mostly like for example, a
chained gantry lifts or a forklift or even a roller conveyor and an ordinary conveyor for mass
production. So, these are products which again can be used on a large scale by industry
houses which are in the process of manufacturing at a very high rate.
So, those are industrial products so, having said that; obviously, for developing products you
need a set of activities.
And the activities must begin with the perception of that there exists market opportunity. and
also, this perception should be converted into some innovative steps in between and a design
which can be realized in the end as something which is which can be produced which can be
sold which can be delivered and all what qualified to this which are being produced or sold
and delivered by a market and appreciated by the market and used by the market is what a
product is really about.
So, successful product development definitely results in products that can be produced and
sold profitably and this is what they cut the one statement is which would allow a product to
be in business or be valuable to the society.
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So, having said that now, let us look at that value that we are talking about which acts to a
society.
So, therefore, the baler major buzzword or a goal here is, how to create value through the
product development process . So, it is all about the product. What the product has to offer?
For example, will give you an idea of where the value , that it can create you know through
his existence in a particular society. Look at some very famous and interesting examples.
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For example, the first name which comes to us as this guy right here, apple, which has
produced many of these iPods and laptops, you know and then also touch screen phones,
which have changed the whole business of beat smart phones or beat music out of the music
library and into the pocket. So, it is changed quite a bit of concepts by bringing out what you
call simply better products and look at what happen this today. It is only because of this
innovation which is driven completely through it is user experience module that they are what
they are and in business.
So, I will actually take you through about 3 different products which are available on the
market . And I would like to also share some of the opinions which have been given about
these products and their features by again a student group I have been working with me in the
past. But, the idea here is that, after I take you through these products, you yourself should
without going any further on the video, be able to address the questions that I am asking. So
that, you can see what your aspirations about the product is or how you can map it to what the
real catch line on the product is or for advertising it which describes about the various
features associated for such products.
So, the 3 products I would like to share with you at this time are number one this black and
Decker snake light.
So, strong light you know which is used mostly for applications of illumination related to the
under-hood area in a car. For example, or any nook and corner we would like to reach
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because of some reasons and are not able to do a justice in reaching because of improper
illumination .
So, the other product that I would like to take you across is this measuring set of cups or
measuring cylinders called good grips. They are angled measuring cups introduced by
company called OXO and again you look at this product and try to perceive what is so special
about this product which makes it different than what other measuring cylinders would
typically do. And then, the third product that I would like you to look at are these prescription
bottles or pill bottles which has a prescription in place.
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These are sold by target nowadays. It is one of the very famous set of products which have
been developed over the past few years where, it gives convenience to the customer. In this
case, who is the consumer who is actually taking the medication the patient, by writing
probably everything that he needs to take care of while consuming something prescribed by
the doctor.
So, our student responses again I would just like to compare for these 3 products for the first
product the students responded by saying that, it is a product which is flexible and portable, it
is self-standing.
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So, basically all these wires can be moved around in any part and it may be made to stand on
it is own. You could have lights both ways. So, there is 2-way lights easy grip, long lasting
battery is probably minimum maintenance associated with the product, quite compact,
powerful illumination, can be used by children as well. It is very safe and aesthetically
pleasant. So, that is how all the student groups working with us last year sort of responded on
this particular project product. Similarly, on the other product that is, the OXO.
Good grips angled cup the responses recorded was accurate measurements more so, because,
these angled cups have a top down approach of reading the meniscus level which otherwise,
becomes a big challenge. Particularly, when seeing from the sides and trying to register good
handle design, this grip seems to be pretty good in this particular product. Obviously, the
visibility of level top down is much easier than side wise, the material is very transparent
enabling us to see the color or the level or the aspects related to the confined product I mean
confined liquid which is inside or let us say, any containment which is inside.
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Easy pouring because of particularly the big shape here and you know, if you look at it
closely, there are different measurement units or milliliters, so on, so forth, . So, there are
different measurement units which are in place for people to conveniently understand in any
different parts of the world. So, that is how this product is appreciated by let us say, people
who are not so, trained in the product development process.
Similarly, looking at this particular pill bottle, people have given all different aspects related
to air tightness of the content containment confinement, the childproof capabilities probably
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of this lid right here, prescription mentioned in the bottle which is a big help for patients who
particularly forget taking pills and then, there is a color coding particularly this color right
here which is yellow it can change from patient to patient. So, it gives you an idea about how
such bottles can be used by a group of different users.
So, in this particular product description, it so appears that, the capture of the audience is
towards the basic usability needs associated with some features which are innovatively
mapped on to this product. When we look at, actually the catch lines which these companies
have to say for their products, for example, for the snake light.
From black and Decker, the catch line which has been written to give aspects related to this
product is that, with a flexible neck and powerful 4-volt lithium batteries rechargeable snake
light provides illumination for a wide range of products features such as long lasting, ultra-
bright, led bulbs are there in this product which is kind of descriptive about the product.
So, definitely a part of it has been captured in the response given by the students earlier. For
example, this flexible neck and being you know or containing a battery which is powerful or
a probably ultra-bright long-lasting feature has already been described where, I saw the
features which were left over at this recharge ability. For example, or you know, even think
about the reliability provided by these lithium ion batteries and so on, so forth.
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So, these are some of the features which have been left out probably in the mental mapping of
student group which were untrained in product development about this particular product.
When we look at the statement related to the OXO good grips cups, the statement says, set of
3 measuring cups with angled surfaces for reading measurements from above the patented
angled surface let us you read measurements from above. So, this is what they are stressing
most and this is what probably the most important problem is associated with checking the
meniscus level from the sides every time in such measurement systems. It includes cup,
ounce, and millimeter markings which makes easy conversion available for people who are
untrained, but still want to use them for culinary skills, I am trying to read scales.
So, handles are soft non-slip for a firm grip. So, this something that has already been captured
eliminates need to fill check and adjust. So, basically quite a bit of this including the different
units of measurement or the good grip of the firm or for example, this patented angled
measurement design has been captured from set of people who have just looked at the
product from the untrained in the product development process, but still be able to certain.
So, same is true for the target pill bottle, which is actually also known as the ClearRx.
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So, when target introduced this ClearRx in 2005, if the design of the standard prescription
bottle was literally appended, the bottle now stood on it is cap. So, that is one aspect featured
color coded packaging which has already been captured as a feature by the student group and
easy to read label, which is again the prescription part which also was captured.
So, it has garnered tremendous praise from design and healthcare communities as well as our
guest that is what target has to say for it is pill bottle clerics and in fact, when an interview
has been conducted to senior level vice presidents of this company this say that the ClearRx
is one of the elements that differentiates the target pharmacies from competitors.
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It especially, designed prescription bottle that helps guests to manage their prescription apart
from containing just the medication safely. It uses a colored ring around the neck of the bottle
allowing each family member to easily identify the prescription given to that number and it
stores medical information. So, our guests can reference it at any time particularly, let us say,
a phone number of the doctor or even you know, the pharmacy which provided so on, so
forth.
And the best just got better we improve the functionality of clearRx bottle in 3 ways we made
cap easier to open and close, while maintaining it is childproof properties this was very
important it was captured remember in the response of the students. We modified the design
so; the bottle stands upright on either end which is more convenient for our guests. So, there
may be people who want, you know, pills may after sometime stick together, particularly, if
we are talking about capsules, etcetera because of weight. So, it is probably easier to turn it
around once in a while and we add a new coloring option paying to make identifying
medications for different family members even easier.
So, this is what again the senior vice president of target had to say was, is involved in the
product design.
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And if we look at the number of prototypes, which really resulted in the final product, there
were about more than 90 prototypes which were done in order to arrive at the final product,
which is actually the ClearRx bottle, which is in the marketplace.
So, product development is again, you know, an iterative process of mapping the real need
which is underlying this process of all development. So, I would like to end this particular
lecture here, but probably, in the next lecture, we will look at product development is a
strategy what are the different steps which are involved and get into some hardware and some
tools which are needed for doing actual product skill development.
Thank you very much again.
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Design Practice
Lecture – 03
Basic protocols of industrial design
Hello and welcome to this design practice module 3. we will actually start talking about now
the basic protocol which is used in the industry for designing actual designing of products.
So, it is actually a stepped process with each step meaningfully contributing something
towards the design of the product where a lot of idea, generations, refinement analysis,
detailed product layout or specification layout and then finally, manufacturing
implementation is carried out before proceeding on this just like to share that.
The contemporary design field is really very sophisticated process and it requires the
involvement of many departments as such not only design engineering or design as a matter
of fact, but beyond design involvement from finance, involvement from the manufacturing,
involvement from let us say the after sale service and also a function like marketing which is
otherwise very important for an organization all need to be involved in the process of
defining the basic design of the product that is being created..
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In fact, this need came up because when individual functions are being met by individual
departments at different stages without a proper crosstalk between them towards the
beginning it almost always happens to be, it may have several shortcomings.
And therefore, it is always happening to be an incomplete approach to design and therefore,

time and again it has been the need has been felt that from step one itself you involve
everybody who is a stakeholder in some way in the product life cycle and try to take
decisions which are mutually acceptable and which would not result in many iterations of
designs or changes of designs which otherwise is a very expensive process for the company.
So, the primary input to any design process as I think we are all aware is the recognition of
the fact that there exists a need for maybe a product tangible or intangible and the based on
that need then the process of actually the problem identification, the preliminary idea
generation, the refinement of all these ideas, the analysis process and finally, the decision and
implementation takes place.
So, it is actually a iterative process starts with the customer and the first task here for a
designer is to identify what may be a problem associated with the customer look at for
example, a blind person who may have this inherent need of using a stick we are carrying this
stick may become a big challenge or a big issue and so, therefore, stick could be alternately
replaced by small sensors which are embedded into the clothes that are owned by the visually
handicapped or alternately you might just be able to carry the stick on a wheel so that all the
obstacles and all the terrains which are to be overcome by that blind subject can easily be
done.
So, the exact inherent need mapping is also a matter of psychology of the user and therefore,
it is important to identify that need for a successful product definition. So, the key to
designing a successful product actually lies in properly identifying the need and the attributes
which are coupled to the need the product which has been developed.
So, therefore, the problem identification process should typically involve collection of field
data by talking to various consumers who are interested to buy the particular product
conducting some field trials, field surveys and experiments to understand the psychological
mapping, understand the psychological behavior and then use of intuition or judgment and
also the personal observation of a designer and also physical measurements sometimes so,
that the proper problem can be zeroed upon or identified.
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So, a good example could be that if I consider let us say the problem of developing a high
quality notebook, notebook is something that is more carriable there is need to identify some
characteristics like light in weight for example, highly portable, self contained systems, sights
to fit into a briefcase, may have standard keyboard. These are some of the issues or properties
which people would expect typically from such notebooks, the question is when designer
starts defining the need for there exists a certain kind of need in the notebook you have to go
through all this by virtue of the exact aspiration of the user and then have a compatible
operating system may be true on so, forth.
So, this gives you the basic problem statement that you would like to develop a laptop which
is confined within the domains of a small briefcase and which gives all other benefits to a
consumer is internationally acceptable in terms of the language of the keyboard that is being
used with the operating system that is being used and also in terms of portability or
maneuverability is much easier, probably there is also a need that the laptop should work for
a longer time and. So, the charge duration of the battery which is there and the laptop should
be higher. So, people could typically work in between you know traveling to work places
etcetera which may give up some additional aspirations that the customer might otherwise
have with a notebook size PC.
So, this is the first step the problem identification step once that has been identified now there
are many ideas.
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Which design theme typically would generate based on what is the inherent problem that has
been identified and there are many routes of doing it, one very useful route which is used in
most of the cases are these brainstorming sessions where people just start ideating about what
all would be the requirements which would go into a preliminary design process and such
sessions should be used to generate solutions to the presently identified need of the identified
problem.
For example in case of notebook sized consider notebook size laptops consider various
possibilities like the choices technologically which are available in terms of what circuits are
being used within the laptop or what are the materials which would make the laptop overall
become much lighter in weight, what are the other design complexities which are needed
probably a better interface which is more acceptable internationally with the consumer who is
trying to work on this module and this also for price competitiveness and then of course,
choice for making the product reliable testable producible all these issues generate or get
resolved through the preliminary ideation process.
Where all this would be added on to the final design that is going to be in place. So, once all
these preliminary ideas are generated it may be not necessary that all the ideas would work
out and. So, generally this is a step where you need to work mostly on a large size team
remember it is not really about gathering because gathering could be very well defined it is
all about we call it hunting in the designer’s language that you hunt for that big idea.
So, therefore, thinking out of the box is a very good practice, idea is there are certain rules
associated with the brainstorming may be in one particular module on this course as we go
along I would point out some of the requirements that are therefore, a very good
brainstorming session to get executed. The basic premise in brainstorming should be that do
not kill each other’s ideas in order to get as much on board for the basic idea rack which
translates to a bunch of very out of the box as was in place or more infeasible kind of ideas.
The next step therefore, once this ideation process has been done is a refinement step where
realistic decisions have to be taken. So, here is the refinement process through which several
good ideas are pursued out of whatever idea rack has been generated in the last step and the
refinement can generally happen be using scale drawings to determine merits of different
ideas maybe give a quantitative scale to the merits, it can be in terms of let us say space
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requirements if we talk about laptops or critical measurements or dimensions or structural
integrity of the members which are associated in building the laptop.
So, that it can be confined to the briefcase size space which is one of the main requirements
generated during the problem identification step and then of course, the interactions of
various surfaces and planes which are associated to give the overall form and size and
aesthetics to the product that is in question.
So, generally the refinement would happen with all these important details in place and then
once the refinement of the very best idea or the very best ideas are selected or refined then
there is an evaluation or out of these ideas what would actually go into the final design. So, it
will actually involve some analysis where we talk about evaluation of the best design from
the point of view of number of criteria such as probably cost, functional requirements,
marketability. So, these are some quantitative basis of selecting the final set of ideas which
would be ready to go which would necessitate blueprints and subsequent manufacturing
processes to be incorporated.
And this phase is typically the finalization phase of the actual design which would be so,
succeeded by another phase which is the decision base which is basically.
The stage where the out of all the designs and the analysis for the various designs which have
been generated which are actually shortlisted to go into the final product, you get a further
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selection or a decision about what exactly would be the best design which would go into the
product which is actually at probably a minimal manufacturing cost or with some quality
standards which are built in as per the aspirations of the market.
And again the idea would be that people will go for those designs which can be quickly
manufactured to make a product available to the customer faster. So, therefore, very less lead
time associated with the product so. In fact, cost lead time and quality are the 3 aspirations
which are almost a natural instinct for all customers to look for a product there is of course, a
fourth which now has become very attractive which is about the customization where it talks
about exact mapping of the needs and. In fact, if the product were such that at the very
beginning the needs were mapped properly then you can just go ahead with the decision
process here and trying to make a suitable design finalized in terms of implementation where
you draw out the detailed design document.
So, that involves what are the involve materials what are the involved dimensions tolerances
which are needed for the final design to be implemented what kind of surface roughness are
involved in the participating roughness. So, the idea here in this implementation process is to
really make the final blueprint of the drawing to be directly used for manufacturing and
process development etcetera. So, that is how in a step by step manner the design phase or
design process has to be implemented if I just look back into flow chart it could start with this
identification step with again preliminary ideas, refinement process, analysis and decision
process. So, this process actually is on certain criteria’s.
For example, are we manufacturing at a very customized manner or at a low cost or at a high
quality and so, if the answers are yes only then there is a question of implementation
otherwise you keep on iterating. So, that the problem can be suitably modified and so, can it
be can it is constraints so that the cycle here in the top continues many times because before a
refined drawing or design comes up which satisfies the required criteria so, that you can
implement.
So, it is really an iterative process as far as this part of the loop is concerned in the whole
steps of product design. So, if I were to look at how to broadly classify this whole design
process you can just marginalize them into two broad categories, where one would be related
to the actual need mapping which is actually a very big domain as I think I have illustrated
many times from the very beginning of this lecture and the other is actually the specification
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map. So, therefore, the design can really be split up now into two very broad domains or
overview where in one domain what you also call the conceptual design phase.
There are various steps like how do you define the problem? How do you formulate the
problem? Can you benchmark corresponding to whatever is existing as product lines in the
market? Can you also talk about what are the other competitors who are present in business
who are manufacturing the same product or service? And how do you rate your system in
comparison to those competitors? So, this very interesting quality function deployment area
couples to be you know before that estimation or that purpose.
And then you basically do a sort of detailed specification so, related to whatever needs are
being mapped so, it is called product design specification. So, in this particular step then you
start also gathering information about what are the concerned IP’s which are involved in the
process of the design.
So, that there should not be any overlaps with existing you know intellectual property in the
particular domain that you are working in and then finally, you do a concept generation with
all these needs together and all the ideas that you have been able to brainstorm or generate
and the concept generation could be done through several tools like functional decomposition
or morphological charts we will look at some of these issues in details probably later.
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And then we evaluate so, whatever concepts have been generated and there are certain
support systems like decision matrix systems or concept selection approaches which are used
for doing this evaluation of the concept and then finally, the idea is that there is the second
broad domain of embodiment design where you talk about now carrying out a functional
analysis of the product with the detailed concepts which have been generated up to this stage
of ideation and need mapping.
So, you basically can talk about laying out the product architecture, which is about the
arrangement of physical elements which are involved in the product to carry out certain
functions, you look at a configuration design which is about the material which is going into
the product the manufacturing method or the modeling or sizing of parts all these preliminary
selections at this stage about the rough drawing or the configuration of how things would be
put in space together side by side and what would be the level of interaction is made and..
Then of course, there is basically the parametric design stage which talks about how you can
introduce robust design by learning processes, how you can actually carry out to define the
tolerances the final the dimensions and are very important you know at this particular stage of
parametric design is also that whether the design is suited to a manufacturing process or what
we call design for manufacturability.
And then finally, you get everything together into a detailed design or a drawing or a
specification which comes out as the various phases of this overall embodiment design. So,
on one hand there is a broad domain of conceptual design which is about the ideation, the
need mapping as well as sort of preliminary evaluation of some of the ideas and on the other
hand talking about more well defined layout of the whole product, analysis of the functional
requirements of the product and then trying to increase robustness through experiences or set
up various evaluation parameters.
So, that the best design gets selected through this process which is laid out finally, in terms of
detailed dimensions and tolerances and also evaluated from a aspect of manufacturability
before setting up as the final design into a process plan or later on probably the subsequent
manufacture.
So, we will try to gauge the engineering design process into these two broad steps or
categories and move ahead with some definitions or some small information’s which are
needed for you to understand these.
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So, the conceptual design involves the following steps so, one is of course, the identification
of the customer need and I am going to actually talk about model just following this which is
very widely accepted in the world it is called the Stanford model of design thinking. Which
talks about there are certain specific routes which are existing very well identified routes for
understanding the need perception of individuals.
So, from the needs emerges the problem definition so, this step is in fact a very big step and
in fact, we need a lot of understanding how to go through the different routes which are
available for different design philosophies which exists around the world from identification
of customer needs to the problem definition then of course, we talk about gathering all
information.
So, it is about all the engineering design info which is available in terms of existing
intellectual property and trying to see if we are by any chance crossing domains with any of
those which are already laid out and then finally, you generate concepts that can satisfy a
problem statement which you have sort of identified in the step one here. And then finally,
evaluate various design concepts modify and evolve into a single preferred concept for which
can be applied further for actually the product layout, the architectural planning, the more
detailed specifications, the functionality mapping etcetera.
So, I am going to now go ahead and talk about a slightly different aspect of how these two
steps in great details can be done following an ideology or a map. So, we are all aware that
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the design thinking is really a human centered approach these days I think I have made
sufficient case for you guys to seep through this for the last about two or three lectures where
this human centricity in the approach to design thinking leading to innovations has been the
main talk.
So, design thinking is really a human centered approach to innovation.
And it draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate needs of people the possibilities that
technology has to offer and the requirements for success of businesses. So, that is how you
would like to interpret the design thinking purpose.
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So, in order to do that obviously innovation cannot come out without a well defined
methodology and innovation happens because of innovations are breakthroughs by the way
they happen because there is an identification of a need which is underlying, but is not well
evolved and somehow it comes to limelight and there is a solution which is brought forth to
satisfy that particular needs.
So, that is how the innovation would be defined. So, basically all what we need to do here is
sort of go for hunting, it is not for just gathering and I am going to just define both these
concepts of hunting versus gathering and what they are just in the next slide, but today’s
approach of innovation is to actually think very wild and go for a situation where you actually
go in hunting. So, if you look at hunting for example.
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Hunting is sort of an experience pretty sure at some point of time you have been exposed to
different hunts.
So, you basically wonder here and there and explore before you reach the goal so, goal in this
case is probably that big idea or the next level innovation which is not there and which
actually can be qualified to be called an innovation. So, one has to really wonder quite a bit as
you are seeing in this toppy curvy path that is being taken by the team which actually does
hunting as opposed to gathering which is very well defined it follows sort of a directional
path to reach the goal you could think of this as the food gathering habits of the primitive
man where they exactly knew what has to be done where it has to, when the group has to
move in order to find something which can satisfy the appetite and also in the process they
already had a lot of knowledge base from years onwards.
So, that they do not have to spend more time and you can actually go from point to point
satisfying all your objectives in that kind of a situation. But, this is really not a very good
approach when we talk about innovation really comes from all this wandering here and there
which means that you really need to think out of box you need to think about that idea which
probably may at the face of it not even look feasible, but has a potential to answer a very
pertinent question which can give you the definition of a product or a service.
So, that is what design thinking and innovation should mostly involve that is hunting. So,
when you go hunting for the big idea there are certain rules which need to be followed and
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the first rule that needs to be really followed is that you go in a team you do not go alone
because there are risks there are consequences if you go alone then there may be a problem of
you getting killed sometimes on the connotation physically means that if you will not be able
to survive in the business in the competitive business. So, you have to always take a good
team with you when you go for hunting. So, that is the first learning experience that a person
would have when you hunt for big ideas.
So, I am going to close this lecture here, but in the next module I will go into a little more
detail and look into how you actually do the need finding and the problem identification.
Thank you very much.
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Design Practice
Lecture – 04
Design thinking and innovation
Hello and welcome to this design practice module – 4. We were talking about the design
innovation and design thinking process.
And, in it we talked about how you can actually go hunting for the big idea, the next big idea.
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And, for hunting what we saw was that a path needs to be taken which is really very topsy-
turvy and you know a lot of out of box thinking has to happen if you really want to hunt for
that very big idea.
So, what I said is that the first rules of doing this innovation or you know so, called hunting is
that you do not go alone. So, you basically want to always be together in a team when you
actually go hunting for an idea and that is how you get the very big idea because there are
many perceptions which are with you and it does not put you biased towards one way of
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thinking and then you could actually spread out quite a bit. So, that it could actually get as
much possible in terms of ideation and creating the idea rack out of which one idea may exist
hidden somewhere which could be called the innovation which sells.
So, the first tool is therefore, that you never go hunting alone you have to build a team.
And, this team building exercise itself is very challenging because you know you have to go
for people basically because teams are made of people. People are real subjects and therefore,
if supposing you are basically doing this hunting you have to do it with people in mind. So,
hunting is all about the people, the team that you are taking along for thinking the very big
idea.
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Now, the other goal when there are people of course is that you need to communicate very
tangibly and sensibly with each other. So, you have to focus on your existing mandate of
preparing a solution to maybe an existing problem or a problem that you are thinking could
be the answer to your question of what would make an innovation happen. So, you have to
communicate very well communicate in a very terse manner and also communicate very
sensibly with everybody in the team that you are going to take along for doing this hunting
for a big idea. So, that is what the second step is that you have to work in a group and
communicate tangibly in a group and take people along with you on board if you really
wanted to have that very big idea that you are looking for.
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The other very important factor which is important for all of you who are ideating is that you
must learn to think out of the box. So, you defy the natural inertia, natural gravity that is
probably within any design thinking to think the obvious. Here, the question is not about
thinking the obvious it is about think the non-obvious, think something which may not be
seeming to be even a part of the solution yet it gives an addition or a makes a contribution
which becomes the solution for the future years.
For example, look at that mop stick model that I had discussed a few lectures back where we
were talking about that the need lies that the mop has to be cleaned. So, and later on what
people figured out that if you carry the stick from between the same user and keep changing
the mops then the basic idea is that it becomes much more convenient for the user to avoid
this whole step of cleaning the mops. So, the mop which was the earlier product actually
fades away and becomes a reusable product whereas, the product which is retained along is
something else which is completely out of the box.
So, this is what you call defy gravity think about the associated response or stimulus of a user
to a product and in that domain you will definitely find an answer were you could give the
innovative idea to carry the product not only the product, but the idea forward in a much
better sense, so, defy gravity.
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So, then the question is about people who are really also known as T people and T teams
meaning thereby they should be T shaped people where the arm of the T basically represents
the arm of the T here represents the broadness of the thinking process and the stem of the T
right here represents the depth of the thinking process. So, you should have people on board
on your team where you have not only an acceptability of ideation which is happening, but
also you should be able to look into ideas with the requisite depth that is needed for a team to
be successful.
And, you have to in order to be a natural leader here to lead the team be completely devoid of
your own ego and just have more listening than more talking and so, basically T people and T
people teams are very important concepts when you come to actually start designing. So,
listen more and take more, absorb more and try to take as much deep strides as possible along
the process of the ideation as a natural leader evolving into such activities.
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So, in the moment should I be an I or should I be a T the answer is if you are a T and if your
team is also built of people who are T shaped then you will have a span across all ideas yet
investigate those feasible ideas or even unfeasible ideas with the requisite depth so that you
do not have a problem in finally, building the idea rack which would be responsible to be
taken forward for prototyping and other works associated with the product development
phase, so that is how you really are like.
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So, I shaped is I shaped in knowledge, by depth. So, some people do have this quality that
they have in depth knowledge of something.
And, when I am talking about T shaped it is basically the thinking behavior. So, not only you
should have a depth of knowledge, but also very wide spanning thinking behavior as a
member of the team and you should actually have a T shaped philosophy in general for good
work to be carried forth.
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So, T people teams would typically look like this where the thinking behaviors kind of match
and there is a lot of acceptability among the members while each of them or each of the
participants give in depth in their own domain of expertise. So, that it can contribute overall
to the ideation process.
So, very a best example of what you can think of you know in this whole idea rag generation
is a case study which was done by Belcorp sometimes back where they were reinventing the
eye make-up experience.
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So, what they found out is that the major issue with eyeliner is about the deriding of the
eyeliner pencil from into unidentified or into unwanted regions that is causing a strain mark
which otherwise needed to be removed. So, there was a need underlying probably ever since
the eyeliner business grew up about how to get off a mark which accidently comes because of
wrong movement of you know the eyeliner pencil into an unwanted region, nobody just had
thought of how a product can be improvised with this pertinent need in mind.
And, so, basically when the case study was done and then there was a lot of consumers or
customers field surveyed, there were the general response that came out is that I do not
experiment because there is no easy way to take it off and so, I do not use eyeliner because it
is hard to do correctly. So, these are some of the responses and like you know from some of
the customers which came out for this simple product as just a pencil.
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And, therefore, there was a need to ascertain whether we can improve the product
engineering in a manner by coupling liner to probably an eraser in a manner so that you know
whatever stray marks come off can also be reasonable in the same set of the liner so that you
can give this complete package to the customer rather than the liner itself.
So, an engineer was according to your team of engineering people who were engaged.
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And, basically there was a simple mechanism with which one could actually now not only
you can see this mechanism right here not only actually create an impression, but also be able
to remove the impression. So, this whole you know objective of how to remove it and how to
lay it which was earlier coming in a quite a big package was changed by just changing the
very modality of the eyeliner design and it was a product which was a very hot selling
product.
So, this is how innovations should come into place for really out of the box thinking and as I
told you that because it is all about the right kind of teamwork I would just expose now all of
you to a sort of an activity where you could actually get through to know about your team
how good you are in decision making or what kind of you know T shaped people you have in
your team and for that what I would request you is to basically without going any further on
this presentation just look through this slide and probably the next and then try to just gauge
your answers in a team or in a group and the then out of the answers there would be some
conclusions of course, I will actually share with you the responses which were given by a set
of students whom I was teaching last semester for this particular activity to build up a team.
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So, this small you know activity is about as you know it is like an estimation of what would
be the most important or the most relevant and the least important item that you can carry on
given a situation that you were in the situation is that you consider yourself to be the member
of a space crew which is scheduled to meet with the mother ship which is otherwise landed
on the lighted surface of the moon. So, this is the side which faces the sun and because of
mechanical difficulties somehow the landing was at a different spot which was about 200
miles away from the point of rendezvous and during the re-entry and landing what you find is
that much of the equipment aboard was damaged and you had to somehow survive on the
terrain of the moon mind you the moons conditions are completely different than that of the
earth because it does not have it is own atmosphere as well as a very less gravity. So, the
weight of different things may not be that much on the surface of the moon and so, it may be
difficult to even walk properly because people are used to walking at you know full gravity
conditions.
So, the survival really depends on can you reach the mother ship which is 200 miles away
from the spot that you have landed and will be shared in the next slide, are a set of about 15
items which are going to be listed for you know which you will have to rank. So, the ranking
should be in a manner that the most important item that you would need to take with you for
going to meet the mother ship you have to traverse 200 miles on towards the lighter side of
the moon, so, place number one as the most important item among this list and so on so forth
and 15 for the least important item.
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And, basically the activity promote says that if you are now already teamed up in teams of 3
or 4 what I would request you is to for each person to first rank for the first 10 minutes to
decide what would be your individual ranks record their choices and then I will share a list of
rankings which was given by some astronauts from NASA which can be considered as the
sort of write values you know for people who are trained in the profession and. So, with that
ranking you would actually now, so before that first you will independently make this
decision of ranking and then you will get into groups of 3 to 4 of your teams and you will
now discuss the individual choices and try to find out and refine and make a collective rank
for your team.
So, one set of rank should be your individual ranking and another set of rank should be that
of your team. Beyond that I will share this NASA ranking and the idea is that in this case we
will try to interpret something out of the rankings that are shared. So, I am going to share the
experience then I had with a group of students for you to see how you can map also in a
similar way what is your team dynamics in comparison to by following a similar strategy as I
am going to define in the next few slides.
So, the items that are in place are box of matches, food concentrate, nylon rope around 50
feet, parachute silk, you know some 2.45 caliber pistols, one case of dehydrated milk so on so
forth, two you know 100 pound tanks of oxygen, the stellar map, self-inflating life raft so on
so forth, magnetic compass and similarly you have five gallons of water, you have signal
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flares, you have a first aid kit containing injection needles, have a solar powered FM receiver
and then of course, portable heating units. So, all these are the 15 items. So, sometime should
be spent now typically by stopping the video here by you to gauge the individual rank and
show us the team rank and then I will actually now in the next slide share with you what are
the ranks given by people who are trained in this art.
And, so, this is what the NASA actually shares and then there is some reasoning that is being
offered by people who are scientists and engineers at the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration. So, let us say the box of matches is ranked 15 because there is hardly any
oxygen on the lunar surface and so, therefore, there is no use, it will not burn. Similarly, the
food concentrate is rank 4 because it is an efficient means of supplying energy requirements
for human systems you remember you have to move 200 miles, you need nourishment on the
way. You also have 50 feet of nylon rope which is ranked sixth by the NASA astronauts and
because this is typically useful in scaling cliffs and there would be many instances where you
will find that the terrain of the moon would have either cliffs or valleys into which you may
have to travel long to reach the or to cover the 200 miles. Similarly, parachute silk, portable
heating unit etcetera they are all ranked as different ranks as you can see here by some trained
individuals.
So, I would like to share now, some of the rankings that some of our students who were
working in groups and they were about six teams made and then from there I would like to
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give you an interpretation of how you interpret the team dynamics or based on these rankings
which are being discussed.
So, in the first score shared by one of the teams you know as you can see that there about six
members in this particular team varying between M 1 to M 6 and what they have done here is
that you know they have calculated the difference of the different items here you know there
are 15 items like matches, food, rope silk so and so forth. So, they have calculated the
difference of the individual rankings in the first you know six columns here as you can see,
these are all the differences of the individual members ranking and this is the difference of
the group ranking. So, the group ranking changes quite a bit and you can see here that the
members for example, in you know this particular team 1, they have given the matches
almost correctly at least 3 of them have given the matches ranking correctly whereas, there
are 3 who still have some variation and when it actually goes to the group ranking after
discussions among the group members the convergence is that they again go for rank 15 as
that of the matches. And, so, therefore, there is no difference between the rating given by the
experts and the rating of the group.
So, in this case in this particular case the group dynamics helped them to improve you know
the overall gauging ability for one of these items towards the rank, but, also what is apparent
here is that if your individual scores total up to some particular value for example, in this case
the individual score of the groups totals up to about 24 which is actually the plus delta or the
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difference between the actual ratings and the group ratings and then you look at your
individual averages that is the average of all these different totals of the differences that has
come on the way of all the members rating all the different 15 components.
And if this lowers, that means, the average ranking of all the 6 individual members are having
a higher average difference in comparison to that of the group it means that as a group you
are better, if you are thinking as a group probably you are going to end up in to a better
situation, but if supposing as a group you go up then you identify that what was the dominant
decision making person within these 6 you know people who were responsible for changing
the average score in such a manner that this average probably came down. And, so, that can
be identified as a leader on the other hand it can be the other way around that if some score of
some member is dominant enough and this rating goes up of the dominance it means that that
member is playing a key role in to influencing the group decisions.
And, generally when you are talking about T people and T teams you have to remember that
one has to be acceptable to ideas and not very dominating yet the most convincing ideas are
the you know enough depth in some of those ideas have to be finally, carried forward. So,
there has to be really a tradeoff between not being too dominant. So, that the ideation process
does not stop, but at the same time carrying forward and not just looping you know about
what one should do or not. So, there has to be a balance or a tradeoff between both the
aspects when we talk about the group dynamics.
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So, I will actually share team scores for all the different teams that we had for example, in
this case as you see probably you know the group rating in this particular case the average
was higher in comparison to the last case and if I looked at the average score some of the
members here in the group were very you know dominating and that is why the rating went
from the last group to this group you know from 24 to 32. So, some of these interpretations
can be made when you are talking about relative evaluations of the teams and then you can
actually figure out how to change that dynamics team dynamics so that you can actually
come back on track. So, such activities are very much needed to well ground the decision
teams which you build around for you to be able to gauge whether you are on one plane or
not as regards the decision making process.
So, I am going to just share these few scores with you. For example, we had one for team 3, 4
and 5 and also 6.
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Where, we find out various issues because of the group dynamics as well as the dynamics of
individual members.
So, once the team is ready you want to do something which is also known as brainstorming or
body storming, because now, the team is good enough for you to go to the next level of
actually trying to ideate for problems which are existing or for solutions for some of the
identified problems that you may have made.
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So, I am going to close this presentation here, but then in the next module I will give you
some tips about how you actually carry forward doing storming and then how you carry
forward to generate the need you know the real need which exists and in light of that some
activities may be also done so that you get a perspective of how all this processes carried out
internationally.
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Design Practice
Lecture – 05
Brain Storming
Hello and welcome to this design practice course module 5, we were talking about
brainstorming and we were talking about some basic rules associated with brainstorming, we
have already in the prior step sort of gauged and formulated set of people together which we
can call up a T shaped team.
So, let us actually start doing some storming. So, what are the modalities associated with
brainstorming? You have to really follow some rules if you want to do a proper ideation
through brainstorming activity.
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And if I looked into the definition of what really brainstorming is. So, brainstorming is
defined according to Wikipedia as a group creativity technique designed to generate large
number of ideas for the solution of a problem .
In case it can also be for a solution which exists and which you are trying to find out which so
that there is a need which emerges based on which there can be a product solution. So, both
ways you can do and cover up; through you know brainstorming for all the idea generation
process.
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So, what are the rules that must be followed by all who are involved in the brainstorming
process? So, there are very specified protocols which you must follow philosophically if you
want to do this right and do this very straight.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:38).
So, the first rule that one has to really obeys go for quantity, you do not have to care really at
the first instance while doing brainstorming about what you are discussing; you discuss all
wild thoughts focused on the subject of course, but go for as much as possible and as many
variations even if there is a stupid looking idea get it on board and record it somewhere. So,
that is the first rule for quantity which can be again illustrated through this .
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So, you are not going to do this particular beautiful pot.
But a set of pot trees you want to generate. So, that from here you can pick and choose what
is good at you in the process, you do not you make sure that you do not leave anything which
is there in the horizon somewhere and somebody thought of it, but probably it had a better
solution, but it never got into because it was not good looking . So, you have to be very
careful about this one step that generate as many ideas as possible to begin with so that, you
can have you know you can go for the big idea or the big innovation.
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The other most important rule that one has to follow if you really want to do a good plane
storming session is to cut all criticisms. So, there should not be any no or, but or excuses. So,
you basically try to be very positive towards listening rather than saying it loud, when
somebody else is saying it . So, you cannot criticize at the very beginning to kill an idea as its
generated. So, leave your ego completely separate if you want to get onboard to generating
positively as much ideas that you can.
So, you cut criticisms and then once a lot of ideas have you know have come up and you need
some more you have to be also able to diverge quickly. So, basically whatever you have been
doing in your brainstorming if you see that the group is really going into a certain direction as
well as a natural leader the goal should be to go into completely different directions. So, that
the group can be set in that direction accordingly and then generate as many directions as
possible. So, that you can go out spread in an out spread manner from the basic path of that
that a group an otherwise be following.
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So, quickly diverge cut criticisms and quickly diverge and the other issue is that do not shoot
at each other's ideas.
So, whatever ideas are getting generated, you should be able to welcome them. So, typically
all weird ideas which probably may not at the first instance make sense also need to be
included in the brainstorming.
So, welcome all weird ideas as well as all other ideas which are generated and then this you.
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(Refer Slide Time: 04:49).
Know approach needs to be realized that when we talk about the parameters namely value of
implementation of an idea and the difficulty of implementation at the idea there is always a
tradeoff. So, there is of course, an obvious where the value is reasonably high, but then the
implementation difficulty may not be that high, and so, this is the obvious as a thought
process is a natural intuitive thought process for everybody, who participates towards making
a solution.
But you know what is creative is that non obvious which is away from this domain, where the
difficulty of implementation may be slightly higher, but you will have the maximum returns
or maximum value of implementing a certain idea. So, this domain is what one has to go for
and for that you have to really be open to this idea generation process.
And so, once this particular domain is sort of all explored there is of course, one more
domain here which is the observed domain, where the difficulty is very high or the value is
low so; obviously, it will cut itself off, but that does not allow us to not generate ideas in this
domain as well. So, the idea should be generated probably where the value of implementation
is high the difficulty level is relatively low or where the difficulty is slightly higher and the
value is low or value is very low and the difficulty is very high, but still there exists an idea.
So, all these ideas need to be taken forward for the whole brainstorming process and the idea
like generation to work out well.
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So, what do you do is out of all this is to sort of build the idea rack, based on all these ideas
which have come up to define a problem statement or they find a solution for an existing
problem, and then you try to build and combine .
So, basically the ideas can be able to combine together or the ideas can be able to take
different directions on the same alternative that would be finally, generated as the best
possible design, but the idea is it is like a big jumble now, and then from the jumble you have
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to create an organized way of starting to assemble and so, that is what also matters or a
brainstorming session to be complete in its in its due form.
So, the process definition says you know and this is what the whole design thinking process
the Stanford design thinking process is that, an innovation crops up when there is there are
minds working together, there is an emotion involved in solving a need or a problem or even
emerging a problem and they are continuously in communication with each other. So,
basically there have to be a human factor, there has to be a proper pathetic behavior of the
human factor towards situations, problems you know stories.
And then choose ideas which are the most radical and the most relevant and then you have to
communicate you know the minds have to communicate with each other in such a situation.
So, that innovation can come up or innovation can be generated. So, I think I have kind of
given enough philosophy behind this whole process.
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And the underlying you know need finding, which is actually an important pretext whenever
we talk about starting to innovate is about again people right. And so, people are called
personas, personas are actually not made up they are real people and they are people who are
existing in a certain situation they are discovered, they because of the situation that they are
in and then you have to actually think about that person and think about a story which exists
because of which this person.
And the goal here is that the moment that person and the person’s stories get that unraveled,
you have to be empathetically trying to align the design requirements or design goals towards
some inherent needs, which you will find out while identifying the user.
So, his needs which are actually not even known to him fully may have to be emerged by you
as a designer, while talking to the person or creating a story behind the person and so, this
persona mapping is a is a very important issue and probably step one for doing the need
finding behind any design thinking process .
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So, let us look at this particular picture which is on board here, and this was an assignment
again done by a group of students with us, which talks about a person right here and various
situations that this person is in you can see different situations different photographs
associated with this person's life, and you know the first example of doing something is to
sort of identify a persona and a story associated with these set of pictures.
So, the job here is that the themes that you have developed in the earlier stage should
typically get together look at this picture, and do not go for any forward on the video and try
to generate a story behind this person. In our case some of the students interpreted this poor
guy here as a farmer, who manages to have cell phone, barely you know does get to eat
whatever basic food he is available and he has not a very good lifestyle, because he has a
broken cycle as you can see here in his home.
But then and then there is you know the home is also not so, well to do, because it probably
has a damaged roof or even a place where, probably there is a lack of doors and windows as
you can see in the in the particular building here right here and so, he is typically in a realistic
setup, but his aspirations are very high. For example, he wants to get a smart phone, probably
he wants to get sort of a very good quality shoe for being able to wear and do something
maybe ride his bicycle or something.
And probably wants to by looking at the age of this person, he is quite old. So, get his
children settled and married and so, the story built up around this image by a group of
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students was that this person right here is in a very poor state , but he aspires to achieve some
things. For example, get his daughter married or buy a shoe for himself or buy probably a cell
phone and for that, he decides to participate on the race bullock race and jeopardizing
probably this his safety also, but because of need for some of the things in the slide he still
decides to go and participate in the race even though it may jeopardize overall safety and
there may be a possibility of injury etcetera.
So, this is a story built upon this persona through which you could actually try to map some
of the inherent needs that this person has for which you could develop solutions and for
example, in real life when you are talking to people, the first thing you must try to understand
is to watch from a distance about the situation that a concerned person is, and try to create a
persona out of that person practically empathetically with by aligning yourself to that person's
shoes and trying to see what would be the general thinking. The general requirement of a
person who would be in that situation out of which you would now try to generate an idea
right behind the need of a concerned person.
So, that is how you know the story goes, that you have to prepare before. So, you have to put
a methodology in place to gauge what is important prepare some kind of a discussion guide,
through which you could actually talk and interact and then once you start interacting with
the concerned person, you should listen and then ask observe again ask and so, you have to
act you know on that account, and later on prepare a whole story which you compile based on
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your observations you know during the during the whole process of discussion with a
concern. And at every step you must challenge your assumptions and try to move forward so,
that you generate a very new story and folded which otherwise was probably not even there
or not even existing intuitively associated with such a persona.
So, once that is achieved. So, you are basically discovering the people's explicit and implicit
thoughts what are these? We just come back to you I mean in just probably the next few
slides about what is an explicit and what is an implicit thought our needs and these are
important because you want to generate appropriate solutions to these particular needs.
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And for need finding there are certain distinctions that you want to make. For example, you
want to ask a question where the need can be a verb and the solution can be a noun for
example, need could be a physical psychological or a cultural requirement of an individual or
maybe a group of individuals.
So, the solution is basically an object you know it could be an action or a process, and it
would satisfy this physical need for some verbs or something, which is you know an
aspiration related to an individual . So, that is how you can sort of classify the need statement
or make a need statement based on that.
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So, as I told you earlier these could be explicit or implicit. So, if you look at this iceberg
particularly there is a huge portion of the iceberg which is still under sea and not visible, but
they do exist . So, needs are like the situation where when you visualizing here is probably
those which are not even important whereas, the real need probably may lie somewhere
underneath.
And so, therefore, you need to be able to explicitly see or directly things which are expressed
by the needle are perceived by the need finder, but beyond that you also want to see what was
not expressed by the needle directly. Just based on your intuition try to actively or creatively
interpret whatever is need finder has elaborated in his interview. So, that it would involve that
in the persona story so, that a general need can come up. So, that is how you will try to go
underlying try to go to decipher the underlying psyche of an individual based on which there
may be a need.
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So, how to start need finding? So, one thing which is very important is to learn to observe
watch and ask many times and observe very thoughtfully what is there in a situation.
For example, what do you see in this particular picture here . So, and what do you interpret
about this picture. So, some of you may think that this is a probably you know a warehouse,
where various products are kept you could read appliances here, you could read microwaves,
you could actually see these folded sheets of steel or plastic whatever kept. You know, but
then we need that you interpret here is basically a requirement for something which would
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reach you know on a high shelf. So, probably that is the most difficult part in this picture that
you are not able to reach a material which is highly placed you know if which is placed on a
higher rack or a higher shelf, because you do not have some kind of a foot ladder or
something in place.
So, the first need that you could solve from this situation is to think about or start thinking
about a new product here from this situation that about it a foot ladder something like this.
So, this is how you basically start interpreting from a real life situation, when you want to
unfold the personal story behind that situation and to create you know your intuitive process
to think of solutions at every level of you know observations which you feel can be needed
by individuals working within that set up.
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So, the basic rules of the game are that watch, get bored and then watch some more . So,
there may be some interesting some unexpected or notable things, if you continue repeating
this process again and again.
The other issue which is very important is that again you should look for workarounds in
what people do or emotionally charged moments or reactions of different people would able
to help you to understand some of the pertinent questions related to why they should happen,
maybe that may be a cause of an underlying need which may be in place.
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So, even if you get bored by watching just keep watching or just keep listening to things
which are probably notable or interesting, and try to pick and choose those things out of the
whole watching process or whole you know asking process that you go through.
So, this is something that you have to be very good at if you want to be you know a good
designer to begin with. So, you have to watch also for the A E I O and U. So, a stands for
activities are many levels that an individual would do the environments in which an
individual or a situation is placed the interactions that would happen between different people
in an environment or the environment and the person itself and then you have to also talk
about objects and users, and try to map all these in your you know watching an interpretation
done so far. So, that it comes up with set of good you know needs.
Which are underlying even explicitly said or implicitly hidden it does not matter, but then
you have to be able to interpret.
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So, the first act that you have to do here is to actually go to the users yourself. So, you go
where your users are and it will be most useful, if you know who they are actually before
going even. So, you have already mapped something related some perceptions related to the
concerned user and also you have some information on where they go.
So, that this will help you after observing and talking to them to interpret various things,
which may be underlying which, they may not be able to know themselves, but
unintentionally they are spelling it out for you to decipher or discern. So, go where the action
is maybe you start with the location and observe what happens there, and then start observing
and asking yourself where is that innovation which is in place which can bring out something
wonders.
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The other very important part here is to talk to experts. Experts do know much maybe
sometimes not at all because they are not an expert, but are claiming to be an expert . So,
experts do know about their users and products. So, therefore, talking to some experts who
are really experts in the business would help you to gauge the observations, that you are
making continuously and asking yourself to go to the next step in order to refine the
observation .
So, some knowledgebase would really be helpful at this particular stage, you know what is
existing where you do not work or what is not existing where there may be an innovation .
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So, you talk to experts and maybe find extreme users; extreme users are often more sensitive
to the implicit needs the hidden needs then the typical users, but getting such expertise is
sometimes difficult because then a person would interpret about philosophically being able to
use a service or a product, rather than just giving the direct consequences of using it .
And then you basically do a profile interview, where you take a both the depth as well as a
breadth about what else could there be in the environment, which may influence the usage
patterns about what the users are thinking to be a potential product where they could actually
start. So, this is what again needs to be done when you are talking about developing the need
step or the need finding step.
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And then take off all your presumptions, you know about what you have interpreted so far,
and just walk in your user’s shoes and walk for probably a mile in them yourselves to find out
what could be an underlying need you know of a person in a certain situation. So, there is a
person there is an emotion connected with the person there is a situation and you as an
observer are trying to just observe and absorb as much as possible by experiencing you know
the concerned user.
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So, the whole goal here is to really design something for in the future. So, you have to keep
both the yesterday and tomorrow and purview when you are trying to design, because you
know this is today's design which would definitely try to go along for quite some time and it
must have been borrowed on the experiences from what was before. So, you design on almost
a twenty-year-old span with 15 years on either side of what you are in today. So, that your
products may be as futuristic as possible, but borrowed from experiences from the yesterday
years.
So, that is what the goal is when you wanting to develop something. So, it is not really an
attempt at forecasting or predicting it is that you can predict the future, but you can invent it,
you can make your innovations in a manner. So, that they continue and do not fade out for a
longish horizon of time.
So, you use analytical reasoning to discern the possibilities based on data and what will exist,
what we can build and finally, go to that level where you can say that yes there exists this
underlying need for a certain product, and this is because there is a certain verb associated
with the user which promotes this particular need to come up or exist.
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So, I would now like to give you small activity and then probably, I will share a few
responses that we had done when we actually were working with our students here. So, as
you know the design briefs you have a quite open ended, you might hesitate where to start
and the best way to do it is to redesign what you call the gift giving experience.
So, in this activity I would request people who are taking this particular class to pair with
people whom you think you know least , and we will all together design and you give giving
experience for our friends. So, I am going to now go step by step of what you want to do, and
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then I would request all of you to stop here and do this activity yourselves and then you know
I will also share with you some of the data that I had for a group of students that I was
working in what their responses are at a later date.
So, in this particular case you will have to start by gaining empathy of your partner. So, your
challenge here is to redesign the gift giving experience for your partner. The most important
part of the designing for someone is to gain the empathy of that person. So, you have to listen
more and talk less. So, as a starting point ask your partner a question, you asked you hear ask
him or her to tell you about the last time they gave a gift and what kind of aspirations, they
have when they start giving gifts to people about planning the gift.
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So, this interview should be recorded and so, there should be typically either. So, basically if
there are A and B two people. So, in first case A should interview B, in record and in the
second case B should interview A and then record .
And then there are certain stipulated time frames, which are given in which you have to
collect the notes from your first interview.
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In the second step you basically dig a little deeper and start asking a little more insightful
questions based on the first approximation of the first response that your partner is given, do
repeat this for both A and B as I have said before and map this in this particular format .
And then you reframe the problem; reframe the problem by trying to synthesize your
learning’s what you have by the interviews into a few needs that you have discovered within
the partner with whom you are working, and a few insights that you probably find interesting.
Mind you need should be verbs for example, person likes doing something like likes riding a
bike or let us say rights photography. So, these are active verbs which are there and then the
insights that you would like to make as designers are discoveries that you might be able to
leverage when creating some solutions.
So, then a lot of needs can get pumped I mean clubbed up together and you know the idea of
generation process that from a jumble you have to build a design. So, how will you design in
that manner . So, you reframe the problem and define the problem.
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So, this is a statement that you will be actually go addressing in the future, while you do the
final you know design brief that you will be giving your partner to ask about his or her
opinion .
So, the statement that you are going to address with your design should be juicy and
actionable. So, it should be something where you know the inherent needs the underlying
needs of a person should come out, it should feel like a problem which is worth tackling
which is already not there on the market. So; something which is full of innovation.
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And in these you will have to capture findings again by understanding on the needs which are
things that they try to do; that means, your partner tries to do most of the time and the insights
which you gain by talking and ort of try to find out the implicit or the hidden feelings that
your partner has, and give a world view to leverage those feelings somehow to map into your
design.
And then you want to make this action statement here which says that so and so, write the
name of your partner here needs a way to do something which is actually a verb here map
this, and then unexpectedly in his own her own world you basically give an insight that the
reason why he or she wants to do this is because there is some aspiration which is at the back
of the mind or there is some event which happened or there is something, which happened
back in time you know because of which this need arises .
So, this would give you a sort of a feeling of how to map one's mind. So, do this activity very
diligently and then finally, you would generate an alternative to test.
So, you go four volumes first, you try to create as many solutions based on the action
statement that you have made and generate the idea do not evaluate just keep generating the
ideas and right.
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So, should sketch about three to five radical ways, where you could actually either sketch
them or even you know just write them down and then based on whatever alternatives you
have generated you will finally, try to.
Share the solution and capture the feedback, where you should not impose upon your partner
about your ideas and how they test it, but just learn what is the feeling towards whatever idea
you have generated that you would like to give as a gift to your partner ; fight the urge at
every step to explain and defend do not defend the idea that has been generated.
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See what passively when you are giving an idea to a person what the concerned person makes
of; it may be a very critical reaction it may be a very pleasant reaction, but then that gives you
an instance of whether you could actually map the person's mind towards you know the need
that he or she may be having. Spend more time in listening and not reacting and questions
that you have should only be based on how you would improvise.
So, based on that these solutions can be captured and you know iterated again and you can
again refine and generate sort of a new solution which you record here.
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So, finally, that big idea that you would like to sketch can actually go in here and this can be
shared again with your partner to see how he or she reacts on that. So, this idea or this whole
activity I would like you to do probably for a few minutes, and then in the next module I
would sort of give you some details about what our student groups to it when we looked at
this problem statement or we gave them this problem statement and what kind of ideas got
generated. So, I would like to end this particular module here.
Thank you very much and we will see you in the next module.
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Design Practice
Lecture - 06
Design prototyping
Hello and welcome to the Design Practice Module 6. This particular module I will be
discussing about prototyping now whatever you have ideated so far from building up an idea
rack through the various you know observations as well as empathy mapping skills that you
have formulated so far. So, in this particular module, we will be defining a prototype or what
is prototyping.
So, prototyping is about getting all the ideas and the explorations out of your head, and into
the physical world. That is how you define. That means whatever you have planned and
discussed and what kind of you know statements you have built in the previous many steps,
you are going to now complete that through or explore that little further by means of a
physical form, that you would like to built out of your ideas.
So, a prototype can be anything that takes some kind of a physical form. It could be role
playing activity. For example, it could be a space that you wanted to redesign and object that
you would like to use as a product, may be an interface between a machine and the human
being or even a storyboard. I mean a prototype can even be a storyboard. So, anything that
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achieves a physical form out of whatever has been ideating in your head so far is known as a
prototype, but there is an immense use of formulating a prototype because it gives you sort of
a concept map. It gives you an idea you know by just looking into a real life object rather
than imagining into an imaginary space.
So, here you could actually give form to your thinking you could say in terms of a prototype.
So, the resolution may be rough, it may be rapid, of this particular prototype does not matter,
but it has to have some form. That is the basic idea and typically prototype is something
about making something people can experience, people can interact with and their concept
stage can get more refined by having a look at the prototype and playing around with the
prototype. It may be not doing or it may not be a complete functional prototype, it could just
be simply a prototype related to the experience behind a product, but it has to be some kind of
physical entity. So, there are many different kinds of prototypes which people do construct
from time to time in product design activity. Some of them are being mentioned here.
For example, there is a functional prototype. So, this is known as CFP, the Critical Functional
Prototype which means really a prototype where whatever is the main idea or the theme has
been constructed into with the functionality that is a vision for the particular product. Now,
suppose if you are to construct or if you are to just map the dental experience in our country
and then, try to look at among the various things that the dentistry would need, what are the
most important aspects or things where there could be a marked improvement in the dentistry.
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So, we have done some kind of a study design, study in this respect in found out that the
dental chair is the most important component where a little bit of production in the price of
the dental chair may improve where the dentistry is done across the nation. So, once you have
sort of the bull’s eye view of what is the most important problem there, the question is about
can I make a functional prototype behind.
So, the functional prototype in this case for example, if you are looking at a dentist chair is
actually a chair which could be low cost , but apart from that the more important part is about
how to manage with your design thinking and your innovation in the area of dentistry to
come up with this view that what is the most important area and you know you could have
something related to dentistry as a subject as an experience prototype.
For example, a very simple thing like a convex mirror which could give you a map of what is
inside your oral cavity would be an experience that a person would have which will enable
him to think about going to the dentist, . So, this could be a reasonably good critical
experience prototype. So, something which is related to the experience that a person would
when he envisions about this, you know a product or concept, the product here is really about
improving the dentist.
So, something which will be giving you an experience about dentistry in the first place before
even going to envision, what is need for a proper dental system or a proper you know a dental
management within the countries. So, that is called an experience prototype, .
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There can be dark horse prototype which means it may be a usually little known contender as
a racehorse that makes an unexpectedly good showing. It may not be all together in the race
at all. It is completely out of the box that some idea pops up which may replace the main
product which something which is much more useful you know at appendage to the main
product which makes itself, . So, this is an entrant in a contest that is sort of judged unlikely
to succeed, but if we explore the feasibility of such dark horse prototype, it may turn out to be
the innovative idea which may make differences in selling.
If you remember in our first we were talking about the stiffer which was a P and G product,
where we were talking about a mop and how you know just putting a stick to the end of this
mop and then, replacing the mop every time making into a use and throw cartridge and
retaining the stick itself proved out to be one of the most innovative ideas which you know of
or of the sales for P and G by almost thousand plus folds. So, in that case when we were
looking up for a mop as the main product, somebody figured that the mop is the most
inconvenient part of the product because it has to be washed and cleaned every time before
the swiping.
So, why not make that product completely be a disposable un retained part of the product,
whereas the stick which would be attached to it to be the retail part, the stick was never in per
view before one thought like this to dry home the innovation. So, this could be some kind of a
dark horse prototype which may or may not work, but then there may be having an
innovative idea which will make it sell. So, that is how your kind of look into the various
different kind of prototypes.
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So, typically any prototyping would start with a sort of a deconstruction of the system
particularly in terms of functions can be mapped what are the various parts related to a
product. For example, if I am looking at a bike like this. I should be able to get a frame you
know which is composed of different parts which are added together. There is a handle part.
There is also this you know the support member, . Then, there are these wheels, there are
seats
So, these are some of the parts that would come up to your mind the moment you start
thinking of a bike. So, you have to somehow deconstruct the whole system into small you
know subsystems, whenever we think about prototyping of something.
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So, for example, in a bike you could think of different components. For example, there could
be a harness, there could be bearings, there could be some communication system which is
you know made up of again servers or some display units or some protocols, similarly
steering system which would be made up of a bar steering fork, steering axle may be a thrust
bearing, you know which helps the easy maneuverability of related to the system. Then, also
there is a rider component for this bike or in fact, there is also sort of you can say a wheel
system which would be comprised of an axle or let say an axial bearing and there could also
be a pusher system.
So, in this manner you could kind of deconstruct whatever is there in a normal bike, and try
to may be develop prototype of using a material which is not very conventional in biking may
be use just paper to build up such a bike. So, this kind of whenever there is a prototyping
activity deconstructing from whatever is existing and trying to do a functional mapping is
very common place when we try to work or start working on prototypes.
So, I would like to sort of end this small module and prototyping here with the hope that you
know in the next module, you would like to again look into a little more organized
knowledge of about how to bring the design process through you know looking at the product
architecture or product functionality or even the configuration aspects of a design.
So, for now thank you very much and goodbye.
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Design Practice
Lecture – 07
Generic Phases of the Design
Hello and welcome to this module 7 of the course of design practice, we would like to
describe in this particular module the generic phases of the design which we had described
earlier as per this particular map.
We are in the first part we talked about how to formulate a problem or generate a concept to
solve the problem and then finally, evaluate the concept in an organized manner. So, that
finally, there is an overall scheme of what needs to be done in the whole design. So, this
phase is also known as the concept framing phase or conceptual design as it is more
commonly called, the other phase of course, is related to the actual design of the embodiment
which is being planned in the conceptual stage which will solve the need of the problem.
And this would basically necessitate a stage of you know defining the architecture of the
product that is underlying which talks about maybe arrangement of physical elements to carry
out different functionalities, put together in a single page. Or even the sort of a configuration
aspect of the design where there may be the question of functionality based mapping by
putting things in space and how the product would like to interact with its environment. So, it
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is a kind of a well defined map to talk about the overall configuration of the architecture
which has been planned in the last phase. And then finally, fixing out the different parametric
aspects of the design and how to make those design aspects more robust after particularly
implementing the design in a process and trying to get an output from the processes of
feedback to control the design itself And then finalizing of these tolerances or dimensions
related to the different aspects of the product architecture which is being talked about and
then finally, the design for manufacturability.
So, all this comes into the real hardware part, the conceptual design part is about more
determining the essence of the need which is underlying or a problem which is underlying
and how to address that need and the embodiment part is that what are the logistics which are
involved in sort of addressing that need. So, this is what we have so far discussed about the
detailed phases of the design process and. In fact, we had done some work in this particular
phase on the right here in the last about two-three modules where we talked about how a
problem can be identified or how solution can be brainstormed and may be prototyped in
great details .
But at the outset once this whole concept building has been done, the real hardware part starts
developing here where there is a question of how you are going to realize what you have
developed or how you are going to also the see the economics of scale when we talk about
implementing a solution or existing in an existing scenario . So, which this basically is a
phase which would like to bring out finally, the detailed design with drawings and
specifications of the product or the solution for the problem step which is in the last phase
and. So, here we will be focusing mostly on 3 different aspects.
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One is the product architecture and this would really be a structured development of the
hardware part of whatever has been conceptualized in the earlier phases . So, the architecture
part would focus typically on dividing the overall design of the system into smaller
subsystem levels and modules .
And then the other also issues about associating the physical systems with their
functionalities . So, in context of that there may be a very simple example of, let us say if you
are talking about a small pen, when we when we talk about a ballpoint pen we having many
different components within a pen. For example, there is a outer housing, there is a refill you
know which can be replaced, there is also a push button system through which you would
like to project the refill forward or backward withdrawing it into the casing at times and there
is also a spring loading aspect which is. So, all these are independent subsystems of the
overall system that is a pen and if I wanted to associate functionalities with each and every
subsystem.
So, obviously, they are in unison or in assembly functioning with respect to each other and
then the pen is also functioning with respect to the surroundings which is actually the paper
on which the pen makes a mark or a writing or let us say the environment around which the
pen is kept. So, that there is an aspect of temperature of the particular let us say casing, which
would be held by an individual. So, for example, when we are designing for pens this choice
of material etcetera should be such that they are sort of insulating in nature and there should
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not be any heat storage or there should not be any problem associated with the temperature of
the casing going up. So, that its inconvenient for the user and then on one hand a part of this
also is the environment associated with the fingers of a person which holds the pen.
So, when we are talking about the whole architecture of the pen there are several external
factors which are involved like the paper the fingers which are holding a pen or the
environment with which the vane is interacting and at the same time there is something which
is within the product and that architecture each and every component has some functionality
associated with it.
So, the product architecture when we talk about this we are talking about just that division
into smaller sub systems with their basic probably functional understanding of each
subsystem, but when we talk about a little bit detailed configuration design what we
determine here is the features required in various parts which have been figured out in the last
step and the arrangement of the features in space relative to each other.
So, that you can think about the assembly to work in unison as such and then of course, there
is a parametric design phase where we are talking about the collection of information in the
last step which is laying out in space of all the different components together and then
providing dimensions and tolerances based on the functionality and the flow. You know of the
product and final decisions which are to be arrived at on let us say the materials use, the
manufacturing processes which are to be deployed and the overall robustness of getting
something manufactured and delivered being evaluated this all comes into the parametric
design aspect of a product.
So, we are going to lay out some different discretized products and try to give you an
understanding of how this structure development of the design concept is done. So, let us
look at in details.
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So, the first part which is the product architecture in the embodiment design can be better
understood by this example of designing of a cart, there are these cards which are used for
carrying luggage from the at the airports from the collection stations all the way to the
airplanes and back and. So, if we wanted to design such a cart, it would be really about out
laying of the individual physical components of this product this cart and the mapping that
will be needed. Because, we want to associate functionalities with every subsystem level
component or every small component associated with that whole overall physical description
of the embodiment of the cart.
So, let us say if we wanted to draw such a cart, a cart is somewhat you know it looks
somewhat like this where there is a component associated with some kind of a box where is
typically used for protecting the cargo particularly from weather, you know let us say rainy
season etcetera cargo should not get wet. So, there is a box. So, this is the box part and let us
say this is the bed which supports the cargo. So, typically the cargo is placed somewhere in
between here, let us say this is this is actually the cargo .
So, and if I looked at how this cart is positioned and oriented and designed there may be
some leaf springs which may be connecting the cart to a set of wheels. So, probably just draw
it in this manner. So, you have this part of the spring. So, we call this let us say leaf spring or
just general springs. So, the spring carries weight and. So, there is there is a wheel on either
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side. So, there is one wheel here and again another wheel here which is not visible in this
drawing and then there is of course, this fairing.
So, this is sort of a shape which has been deliberately laid out for reducing the aerodynamic
drag associated with this component. So, it is connected like this to the different side of the
cart and then there is some kind of a hitch which is again used to connect it to a vehicle right.
So, this is a sort of a hitch you know which would be used for carrying the cart forward.
So, you have a cargo here, we have a box you can see the box right about here there is a bed,
there is a spring, there are certain wheels which would be the load bearing members, there is
a fairing here just for reducing the aerodynamic drag and then this is the hitch which will be
use for pulling the typically the cart. You know this hitch is attached to the end of a power
provider it could be either a tractor or some kind of a small Indian driven mechanism which
would carry out these cargos crag so sort of a cargo vehicle from the airplane to the main
station or terminal or back.
So, if I just whatever I said I wanted to organize in terms of different subsystems and
different functionalities. So, there are about close to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 subsystem level
information which are needed you know in this particular embodiment of the carton, if I
wanted to lay out in terms of the different components and what are the associated different
functionalities. So, for example, the box in this case would be providing a protection of the
cargo against weather . So, we can say that the box protects the cargo from extremities in the
weather condition ok then you have of course, the hitch which has a functionality of
connecting to the vehicle.
So, you connect the hitch to vehicle then of course, you have the fairing, which is a
component used for reducing the aerodynamic drag. So, if I write the functionality of the
fairing this will amount to minimize air drag then of course, there is a bed which is used to
support the luggage or carry the luggage. So, we would say that it supports the cargo load.
So, you have these five components already built in there are also springs which would again
have the role of suspending the trailer structure . So, you are suspending the trailer structure
and then finally, the wheels which are the load bearing members . So, you basically say that
this transfers the load to road . So, this is how you can design the embodiment in this
particular illustration which is a cargo cart .
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In a one to one mapping of each component associated with some functionality . So, in a way
if the if such an architecture can exist where each component would typically add to only one
particular functionality and there is one to one mapping between the individual subsystem
level and the function carried out by the whole system. They are typically known as modular
architecture and there may be many instances where as I will show you just probably in the
following slide that if I slightly change the design of this cart it may be that multiple
components are associated with multiple functionality. So, there are going to be complex
modularity which is involved whether the mapping is really between you know, in one side if
I have all the individual components and another side I have the functionality.
So, one component may be responsible for providing multi functionalities and that is become
slightly complex than modular. So, we call it more towards complex modular geometries then
of course, there are a third category of architecture or product architecture where there may
be even a case where even a single function is done by multiple members or components and
there as suitable in motion as is felt in most of the products the architecture is rather known as
integral in nature.
So, therefore, we have a certain categorization in the way that we are laying out the
individual subsystems of different components together to carry out so called the functional
design off the product that is in question. So, let us look at a slightly different design of the
same cart that we are, we have just talked about in this particular slide.
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And if the design changes really to, what is represented here, you will see that the functional
mapping of the subsystems in this particular architecture may be slightly different than what
you saw earlier in the more simpler design.
So, in this particular cart really there is an upper half which is actually working as a you
know weather shield for the cargo as well as is also responsible to a way, in a way to support
the cargo loads there is also a lower half in this particular module let us say this is the lower
half the lower half circle . So, here also there is both protection from weather as well as
support for the cargo . So, that is how this system has been kind of defined there is of course,
a nose piece which is somewhere here of this particular cart and then of course, there is a
cargo hanging strap in this particular case as you see the cargo is hanging upside down and
the load is supported from the upper segment of the upper half of the design.
So, that is how it is oriented actually. So, this is again the cargo hanging straps there are
several straps inside the design and then we have a spring slot cover which actually is this
whole cover area here . So, the holes supporting springs are now being covered and then of
course, there are wheels . So, now what we see is that if I wanted to do a subsystem level
mapping of all the different functions we will realize that there are multiple functions done by
individual components. So, right now for example, there are at least six different items which
are being listed here and if I looked at how these six items would perform in terms of
functionality towards the design, let us actually look that mapping.
So, we have the upper half here and then we have again the lower half, let us just first in the
same order list all the different sub system level information we related to this design we
have the nose piece now . Then we have the cargo hanging straps, and finally, have the spring
slot cover, and the wheels.
So, if I looked at the different functionalities that all these subsystems would have to offer.
So, the basic functionalities in this design could be something like let us say protection of the
cargo from weather . So, protection of cargo from weather, connection to the vehicle the
powered tractor or trolley or truck which is going to drag this whole cargo carrier, you have
minimization of the air drag again which is being done by the nose piece.
Similarly, we have the support for cargo load, the suspension of the trailer structure, and
finally, transfer the load to road. So, obviously, the wheels are the ones which will transfer the
whole load to the road, but if I looked at the other elements you will see that there are
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multiple functionality is being done by different elements for example, the upper half in this
case not only protects the cargo from weather, but it also helps in supporting the cargo
remember that there is the there is a strap through which the cargo hangs on the upper half .
And also in a manner you know the upper half also sort of suspends the trailer structure . So,
this suspension here as you can see in this particular zone is sort of connected in a manner so
that the joint between the upper half and lower half is connected to the suspension. So, it is
actually performing more than one function, similarly if I looked at the lower half the lower
also performs all these three functions as has been illustrated. So, the lower also is used for
supporting cargo load or suspend the trailer structure as well as production from the
production of the cargo from weather, if I looked at the nose piece the nose piece here first
connects to the polar vehicle .
Then also is responsible for minimization of the air drag, the nose piece is this one piece
again which contains both the hitch as well as the fairing combined into one module now and
then of course, the nose piece also in a way supports the cargo load because if I looked at
how this nose piece is biased it gives structural stability to the upper lower assembly . So, in a
way it also is responsible for supporting a part of the cargo load by giving it a stiffer
orientation. Similarly, if I looked at cargo hanging straps typically all the load of the cargo is
supported by these straps or the spring slot covers again are used mostly for protection from
weather of the cargo and of course, the wheels are used to transfer the load.
So, in this kind of architecture as you see now there are many subsystem level components
which are carrying out more than, one functionality. So, if I really were to look at such an
item it is modular in a way that you have individual subsystems performing some of the other
functions, but just because there are multiple functions being performed by a sort of a single
component. You could say that the modularity is a little more complex for example, in this
case the fairing and the hitch has been connected together and is now one module, instead of
earlier two modules which were put in place . So, so, in a way such kind of an information is
goes towards what you what you call complex modularity and then of course, if we wanted to
look at the whole product architecture it is in summary a three step process.
So, the first step would be really about defining the arrangement of the functional elements,
second step would be the mapping from functional elements to physical components. So, we
have been doing this for both the examples given in the last slide as well as this slide. So,
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mapping of functional elements to physical components and then finally, we define
specifications at interfaces of the interacting physical components and that is how you define
the whole product architecture .
So, the third step involved here would be to define specifications at interfaces of connecting
components for example, in this particular case if I were to look at in details how the
interface between the upper half and the lower half would result in some kind of a load
transfer from the upper member to the lower member, in a way we are defining specifications
at the interfaces in a manner. So, that it can support such a load . So, you have learned in
short how you can modularize a product architecture or you know you can study in
architecture in terms of simpler and complex modularity.
As I told you earlier that if this sort of approach changes to situation where the
implementation of a single function is carried out by one or more building blocks of a
particular product. Than we would regard the product as an integral sort of an architecture in
such architectures it is very common to have poorly defined interactions between the different
building blocks.
As you saw that in the simple modularity case you had one function to one subsystem level
information and mapping possible, but such kind of an interaction would then be very
straightforward, but an integral architecture it is not the case you have to really scratch your
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hearts where as one has to really work very hard to define the interactions between the
several building blocks.
In an integral architecture, as opposed to the modular architecture of course, where I have

already mentioned is that the various building blocks implement only one or probably a few
intended functions and that makes the interactions between two or more building blocks quite
well defined and easy to recognize.
So, a typical example of modular versus integral architecture is given in this particular slide
you talking about by cycle break handle as well as a gear shifting control lever. So, if you
independently you know have these two mounted at different places one can consider them to
be or modular, but when you actually couple them together they would have a much more
complex nature in terms of multiple subsystem multiple functions or one function being
served by several components which are internal to this architecture. So, in this case the
architecture would then be defined as an integral architecture.
So, I am going to now close this particular presentation you have in this presentation sort of
try to understand how a subsystem level mapping can be performed, if you were to
understand the design in terms of different modules we will talk in details about how you lay
them out in space and how do you connect the different modules together in terms of their
functionalities and interactions, which we know is the configuration design which will be
done in the next module.
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Design Practice
Lecture – 08
Configurational Design Aspects
Hello and welcome to this course on design practice module 8. We were talking about the
product architecture and we described about modular and integral architecture in the last
module. In this particular module we will be talking about the configurational design aspects.
So, what is really meant by Configuration Design? is that you know it is basically sort of a
spatial relationship between the various physical components that have been split up in the
last step from a basic shape or basic architecture product architecture. So, it involves the
basic shape with special locations and also tries to indicate, what are the general dimensions
that the product should have; obviously, the configuration design at some point of time would
also need to develop accurate specifications or tolerances.
But this comes at a later point where we actually talk about the different parameters which
are involved in the design . So, configuration design essentially evolves from the functions of
let us say the different subsystems which are put in place and also in a way to their
dependency on the availability of materials and the production processes which are involved
to realize them physically.
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So, in a way I would rather say that this configuration design is related to the creation of this
form of the product which involves again an inter sub domain functional relationship. it also
involves a lot of logistics related to the availability of the type of materials which are in place.
And also to the production slash manufacturing alternatives which are available for to the
designer based on these constraints he emerges the final form of the layout of the product
architecture. So obviously, the form has components the form does have also interfaces
between these components.
And when we talk about particularly the next step which is the parametric design process
these interfaces and the dimensions are tolerances along these interfaces become of immense
significance and defining the product architecture. And of course, there are constraints,
constraints like physical constraints related to motion related to binding you know between
different subsystems at the boundary or the interface.
So, with all this the final form of the product kind of emerges in terms of it is functionality
mapped into the different subsystems laid in space parallel to each other in the way that they
should be laid out in the product architecture etcetera. So, that is how configuration design
would be carried out.
Let us look at an example again when we are talking about the same cargo trolley that we had
discussed in the last step. Obviously, there are different components which would create
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different functionalities if you may remember we had talked about different functions
including weather protection, load bearing capacity, or ability, suspension ability, load
transfer capacity, and minimization of air drag right.
And in fact, if you may remember we had associated different components like the bed or the
upper housing or even the fairing or the hitch or even springs so there is also a connector,
connector to the vehicle in terms of these the subsystems which would offer such
functionality. So, there were six different subsystems in this whole trolley architecture which
would offer six different functionalities in the extremely modular, simple modular design of
the trolley.
Now if I wanted to connect such functionalities in space with respect to each other in a
manner that it would be laid out in the product itself . So, that would give you an idea of the
functional of the configuration design.
So, how for example, in this particular case there are certain aspects related to this design
which talks about interaction with the environment for example, the load bearing capacity of
the trolley or the load transfer ability of the trolley is really transferring the load to the road.
So, road is one element of the environment through which the system would interact.
Obviously, there is another element of weather or you can say that you know the environment
in which the product is being operated through which the product will interact and the third
element which is of significance here probably is the cargo because cargo is again externally
loaded on to the product. So, it is no longer a part of the system or at least a system level
integration between the different subsystems connected together .
So, the cargo the environment and the road and also of course, vehicle which would be used
as a puller these four could be external entities which would in a way interact with this cargo
trolley to define it is functionality. So, now, if I wanted to look at how these functionalities
would be related we know that when the load transfer issue comes of the wheels the cargo
trolley that should have an interaction or a signal flow into the road meaning there by the load
is being transferred into the load.
Similarly, the suspend trailer structure should in a way be connected through a signal line to
the transfer loads to the road because unless the suspension happens there is no way that the
load can remain away from the road .
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And so only if it is way there would be a question of the load being transferred from the
wheel into the road similarly the support cargo loads function is again connected through a
signal flow to the suspend trailer structure, because ultimately the suspension is needed
because there is a requirement of the support ability of the system to the cargo load.
So, it is a way of looking into what is the in space functional relationship or functional line of
requirements with respect to each other which will give you an idea of what component to be
placed near to what component. So, in terms of functional split up of the whole system you
are trying to align all these subsystem level information in a line diagram mode, just in a way
as a function signal or the function signals flow between the different functionalities of the
trolley .
So, in this case also there is this minimization of air drag which in a way is connected to the
environment because; obviously, there is an interaction of the environment and so if the air
drag is in a way minimized there would be an effect that would be lined up with the cargo
loads because if the drag is low then probably lesser amount of force would be needed to
transfer the cargo and obviously, the cargo loads in that case would be virtually not felt so
much as it were the case when there would be an air drag.
Similarly, if I looked at how the protective cover of the trolley would interact it would
basically have a functionality of protection of the cargo from weather again the interaction
goes with respect to the environment. And in all these cases the interaction also happens with
the cargo because it is a cargo which is to be protected from the environment and both of
them are external entities. So, we are connecting these external entities to this functionality
here which talks about the protection of the cargo from the weather.
Similarly, when we talk about connecting to a vehicle the signal flow of this functionality of
connection to a vehicle should go into the vehicle for the vehicle to provide the respective
pull to the whole system and in a way the connect to the vehicle should actually take the
signal from the support cargo load.
So, that whatever load is being felt here which is also a function of what kind of cargo it is
carrying, it would define with along with the minimization of the air drag and the support
cargo load functionality. What is the level of signal that should flow between the functionality
of connect to the vehicle and the vehicle?
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So, this is how you are basically splitting up into functional elements and external entities and
with a signal flow diagram trying to ensure that the functional proximity is specially located
in a manner so that you know you can define the subsystem level information of components
which go into the final design of the trolley . So obviously, the functional elements are
functional requirements of the product this I think I have already indicated.
There are two different notations used here one is for the external entity which are the
circular notations and rectangular notations are for functional elements and the lines here are
basically the signals or the links which would indicate the exchange of signals not on the
exchange of signals, but exchange even of materials or forces of energy in a way so that you
can do the interconnects and the functional elements are primarily involved in exchange of
these signals materials forces and energies through these straight lines as has been already
defined .
And generally when we split up any architecture into let us say a modular form it may be a
wise idea do not go more than about thirty elements otherwise the functionalities are simply
too complex to be mapped into in terms of subsystems. So, a better idea would be that in case
of larger systems you split it up into smaller subsystems and each of these subsystems into
several different parts constituting the subsystems where the functionality plot can be made
into the subsystems and then the subsystems will be arranged in a manner.
So, that the overall functionality of the whole system can come up from the alignment of
different subsystems specially just as I showed in terms of their functionality. So, that is how
configuration design of an element is done.
So, you are seeing that how we can figure out from philosophical aspect of functionalities.
How the components should really connect to each other or interface with each other so that
those functionalities can be signal transmitted in ahead and in turn interact with the
components of the environment into which such an engineering system is present . So, that is
how you do configuration design.
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So, the in summary the steps of configuration design are to sort of review the design
specifications and the subassembly specifications. Determine what are the spatial constraints
particularly from the product layout these may be physical constraints, this may be
constraints related to human interaction with the components, or constraints related to
providing access to let us say maintainability or repeatability of the product or product
lifecycle etcetera.
And then you suitably create or refine in some cases the interfaces between the different
product assemblies once the functional planning or functional layout followed by the
component layout has been realized and the connections between various components can
then be established . So, one has to ensure that there is a functional independence to change
of the physical dimensions.
For example, if the dimensions are broadened or narrowed there should not be much effect in
terms of the functionalities they should remain same. In this particular case for example, if I
were to increase or decrease the size of one of the components let us say the weather shield
for example, or maybe the fairer.
So, in a way we are not going to give any or create any issues for the overall functional layout
the layout is still going to remain unchanged and the functions of each components are not
going to be any different if error is still going to give minimization of the aerodynamic drag
or the it is still going to be connected to the vehicle to give the pull or the protection shield of
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the cargo is still going to be there for doing the cargo protection against weather changes so
on so forth.
So, typically the functional independence should by enlarge be there if there is any change of
physical dimension and one has to also try that the component the other component
dimensions may not be affected significantly you know if there is a change of a critical
dimension of one of the subsystems of a product.
So, once this configuration design is sort of plan one has to ask the following question again
and again that out of the layout that has been made is it possible to eliminate or combine two
or more such subsystems together to have one system so that you have more you know you
have fewer number of parts that you are going to connect eventually.
So, ultimately one has to do a sort of design for manufacturability by modularizing in a

manner so that you have more than one components connected together in a single module
and there is to be an optimum best of these modules beyond which if any further modularity
is introduced it may be expensive in terms of manufacturing assembly etcetera.
So, that right configuration has to be finally, chosen which would be maybe a sort of a
combination of more than two subsystem level components, but is the optimum best for the
overall system as such. So, then also one has to ask a question that can a standard part
assembly or module be used for a certain application so on and so forth so that is how you do
configuration design.
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So, one has to also be very careful of the interfaces that is the connects between the various
subsystem level information. In this particular case for example, the box is connected to the
bed as you can see along this particular line so there is an interface between the box and the
bed one has to be careful in designing this interface so that there are so it is very important
for defining the final parameters of a product which I will do slightly later after I will have
moved with or I have aligned you with what is known as the most modern concurrent
engineering approach while doing designing.
So, here the idea is that the specifications of the interface may include probably a degree of
overlap this particular sheet metal coming out from the box overhead has a certain amount of
extension so that it gives a structural stability to the whole system .
So, the dimensions of the contact surfaces at such an interface between the box and the bed
let us say in this particular example between two components in general are of critical
importance when we try to do the configuration planning or configuration designing.
Also there are very important other information’s like the exact positions and sizes of the bolt
holes which may be introduced here for holding the box you have to remember that while
there is a drag force on one side because of the movement of the hole trolley and there is also
an aspect of vibratory load being pushed back from the wheel through the road on to the
trolley. There is going to be some kind of interfacial movement or kinematics which is going
to take place between the box component and the bed component as in this particular case.
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And so you have to design the interface in a manner in the configuration so that it can sustain
maximum force that is expected to be sustained at certain interface. So, in that manner the
configuration has to be planned if need be some structural stiffeners or some other additional
you know engineering design improvements we made at the interface at the configuration
stage itself so that there are not many problems associated with the component later.
So, once the configuration planning of the product which means in a way a typical layout of
the product at the subsystem level is being achieved in terms of it is function map. The next
question that is asked is what do you know as you know parametric design where you
actually start building up the critical dimensions, the critical tolerances, if there is a need for
any particular fit to happen then all those product definitions or basic dimensional definitions
of the whole architecture is realized.
But I am go not going to go directly into the parameter design, first of all I want to just take
you slight detour into another region or another area which is a concurrent philosophy in
which designing is practiced out these days in the industry.
So, per say the designer is not a standalone member because he has to work in team with
people from the process people from let us say even finance or marketing or sales or after
sales. So, it has to be a big team which actually looks at certain design improvement or a
change of design or introduction of a new design.
And the whole idea behind this concurrent philosophy is that everybody’s input is needed at
the very beginning for the design very less iterative and be able to prove to be the best design
within a minimum possible time frame.
So, let us look into what is concurrent engineering or what is the approach of concurrent
engineering.
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So, the concurrent engineering concept really emerges from the modern day organizational
structure which is being represented here which shows that ultimately any manufacturing
enterprise where the goal is to produce something of value added component something that
formulates a value added component or provides a value to the society it really comprises of a
very close level interaction between the various wings associated with this organization this
manufacturing organization.
So, there can be a customer service wing, there can be a design engineering and a
manufacturing wing, there can be a marketing wing, there can be a finance wing a. So,
basically the need is to be able to come very close to what the customer wants and that is the
philosophy through which everybody is driven that the customer is really the central focus of
such an engineering enterprise.
And when we look at design engineering per say you can see that there is an interaction
continuously needed from all the different wings of the organization that are associated
directly or indirectly with the organization with the success of the organization with the
design in order to have a good work practice in place.
And because of the we can say in increased horizontal level interaction between the various
wings associated with an organization most of the modern industries there is a need that
design decisions be influenced by almost all from right from the very beginning it.
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So, it really creates a high degree of ownership between the various wings of an organization
so that the design decision which is the central theme of what needs to be produced which is
of value to the society is made in togetherness it is made with collective wisdom of
everybody who is a stakeholder in such an organization. So, that is what concurrent
engineering philosophy is?
In definition it is a systematic approach to integrated concurrent design of products this is the

key word integrated concurrent design. And their related processes including manufacturing,
support services, everything which is associated with the product lifecycle from the design
phase to the after sale service or even like the recyclability phase of a product.
So, this approach is intended mainly to cause product developers from the outset to consider
all elements in the of the product lifecycle particularly from conception of an idea to the
disposal of the final product which has met it is lifecycle and gone beyond you know the
lifecycle and it is no longer usable
So, it includes quality of the product, it includes cost, it includes the schedules for delivery or
other user requirements and that is how the product design is being defined concurrently with
everybody on board. So, it is a very useful tool people these days in engineering design
practice, concurrent engineering philosophy to the core and what I am going to probably
outlay in this lecture and also the next lecture is to give you maybe some problem examples
of how concurrent engineering is carried out.
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The problem example may be very simple related to machining you know or designing a
dimension for a machined part, but the underlying logic which is there and which would be
spelt out will give you an idea of how optimization can be carried out by inputs from various
members or stakeholders on the lifecycle of that engineering product which probably is a
machined item or a machined part.
So, although this is a very simple example, but it will give you a philosophical introduction
into why concurrent engine in really is needed for the best product designed to roll out of
market. So, let us talk about what happened earlier or what used to happen earlier.
So, there was this serial or sequential engineering design philosophy where it was
characterized by departments, supplying, information to design only after the product has
been designed verified and prototyped and so therefore, there used to be multiple iterations
and there is to be hardly one design which would come off because everybody would be
critical about their requirements once the prototyping has been carried out in the prototype
and would be probably able to change everything associated with the prototype because of
the heaviness of the requirements dictated by you know the manufacturing.
So, the process was really that you design something which is the goal of the design
engineering then you verify whether the design is right you know and then you try to
prototype and then review the prototype with manufacturing let us say quality or service you
know or even some testing of the product or functional testing of the product.
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And after this there is one set of review which again probably gets one to redesign again start
the whole process again of the design engineering as has been initiated in step one here then
again re verify the redesigned item and then finally, iteratively do this many times up till the
final design gets produced somewhere here and which is acceptable to all and then you start
producing and then test the design after the production has been carried out.
So, the time horizon over which this iterative process would be done because of feedback
from all the different sectors associated with the realization of the product from the prototype
and that would take immense amount of time and the time horizon will be very large.
So, sequential engineering in a way was very rigorous though it was a lot of extra effort that
had to be done in order to roll out something which was very elementary or very simple. So,
today’s concept of course, as I illustrated earlier is that all functional areas are together they
are integrated with the design process as such.
So, when you are designing you are basically taking inputs from the manufacturable or
manufacturing site. So, your design should be manufacturable you have good process
knowledge or domain knowledge of what processes you have in place for you to be able to
design the right kind of product you take inputs from product testing where the functional
characterization of the product has been done.
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So, if there is something which is wrong in the design which leads to reduced functionality
you arrest it at the very beginning so that the final design does not get rolled out. You have
interaction with you know the performance coming out of the product, you have interaction
with the service the after sales service the overall cost that is the finance and then the quality
of the product.
And basically the design which rolls out now is verified it is reviewed and it is directly
produced. There is no iterative basis because more or less you know or the iterations I would
say is very low in numbers to finalize it because you have all stakeholders participating from
day one of the designing process and then you finally test so that is how a sequential
concurrent engineering is being carried out.
So, the information flow is interlinked with various phases in contract concurrent
engineering. There is in fact, a multidirectional exchange of information which takes place
and the integration of other functional areas with the design process helps to discover heart to
solve problems at the design stage itself. So, let us actually well just look at an example
probably in the next module. So, I like to close this module here.
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Design Practice
Lecture – 09
Concurrent Engineering
Hello and welcome to this course design practice module 9 we would be talking about the
concurrent engineering philosophy and how to understand this in real practice.
So, I had already illustrated this that the philosophy of engineering design in consultation
with all stakeholders associated with the whole lifecycle of a product. You know at the very
beginning involving everybody together to emerge the engineering design is called the
concurrent concept of engineering design; it is a highly multidisciplinary cross functional
approach of designing products.
Particularly in an environment which is driven by all stakeholders, together from the very
beginning and there are a lot of benefits which happen when we talk about such an approach
of engineering design and.
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Some of the reasons why concrete engineering is really the need of the day or need of the
hour is that. You know first of all there is an increased amount of a product variety because of
customization aspects and demands almost rocketing demands on the part of the consumers
about the exact fitting of their needs and
So, therefore, you know because of the product variety and the associated technical
complexity involving a single manufacturing setup, being able to flexibly manufacture in a
customized manner. It generally prolongs you know the development process because any
product which you may envision today, and design today based on the manufacturing setup
that you already have with probably very less capital investment and you know, very flexible
overall production environment it is very complex to build such a design are it is very
complex to develop such a product design. So, therefore, because of the product variety and
technical complexity generally the development process gets highly prolonged and more
difficult.
So, typically the predictability of what would be the impact of a small design change in the
product or maybe a certain design decision on the overall functionality may become
increasingly very complex to figure out. And therefore, the performance of the final product
sometimes may get jeopardize because of this exodus of customized needs associated with
the different markets which are in play and which actually create those forces which are
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responsible for the realization of engineering products. So, increasing global competitive
pressure that is another reason why concurrent engineering is very important.
Ah. So, basically the pressure is from the emerging concept of a reengineering of products .
So, you do not know what part of the world what is being manufactured and that may fall in
place with certain segments wishes or aspirations and. So, in order to map that product, you
need to be able to flexibly change everything including the realization setup etcetera in a very
small time. So, that you could re engineer anything which is felt to be the need of the hour
and available globally as such on a local basis, the need for rapid response to fast changing
consumer demands is again one of the reasons why concurrent engineering should be
practiced, need for shorter product life cycles.
Today’s products you know are basically shrinking as far as their lifecycle goals because
there is new technology which is emergent and there is a consumer behavior which is actually
geared by an addiction to more and more complexity in the technology. So, therefore;
obviously, the product life cycle of some products have become very very short and that is
again one of the reasons why the concurrent engineering helps you to go with psyche of the
exact market segment built in the product from the very beginning.
So, large organizations with several departments, they work on developing numerous
products at the same time. So, if they do it in a concurrent manner their efforts can be more
focused and; obviously, new and innovative technologies emerging at a very high rate
causing new products to be technologically obsolete within a very short period. As I told you
about the short life cycle of the product is another reason why concrete engineering helps to
beat the competition in this kind of a complex environment.
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So, these are some of the reasons why concurrent engineering is the need of the day basically
if I looked at the characteristic curve which would represent the incurred cost on the product
development process as opposed to the committed cost during the whole product lifecycle
from the conceptual design state to the detailed design prototype stage or maybe the
manufacturing and the post manufacturing distribution service and disposal state.
So, let us look at this curve behavior how what are the different costs. So, at the planning and
design state of course, is going to be a research and development costs and cost of product
design etcetera which is going to be the bulk of the committed cost and. In fact, if you
commit this cost as you can see the total amount of course, that is actually incurred in you
know the conceptual design phase actually falls down as a percentage because and then it
actually also gives you a very smooth rise all the way to the manufacturing phase, because
you have involved a lot of investment in the in the design itself of product.
Then of course, there is a manufacturing phase where the stage witnesses are sort of growth
and maturity in the sales and all the manufacturing, marketing, selling, and distribution costs
are incurred at this particular phase and that is one of the reasons why there is a sort of a rise,
a gradual rise in this particular phase of the actual cost incurred.
And then there is a service and abandonment stage and those typically the last stage of the
product will it is all post distribution and in the market. So, at this stage the product this
lifecycle is signified by a decline in the sales volume. So, the demand for the product declines
at this stage, on the other hand the producers may be required to provide sort of after sales
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service and already to already sold products and there are costs incurred various costs
incurred at this stage which kind of plateaus down. You know because of the certain level of
constancy in the, on the size of the market . So, that is how the cost incurred goes and this
kind of shows, what is the committed cost .
So, most of the committed costs about almost 80 percent is actually at the design stage of any
product beyond which you know it kind of determines what is the cost that would be involved
in the manufacturing. So, if you are investing more amount of money in the design phase
typically you know it kind of leads to a quick constancy in the overall committed cost plan
there is associated with the product. So, this is a sort of a curve which signifies what are the
various aspects related to the actual commitments of the cost being made and the cost that are
being incurred, the various stages of design and manufacturing and abandonment or
distribution or sales service phase of product life cycle.
So, there are some results that I would like to share of a survey which includes an
improvement of two specific product lines by application of concurrent engineering
philosophy there are various concerns or companies which are which are involved in showing
such a reduction and you will get to know from these statistics that I am sharing with you
how important the concurrent philosophy of engineering design can be in terms of overall
improvement in product lines. So, when we talk about development and production lead
times, product development time has been shown to reduce almost up to 60 percent with the
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concurrent engineering philosophy being implemented and the production spans have
reduced by almost 10 percent.
So, if we looked at in specifics related to certain companies at and t for example, reduce the
total process time for the ESS programmed digital switch manufactured by them by almost 46
percent in a three years’ time phase using concurrent engineering philosophy. Similarly, John
Deere reduced product development time for construction equipments by almost sixty percent
again using the concurrent engineering philosophy there are other companies like ITT for
example, which will use the design cycle for an electronic countermeasures system by almost
33 percent and its transition to the production time by almost 22 percent again by utilization
of the concurrent enduring philosophy.
So, there are numerous such examples in terms of measurable quality improvements, in terms
of engineering process improvements and overall cost reduction where a lot of concerns have
shown, a lot of companies have shown a reduction in the overall cost or increase in overall
process improvement through confident engineering philosophy. For example, if we looked at
quality improvement almost yield improvements to the level of almost up to four times have
been recorded field failures.
For example, reduce up to 83 percent by you know in case of AT and T which achieved
almost a fourfold reduction in variability in a polysilicon deposition process on a
microchipped production line. For very large scale integrated circuits typically also known as
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VLSI circuits and it also achieved nearly 2 orders of magnitude reduction in the surface
defects associated with such polysilicon deposits, because of the utilization of the concurrent
engineering philosophy with the involvement of everybody.
Similarly, in the ESS program digital switch manufactured by AT and T again which is
actually known to be a company which is quite conversant with this implementation of the
concrete engineering approach. they reduce almost defects almost about 87 percent through a
coordinated Q I P that is included product and process design improvements being suggested
by a team of professionals working in a concrete manner. Similarly, john Deere reduced the
number of inspectors on their production lines by almost two thirds through emphasis on
process control and linking design and manufacturing processes closely so, that they could
have measurable quality improvement again as results because of the content engineering
applications.
There are other examples also for engineering process improvement for example, engineering
changes per drawing have been seen to reduce almost 15 times sometimes early production
engineering changes got reduced by about 15 percent. Inventory items stocked and essentially
blocked capital reduced to almost 60 percent by use of a concurrent engineering philosophy,
just because there was a stake holding from all associated people with a product development
or manufacturing or even sales and service process or let us say associated with the whole
product lifecycle of a product.
Again engineering prototype builds reduced by almost up to 3 times. if certain number of

iterative prototypes were planned with the serial engineering with the concrete engineering it
probably could be accomplished by almost one third of the numbers that was there in the
serial engineering approach scrapped and reworked will be used almost up to 87 percent
because of confident philosophy again.
If we talk about cost reduction again the famous McDonnell Douglas airplanes manufacturer
had a 60 percent reduction in lifecycle cost almost a 40 percent reduction in production cost
particularly on a difference program related to missiles. Again a Boeing reduced a bid on a
mobile design launcher realize the cost almost about 30 to 40 percent below the bid price just
by applying the concurrent approach in their overall philosophy similarly IBM could reduce
direct costs and systems system assemblies by almost 50 percent or ITT saved about 25
percent in the ferrite core bonding production costs by using confident in doing. So, there are
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numerous examples cited in literature where you see how important it is to design with the
concurrent philosophy .
So, we will now like to investigate a small model based problem, it is case study of a
company which requires about thousand units of turned cylindrical part to be produced, a
shaft needs to be produced on a turning machine and the design department of this company
defines a need for a cylindrical part to be finished to an extent of about 1± 0.003 inches.
That means the overall die of this part or diameter of this part varies between as acceptable
limits between 0.0997 inches on one side and 1.003 inches on another side. So, here
the idea is to use first the serial engineering approach to see what is going to be the overall
cost per piece in order to bring out this through the process of the design and the
manufacturing improvement and then using a concurrent engineering solution in another
scenario and then there can be a cost comparative drawn in terms of the final produced
product being manufactured.
So, you will see how this concurrent engineering philosophy as applied to a sequential
otherwise a standard sequential engineering activity can bring down costs significantly of the
pieces which have been produced through this trees approach. So, I will just highlight what
the serial engineering approach had to face as challenges and what the concurrent engineering
approach had to face and then we will work on developing a mathematical model to
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understand how the cost can be optimized to the best possible value through both the
approaches.
So, in the serial engineering approach the design department of this company recommends an
overall shaft dimension and tolerance in the range of 1± 0.003 inches and this information
is transmitted to manufacturing. And; obviously, in this particular serial engineering approach
the manufacturing engineering accepts these specific tries to attempt to build the part tries to
find out the best manufacturing technology that they may have to accommodate the requests
made and they can only challenge the specification as set up by the design department if the
design is not compatible and producible in one of the machines which they may be having.
And so drawing on the proceeding analysis the manufacturing engineering decides in this
particular case to produce the parts and it uses a turret lathe which is there already with the
manufacturing engine department. Because whatever tolerances have been desired by the
design can be easily implemented the process average and the standard deviation of the turret
lathe that is there with the manufacturing engineering happens to be about 1 inch and it also
happens to be the deviation happens to be about 0.003 inches.
So, this is a good match between what needs to be produced and what has to be delivered ah,
but essentially this may not be all the information that is needed to find calculate what is
going to be the cost related to such a product because the question that may be asked is
whether really we need this kind of a closed tolerance in the finish and that can be best adjust
by a person who works.
Let us say in the post sales service which talks about what is going to be the reliability aspect
or what is going to be the warranty failure or what is going to be the cost associated with such
failures what is the criteria of the failure and also the quality person who is in house and
working on a problem and tries to implement this particular specification within engineering
assembly.
So, from his learning somehow the overall needs statement which came up to the design
department can get influenced and therefore, there may be a much broader specification range
in which the piece can be turned and produced at a much lower cost because it may not be
necessary that the tight tolerances given by the design are really the ones which are required
by the whole process. So, we will slightly change the connotation when it comes to a
concurrent engineering approach.
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And there will be various issues which need to be addressed by again CFTS or cross
functional teams in this particular case for example, the marketing services for this company
finds that the tolerance range 1± 0.003 inches may be too tight and it is really not needed
I mean you can work with a better specification, a much wider specification where process
control of that level may not be really needed.
The quality department; however, did not like the number of rejections because; obviously, if
there is a process in place and there is going to be some feedstock given to the process and it
produces some output they are going to be rejects and. So, if the process capability of a
machine is not very well defined then; obviously, there may be rejects and costs related to the
rejects.
So, we need to build a mathematical model around all this to approach this problem. So, that
we can actually bring the specifics of the cost, we will make some assumptions about the
different costs related to the raw materials or that related to the rejected materials all that
related to the material which comes out and then we will finally, try to do both the
philosophies in place and try to calculate what is the overall cost .
Similarly, in the concurrent case the manufacturing planning department it wants use machine
tools with better process capabilities. So, that they can work on closer tolerances, but this is a
conflicting interest with the marketing which says that the tonal range given is too tight and it
may not be necessary really for the product and similarly the purchasing department cannot
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buy so many raw shops because of the restricted availability of such steels. So, they would
also look at what quality is saying in this particular case about lower number of rejects.
So, it is some conflicts which are there at the very beginning and if they can be involved at
the outset the design which will emerge will be making everybody else happy about their
requirements and then that the goals of an organization to design something in concurrence.
Ok with everybody who is a stakeholder would be the best possible alternative in this kind of
a conflicting situation, in the serial approach if we had introduced this design specification
there would be checks and balances at every stage and it needs to eater it probably many
times before the final design can come through. Whereas, in the concurrent you can do one
short with all opinions together and make a design which may not need to be prototype for
more than 1 probably, for more than one or two times probably a prototyping for a second
time may be needed because of some functional aspect associated with the product as we will
find out later which may get emerged in the concurrent engineering case.
So, let us look at how we will develop a process model for this.
So, you know in this particular case we consider a very very simple product that is a
cylindrical shaft and you know at the design stage we concerned with specifying the
tolerances on the shaft which has already been done to be 1± 0.003 inches and the
manufacturing state again it is sort of a transformation process that whatever you know raw
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material we have in terms of rods or feedstocks which we are giving to the system they would
like to turn the rod into a smaller diameter rod. So, a bar stock for example, would be
converted into a finished shaft to meeting the necessary tolerance specifications as specified
by the initial design and the transformation process would indicate inputs and outputs in the
following manner. So, let us say this circle here represents the transformation method and
there is some kind of an input material which is given to a transformation process and it
generates an output material.
So, obviously, such a transformation would also be responsible for generating many process
rejects because it may not fully comply to the tolerance specification is indicated. The
capability of the process may be lower in comparison to the tight tolerances which are being
specified by the design and therefore, there may be some cases where there are non
confirming parts or you know parts not meeting specification.
So, we would like to sort of look at it from the standpoint of a normal distribution where we
have a process mean and a sort of an average you know a standard deviation and as you know
that such distributions are signified by an inverted bell shaped curve as is represented here
and this is the process mean around which this curve is centered.
So, the normal distribution function is typically represented through 1/ √2 π . So, this is the
1 −x /22
standard normal distribution function. So, e . In fact, if I wanted to see what is the
√2 π
area under this curve and also the area under the contents of more important significance
1
when you typically do a scaled normal distribution with or 1 by standard deviation in
σ
place for the whole function here.
So, the cumulative density function CDF which signifies the area under the curve here would
z
1 2
−t / 2
be represented then by ∫
√2 π −∞
e dt . where z typically is the scaled variable which is
x−μ
actually the z= for the process. So, that is how you scale the distribution the standard
σ
normal distribution and obtain the area under the curve. So, having said that and this is all
very commonly available information as far as statistical process control goes I am just going
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to apply this to the concurrent engineering philosophy that we are talking about when we
mentioned about this as an engineering design tool.
So, here there are going to be upper specifications and lower specific given by the design
department which have to be overlapped, with this process this you know characterization or
process characteristics of a mean and a variance which is related to a certain process. So, for
example, if the process is a turret lathe which has been seen here, the turret lathe in question
may have a certain capability in terms of giving a certain mean dimension and a certain
variation you know in production of parts and. So, that mean and standard deviation would
then be the process mean and the process standard deviation which we have to overlay on the
design requirement which is the upper and the lower specification given by the design
department remember, it was given us 1+0.003 inches on one side and 1−0.003
inches on another side.
So, supposing let us say the design department specifies a tolerance limit you know
corresponding to the kth alternative system of tolerances that you know the whole engineering
assembly has and there is an upper side of the tolerance and then there is a lower side of the
tolerance that has been specified and let us say. So, this is corresponding to the k th alternative
system of tolerances and let us say we are evaluating j machines in place which are there with
the manufacturing wing and all these j machines would have different process capabilities
and when we talk about the jth machine that we want to mix and match for example, in this
case the turret lathe may be the such a machine you know such. So, we just number them we
have as different processes.
So, the jth machines capability is illustrated in terms of process mean and a process standard
deviation let us call it μj and σ j . So, then in this case the scaled variable that we are
talking about for this building up this you know cumulative distribution function which is
otherwise actually the scaled variable if we look at here the CDF corresponding to the whole
area under the curve varying from minus infinity to z equal to plus infinity happens to be
unity ok. So, that is how so it is like more like 100 percent of the parts qualify to lie within
that distribution when we go from minus infinity to plus infinity of the scaled variable.
So, the scaled variable in this particular case for overlapping the tolerance or overlaying the
tolerance on our process capability for the jth machining system is given through an upper
scaled variable and a lower scaled variable. The upper scaled variable is nothing, but the
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tolerance given the kth tolerance which is being manufactured on the jth machine you know
which has capabilities μj and σj and similarly there is a lower scaled based on the
lower tolerance given on the same machine of the j th alternative machine which has mu j and
sigma j as the process mean and the process standard deviation.
So, these are the standard normal variates and these are very important because such scaled
variates would get into such a distribution function here as shown here which corresponds to
you know 100% inclusion of whatever parts are being produced to fall under the whole
normal distribution curve as mentioned here.
So, let us now look at some numbers in terms of number of inputs and number of outputs and
see how the input output behavior or flow would happen in this particular case. So, that
y 0jk and y ijk and y sjk signify the output coming out here in this particular figure, the
input you know which is being fed inside the figure and the scraped the rework or the rejects
which are coming out as a result of this transformation matrix .
So, let us say this kind of simplifies the analysis that anything above the lower tolerance or
below the anything below the lower tolerance or above the upper tolerance are sort of
rejected together and we look at this stage to the fraction of scrap that is generated . So, the
you know we call it the scrap for the fraction of the scrap as SC jk
and this SC jk
is
nothing, but the percentage scrap units per unit or the number of scrap units per unit the
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148
number of inputs. So, basically it is about how much of material is actually not getting
transformed and being sent out by the transformation processes crap.
So, if I looked at again the normal distribution and the way that rejects are being done, you
know that there is a process mean and; obviously, there is upper tolerance and lower tolerance
corresponding to which there is a z variate which has been plotted. So, there is a z variate
lower and that variate upper. So, if so, this is corresponding to let us say the upper
specification limit of the gate specification system and the lower specification limit of the
gate specification system. So, everything which falls outside this domain; that means, the
shaded area represented here and you know everything which falls outside this domain would
correspond to let me just shade this in a little different manner. So, that it is better for us to
understand. So, let us say this is shaded in this manner ah. So, everything falling above the
upper specification or below the lower specification this way are being rejected and
everything which is actually in between here qualifiers to the design specs are being
accepted.
So, we know that in this particular distribution because it is a scale distribution and you know
100 percent components correspond to the value 1 which is the area under the curve. So, I
would say that 1 is basically a summation of all these different areas. So, you have an area
shaded like this, you have an area shaded like this and then again an area shaded in this
manner. So, these are sort of cumulatively all these areas together mean that 100 percent lie
within this particular zone; however, out of this 100 percent these two are the areas which
would be needed or which would need to be taken off from the cumulative distribution
function which we had earlier provided in the last slide. In which we talked about
z
1 2
√ −∞
2 π
∫ e−t / 2dt . this value of the integral or area under the curve when the z here is a
distribution x minus mu by sigma so a scale distribution.
So, so; obviously, we can find out you know the values of this numerical integral and record
these and these are also available at standard tables from which we can find out what is the
percentage which is being rejected on either side of the upper and lower specification limits.
So, for example, if I wanted to find out what is the rejects above the upper tolerance limit in
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this case I would look at the whole distribution as one and just simply subtract the numerical
z
1 2
integral ∫
√ 2 π −∞
e−t / 2dt . .
So, the area under the curve corresponding to these 2 values would have to be subtracted
from 1 in order to get this particular value. So, this corresponds to percentage rejects failing
the upper specification limit similarly. So, I call this 1−∅ ( Z ujk ) remember we are
representing this function through a function phi if the variable here z in this case it is z upper
while choosing the kth specification and trying to process it through the jth machine .
Similarly, I would like to get a value on this side of the normal distribution which is actually
1 l
again varying between minus infinity all the way to this value z here which is Z jk
√2 π
z
1 2
∫ e−t / 2dt . So, this is another numerical value that I would like to
2
−t /2 dt
, e that is
√2 π −∞
get from the normal distribution I call this value as such ∅ ( Zljk ) . So, if I add the ∅ ( Zljk )
to the 1−∅ ( Z ujk ) , this is typically what we are talking about as the total percentage rejects
failing both the specification limits, both the specification limits.
So, that is how we try to analyze the total percentage projects in this particular case or
category and the idea is that once we get this value estimated from a simple normal table I
should be able to put this in terms of cost calculation which I will probably do in the next
lecture. So, thank you very much for being with us here and in the next lecture I will show
you how the overall cost gets influenced because of this many percentage of projects which
gets generated because of force fitting a certain specification limit on a process capability
associated to the machine.
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Design Practice
Lecture – 10
Concurrent Engineering part-2
Hello and welcome to this design practice module 10, we would be talking about concurrent
engineering and we in context of that. So, how you know you could have a series of machines
and plan for a certain specification on a certain machine. So, we started using normal
distribution, and tried to estimate the percent of reject in a system of specifications which is
earlier defined.
And then, the idea was that could we do everything in terms of a cost term, and try to find out
that if there is an under capable machine that, how the costing of a component gets
influenced, or if there is an over capable machine then are we making a mistake in, you know
or the cost overall cost by putting up more processing cost then, what is really needed for the
specifications to be obeyed or followed?
So, in in context of that we had already in one module, talked about the Z variates and the
normal distribution and there for the jth process, over which we would make a specification
of machine, a specification which is of the kth kind for the upper side. We would have a Z
variate corresponding to the tolerance limit, given on the upper side minus the process mean,
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divided by the process standard deviation and similarly the Z variate for the lower side,
would turn up to be the lower tolerance of the case specification, minus the process mean for
the machine divided by the standard deviation for the jth machine.
So, having said that we had already looked into the aspect of, if these Z values are plotted, in
this particular normal distribution, anything to the left or anything to the right of the Z values
are considered to be reject and in context of that, we had already made a statement saying
that. All these 3 shaded areas would typically add up to have 1, particularly if it is normal if it
is a standard normal variate ; which is scaled up by sigma which actually these are and so,
this would typically sum it or you know total or add up to about one or 100 percent of the
components.
So, in context of that also we had recorded that the, total fraction of the scrap of the kth
specification to be machined on the jth machine, would then be found out as the ratio of the
total number of scrap, going into the transfer or coming out of the transformation process
given a certain input level . So, let us say if there are exactly y i components coming into the
transformation process, which would actually obey the kth specification, which would be
developed on the jth machine.
S
And Y jk coming out as crap and similarly, Y 0jk coming out as the output so; obviously,
this scrap ratio then or you can say scrap fraction SC jk then, can be ratio between the input
Y Sjk
and the output input in the scrap, and that is SC jk = i and this was represented through
Y jk
what are the process rejects. So, basically, we would typically look at you know the area
under the curve up to the Z variate here which happened to be the cumulative distribution
z
1 2
−t / 2
function CDF, which is actually
√ −∞
2 π
∫ e dt .
So, that is how the scaled distribution would work, context of that the total amount of rejects
of being towards you know unable to meet the upper specification, would be 1−∅ ( Z ujk ) ,
simply speaking the Z ujk in this particular case would be, the summation of both the areas
like this area as well as this area. So, this would further be 1 minus the area here shaded like
this, which is actually at this particular corner which is exactly what I am talking about here 1
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u
minus. So, ∅ ( Z jk ) would actually be the summation of these so, one plus two. So, phi of Z
j k u can be represented as the area here, plus area here and we are talking about one minus
that which is actually this much, which is this area. So, exactly that is you know the reject
because of not unable to meet the upper specification limit. So, here this comes out to be
u l
equal to phi of a 1−∅ ( Z jk ) +∅ ( Z jk ) , that is how you divide or define the scrap coefficient.
So now let us suppose we want to create everything in terms of the output because;
obviously, a better mapping of this transformation process would be hinged about the output,
because output is not really changeable. It is dictated by the requirement of the next process.
And so, if the next process has a certain level of output that it needs as input then you really
cannot change that. So, let us actually develop certain ratios or we call them in in a little
more, complex terminology as technology coefficients , and we call these technology
coefficients to be ratios between the various, you know different quantities of materials, or
pieces of materials which emanate into or away from the you know the transformation
process.
So, let us say if there is an input technology coefficient for the jth machine on processing the
kth specification, we would define this as the ratio between the input and the output . So, it is
mapped now in terms of the output similarly, if I just you know develop. So, this is called the
input or this is assumed as the input technology coefficient, similarly I can develop a similar
kind of technology coefficient for scrap, mapping everything in terms of output again.
Y sjk
Y ijk
So, this happens to be s
K jk which is equal to K sjk = so; obviously, there is a
Y 0jk
Y ijk
s
interrelationship between these, because if we what to talk about K jk , this happens to be
the input minus the output, that is how the scrap is . And in in other words I can call this to be
the input technological coefficient minus one or in other words the input technological
coefficient for the jth machine using or processing the kth specification to be a submission of
the scrap technological coefficient, in the similar situation plus 1.
s
Similarly, in the case of you know let us say K jk , if we wanted to evaluate this this of
s
course, is as you know the map of Y jk with respect to the output. So, if I divided it on the
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numerator and denominator both by, you know the input number of materials which go into
the transformation process, I should be as well able to represent this in terms of the scrap
fraction, which was calculated earlier from the normal distribution. So, without doing any
real experiments again, if I knew just how what what is going to be the process mean and the
standard deviation and also what is going to be the tolerance, I should be from a normal table
just glance and look at this particular value which is percentage reject.
So, let us calculate this in a little better manner. So, this happens to be the S c j k, which is
i s
actually Y s by yi from the last step and this again could be recorded as Y jk −Y jk ;
obviously, input minus scrap is the output per unit the input material. So, we can record this
1−Y sjk SC jk
as , or in other words this can be recorded as . So, we can actually
Y ijk 1−SC jk
calculate the scrap coefficient by looking at normal tables finally, the input coefficient from
this crap coefficient by using this relationship that is all what we have to take care of.
i SC jk
So, in this event K ijk also is represented as, now the K jk =1+ . So, it is one plus
1−SC jk
1
SC jk by one minus SC jk , other words it is , which is equal to
1−SC jk
1 1
¿ , in other words it is ¿ . So, that is how you
1−1+ ∅ ( Z ujk ) −∅ ( Z ljk ) ∅ ( Z ) −∅ ( Zljk )
u
jk
represent everything in terms of what you obtain from the normal distribution, including the
K s and the K I/. So, once this is done, let us actually put together in terms of what would be
the material balance equation as finally.
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So, material balance equation in this particular case, happens to be the input material is
represented again in terms of the technology coefficient, times of the output material. So, this
is how our mapping with respect to the output and similarly, the scrap material is represented
in terms of the scrap technologic efficient times of the output material . So, this is how the
scrap material is recorded and with all this material balance happening, if I wanted to put
everything together to develop a cost equation, I should finally be able to evaluate everything
in terms of what is the impact on the cost of production, of a particular specification to be
manufactured on a certain machine.
i 0 s
So now let us assume some unit costs. So, we assume X jk , X jk and X jk as unit costs,
in the transformation process of the material. So, this is per unit material cost per unit
material of the input, output and scrap unit material, further let us assume that somewhere
around you know, there is a cost of processing which is also dependent on the input level and
I think all of us, are aware that if the input increases to a process and the overheads get
distributed among a greater number of inputs, the cost goes down . So, there is a function of
the input material, which we can assume as the processing cost per unit in this particular
case .
And therefore, the final cost equation which would roll out, which will just create a cost
balance, would be that whatever cost happens on the input side mainly X ijk per unit price,
of the input times the input number of materials plus you know the number of input materials
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times of the processing cost, that would go into making this, this would be equal to the output
unit price times, number of units of output plus, scrap unit price times of the number of units
of the scrap j k.
0
And so, when we divide by Y jk in this particular case, we are left with again everything in
terms of the technologic coefficients, this is the input technology coefficient, plus we have
Y ijk by Y 0jk again the input technology coefficient times of the processing cost of the
input, and that is equal to the unit price of the output times, of the unit price of the scrap times
of the scrap technological coefficient.
i
Thus, we are left with an equation K jk the technological coefficient of input times of the
i
unit price of the input plus, again K jk technological coefficient of the input times of the
processing cost of the input , happens to be equal to the unit cost of the the output, plus the
scrap unit cost times technological coefficient of the scrap and this is what is our concern
here, that what would be the influence on the output price. So, I should be able to get an
0 o
output price X jk by looking at the other part of the algorithm here, K jk times of Y I j k
s s
minus of X jk times of K jk .
Y ijk =K ijk Y 0jk
s s 0
Y jk =K jk Y jk
→ X ijk Y ijk +Y ijk f ( Y ijk ) =X 0jk Y 0jk + X sjk Y sjk
i i s
i Y jk Y jk i 0 s Y jk
→ X jk 0
+ 0 f ( Y jk ) =X jk + X jk 0
Y jk Y jk Y jk
→ K ijk X ijk + K ijk f ( Y ijk ) =X 0jk + X sjk K sjk
→ X 0jk =K ijk X ijk + K ijk f ( Y ijk )− X sjk K sjk
So, I would now have a comparative of cost between different, you know processors and
different specifications, that we to use in order to choose 1 which would be operational at
optimum cost . There are other factors also which are important for example, in this case if
there are variety of capabilities of machines, which are there I should be able to find out
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which machine produces more or more waste and may induce a quality problem, or you know
in you know it can also give you an idea about if supposing, there is a manufacturing lead
time associated with each product, which is in place the ratio between the output in the scrap,
would kind of be deterministic off what is going to be the extra time, that is needed if you
produce on a one machine visible the other.
So, all these decisions then based on the business environment, or on this parametric space
when the business environment could be looked at very easily, to take a realistic decision and.
In fact, in concurrent engineering what we do is that when the decision is from day 1 a
decision taken together, with all departments on board like quality or finance or after sales
service or even the production guys you can actually very easily optimize, the cost from the
very beginning.
So, that there is a consolidated opinion about, what machine could be used for what particular
specification set. So, I think we will now start the problem right away, for this concurrent
engineering approach and I would like to again relook at, first the serial engineering example,
and then compare it with what would be the benefits if we can do it in the seaway or the
contour engineering way.
So, let us look at the serial engineering example first, I think I had just mentioned this, in
context of which we had started this cylindrical part, turning and fitting 2 different machines,
and the transformation model that we discussed in the last few slides. So, there is this
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company which requires about 1000 units of turned cylindrical part and the design
department suggests the need for a cylindrical part to be finished up to an extent of,
1± 0.003 inches meaning there by that the specifications which would be there start from
0.997 inches to about 1.003 inches .
And in the serial engineering approach, is the design department of the company which
recommends the shaft dimensions and tolerances at the outset , and this information is now
transmitted to the manufacturing engineering, in the serial engineering approach the
manufacturing engineering accepts first, there is no other choice because they have to accept
the design will start evaluating their specific their capabilities.
And so, once they accept the specifications and attempt to find the best manufacturing,
technology to accommodate the request made by the design, you know they can only
challenge when the specification in the design is not producible at all. You know with the
facilities that they would have, and if we in this particular stage, try to find out the right fit of
whatever they have, as you know alternatives we could actually get a very good picture of,
what is the level of cost or output cost? That would come out.
Because, they may have an option of a certain machine, which is amenable to these
specifications which have been sent out whereas, in the see example you will see that at the
very beginning, they may influence in changing the specification slightly, where their overall
cost component may go down substantially, because they have the right fit or right fitting
machine which would produce almost 0 scrap.
So, drawing on the preceding analysis the manufacturing engineering decides to, produce the
parts on a turret lathe, the specification of the turret lathe I will just give, and you know these
specifications that they find out of the turret lathe from their standard sheets, are a process
average of one and a standard deviation of 0.003 inches respectively.
158
So, let us look at by assuming certain unit costs you know of the raw material, for example in
this case let us assume the unit cost of raw material to be, about 10 dollars per piece . The
unit salvage price the scrap cost to be about 2 dollars per piece and the unit processing cost to
be about 7 dollars apiece.
We already know that, there is only j equal to one option, which is available because they
have made up their mind on the turret lathe, they do not have any flexibility on the change of
specification, it has already been designed by the design department and given as the only
option . So, j is 1 in this particular case and we assume a tolerance that has to be produced in
this particular shaft as an engineering requirement from the design to be 1± 0.003 .
So, in this particular example, as you have already seen the μ j value which is being found
out by the manufacturing engineering, in the turret lathe happens to be about 1 inches, and the
σ j value of the turret lathe happens to be 0.003 inches. So, we find out what is the Z
variate. So, again the Z variate for the jth machine and you know this is the first machine and
maybe the first specification, the upper tolerance limit here is 1.003 . So, that is how the
u u 1.003−1
Z jk is in this particular case, minus the μ j divided by 0.003 . Z jk = =1
0.003
0.997−1
So, this happens to be about one, similarly the Z ljk = =−1 . So, this supposed to
0.003
be minus 1 in this particular example or in particular case.
159
So, we then go to the normal tables, to have a look of look out as to what corresponding
cumulative distribution function would be, corresponding to this value as well as you know
the other value here 1 is negative so; obviously, we would try to make an assumption here,
that because as we know that the normal distribution is a sort of a symmetric distribution, the
area on the left and right sides of this curve is exactly equal to each other . So, this area is
equal to this area right here.
So, if I wanted to let us say find out, what is the cumulative distribution function? Here from
minus infinity all the way to let us say, Z ljk in this case Z ljk be negative, it could be same
l l
as the cumulative distribution function from Z jk or Z jk being plotted here, with the
modulus to infinity. So, this area right here and this area are all the same because, you can
fold the area, to superpose to exactly each other among the mean line the mu j line here, or let
us say we call it a mu mean line here . So, you can exactly superpose both the areas as as as
have been shown.
So, essentially if I am trying to find out what the ∅ ( Zljk ) is, it would be amounting to
finding this out in terms of one minus the phi of Z ljk modulus, 1−|∅ ( Z ljk )| which is
being plotted on the right, just in the case or just in a way we had earlier done about those
which would not the components, which would not meet the upper specification in the same
manner. So, you can always refer to the positive you know Z ljk value and go back to the
normal tables and read and I am going to now go ahead and tell you how to read this, from
u
the table. So, we want a Z jk value of 1 to be read and then, we do one minus that value
because, the modulus of Z ljk in this case is modulus of minus 1 is one.
10
160
So, let us go to the normal tables, you see in this particular case for a Z value of 1.0, there is a
area under the curve which is being reported as 1.0, Z is with the CDF of 0.84131 . So, the
percentage now let just let us go by what we are looking at in the normal distribution curve.
So, we are essentially trying to find out, what is this area? And we do that by subtracting the
u
area which is actually the cumulative distribution function between infinity and Z jk . So,
one minus that so, because the total area here is 1 as we had earlier explained. So,
1−∅ ( Z ujk ) is or u
Z jk is what we are actually interested in. So, this is the percentage of
rejects, which would fail on the upper specification.
So, in this particular case it is 1 minus of 0.8413. So, close to about 15.67 percent, is what
would typically fail the upper specification limits in our; you know example problem,
l l
because this Z jk is minus 1. So, in that event the Z jk would again have the same 15.67
percent value, for obvious reasons which I have elaborated earlier. So, therefore, the total
number of rejects, in this particular case I am sorry. So, in this particular case, the total
percentage rejects which would happen should be equal to 15.87 on the rejects, because of
failing to meet the upper specification plus, 15.87 on the rejects to meet the lower
specification. So, around 31.7 of the component; so 31.74 percent of the components are
completely rejected .
So, if we looked at this number and try to calculate the cost, given all these unit prices I
should be able to get a ballpark estimate of what is going to be? The scrap value and what is
11
161
the unit price. So, for in this particular category let us say if we wanted to calculate the
technology coefficient, for scrap for the first process in the first pacification, that we are
SC 11
considering it would be in terms of S c 1 1 by one minus S c 1 1, K s11= , you
1−SC 11
already know this SC 11 number is 0.3174 from this total percentage rejects. So, the case
0.3174
s
K 11 happens to be 0.3174 by one minus 0.3174, K s11= =0.4649 which is
1−0.3174
actually equal to about 0.4649 that is how the technologic efficient of scrap is .
So, let me just call it tech coefficient scrap, similarly the tech coefficient input in this
i
particular case is going to be just 1 plus that number the scrap number. So, K 11 is one plus
K s one one, K i11=1+ K s11=1.4649 you already seen the earlier specifications. So, this
happens to be about 1.4649 and similarly, the number of units which are scrapped in this
particular case happens to be the K s11 times of the Y 011 . similar, to what you would have
is the number of units’ crafts Y s one one. So, this happens to be zero point four six four nine
times of the output which is at a constant level of thousand, remember at the very beginning
we have requirements of thousand units to be produced in terms of turning a cylindrical shaft.
s 0 s
¿ K 11 Y 11=Y 11=0.4649∗1000=465 units
So, you are wasting around close to 465 units for producing about 1000 units so, the number
of raw inputs, which are needed in this case. So, number of raw input materials happens to
i
be, about 465 units you can also do it as K 11 times of the output . So, 1.465 times of
thousand.
¿ K i11∗Y 011=1.465∗1000=1465
0
and therefore, the total cost which comes out in this case of the output that is X 11 could be
i i s s i
recorded as K 11 X 11 minus of K 11 X 11 plus K 11 times of the processing cost,
which in this case has recorded by the manufacturing unit, is about 7 dollars in the turret
lathe. So,
12
162
this is the cost for the turret layer, now these values have to be studied and determined by on
the various different machines which are available.
X 011 =K i11∗X i11 −K s11 X s11 + K i11 f ( Y i11 )
So, in this particular case then the x o or the total output cost comes out to be, one point four
six four nine times ten minus of zero point four six four nine times of two plus one point four
six four nine times of seven which happens to be twenty-three point nine seven dollars. So,
this is the unit output price which comes out because, the manufacturing does not have any
option, but to use the turret lathe with a certain process capability. So, handy manufacturing
caught on the flexibility to extend the design to slightly, you know better or lesser
specification limits and then the quality would not have mind that or the finance would not
have mind that. So, the decision could have been at the very initial phases just as a concurrent
approach normally goes.
X 011 =K i11∗X i11 −K s11 X s11 + K i11 f ( Y i11 ) =1.4649∗10−0.4649∗2+1.4649∗7=23.97
In this particular case also, you could do a reasonable amount of cost saving and
improvement of quality. So, that is what the defect is behind the serial engineering process of
having to work on a design given or forced to, work on a design given without having a say
in the design itself.
So, I am going to now sort of change gears and in this particular lecture, I would like to end it
here because of the time, but in the next lecture we would look at a concurrent engineering
approach and then we will try to see, how the cost as you could see, here could be overall
lowered because everybody put their brains together from the design phase itself. So, with
this I will end this particular lecture.
13
163
Design Practice
Lecture – 11
Concurrent Engineering Approaches
Hello and welcome to this design practice module 11. So, we were talking about serial
engineering earlier and now we would like to slightly take a detour into what would be the
concurrent philosophy behind this design.
So, let us say in the concurrent engineering approach there is a multidisciplinary team of
people formulated out of all different departments, who are stakeholders in the process and
there are several suggestions given for example, the marketing services a provides a
suggestion out of their finding that the tolerance range of 1 plus minus 0.003 1± 0.003
inches, may be too tight for the customer they really do not need this much tightening on the
tolerance.
So, there is a certain slack that is given by the marketing service; however, the quality
department did not like the fact that the number of rejections were very high and the scrap
level was very high. So, something needs to be done related to that at the very beginning of
because of the change I mean you know because of flexibility of everybody participating, the
design can be a mutual decision and. So, these all these inputs can be at the very beginning.
164
The manufacturing planning department again wants to use the machine tool with better
process capability.
So, I would like to give you some details about what other machines are available as options,
we are manufacturing planning can have a span of control over not just limited to j equal to 1
j=1 , but maybe j equal to 1 2 3 or 4 j=1,2,3,∨4 how many whatsoever number of
machine tools they have? To check which one would be there which one of the machines
would be able to give it a lower cost and also reduce subsequently the number of rejections.
And then finally, the purchasing department gives a constraint that they cannot buy so many
raw shafts because of the restricted availability of such steel.
So, it is obvious that if this scrap is reduced than the total number of inputs would also be
substantially reduced. In the serial engineering for example, you saw that for every 1000
pieces you make you reduce you waste about 465 pieces ok. So, this is actually a very big
number and so, we can take a decision in a manner based on the span of you know different
machines with different capabilities available as well as all these slightly slacking of the
specification which is not the tightness is probably not needed or again aspects like rejection
and inputs, to give a consolidated overall decision in this particular case, which will be better
than what you did in the serial engineering case.
So, let us look at it. So, let us say we have a very basic data table which is used in this
particular case, which is furnished by the manufacturing planning; which says that there are
many options which are available to the manufacturing let us say there are the following
manufacturing options. So, there is a turret lathe, which you have already tried on while
doing the serial engineering approach. But apart from the antique manufacturing also the
planning also sees that there are two more machines engine lathes and the automatic screw
cutting machine, which could be used you know to give you a better illustration or better
capability for processing the products.
So, some of the demand set in by the quality department or the purchasing departments could
be as well met; although a a closer control on the manufacturing would mean a more stringent
a tolerance range, which may not be that desirable as for the estimation done by marketing
services based on the customer opinion ok.
So, let us say we have unit processing costs in all these machines which are mentioned here.
So, the unit processing costs while turning on turret lathe could be envisioned as seven 7
165
dollars a piece or it goes slightly above when it comes to engine lathe, and then quite high
when it comes to automatic screw cutting machine ok.
So, there is also an issue of setup. So, the setups setup times span over various ranges in all
these different machines for example, in the turret lathe the set up time could be as high as
about or as low as about twenty 20 minutes ok. So, this is let say in minutes whereas, in the
engine lathe it could go to about twenty five 25 minutes and then in the automatic screw
machine, cutting machines for fifty 50 minutes, close to an hour. We also have data from the
manufacturing planning related to the unit processing time of the components on these
machines. So, they are not similar.
So, in turret lathe would be able to produce a component in for example, 1.00 minutes
whereas, the engine lathe would be much faster it would produce in about 0.8 of a minute,
about 48 seconds and then again the automatic screw cutting machine would again be able to
produce this is about forty-two 42 seconds about zero point seven 0.7 of a minute. The
process standard deviation for all these machines are also given. So, the process standard
deviation while working on a mean size of about one, so you know that the mean you know
the desirable mean for all these machines are about one inches as given earlier.
So, but the standard deviation of the processes are different. So, in the third case for third
lathe case for example, you already know that the sigma j happens to be about zero point
zero zero three j=0.003 . So, this is the j th manufacturing option let us say. In case of the
engine lathe it happens to be zero point zero zero two 0.002 and in case of the ASN it is even
more tighter control zero point zero zero one 0.001. So, this is the most precise machine the
automatic screw casing machine which is available and this is the order of precision the order
of precision sort of goes down as one goes from the j equal to 3 j=3 to j equal to 1 option
j=1 .
So, therefore, the first concurrent engineering team meeting begins with all this information
on board let us call it concurrent engineering team meeting number one 1 ok.
166
So, the team begins by agreeing to hold the shaft dimensions at the design specifications. So,
the first decision taken by the team is. So, the team agrees to the design specification of 1
plus minus 0.003 1± 0.003 inches and you know because everybody is working with the
design in the team, if the manufacturing department recommends an engine lathe.
So, the manufacturing planning recommends an engine lathe which has a higher process
capability as you have already seen in the table in the last slide, resulting in a processor
standard deviation sigma j for the engine lathe to be 0.002 0.002 inches ok
So, that is how j equal to two j=2 option is poised; however, as you know that the
processing cost is on an increase. So, the processing cost goes up to nine 9 dollars a piece
from the previous seven 7 dollars. For engine lathe is nine 9 dollars it goes up from the
previous option which was seven 7 dollars a piece. So, this is what the differences other data
is same.
So, all the unit costs etcetera can be assumed to be the same, and let us now calculate in this
case what is the result of all this. So, let us say if we use j equal to 2 for the specification k
equal to 1 the Z u 2 1 happens to be 1.003 minus the process mean 1.00 divided by 00.002.
1.003−1
z u21= =1.5 So, this happens to be about close to 0.5 and then the Z l 2 1 using the
0.002
engine lathe over the specification one 1 set one 1 is exactly zero point nine-nine seven 0.997
167
0.997−1
minus 1.00 by 0.002 that is actually equal to minus 1.5 ok. z l21= =−1.5 So, that
0.002
is how you have the upper in the lower specification limits set in. So, if I looked at again the
1.5 number in the normal distribution table.
1.5 number corresponds to plus 2 about you know 0.9311 which means that 1 minus phi 1.5
should be typically about six point seven 6.7 percent and similarly 5 minus 1 minus phi
modulus of minus 1.5 is again six point seven 6.7 percent in total we have a rejection of
SC21
thirteen point four 13.4 percent K u21=0.1547=
1−SC 21
So, let us look at the total percentage rejection to be 6.7 plus 6.7 on either side of the mean so
the upper and the lower specification side. So, about 13.4 percent so; obviously, the K s to 1
in this particular case would be 0.1547 and similarly the K l 2 1 should be equal to 1.1547
K l21=1.1547 you already know this is equal to the s c j k by 1 minus s c j k in this case we
are talking about the second machine on the first specification. So, s c 2 1 which is actually
this number right here 0.134 13.4 percentage
So, having obtained this we accordingly find out what are the number of units scrapped in
this particular case on the suggestion of the manufacturing planning, which is involved at the
very beginning. So, the number of the units scrapped here in this particular case are about
close to zero point or or 0.1547 times of the output level 1000, so about 155 ok.
168
u
Y 21=0.1547 ×1000=154.7 ≈ 155 So, this is much lower number than the 465 earlier as
you see. So, the number of raw inputs which are needed here Y i 2 1 are again 1.1547 times
1000. So, it is about 15 you know approximately 1155 Y l21=1.1547 ×1000=1154.7 ≈ 1155
which is up you know which is quite lower than the 1465 number earlier. So, we are making
the number of inputs lower. So, that the purchase department is happy because the purchase
says that input should go down and similarly because the retakes are lower quality is slightly
happier that this particular machine may be proving out to be a better options, because it has
only a reject of 155 a supposed to 465 in the earlier serial engineering case.
So, already with the first step of concurrent engineering, we have been able to check to some
extent the quality and let us look at the cost here. So, the unit cost if I were to calculate for
this particular output is going to be given by x 0 two one which is K i two one times of X i
two one minus K s two one times of X s two one plus K i times K i two one times a function
of Y i to one which is going to be equal to one point one five four seven times ten minus zero
point one five four seven times of 2 these are the unit cost of the scrap and the unit cost of
the input units plus one point one five four seven times of nine dollars this is what the
additional increases in the price and in this case the price goes up to twenty one point six
three 21.63 dollars.
X o21 =K i21 × X i21 −K 21

s s
× X 21 + K i21 f ( Y i21 )
X o21=1.1547 ×10−0.1547 ×2+1.1547 × 9=$ 21.63
So, in comparison to what was earlier which was actually twenty three point nine seven 23.97
dollars in the serial engineering you still see that there is a decrease in the price of the output
you know even though the number of you know the quality biometrics has improved and
even though the processing cost is higher in this particular case, because you know the
number of scrap coming out of the process is drastically improved because of which all the
additional cost which was being packed up in the turret lathe is now gone and it is being
estimated as a better process control even though a little expensive processing cost wise, but
much much better on the scrap cost side. So, we are going to now do another iteration for
another set of meeting for taking a decision related to the quality and the purchase
requirements.
169
So, let us call this the concurrent engineering team meeting 2. So, as indicated earlier the
quality and purchasing departments are still not satisfied with the amount of scrap generator,
and the marketing department feels that the unit cost is still too high. So, some other
alternative solution needs to be arrived at which will probably get in this meeting.
So, as a consequence of this feedback from marketing, the design engineers are able to come
to a conclusion that the customer requirements in this particular case can be met with a little
bit slack tolerance limit. So, the current tolerance limit proposed by the design is keeping the
customers viewpoint of not so, finicky about the tolerance limits as shown earlier. So, they
assume the new tolerance limits to be 1 plus minus 0.004 1± 0.004 inches meaning thereby
that the acceptable range now goes between 0.996 all the way to 1.004 inches this is the
acceptable range of tolerances.
So, the team now explores this scenario, they consider the component tolerances to be in this
current range and again you know the manufacturing wants to produce the same using the
engine lathe, because the engine lathe has the right kind of specifications for again handling
the very same you know in a very same manner as before as was calculated in the team 1
meeting as an as an output.
So, let us talk about in this case j of the second kind second machine that is engine lathe and
even the k of the second kind which is because you know now the tolerance has changed
from 1 plus minus 0.003 1± 0.003 to 1 plus minus 0.004 1± 0.004 on the insistence of
170
marketing because they understand that the customer is really not so, finicky about the tight
tolerance, which has been proposed by the design in iteration 1.
Other aspects of the data pretty much remain same we would like to find out again what are
the costs here in this case for example, the Z variates for the new you know 2 2 let us call it 2
2. So, Z 2 2 upper happens to be 1.004 minus 1 divided by 0.003 sorry this is 2
1.004−1
z u22= =2 you know because that is what the standard deviation is in case of the
0.002
engine lathe, and similarly Z 2 2 l happens to be 0.996 minus 1.000 divided by 0.002
l 0.996−1
z 22= =−2 So, this comes out to be about 2 and this comes out to be minus 2 and
0.002
with all this in mind with 2 in minus 2 in mind, when we talk about the percentage rejects
again if we can go back and have a look at what would be the rejects in this particular case
with 2 on board we have about almost 0.977 2 5, which means that you know 1 minus phi 2.0
board in this case be about close to two point three 2.3 percent, and for the left hand
specification it says again you know 1 minus phi of modulus of minus 2.0 which happens to
be again another 2.3 percent; so in about 4.6 percent of the total rejects or total items are
being rejected.
So, the total reject as in this case happens to be about 4.6 percent and with this on board we
can again calculate the scrap fraction to be 0.046 SC jk =0.046 and find and similarly the
number of units scraped to be y s we call this 2 2 because j is 2 and k is 2 in this particular
case which is equal to the technological coefficient for the scrap times of the real output
which is 0.046 times 1000 approximately 46 components. Ok.
Y s22=K s22 × Y o22=0.046 ×1000=46 Similarly the number of raw units or raw inputs needed
in this case would actually be equal to Y i 2 2 which is equal to K i 2 times of Y 022 1.046
times of 1000 which is 1046 units. Y i22=K i22 × Y o22=1.046× 1000=1046 So, in this case as
you see compared to the previous case, where we were generating something like 150
hundred and 155 additional units here we are only generating about 46 units. So, the scrapper
substantially come down making the quality department quite happy in this particular
iteration.
So, if I wanted to again calculate the unit output cost in this particular case which is X 0 2 2 it
could be represented as K i 2 2 times of the unit input cost minus the technological coefficient
of the scrap for the situation 2 2 times of y x is x 0 or x scrap 2 two that is a unit salvage
171
value times K i 2 2 times the processing cost. So, you know that in the engine lathe
processing cost.
So, we have the technological coefficient of the input here which is 1.046 times 9 dollars plus
minus of the technological coefficient of the scrap zero point zero four six 0.046 times of the
salvage value per unit which is about two 2 dollars piece of scrap cells are two 2 dollars
apiece is given plus that of the input again one point zero four six 1.046 times of the input
price per unit which is about ten 10 dollars. So, this happens to be around nineteen point
seven eight 19.78 dollars.
X o22=K i22 × X i22−K 22

s s
× X 22 + K i22 f ( Y i22 )
o
X 22 =1.046 ×10−0.046 ×2+1.046 × 9=$ 19.78
So, the price of the production per unit or the output price of such a system is going to be
much lesser in comparison to that, which was reported earlier in case of meeting one 1 or
even the serial engineering where in one case it was about twenty-three 23 dollars and it
reduced about twenty-one 21 dollars. So, you are going to reduce this way in step by step.
We will also look at a few more aspects as we go along where we should be feedbacks from
again the market as well as the quality and the purchase department, but we will try to in the
interest of time close this particular module. And the next one you will we will again see what
when we meet again as a concurrent engineering team for maybe two 2 or more times, there
is going to be a substantial improvement. And then finally, we do a comparative of what
serial engineering versus cognitive engineering would have in respect of each other.
So, with this I would like to end this particular module.
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Design Practice
Lecture - 12
Concurrent Engineering Approaches
Hello and welcome to this Design Practice, module 12, we were discussing about concurrent
engineering approaches in the last module and we went through the deliberations of 2
successive meetings; in one meeting of course, the teams agreed to design a specification.
1.003−1
z u21= =1.5
0.002
l 0.997−1
z 21= =−1.5
0.002
s
K 21 =0.1547
l
K 21=1.1547
u
Y 21=0.1547 ×1000=154.7 ≈ 155
l
Y 21=1.1547 ×1000=1154.7 ≈ 1155
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X o21=K i21 × X i21 −K 21
s s
× X 21 + K i21 f ( Y i21 )
o
X 21 =1.1547 ×10−0.1547 ×2+1.1547 × 9=$ 21.63
And then you know the teams looked at the various process capabilities and the mean
machining capabilities of more than 1 systems of manufacturing processes, in which an
output cost was created. In the second meeting again the quality and the purchasing
departments over still not satisfied with the amount of scrap generated and also the unit cost
you know, they basically wanted to do further deliberations by changing the tolerance limit to
a slightly less tight or less slightly slack tolerance limit and then in that event as one could see
the unit output cost changed it actually reduced because of that.
So, we will just proceed ahead with in you know another still another concurrent engineering
team meeting 3. So, you can understand how this process at the very beginning at the very
outset tries to balance the inspirations of all the so, called team members in a cross functional
mode.
And how team meeting 3 one can actually in very limited steps be able to arrive at a final
form of a design ok. So, in this particular team meeting, the cross functional multidisciplinary
team compares the results of the 2 meetings and 6 reduction in the cost of manufacturing ok.
So, the objective here is further reduction in the cost and also obviously, further reduction in
the rejects because they are not happy with the level of rejects that happened over the last
174
deliberation. So, further reduction in number of rejects and; obviously, if the rejects reduce it
is a proper utilization and you can say that the number of pieces of raw shaft required also get
reduced.
So, the marketing department comes up with the suggestion here and says that the customer is
ready to pay more per unit, while keeping these into view that the number of rejects in the
number of raw materials overall reduce, because of which the overall manufacturing cost may
be lesser and we can probably think of going for the third option which is the automatic
screw cutting machine.
This is a much better controlled option, it has a much lower standard deviation if you may
recall in this particular case, the standard deviation corresponding to an automatic screw
cutting machine ASM, comes out to be equal to 0.001 ok. So, the sigma j in this particular
case comes out to be 0.001 mean of course, is the same you know scrap dimension which was
used in the earlier examples. So, the mean value for this whole manufacturing happens to be
about one inch diameter ok.
So, the j in this particular case is corresponding to the third option ok. So, that is how we
define the mean and the standard deviation for this particular option; and we want to
somehow calculate we want to find out what is going to be the outcome of this particular
decision of using the ASM. So obviously, the unit processing cost of such a machine is very
high the unit processing cost here in this particular case, comes out to be equal to 12 dollars
per piece. So, other data are pretty much similar as previous meetings, and in this meeting the
team wants to know go ahead please. So, in this case although the unit processing cost is
more it may happen that the overall reduction in the rejection may be higher, because of
which the number of parts that you have to really machine may be lesser in order to get the
required amount of parts for the manufacturing process ok.
So, in this particular case let us say in this using the ASM machine, the other data is same in
this meeting the meeting 3 the team wants to know the unit cost of output number of units of
scrap generated again the number of raw units required to produce 1000 finished pieces using
the ASM system, and you can consider both the tolerances the slightly tighter tolerances
which are in the range of 1± 0.003 inches and then you know based on the marketing
feedback slightly loose set of tolerances, where this goes to 1± 0.004 inches and you can
probably check on that in the you know this is called specification set 1 ok. So, let us say this
175
is corresponding to k equal to 1 and this is called specification 2. So, corresponding to the j th,
j equal to 3 a third machine, which is the ASM machine in the particular you know example
problem you can check what is going to be the efficacy of using this specification and this
specification on the third machine in terms of cost.
So, number of units scrapped needs to be found out using the third machine on the first
specification Y s 3 1 and as you know this is equal to K s 3 1 times of the output unit Y 0 3 1
and we can find out the K s again by looking into just the scrap fraction ok. So, you know
that K s 3 1 is also the total scrap coefficient 3 1 divided by 1 minus scrap coefficient 3 1 ok.
SC31 0.002 0.002

K s31= = = =0.0027
1−SC 31 1−0.002 0.998
So, in this particular case we need to determine what is the scrap coefficient and scrap
coefficient can be found out again from the upper and the lower tolerance limits. So, in this
case corresponding to k equal to 1 the tolerance limits happened to be 1.003 inches and 0.997
inches and so, the phi of z upper tolerance j k, j being 3, k being 1 is equal to 1.003 minus
1.00 divided by the standard deviation 0.001 ok. So, this corresponds to about 3 and if I
looked into.
s s O
Y 31=K 31 ×Y 31=0.0027 ×1000=3
So, phi of 3 phi of this whole term, and if I looked into the normal distribution tables for
corresponding to what would happen if the z equal to 3. So, this corresponds to about 99.8 or
99.9 percent of the values ok.
φ ( z ujk ) =φ ( 1.003−1
0.001 )
=φ ( 3 )=99.9
So, it’s almost about 0.1 percent which is you can say they reject, because as you know the
rejects in this case is 1 minus phi z upper j K. I have explained to you in these last
presentations about how this happens, this happens to be about close to you know 0.1 percent.
So, that is how the upper tolerance unqualified number of pieces are or percentage of pieces
are. Similarly if I had a lower tolerance you know unqualified percentage this corresponds to
phi of minus 3, which is same as you know the 0 point 1 percent, another words the total
number of rejects here is close to about 0.2 percent ok.
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So, 0.002 divided by 1 minus 0.002 which happens to be again a very very small percentage
of almost 0.0027 ok. So, that is how the K s 31 is and so, this unit a number of units scrapped
is actually equal to 0.0027 times of 1000 which is about 3. So, only 3 pieces are scrapped if
you use the slightly tighter specification on the third machine automatic screw cutting
machine and the number of raw units ok. So, let us find out the number of raw units needed,
number of raw units is again based on you know Y i 3 1 which is equal to K i 3 1 times of Y 0
3 1 that is 1.002 times of 1000. So, you get about 103 you can say 27 ok. So, it is roughly
about 1003 pieces approximately.
So, this is what you need to put in the system of the transformation for generating about 1000
pieces from the transformation and if I calculate the unit output cost in the case. So, the unit
output cost in this particular case which is X 0 3 1 happens to be K i 3 1 times X i 3 1 minus
K s 3 1 times of X s 3 1 plus K i times K i 3 1 times of processing cost for the output level Y i
3 1 ok. So, in this particular case it is 1.0027 times of the cost of the input material, which is
about 10 dollars a piece minus the scrap 0.0027 times of 2 dollars which is the scrap cost plus
the processing cost which is about 12 dollars times of 1.0027 which is the K i 3 1 value. So,
this comes out to be about 22.054 dollars ok.
X o31=K i31 × X i31 −K 31

s s
× X 31 + K i31 f ( Y i31)
o
X 31=1.0027 ×10−0.0027 ×2+1.0027 ×12=$ 22.054
Similarly, if I wanted to look at the other set of specifications, that is corresponding to K

equal to 2 which is 1± 0.004 slightly looses specifications.
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So, in this case it would vary between 1.004- 0.996. So, you can actually find out for this
particular tolerance limit, the value of K s happens to be around almost 0. So, it’s almost
negligible in you know having a mean specification for j equal to 3 of 1 and sigma j equal to
3 of 0.002 ok. So, it is as good as almost having 0.001. I am sorry this is this for the
automatic screw machine, the 0.001. So, it is as good as having almost 0 rejects ok.
s
K 32=0.000
K i32=1
So, in that case you can make both the purchase and quality departments happy because you
have almost null rejects ok. So, in this particular case the K s 32 is 0 and K i 32 become equal
to 1 and so, if I wanted to find out the number of scrapped units ok. So, number of units
scrapped comes out to be K s 32 times of Y o 32.
s o
¿ K 32 ×Y 32=0
So, this is 0 similarly number of input units in this case would be K i 32 times of Y 0 32
which is actually 1000 pieces.
i o
¿ K 32 ×Y 32=1000
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So, exactly 1000 units would be produced from 1000 units sent into the transformation, and
the unit cost in this particular case ok. So, the unit cost using the ASM case of output which is
X 0 32 happens to be K i 3 2 X i 3 2 minus K s 3 2, X s 3 2 plus K i 3 2 function of Y i 3 2
which is 1.00 times of unit cost of the input 10 dollars. So, its 1.00 times of 10 that is the unit
input cost times of the scrap coefficient 0 times of almost 0 there is no scrap sorry the scrap
cost is 2 dollars, but there is no scrap ok. So, this component is 0 times of 1 times of
processing cost which is again 12 dollars per piece. So, this happens to be about 20 dollars 22
dollars per piece.
X o32=K i32 × X i32 −K 32

s s
× X 32 + K i32 f ( Y i32)
o
X 32=1.00 ×10−0.00 ×2+1.00 ×12=$ 22
So, in the third meeting what was found out is that, if the customer is ready to pay a little
more and if you are able to use a tighter specification on you know automatic screw cutting
machine, which is the most precise machine you can have a tighter specification. So, that
making the quality people happy and you can have a relatively very low scrap, which can
make the purchase department very happy because it is not easy to get input scrap materials
ok. That is the condition of the constraint and still you can do the job in very close cost to
what cost was projected on the other 2 that is the engine and the turret lathe system. So, this
decision making was actually resulted because of the initial participation of all the different
members of the team of the concurrent engineering approach in the concurrent engineering
approach.
So, let us look at a slightly different situation again, when we talk about another concurrent
engineering meeting ok. So, in this particular meeting you know there have been we have
seen dramatic improvements in product quality as well as manufacturing lead time as well as
result of this cross functional team approach, and scarp has been almost reduced to 0 which
address the concerns of the quality; in its earlier deliberations the team did not consider the
influence of the economies of scale of production. So, now, we consider that situation and try
to find out a sort of a cost which is you know cost of machining which is dependent on the
total amount of input to the transformation process. So, a function of Y i 3 2 and then try to
calculate this in terms of the number of the units or Y i 3 2 in terms of how many number of
inputs are needed for the slightly slack specifications or low lower expanded specifications of
1± 0.004 , as on the third machine equal to 3 that is the automatic screw cutting machine.
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So, let us call it concurrent engineering team meeting number 4 and. So, we consider a fresh
for the tolerance specification 1± 0.004 inches, the economies of scale. Let the processing
cost depend on the input here as a functional relationship 12 dollars minus 0.003 Y i 3 2 this
equation is based on more sort of objective studying of what is the actual cost including
overheads labor etcetera to work on an ASM automatic screw cutting machine, if supposing
there is a certain fix level of input material which goes into the system.
So, in this particular case the processing cost per into in manufacturing 1000 units is about 9
ok. So, the processing cost per unit when manufacturing 1000 units is 9 because; obviously,
the economies of scale gets added or gets subtracted from the overall cost in this particular
case and the unit cost of the output in that event which is represented in terms of K i 3 2 times
of X i 3 2 minus K s 3 2 times of X s 3 2 plus K i 3 2 times of function of f Y i 3 2
considering the economies of scale becomes equal to from the last step for the slightly slack
specifications on the ASM as 1 cross 10 plus or minus 0 times 2 dollars plus 1 plus 9
becomes equal to 19 dollars.
X o32=K i32 × X i32 −K 32

s s
× X 32 + K i32 f ( Y i32)
o
X 32 =1.00 ×10−0.00 ×2+1.00 ×9=$ 19
So, you are able to consider the economies of scale the requirement of the quality the
requirement of the purchase and also being able to produce at the lowest possible cost ok. So,
the last cost which came on an engine lathe where these considerations were absent in the
second team meeting was about 19.54 units of currency. So, in this particular case as you see
that cost is also reduced because of economies of scale because of this concurrent nature of
the approach which is being followed.
So, this is the power of you can say the concurrent engineering. So, if I wanted to record
everything in sort of a matrix form to arrive at a decision making.
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So, we would like to let us say call this the result of interaction between design and
manufacturing and I would call this a sort of a decision table for finally, arriving at what is
going to be the best process for process design of this component. So, for the manufacturing
technological options, where we have tolerances in inches of 2 different kinds for example, in
this kind you have the first set of tolerance which is 1± 0.003 , and the second set of
tolerance which is 1± 0.004, which was framed out on the advice of the marketing and we
consider various outputs of the algorithm like unit cost of the processing of the material of the
of the final material which came out from the transformation process the number of scrap
units, which got generated and similarly lead time. You get a decision matrix based on which
you could actually conclude about what would be a good process in a certain business
environment similarly for the other set of specifications scrap unit, unit cost and lead time ok.
So, if all these possibilities are integrated together for the different options which are there.
So, so you have the turret lathe as j equal to one option, the engine lathe corresponding to j
equal to 2 and the automatic screw cutting machine corresponding to j equal to 3. So, the unit
costs here are 23.97, 21.63, 22.02 and units of currency. Similarly the scrap generated is 465
in one case, 155 in the other, 3 in the other and the lead time again if we calculate using setup
times as well as the processing times 485, 949 and 752. Similarly for the slightly slack
specifications this cost happens to be 20.37, 19.78 and 22 units of currency scrap units
happened to be 184 in one case, 46 in another and 0 in other and the lead times happen to be
1204, 862 and 750.
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So, based on the business environment which is there, either it could be a low lead time
decision the lowest lead time being 750 minutes for producing the 1000 pieces and that to add
a reasonable cost and for 0 units of scrap and as you know that if I take economies of scale
here. So, if I add the economies of scale term here this cost further goes down to about 19
dollars.
So, at the lowest cost at the let us say lowest possible lead time with the highest possible
quality and also making the purchase department happy you could do an operation in the
most costly machine ok. So, this can only be possible because of this concurrentness in the
approach of how you do the overall designing for the specification. So, in this manner all
these specifications need to be determined for an engineering assembly, before getting into
the manufacture phase. So, that there is an optimal angle to all the manufacturing.
So, I think I will close the topic here today, but then in the next topic we will compare
between what you know the economies of scale would rhyme in the serial approach as
opposed to this approach, and then we will talk something about product lifecycle as well so
up till then, goodbye.
Thank you.
10
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Design Practice
Lecture – 13
Benefits of concurrent engineering
Hello and welcome to this design practice module 13. Today we would like to just investigate
what are the changes which have been brought in, because of this new concurrent engineering
approach in the last few module you have been talking about, if the whole cross functional
team works together, with inputs from quality inputs from marketing and sales, or even
surveys for input from manufacturing.
The design gets altered suitably to the most economical most optimise designs, but let us look
at you know in the serial in engineering approach, when we started with the fines and
paradigm based on which there was a unit cost, which was reported or setup time which was
reported, how it gets change subsequently, because of the concurrent engineering philosophy.
So, our problem example here was again about, evaluating three different options, we had
three different manufacturing options in mind, one was at turret lathe option, another was an
engine lathe ok, and the third was the automatic screw cutting machine. .
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And this options were laid out in terms of unit processing cost in terms of setup times, in
terms of unit processing time, and process standard deviation, and we found out that you
know this three options would have different unit costs as reported in the manufacturing
handbook ok, and this was a data given by the manufacturing team also. A different setup
times which was like 20 minutes for option 1, 25 minutes for option 2 and 50 minutes for
option 3 respectively.
So, the unit processing time that is processing time per unit, in this particular case for the
turret lathe was reported to be about 1 minutes per unit, 0.8 minutes for the engine lathe, in
the component and 0.70 minutes in the a’s on the automatic screw cutting machine. Similarly
the process standard deviation which was recorded for these 3 different options, and
manufacturing options was 0.003, in the first case 0.002 in a second case, 0.001. the
minimum standard deviation most accurate system accurate system was defined to be the
ASM having said that. Let us now sort of compare both the serial and concurrent engineering
approaches.
So, in the serial engineering approach, if you may recall we had obtained, all these values
related to number of rejects for all the three different machinery, then we also obtained data
related to the unit cost ok, probably time of manufacturers well. So, these were recorded for
all these pieces which were supposed to be produced namely about thousand pieces which
was supposed to be produced.
And we found out that with a mean of one inch diameter, and a process and the deviation of
0.003 inches that is given for the turret lathe. In the turret lathe the unit cost of the product
who which came out, happened to be about 23.97 currency units, in this case US dollars for
the turret lathe alone ok. And the setup time which was provided in this particular case was
about 20 time units.
So, let us say you know this is in minutes, the time units in minutes. So, the setup time was
exactly 20 minutes for the turret lathe, and the number of rejects which was the measure of
the quality in this particular case, number of rejects happened to be about 465 units, these
were the numbers produce which were defective. So, for every 1000 pieces of production in
the transformation system, you know you have to enter exactly 1465 pieces out of which
1000 will emerge out, and 1000 good pieces will emerge out and 460 would be the scrap,
percentage we should get produced ok.
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So, the inputs for again 1465, outputs 1000, scrap units 465. So, number of rejects in this case
was 465 units for the turret lathe. So, let us say we are evaluating alternative one for the serial
engineering approach, and now we would like to also calculate the manufacturing lead time
here. So, let us just do that so, manufacturing lead time for the serial engineering approach
happen to be again, the total amount of setup time that is being utilise plus the number of
units turned on a turret lathe, I will say first option turret lathe is the first option times the
time per unit on the turret lathe
So, this then happens to be about 20 plus 1465 times 1.00 time units which is about 1485 time
units or minutes in this particular case. ¿ 20+ ( 1465 ×1 )=1485 time units So, the serial
engineering approach produces with the turret lathe product which has a unit price of about
23.97 dollars, rejects about 465 units, and takes a manufacturing lead time of 1485 units, and
this is the alternative which was chosen in the serial engineering approach, but if you look at
the concurrent engineering philosophy, you know we consider the scenario in meeting 3 let us
say that reflect the concurrent engineering approach.
So, if we supposed that it takes about 0.0 units of time of minutes to process in the ASM or
the automatic screw cutting machine. Will have subsequently at zero reject level the number
of good options which are there 1000 pieces to the produced in a very very short amount of
time. So, let us see that so, when we talk about a concurrent engineering approach as you may
recall.
So, in this particular case we considered a scenario, as in meeting 3, which talks about that
the rejects are the higher, and something has to be done, for the customer to accept the overall
quality level. And so, the team explore the possibility of using a more accurate machine that
is ASM machine to process that the much more accurate level ok.
So, here in this case as you may recall, the unit cost which came out was about close to again
22 dollars and setup time particularly if you consider the ASM comes to about 50 time units
of 50 minutes ok.
And similarly if I look at the number of rejects in this particular case the number of rejects
was zero, that is how it turned up, and manufacturing lead time which happens is constituted
of setup time, again plus the machining time which is the number of units on ASM times time
per unit that it takes on an ASM. So, this happens to be than about 50 plus 1000; obviously, in
this particular transformation in the ASM machine, as emerged in the third meeting if the
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transformation changes from a turret to an ASM. In this case have exactly 1000 pieces input,
and 1000 pieces output was almost zero scrap coming out ok.
So, that is how accurate or that is how precise, this particular machine is ok. So, in this
particular scenario as we know the number of the manufacturing lead times came out to be
about close to 750 minutes. If I looked at from the serial engineering to a concurrent
engineering approach, this whole fact of reiterating, and some somehow using you know
feedback from different sources, and trying to invite in the whole process of thinking the
importance of some areas which are not consider to be as important in the serial engineering
areas like quality for example.
It helps us to resolve the scenario, and helps us to get into a situation where we are operating
as you see at a much much lower set up time of the manufacturing lead time. So, earlier must
1485 minutes, and now it is about 750 so, to about half ok. And that also at a price which is
more a similar its price not changing much you see 23.97 dollars for piece was the price
which one could get on the turret lathe, and about 22 dollars is the unit cost which would be
gotten on the automatic screw machine.
So, in fact it is for the better that the cost is also going down by may be a dollars also, and
you are able to get at a much lower manufacturing lead time at much lower cost, is scenario
where the number of rejects are 0 or number of the quality is very high. So, this happened
because of the involvement of several people at the very outset, and the design which is going
to be a better design; obviously, is going to include you know the same specifications 1 plus
minus 0.0003 on the ASM, whereas at the outside. If you look at ASM, and if you look that
the process is expensive you find out that it is not going to work ok.
So, it is about trade off again in this case as you saw the trade off was between the number of
rejects, if the number of rejects are lower still the cost comes down, and the processing time
is lower still the cost comes down. The question is what is going to be the decision of a
company, and this decision would have never arisen had you not involve quality from phase 1
ok.
That is for the benefit can be envisioned, as when we talk about concurrent engineering
approaches. So, with this I think one thing is very clear if we looked at what are the
improvement levels, you will like to sort of see percentage wise what are going to be the
different improvements in the different parameters.
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So, let us say improvements in unit cost of the product, the quality levels for the manufacture
of the product, and manufacturing lead time for this product. So, you see that the percentage
improvement in unit cost is again about 23.97 minus 22 by 23.97 as for 8.21 percent. So, is
reduction on the unit cost by 8 percent improvement in quality is humongous. So, the
improvement in quality is almost I would say in 465 defectives to 0 defective.
So, this is more or less a total quality managed the system with the very less scrap, 0 scrap
comparison to scrap generated earlier, and then of course the percentage improvement in
manufacturing lead time is also tremendous its 1485 minus 750 as a percentage represented
as a percentage about 49.50 percentage. So, you can think of the improvements in the cost of
the lead times ok, and also the quality just because you involved everybody in the decision
making process from the very beginning.
So, there are very various other advantages also that concurrent engineering has to offer one
of the most important benefits of the concurrent engineering is a although, not explicitly
adjust in the very simple example, that we did in the last few modules. In many large
development projects particularly, when we are talking about product development the major
issue which happens is la the lack of communication between the different numbers, and the
lack of communication can be resolved at the very outset, when we talk about a concurrent
engineering philosophy, or accountant engineering approach. .
187
So, you can probably lead yourself too extensive amount of engineering on the various
phases of the product life cycle, when you are putting a concurrent team or concurrent
engineering team in place cross functional team in place, because everybody will bring his
own perspective on the table, related to not only just the design and the manufacturing phases
of a product. But then you know related to the sales, and after sales part and also to some
extent even people who are going to look after how the how the product is so, up to the
disposal phase of a product life cycle.
So, all the associated experiences couple at the very beginning in the in the design process ok.
Because of which maybe delays can we avoid, for example, that that say we just categorised
this way that in serial engineering approach, the shortcomings if you look at or first of all lack
of communication during designing of a product ok, or lot of communication between all
stakeholders.
So, who are the stakeholders? So, stakeholders are members of various part of the product
life cycle ok, stakeholders can be the design team, they can also be the manufacturing team,
they can be the sales and marketing team, they can also be somewhere around here, quality
team they can be team related to let us say the service of the product and even the disposal
ok.
So, these are the different aspects of the life cycle of a product before from the from the
designing to the realization to the sales, and what you are essentially having in the serial
engineering approach is a lack of communication between all these different teams, which get
resolved when we talk about concurrent engineering.
So, the lack of communication gets address and so therefore, concurrent engineering may
result in I would say better engineered products, because of this knowledge that gets packed
on to the product from the very beginning ok. So, may result in better engineer products, or
you can also record this is optimise solutions.
So, we are not only concerned with the product, but also the solutions with respect to the
production as well as how it channels through to the consumer. So, typically if you had this
shortcoming, if you had the lack of communication in serial engineering this leads to product
delays, because at every phase when the product passes through there is some engineering
change on the other which has to be introduced every time to the design phase, also definitely
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this is not a very good approach in the serial engineering strategy that some company may an
vision.
So, the increase in time to reach market can influence various aspects of a product it can lead
to probably influencing the acceptance the overall acceptance of the product. The market
position related to the product, the project cost overall quality levels, all those things are
affected very much when we are talking about the serial engineering philosophy. So, this can
be addressed quite well, and it should be on a firm base is that one should be ready to adopt
the concurrent engineering strategy.
So, we will not talk a little more details about how do we characterize concurrent engineering
environment what are the different components, which are needed for looking into such an
environment, and we will actually endorse this through a case study. Case study which would
talk about the computer aided acquisition, and logistics support, which was hired by the
electronic systems working group by the CALC cooperation. Which led to a very structured
organisational nature, and we shall led to this communication increase by several folds
leading to overall benefits as associated with different products which were launched through
such a platform.
So, we will talk about this electronic systems working group report by LinkedIn and co
workers ok. It is a case study, and in context of that we will try to understand what is going to
be the concurrent engineering environment, how do implement such environment for any
kind of product complexity, product technology, defining program structures, program
futures, competition in the market, and many other parameters like business relationship team
scopes, resource tightness, schedule tightness, so on so forth.
So, we will start working on this problem probably from the next module, and I would like to
close this particular module, but in the next module we will just discuss this case study by
LinkedIn in a more appropriate manner.
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Design Practice
Lecture - 14
Concurrent engineering environment influencing dimensions
Hello and welcome to the Design Practice Module 14. We will be looking at a case study
today as I had mentioned in the last module about Concurrent Engineering.
So, this case study was actually done by the electronic system working group of computer
aided acquisition and logistic support CALS and what they studied is actually about how a
working system for the concurrent engineering approach can be developed, so that it starts
affecting the decisions, the routine decisions of a company. So, just writing this down here
electronics systems working group report and this was actually studied by Linton, another co-
workers and reported by them in the year 2000, in the year 1992. So, this philosophy has
those oldest then.
So, in this particular report, they try to make a case about how to design a concurrent
engineering program and for that there are several phases in which this framework related to
the whole part of the product life cycle can be implemented with this idea of concurrent
engineering. So, you already know that various phases get involved when we talk about C as
opposed to the serial engineering approach, where you know the phases from the design to
190
the production, to the after sales, to the service and to even the disposal phase of a product is
getting enrolled or it is getting involved in taking decisions at the very beginning related to
the design of the product.
So, when we design such a concurrent engineering program, we typically do this in about
three phases. So, the first phase is to sort of identify the influencing dimensions of the
products and their levels. I will just talk briefly about what these influencing dimensions
would mean, ok. So, let us write it down first. So, first phase is related to the identification of
influencing dimensions. This is the management case study. So, you have to understand the
philosophy behind it, and their levels.
So, typically what we mean by influencing dimension is that you want to identify the
dimensions of the product and the programs, ok. That influence the concurrent engineering
approach. It could be things like product complexity, product technology competition,
resource tightness. So, on and so forth. These are some of the dimensions of the product as
such, which you are talking about when you want to develop C program for this product life
cycle for this particular product.
So, the first criteria here is to identify the dimensions of a product or a program associated
with this product. The realization I would say of this product and some of the dimensions
could be for example, product complexity, the involved technology of the product, the
competition which is around and then, maybe some resource tightness which is there in the
system which is able to realize this product. So, this is how you identify some of the
dimensions. So, share it with the product.
The next part here is, once these dimensions are established, you establish the levels of the
influencing dimensions on an individual basis and this could be using the information from
the product features or the product requirements. Let us say for example, the level of
complexity can be related to let say catalogue items or most common parts or state of the art
items or some of the items where you need to really push the state of the art, ok.
So, there are certain items which are just commonly available of the shelves, there are certain
which are higher in complexity and then, there are some where there is no realization even,
but then you want to push up the state of the art to realize something which would be helpful
for the overall product.
191
So, these are different levels associated with the product complexity, ok. So, just write this
down here. So, you establish the levels of the influencing dimensions using information about
the product features, product requirements or any other aspects like that. So, the example
which I gave was that you know let us say for example, when we talk about this particular
dimension and we want to level into, our split into different levels.
So, the product complexity can be split on the basis of again four different categories. We call
level A to B. A level are which includes the catalogue items which are easily available in the
market, ok. So, you can say the complexity is quite less in such items or there can be again
most common parts. So, you have sort of a little state of the art related to the particular
product that we are considering, ok. So, there are certain parts designed for the product of the
product lines which we are comparing. So, there are certain, so they are just above the
catalogue items which are commonly available for all parts, are all available products slightly
higher sophistication here maybe there is a level C which talks about the really state of the art
items.
So, these are the one's which are very particular to the product line that is being
manufactured, ok. So, we have the most sensitive interfaces in such products. They are really
specially designed for the particular company or the particular product line that the company
produces and then, finally those which are not really existent or available, but where you
really need to do something or some work to push the state of the art envelope you can say.
So, you can say products of the kind where you need to push the state of the art envelop.
So, these levels can be sort of you know categorized into all the dimensions that they have
said here involving you know the complexity of the products of the involved technology or
let say the competition which is around of resource tightness which is around for a system
and you can influence those by laying out different levels of what is available, what is not
available or maybe what needs to be found out, and in that manner you can actually increase
the level of complexity for these kind of products.
So, then we talk about after all this is done, we want to establish an aggregate level by
considering the relative importance of the influencing dimensions and this kind of establishes
there should be concurrent engineering environment, ok. So, all this step let us say A to B,
small a to small c are because we want to really establish that what is going to be, should be
C environment, ok, concurrent engineering environment. So, this is sort of a planning that
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needs to be done whenever you are introducing a new product line or a new product system
to see what is existing and how it has to be modified, so that it could be a perfectly concurrent
engineering environment for the new product line that you are going to be introducing, ok.
So, this is the first phase.
Second phase is about identification of the various c elements and their levels, ok. See the
elements are mostly related to the organizational structure, for example of the communication
which is present or for example, what are some of the organizational requirements or product
development methodologies that need to be ascertained for realizing the dimensions, the
influencing dimensions at the particular levels that they are intended to, ok.
So, in this manner we are trying to map as to what is going to be the requirement from the
organization side or the program side which will be able to gear up for the particular levels of
the influencing dimensions, influential or influencing dimensions of the product that have
been discussed in the first phase, ok.
So, let us look into that. So, the second phase now as I have already described is the phase
related to identification of again C elements and their various levels. At the end of the day
whatever goes into production in a concurrent engineering way should be going through the
organization which is involved in doing the production and therefore, there are aspects,
organizational aspects or methodology aspects which need to get involved at some level
which will be able to influence the new products which are being launched and their
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influencing dimensions as such of launching. So, for example, if a product is at a very high
complexity level let say the product is for the level D which is about pushing state of the art
technology. So, obviously not many such products are available in the market or not many
such components are available in the market which will be pushing up the state of the art
technology.
So, a lot of R&D needs to be done there. For example, when we are talking about the
organizational requirement, so one of the major emphasis would be again a certain level of
the requirements where there would be more research staff than normal staff, ok. So, in this
way we are trying to create a matrix where we can define the organizational structure based
on which the influencing dimensions levels could get achieved and this way we map what is
the current concurrent engineering approach on a very average basis.
After all these dimensions are written down and then, we see how to go ahead to be
concurrent engineering approach and what are the areas where we really need to emphasize to
make a delta improvement to probably a higher level, so that you could realize what the
influential dimensions would be in the intended products.
So, this is a sort of mapping that we are trying to understand. So, let us see here. So,
identification of C elements and their levels are basically related to identifying the c elements
and sub elements as well as the level of support should be concurrent engineering
environment. So, let me write that. So, identification of C elements and even sub elements
slash their level of support that should cater to there should be C environment and this could
typically be associated with questions like what are the organizational requirements, what are
the kind of communications which are needed. For example, the product development
methodology that is required to support adequately the c environment and we are in phase
one, ok. So, we just write that down product development methodology so on and so forth.
So, these are all to be set at their own corresponding levels for catering to the phase one
identified influencing dimensions of the product. For example, I think I just mentioned that
that to produce a product with a level D complexity of the product, one of the major sub
elements of the organizational requirements that is team members let say should be research
oriented at a level where they are research oriented. So, when you do a hiring strategy, you
have to develop a suitable strategy for doing this kind of research oriented member selection.
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So, that is how you are going to deal with this particular phase, the second phase and the third
phase of course. So, you have to carry out similar analysis for all other concurrent
engineering elements which get involved in order to support the activities of phase one and
then of course, there is a third phase which is about once you have out laid the various
elements of the C environment as well as what is the influential dimension of the products or
their levels which get realized or which are planned to be realized by the C environment, you
have to evaluate, ok.
So, there is a phase of evaluation and this evaluation is about determining the improvements
that are needed to match the required levels to be concurrent engineering environment, ok.
So, you have to start with all the concurrent engineering elements and see what is their
present level or present stage and try to map into what stage they need to be at how the
organization needs to be suitably changed, so that you can attain some of the levels intended
for new product lines of the first phase that is you know the influential dimensions of the
products.
So, I would just summarize this here by saying it is going to determine, this phase is going to
determine the improvements that are really needed to match the required levels of all the C
elements that we have been considering so far and map the elements from their present stage
to what will achieve the new product dimensions of introduced products in the envisioned
phase one, ok. So, phase one actually is the centre for all the decisions and this round phase
one revolves how phase two should get planned and how phase three should happen, ok.
So, we will try to now give a broad overview about let say for example, when we talk about
C environment influencing dimensions, what are those dimensions and what are some of the
levels or understanding about let say what is really meant by product complexity or
technology or program structure. We will try to look in little more details in this stage.
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So, when we talk about the first phase, we want to find out what are the influencing
dimensions which dictates to build up the concurrent engineering environment. So, the
dimensions of the products and programs may include the following product complexity. So,
the complexity of the product is really determined by the types of parts which are involved.
Parts could be as I told you earlier four different levels catalogue parts and then, you know
this little state of the art of just common parts or commonly available parts and then, the most
state of the art and then, one where the state of the art even needs to push beyond.
So, in case of let say this electronic systems group which may be working on electronic
devices and circuits they may be talking about research in thin films and how speeds can be
affected in terms of you know communication speech can be affected between the various
components in terms of different new technologies, which can be brought in the market.
So, you are talking about level D here which talks more about the new product development
aspect where there is a push on the existing state of the art envelope, by changing the realm
of materials or methods or maybe sizes particularly when we talk about device sizes so on
and so forth. So, that is product complexity I am going to write in details about this is yes
determined by type of parts involved which you already know. There are four categories here;
level A, B, C and D. I have just described in the last slide this is the one which talks about
pushing state of the art. One example of this could be for example, today if we are developing
some kind of a lensing system for the Hubble telescope, that is something where a lot of
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research is needed because you cannot get the requisite resolution and the requisite skill of
working unless you are very particular about developing new processes, new methodologies,
new material selections which are lighter in weight so on and so forth. So, good station it in
place where this telescope is installed, ok.
So, we are talking about really different in terms of innovation or processing aspects when we
talk about level D. So, common parts such as cars, refrigerators, computers you know the
design of such products may require expertise from a number of disciplines. Disciplines
could include mechanical you know engineering trade or electrical or electronics or even
metallurgical trades or chemical engineering. Sometimes one expert can really not understand
the full spectrum of the functionality of the products when we talk about such complex
products, and therefore, a formal committee approach is always a good perspective or brings
a good perspective to this whole C strategy when we discuss about this product complexity,
the other dimension that we may be interested in this product technology.
So, the levels of technology that can be used in the product design may vary from readily
available technologies which are already in the market existing to completely new out of the
box technologies which may even need new capabilities, you know capabilities of
manufacture for example of a new core technology so on and so forth. So, product
technology is a dimension which is related to the levels of technology to be used in the
design, ok.
You could consider for example, designing and drafting using available computer software
such as what is commercially available pro engineers or pro E or AUTOCAD package or let
say unigraphics that could be one way of going about what is available conventionally, but
supposing you wanted to increase the process details of this whole drafting and drawing.
You could as well add new capabilities by adding something like AI or Artificial Intelligence
tool which would automatically figure out something and try to draw and give you options, or
maybe some very complex relation sort of database based system where you could actually
choose different items which are listed on a conventional catalogue by just doing an image
searching rather than keywords searching. So, this kind of very complex product technologies
can also be used or conventionally available product technologies can also be used. So, there
are different levels now on one project technologies as required by the new core technology
that you are proposing to develop through the C approach, ok.
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So, let us just record this here. So, this can be existing technologies which are easily
commercially available you can say or these can be new technologies which would need new
process capabilities are developing slash adding of new modules, so on and so forth. So, that
is how you can increase the different levels of product technology. You can also talk about a
third dimension of program structure which represents what is needed to be executed at the
program level.
So, essentially it would include people who are involved in the program or layers of reporting
hierarchies or let us say role of formal informal communication channels which are present
within an organizational strategy, structure or physical distribution or even the program staff,
ok. So, anything related to the launch of this new activity or new product where we are
envisioning CE or concurrent engineering approach or with an existing program which is
running when we are envisioning conversion into a C environment, we do need to consider
the program structure as one of the fundamental influencing dimensions in the product.
So, we just record it there. So, this program is which supports the particular product that we
are considering or product lines that we are considering for the setting up of the C
environment. So, it represents what is needed to execute the program of the product
development you can say a product manufacturer development and manufacture. So, here it
could typically include things like number of people who are involved in the program layers
of reporting hierarchies in this structure that you have designed you know to support the
program or for example, the role of formal or informal communication channels, the physical
distribution of the program staff so on and so forth.
So, there can be various levels in such program structure dimension. For example, there can
be structures which would vary from a small staff with informal reporting hierarchies and
communication channels to a large staff and deep reporting hierarchies, structured
communication channels and again physical distribution across multiple companies which are
belonging to the C environment, ok. So, these all different structures are associated with the
dimension of program structure involved in setting up C environment. So, there are also again
a fourth dimension for c environment or needed for C environment which is about program
future. This is a very important aspect that program which is started should not typically be
stopped and there should be a strategy or a plan and future for the program to sustain itself
and sustenance is only possible when it meets the financial objectives.
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So, obviously the basic idea is to assess the long term opportunities afforded by the product
development program that has been launched today. You just do not keep into purview the
immediate product need that is there which needs to be designed and launched and you know
sold in the market, but again more futuristic planning is needed related to how the structure
would survive you know for longer amount of time unfortunately when you hire unless it is a
contractual appointment. Obviously there are reasons to make. So, the basic idea of program
future here is to assess the long term opportunities afforded by the product development
program.
So, levels of programs may vary, program futures may vary from a very standalone kind of
program without any long term investment requirements all the way to a program that is
strategically aligned with you know some kind of futuristic idea, the inter enterprise
enablement with significant future opportunities. So, just like you divided the levels of
product complexity in this case also from a very basic minimum meet the product or meet the
product realization requirement to something which will be strategically effective in the
future as an organization can be developed you know as you do this.
So, I am going to now after analyzing all these influencing dimensions lay out a matrix where
we will talk about different levels of these individual dimensions and see how they can be
achieved through different organizational elements, which will imbibe in the next step that is
the phase two of the C environment program which will help us to achieve all these different
strategic you know dimensions which are being planned in phase one.
So, you can have for example standalone programs without any long term investment. On the
other hand, you could also have something which is an enabler for a significant futuristic
opportunities. You can have several levels in between as well the other dimension which is of
major nature and which should be considered as a competition because obviously you cannot
stay in business without taking this head on, ok. There is an environment of competition
which is around and kind of refers to and the level of activity in the relevant industry and the
criticality of anticipating and reacting to competitors moves. Unless you do this, you are not
in business. So, obviously competition has to be taken as a dimension, and a very large
influential dimension which sets up the stage in phase one which are sort of the requirements
you know for sustenance of c environment.
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So, here we are talking about level of activity in the relevant industry and the criticality of
anticipating and reacting to competitors. So, this dimension kind of emphasizes the need for
flexibility, flexibility of the program, and its ability to react quickly to some changes in the
competitive environment. Competitions may vary from very basic minimal level to
significant pressures to anticipate and react to competitors actions.
So, you can always create again several levels within the competition dimension just as you
did in the other dimensions, in order to set stage for what are those requirements for the
organization side or for the communication side or for the product development strategy side,
so that some of these needs can be satisfied. There are other you know dimensions of
influential nature to the phase one of setting up C program, but I am going to close this
presentation now and then, look at some of the other dimensions in the next lecture up till
now.
Thank you and goodbye.
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Design Practice
Lecture – 15
Concurrent engineering environment influencing dimensions-2
Hello, and welcome to this course on design practice module 15. So, we were talking
about different dimensions like product complexity that product technology. We also
talked about the program structure or program futures, which are associated with the
program which is in vision for the new product line. Which is being launched or the
existing product line where you want to change into a C environment, and then we also
talked about competition as a dimension influencing the concurrent engineering
environment.
So, there are many other dimensions for example, you could also have things like
business relationship, or a let us say you could have things like team scope. Team scope
or resource tightness or even schedule tightness sometimes for defining a C environment.
So, let us look at some of these left-over dimensions and then, we will try to go into the
elements which we can tweak in order to change or influence some of these dimensions.
So, the 6th important influential dimension is business relationship. So, what we mean
by business relationship? Is sort of what kind of relationship does a company have with
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respect to all it is the stakeholders; which can include people like let us say, vendors or
people who are related to partnering of the business.
So, all suppliers or maybe some kind of prime developers which are associated with,
some modular developments related to the final product line which is begin vision. So,
the relationship could be just arm’s length the relationship where you just are concerned
with buying or selling or the relationship could be something like a partnering
relationship. Whether you involved in decision making is related to the overall flow of
the organization, and also related to the overall quantum of financial burden that the
organization has and so, you are a major stakeholder in it.
So, your stake holding nature can enable you to have different levels within the business
relationship zone. So, let me just write this down here. So, this is about the degree of
formality in which you are involved up to which extent you are involved with the
organization. For example, there could be just an arm’s length relationship.
So, this could be only where it is driven by buying and selling requirements there could
be active collaboration for example. So, this could establish joint requirements for
example, in a company decision making could involve some kind of stake holding from
these active collaborators. And so, there can be a whole variety of stake holding based on
you know just a buying and selling requirement to being a participant in the decision-
making process, which we record as business relationship.
So, this is a very important component in order to survive in a C like environment, or a

build a C environment for your existing concern. Because, what is the relationship level
will kind of influence will kind of be influenced by the organization structure which you
are in, or maybe the communication channels that you have within the organization
structure.
So, in a way all those elements of C environments are going to again influence business
relationship. There is also another very influential dimension of team scope, what I mean
by team scope is the diversity of perspectives required for program execution for
example, a small core design team receiving advice from numerous sections such as let
us say, assembly testing, packaging. This can only have a very limited scope whereas, a
multifunctional team approach where there are stake holding members from all these
different divisions together as a group as I showed you in the example problem earlier,
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would have a much wider scope and much say in all the decision making, and
implementation also becomes very easy one such a cross functional team or a CFT is
realized within organizations
So, team scope is again related to how the organizational hierarchy is designed or the
structure is designed, and is it is there a possibility of such cross functional teams within
the organization, right? So, I will just write this as diversity of perspectives for execution
of the program. So, that defines the team scope there could be a organization time type
which has a small core team of design being advised by everybody else assembly let us
say, packaging the electronic systems work group assignment. So, therefore, they are
interested in electronic assembly or electronic packaging heavily as for their product
lines are concerned; testing of the electronics that is being developed so on so forth.
So, this actually is limited team scope whereas, there could be another suitable team
scope, where there is a CFT a cross functional team approach which may having a higher
team scope. So, that is how you define one of the most in I am again influential
dimensions of the product requirements what this team scope?, then there can also be
dimensions related to resources for example, either there is a resource tightness which
prevails you are not in able to use infinitely available resources ok.
The level of available resources for example, staffing or funding may be limited notes
and then, there can be a very tight situation where they are severely constrained. So,
therefore, you need to divide again one of the major dimensions influencing the C
environment to be a resource tight environment or resource lean environment. And then
similarly you have a schedule tight or schedule lean.
So, one particular instance can be a case where schedules do not matter really, you have
enough amount of inventory. And now, there is the so called just in time or lean
inventory practice, where there is almost one by one consumption versus production kind
of a situation. So, therefore, there is a huge amount of tightness and the overall schedules
in such environments. So, the c environments in both the cases will be completely
different ok. And similarly, would it be different for resource lean as we are opposed to
resource tight environments.
So, let me just write these down briefly. So, this is the level of available resources, which
defines this dimension. So, for example, staffing and funding so, there can be one which
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is severely constrained and there can be another which is abundantly supplied conditions.
Scheduled tightness we write as referring to limited schedule times. Let us say, schedule
slack times, and this can kind of counteract for the deficiencies in the existing C
methodology which is being followed of the environment which is built up.
So, in this particular case there could be severely constrained schedules again as one
form of concurrent engineering environment, or there could be a significant slack time of
allowed by the organization. So, based on these overall sort of nine dimensions, which is
completing the phase one requirement you characterize the existing level that the
organization is in, and how do you carry forward such an organization? So, let me
actually summarize all this in a matrix. So, that we know about what are the different
levels which are involved in such phase one requirements for a C environment.
So, here for example, we would talk about program and product influencing dimensions,
and then try to divide it into different levels that is level A to D as I had talked earlier.
This is in context of the electronic work system group. So, most of the terminology that
is used here is related to their system of organization or management, but I will try and
explain in between. So, that you get a fairly good idea about what we mean by these
levels. So, let us say there are these levels of c concurrent engineering influencing
dimensions on one side, and they are principally you have four different categories A B C
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and D. And another is really the dimension that we are considering for categorizing into
this various different segments of the concurrent engineering environment.
So, let us look at the first dimension. For example, product complexity we call this
dimension one, and I think I had already described to you the various levels in this case.
For example, there can be catalogue items which are very commonly available generally
for all products around; there can be the most common parts. Which are slightly more
state of the art related to mostly the product line that we are referring to ok. Most
common parts little state of the art you can say. State of the art little SOTA and then you
have a very sensitive state of the arts.
So, you can say state of the art sensitive interfaces state of the art items. These are
specially designed for the exact product line that is in question, it cannot be used in any
other application except the application that is being envisioned. So, such a product line
or such a level of complexity and then, you can think of one where there is futuristic
research which is involved. So, you push the existing SOTA or state of the art level so,
that here you need a lot of R&D for doing it.
For example, in electronic work system there could be an issue of overall device sizing,
and device sizing could go to the extent of let us say a few 100 nanometres, and there
you use completely new technology, new outlook, new you know materials. And there
are various new challenges which are being envisioned for which you really need to push
the state of the art envelope to that level, by using lot of research and a lot of
development.
So, this is how you categorize into different levels. So, A signify is the most common and
D signifies the least common are the most pushed state of the art to envision the C
environment that will be in once level D is followed, then we talk about product
technology. So, product technology also is categorized into various levels for example,
there could be a level A which relates to just available technology of the shelf you can
buy it is available in the market ok.
So, this kind of product technology could be offered or you have another case where you
will have new applications in mind or you custom build for example, the products based
on the customers perspective or customers requirement. There is also sort of you know
another level where we need not only the applications, but also the new capabilities.
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Where you could probably borrow it from core technologies, but they have never been
thought of earlier to be used in that particular mode of that particular capacity, and then
there is something where new core technologies need to be developed because, here it
does not exist and you have to develop.
So, there again lie the categorization A to D for this product technology dimension, then
we also talk about program structure to anyway and program structures could be all
formal informal in nature. For example, there could be a very small staff in the program
to run to actually realize the particular product line. Which is being envisioned here,
informal communication among the small staff that could be one sort of structure, where
there is not much control.
And this is what normally happens when you set up a workgroup ok. For a certain cause
within an organization there could also be a moderate sized staff level, where there is
some kind of a layered structure which is there at least some responsibility is entrusted
there is a supervisorial lead followed by at least some people who are at layer two, who
can follow directions. There can also be another kind of structure where there are
multiple locations over which activities are carried out. And there could be more formal
communication between them.
So, there are again work groups now, specifically focused on certain areas working in
different locations and communicating to them in a formal manner recording every
communication that happens. And then there could be again a very large staff size of the
whole organization, where there can be deep reporting structures for example, everything
that happens needs to be recorded and reported in great details.
With a large amount of staff which actually can be the level D of this particular product
structure dimension, a program structure direction dimension. Then we talked about
again the forth level which is about program futures the program futures could have
typically something which is just one-time standalone kind of a future no follow up, or
follow on plant for what would happen to the program in future ok.
So, something which is just done because, they want to eliminate maybe a process defect
which had come up in the C environment, or they want to just make for a certain new
product line which does not have a scope of more than a few years’ time you know. So,
in this particular case in program future you have completely no idea of what is going to
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happen to this structure of the program, or what is going to happen to the program once
the particular product life cycle is over ok. And then we can talk about level B again of
the concurrent engineering dimension, which is sort of you know some investments
being made to minimize some costs.
So, some optimization is carried out for the futuristic aspect. So, that there can be a
viable financial model which would exist in the future, and the program could be sort of
sustaining in nature. There could be again another structure or another kind of a future
which is talking about investment plan based on contractual boundaries ok.
So, you invest, but you basically are able to get rid of the excess as and when needed ok.
Because, you have contractual basis of making a structure, and then there could be some
which is strategically planned program for significant future opportunities. And so, there
the goal of the program would be to also more or less delve into what are going to be the
opportunities twenty years down the line. Let us say for maintaining this program
structure which is in place today for handling maybe some particular job requirement
which has come up in the industry.
So, this is how you plan the different levels of program future for then, we have again
another influencing dimension competition and in competition you could have it is a
level A based on that there is no or minimal competition in the market. You are first in
the line of the product that you are making there is nothing else in the market no need not
need not worry about or react to any kind of changes in the market environment, then
there could be some level of competition where there are significant barriers to market
entry that may exist ok.
So, that could be another level. So, you need to be aware of what are those barriers to
crossover enable yourself. So, that you have all the skills to sort of go and cross the
barrier forces which are there to prevent your entry, then there could be something where
you know a level where the competition is earmarked very formally through a
competitive analysis.
I am going to lay out certain tools in the near future, which will talk about a quality
function deployment for example, which is one of the major tools of learning about your
competitor’s nature or behaviour and also these strategies and systems which are
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available with them in order to stay afloat in the market. So, there are certain organized
tools for carrying out such C planning or C activities.
So, competitive analysis through market expansion could be one level of things, or one
level of the strategy to tackle competition. And then of course, you can have business
environment where there is active competition and pressure to anticipate and react
immediately ok. So, this is the highest level of competition that a person can have in a
certain business environment active competition.
So, if you are designing an organization which is geared to these challenges at the levels
where the organization is set in, and you want to bring in c approach to change the level
and upgrade the level to a different level; obviously, you need to change some elements
within the organization and the strategy is there in which are followed for the
management of the organization. So, that those levels get attained in the phase one or the
product influencing dimensions ok.
So, active competition pressure to anticipate and react. This is the fourth level. We talk
about the other influencing dimensions which we described in the last few slides. One is
related to business relationships again we have different levels of relationships. There
could be arm’s length relationship as I mentioned ok. And then there could be contractual
kind of activities going on where a part of workforce is hired which is probably not
required to execute the main functionality or the product of the system. In a contractual
mode you could talk about again another strategy where vast majority of people are in
teams ok.
So, you have teaming strategy. You basically coordinate between people to formulate
teams for example, look at quality circles they are one of the options which are available
for teaming together. And then there is of course, enterprise wide common goals driven
business relationships, where we are talking about not one business or businesses, but a
group of businesses actively participating together in a certain area of work.
For example, in the electronics area there could be some five, six different very big
giants in this area combining together their business relationships. So, that they can work
together in order to bring a product or fadeout products, and such an environment which
is created is by the by very difficult to penetrate by a new player.
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So, such kinds of goals are always sometimes there in the business, which will allow you
to have sustenance for a long time or a maybe long plant business model. So, there is
also another dimension of team scope as mentioned. So, team scope could be with the
dominant perspective. So, this could typically mean something like a small design team
which is able to take advice from all loops and corners including assembly testing
packaging so, on so, forth for this material.
But still they form the dominant perspective in the final decision related to the design of
the product. So, this could be one approach. Another is competing dominant perspectives
for example, if supposing there is more than one such perspective which exists in order
to take a decision making, it needs to be somehow evaluated or optimized. So, that you
get the very best coming into picture out of some dominant perspectives.
Now, this it may not be out of place to mention here, that the dominant perspective is
always not the right perspective as you saw in the decision-making process that we made
earlier when we talked about the shaft example. The dominant perspective there was
going ahead with something which appeared to be a low cost on the processing front, but
then you realize that when you take advice from other people and not only advice you
actually ask them to participate with you in a CFT manner.
In the CFT team manner you get the dominant perspective to be dominated dominating
perspective or the most effective perspective to be one where there is influence of the
quality team as well as, the purchase team more and so. You go for something which is a
very high expensive option, but still get within the same cost or within let us say, limited
amount of manufacturing lead time and cost.
So, always dominant perspectives may not be good, and C environment actually tries to
go ahead not with dominant perspective. But with some kind of a optimization
requirement which is there in the business environment, and always try to identify
aggressively those optimization requirement. So, you still another level layer which talks
about you know interrelated competitive perspectives. This is different than just the
competitive or competing dominant perspectives because here, you can you can think of
you know how a decision making in one area could be able to influence the decision
making in another area. So, that final design can emerge in this manner.
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So, you have that interrelated aspect of every phase of the product life cycle embedded
into your thinking process. So, interrelated optimized competing perspectives. And then
of course, the level the highest level that could have that one could have here is an
aggressive optimization to meet requirements. So, here there is nothing called a
dominant viewpoint it is all about setting up stages for what is the requirement now,
effectively you can meet it. So, that is how team scope can be defined ok.
So, we will talk about the remaining two that is resource tightness and schedule tightness
in the same table in the next lecture. In the interest of time I am going to close it here.
But then, once we do this then we will be able to also lay out all the different
organizational elements again, and then try to optimize and their levels and see how they
match with these levels ok. So, in a way we will bring that analysis perspective to see
what is the current level and how do you take it forward by improving what all in your
organizational elements. So, with this I would like to end this particular module.
Thank you very much for being with me.
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Design Practice
Lecture - 16
Program & product Interface Dimension in Concurrent engineering
Hello and welcome to the design practice module 16. We were talking about the cal CE case
study about how to build up a concurrent engineering environmental. In that, we had recorded
about 3 different phases of work, ONE phase was when we talk about the intrinsic
dimensions to setup such an engineering environment, the 3rd, the 2nd phase was about what
are the major elements related to setting up that engineering environment or that C
environment and then 3rd is of course, once all this is done and you have an ascertainment of
what is the current level in which the organization is placed what do you do to make it go
forward into a envisioned level.
And that you have to really do through and analysis mode, where you see what is the existing
level see what where the organisations have to be in the near future, and then accordingly
what all are the parameters which need to be changed between the different sub levels ok, of
the different factors which are associated with either the major elements or the product
infection dimensions.
So, that CE environment can be mapped suitably into the future according to the
requirements. So, for that we had actually framed up a table where we talked about the
various levels of the influencing dimensions like product complexity product technology,
program structure, program future, competition business relations and steam scope.
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In this, we further categorized the categorize the various levels as starting from the basic level
A all the way to D there were four different levels.
For example, product complexity could include something like catalogue items which are
easily available or most common parts which has little state of the art in it, but you know
again it is kind of specific to the product line, which is been concerned. Then you have the
state of the items which are very, very sensitive and their only design. For the overall
production of this system which is being considered ok. And then of course, we talk about the
highest level of pushing the existing SOTA level state of the art level to a level where you
know you have to significantly change the current items to reach that. So, lot of research and
development is needed in doing this.
So, in that manner we had mapped all the different dimensions influencing dimensions. Let
us look at all the elements now. So, we talked about phase two of the C set of process which
is about the major elements of the CE environment.
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So, we can we can see that in order to characterize this CE environment and examine the
relevant aspects. In details particularly in the CALS CE case, the following major elements
were identified this word for example, the organization. So, we had a map into what level the
organization is currently in and where we have to take it. Then we then there was another
major element of the requirements related to this CE setup.
The concurrent engineering setup then what is the communication mode? Is it a vertical
communication? Is it a horizontal communication? Is it something where you have cross
functional teams involved in all decision making? So, all these things are communications
and then of course, the product development methodology which is being followed.
So, these are the major elements which in the CALS CE was considered to be having the
major states in setting up the so, called concurrent engineering environment. So, let us look at
into the individual scopes of all these elements and see what are the; you know theme is
behind the different places of elements which are involved in leading to this major element.
For example, if I start with the first aspect that is the organizational aspect let us call this A
ok.
So, we call this organizational aspect or organization. So, organizational issues refer to let us
say aspects related to team dynamics aspects related to strategic business issues let us say you
have vendors as well as dealers and what is your you know point of contention about the
different business relationships is it only a buying selling relationship or it is something
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which is beyond that do you have a stake holding for example. So, all these things come into
the strategic business levels issues.
Then you can have management and corporate culture that affects the product development
process as a part of the organization. So, let us just write this record this known as well
management and corporate culture affecting the product development process. So, these are
the major sort of aspects related to what we know as organizational issues and how can we
really categorize the current CE environment into these different issues. So, if you look at
different elements here.
For example, let us say if I tried to look at some of these major some elements and tried to
formulate what are the reasons why these elements should exist on business canvas. So, let us
say we have these organizational sub elements and each of the supplements would be
dedicated at a current level two words are probably certain theme. So, let us say what is the;
aspect because of which this element should exist.
So, there is one aspect here which we may say as team membership. So, the membership
should have overall strategy or the theme of team integration ok. So, members should not be
looking mostly you know all the way they should have out of the box ideas, but they should
eventually lead to an integrated approach for working in a team.
So, people who are team players are preferred in some cases ok. So, there is also an
organizational sub element recorded as team leadership. So, the team leadership should have
a basic theme of effectiveness. So, for example, you know a team leadership or a leadership
role can be typically you know management appointed team leader of management selected
team facilitator or again team selected facilitators are sometimes even more effective or then
there are may be a possibility that some numbers.
They are naturally emergent has the most knowledgeable leader and that is what service from
along a time. So, that affectivity of deploying somebody in the leadership capability may be
varied. Based on the approaches, that the organizations use and we will also look at what is
least desirable and what is the most desirable in terms of this ABCD scale again? When we
talk about developing such an element?
So, we have team membership team leadership as an organizational sub element then we have
you know things related to let the team member contribution. Once the theme is formulated, a
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little disappointed. What is the contribution is it off well defined role of a sudden individual
who is a member of a sudden team that is very important.
So, here there should be a synergistic approach as a basic theme between the different
members of their contributions. Do pile up together to have the projected projection into what
they are projected? Into the overall approach that the team follows are the contributions of the
team makes. So, then you have business interrelationships us again another organizational
element in this particular case.
So, let us write this down business into relationships and hear the theme be between which it
relationship is based in his participation. That how are you just buying and selling kind of
relationship or you are beyond that like do you have a stake. In the overall well-being of the
organization, are you participating is a collaborator or just as a vendor dealer.
So, those interrelationships of different business units are very, very important for CE setup
and it is one of the major services. In it is elements again we talked about training here. So,
training and education can formulate again organizational aspect of the CE environment or
organizational element of the CE environment. So, this should be based on what is the
awareness level Are people needed on the team to be aware of the whole organization
dynamics are such or the whole industrial canvas all they are just happy with what they know
in the local environment in which they are participating.
And so, based on that the training themes could be different for different categories of C
environment then we talked about again responsibility and authority that is another
organization an element probably where we will need to identify based around the
empowerment theme because; obviously, when there is a certain level of empowerment given
to each member as suppose to the leader.
Then obviously, there is responsibility and accountability sort of comes in together and
therefore, what is the degree of authority that is invested into an individual team member. It is
kind of important in developing how what is what would be the stake holding of that
particular member or how closely he will be connected to the overall success decisions
related to the C environment.
So, then we again have a supplement of management decisions ok. So, in this particular case
the CALS CE decides that this is one of the three key areas, where the management decisions
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are based around the theme of perspectives ok. So, perspectives related to whether the
decisions are only profit placed or planning base using products and cost accounting models.
All there something related to really life cycle of what you are producing and using the life
cycle decision support system to find out what is going to be the critical decisions. So, based
on this is there a different levels in which again according to the theme of perspective; you
decide what is the level of the current level in the CE environment of management decisions
as a sub element of the organizational aspect of the C environment.
So, let us now sort of tried to tabulate all this together in terms of again different levels. I
would again recall A to D as the four different levels of all these different organizational
elements. In phase two, as just we recorded that for the influencing dimension in phase one
when we are talking about product complexity or product technology etcetera.
So, here we will like to make you know again, a table which talks about the various
organizational elements. And you can see that these organizational elements vary between
team memberships ok. What is the criticality in terms of who are members and were not? So,
critical members then you have the second factor of the element as team leadership the 3rd
level is really related to the team member contribution.
So, this let us write that down here and similarly, you have other factors in these
organizational sub elements; which are related to the business interrelationships. Let us say a
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between the various partners business relationship or for example, training education. How
that policies for the current CE setup? Which is existing or for example, the responsibility
authority which is vested on individuals and finally, management decision.
So, these were what we agreed upon and the CALS CE system earlier to be the key sub
elements for or organizational elements in a CE and; obviously, as before you know the
theme of the membership theme integration. So, therefore, it means that higher the level of
theme integration the better it is for the CE environment to be successful.
So, therefore, just as we split up into different levels A to D of the different influencing
dimension of the product in the earlier lecture in the same manner we will do this between A
to D again for the major sub elements of a CE environment just to gage where the
organization is among all these level Currently and where we want to take it ahead, in what
are the or suppose I wanted to take it had what are the influencing some elements that we
must change. So, that the organization goes to that particular level.
So, here for example, in the first category let us book and organizations where members have
only task perspectives. Each member of the team has been given a well-defined task and they
just carry out as per whatever has been given to them and do not look beyond that particular
task.
So, they are very narrowly train in this kind of a situation let us just make this spaces for
looking at the different elements ok. So, this is let us say a level A is the lowest level most
expected level is that each member would have a well-defined task which probably either
exists or maybe somewhere higher you know the organization is already placed.
So, then we have a level B were we talk about members who are having multi-disciplinary
perspectives. So now, there is some kind of a cross training for example, person who is in you
know let us assembly repair would like to do something like well repair on a vehicle because
he has that multi-disciplinary training perspective which is into picture and this just an
example I mean it can go to any amount of you know exemplification about multi
disciplinarily perspective. Then we talked about another level where members have really
product perspectives.
So, here it does not matter what is the kind of engineering which is needed what is the kind of
philosophy which is needed for developing or designing a product you will just concerned
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with what is there inside the product and then you have to have knowledge domain along all
different walks of life which would be needed to realize such a product.
So, it is members with product perspectives and then of course, there are there is the highest
category which is most reasonable for maintaining CE environment proper manner which is
that members have strategic perspective not all the members are related to only what is going
to happen you know in their own domain of work within an organization. But they do have an
invasion meant about what are the strategies with an organization should use for being in
business and how they can help it. So, that you know this knowledge based which comes out
of such team membership category maybe share that some higher-level management level.
So, that you know that the company can do well ok.
So, that is how team membership is categorized similarly if you look at team leadership we
will have again you know a theme which is related to just the excuse me effectiveness of the
team leader. And so, here we will talk about let us say in one case there is only a management
appointed team leader. So, this is probably one of the simplest examples where there is a
direct involvement in appointing a leader of a certain. You know let us a particular work
domain by looking at the skill, set that various people would have trying to map them into the
accurate most accurately into different teams ok.
So, here the affectivity maybe not so, high then we talked about again case B here which talks
about management selected team facilitated. So, it is no longer appointed anymore. So, you
have some kind of stake holding of people who are involved in you know the routine work of
the team. So, there is some stake holding of those people also in this decision. So, therefore,
you talk about management selected team facilitator ok.
So, we do not call it leader any more what we call it my capacity of a coordinator of
facilitator who is just facilitating the teams job there is yet another category C; where we
talked about giving the owners from the management to the team itself. So, this select their
own leader so, you have team selected facilitator and this may be one among the team
member this may be on a rotation basis.
Depending on what is going to be the strategy and you know then there can be a category
which is very dynamically assisted which talks about again a naturally emergent temporary.
Though let us call this temporary most knowledgeable leader ok. So, then maybe certain area
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where work is envision where there may be a certain team player who is the most
knowledgeable.
And so, in this kind of a category naturally that person who is most knowledgeable in that
particular area images to be the team leader. So, it is constituting a dynamic team leadership
which is probably going to be the reason for the concurrent engineering approach, but again
you know you have to look at where existing you are in terms of your capabilities of the
organization and very hard carry forward .
Again, we talked about team member contribution. So, team Harris synergism for example,
so we can talk about you know contributions just segment or discipline specific you know or
functionality specific. So, let us say we just call category A here which is segmented
contribution which is only related to your own work; which is not related to really what is
going to happen to the overall product or system that is going to win the award-winning
criteria.
So, that is one level the second level is of course, a sort of liberate system with interface tools
and multi-disciplinary advisors. So, you still have now some synergism because you have
some liberating because of some interfaces which are available between what is going on
existing level to may be the overall creation of realization of the so, called design which
would finally, be evolved or which would finally, evolve as the award winning criteria. So,
we talk about interface tools and multidisciplinary advisors.
So, we were talking about the team member contributions. So, the level C of that could be
something where we will talk about a cooperative approach with the unified data model
central master database. So, let us let us look at this has something which is naturally
evolving there. Of course, is underlying assumption by all the participating members that
whatever we do should be somehow unified together?
So, that you know the overall thing goes maybe met so, but then it is sort of necessitated here
it is all understood and liberation. Because of sort of a host interface here it is all necessitated
in terms of you know maintaining records has to exactly whether it is a cooperative or not
approach or not.
So, that is how we will account for level C level again level D would be the probably the
highest level here we should talk about collaborative approaches. So now not only your own
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contribution, but the others contribution also becomes very important. So, you can say it is a
computer assisted cooperative product development cooperative product development
process. So, that is how we are going to have level D in that particular instance on that how
the team member contribution would be varied similarly for the key into relationships
between businesses is the theme is participation.
So, there could be only a transaction-based business model where whatever you have bought
and sold should be in terms of money or a contractual where you give a part of the contract
like that you give a labor contract for those are those menial tasks which otherwise do not
need a very high level of technical skill then there can be a level C.
Again, in business relationships which talks about a joint venture approach where there is a
stake holder of participating people? And then there is a partnership where even you know
there as to be highest stake holding meaning. Thereby, that if you know the line of business is
affected somehow it also affects the collaborators you know who are who are into business or
the partners. Then we can talk about the supplement or training and education where the
theme was awareness.
So, that could be again one level of you know training which talks about only let us say you
know team concepts or you can you know talk about just computer assisted instruction to
individuals of a team you know which will clear doubts about sort of who is doing what
within theme without really have to worry about who else is doing what and in what manner.
So, then there can be a multidisciplinary approach where you not only care about your own
job .So, that the multi disciplinarians introduced among the participants.
So, you do a computer-based training. So, you learn from the word domains of multiple
teams ok. So, you have a better perspective and that of course, there is another level of
training which talks about cooperative decision process this includes multimedia-based
training programs where you have some kind of an involvement. So, you have cooperative
decision processes. So, supposing there is need that a decision needs to be taken by two
departments together for a certain activity which is going to be there.
So, one must arrived at the decision after just really talking to each other face to face even
through multimedia if need be. So, you can talk about this as a multimedia computer-based
training then one can have the level D which is about again synergistic knowledge discovery.
So, this is probably the highest-level training maybe such that you keep on discovering what
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new has happened? In terms of learning experiences of a large multi you know multi-
disciplinary work activity.
So, this is actually this stimulation you know this is like an interactive based interactive
stimulation. So, it will automatically change if process is down the line changes you know it
automatically change the processes let us say upstream. So, that is how the training would be
on level D.
Similarly, in when we talk about responsibility and authority we know that the theme is
empowerment. So, there could be just member responsibilities and rewards in one strategy of
management that maybe if there is certain responsibility that a member has was done it
intelligently and there are certain incentive promotion schemes. We should be rewarding
those members you have fulfilled the responsibility with authority. So, that sort of an
individual stick model.
So, we call this on level A. level B could be something like a multidisciplinary group
responsibility ok. So, like for example, you have a lot of this quality circles where there are
different people participating. Together for making or studying and quality problem which is
of multidimensional kind. So, you need multidisciplinary training for example, in that kind of
situation.
So, in level B we have responsibility which is also and also rewards related to this multi-
disciplinaryness among different themes then that could be still a level C which talks about
you know what decision-making responsibility of a particular team. So, team decision based.
So, the responsibility and authority of deciding something rests on that of the whole teams
mind to take a decision.
So, that is again sort of one level of responsibility and authority and then you have the most
the ultimate level of responsibility when we talk about team autonomy that individually
whatever is decided is accepted at the single team level and then there are certain autonomy
features which are there all through for example, you know for management of activities
related to daily requirements there can be a higher level of autonomy given. So, that the team
can autonomously decide something and go ahead with it.
When we talked about management decisions again there can be perspective based
classification for example, all decisions in category A and B mostly profit based or let us say
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even planning can be just based on the products unit cost accounting models planning based
on product unit cost something like that. You already saw this kind of management decisions,
when we talked about the less example; earlier in the concurrent engineering activity. There
can be get another level D in the management decision; where we talked about single phase
planning on investments using design to cost accounting with risk management.
So, there is certain amount of risk which team can take management team can take for a
certain decision. So, you have a single phase planning and you also have a empowerment to
invest using calculated risks then there can be another yet another management decision
making level which talks about multiphase planning and this can be using value based
decision support systems where you know there is no more cost accounting based or
something is physically based on general experience about our decision will changed the
scenario.
And so, plans at all levels as far as management decisions are concerned are based on
investment using value based decision support system ok. And then it can be another level D
in the management decisions which talks about mostly you know the life cycle-based
decision making. So, this is actually very, very broad overview decision which arrives at
based on different aspects of the product and different times ok.
So, typically that is what the final goal of all content engineering environment are that how
you can actually integrate yourself to the product life cycle? So, these are how organizational
elements are classified similarly we will have you know some other elements here. For
example, the second most important element is related to the individual requirements ok. So,
we call case B here requirements.
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So, requirements would have various components various sub elements like for example,
there could be product definition which is again, a major element in the requirements related
to the setup of an approach concurrent engineering approach. So, let us classified these as
requirement elements and then each of them would have a theme. So, this is for a definition is
based on the central theme completeness ok.
So, how close you are to the actual product design? We should be eventually implemented
could be a definition a product definition-based requirement element. Similarly, there could
be requirement based on schedule types for example, there could be parallelism in reproach
when we talk about scheduling ok.
So, multiple things can start and stop at same time when they are not integrated to one
another. So, that way that could be time saving overall there could be again requirements
given by planning style healthy theme could be something like adaptability, that how
planning changes as one proceeds in time in our adaptable planning process could be.
So, that you know there is always a substance of this concurrent engineering approach and
then finally, there could be validation of specifications to requirements which can be based
around the on the central theme of how accurately you are mapping the specifications which
would be another requirement element.
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So, the product definition really refers to the process of capturing and translating the
customer demands into this specification of the product and process features. And this is just
because you want to at end of the day, satisfy the lifecycle needs including manufacturability,
supportability, upgradability, human disposability, these different aspects related to the
product.
And mostly for this kind of requirements for planning of requirement elements used various
tools like, one of the most commonly used tools is also known as the quality function
deployment, which I will be teaching in where details after this particular topic is over or this
particular case study is over. So, what the cost model says is that you know you can plan the
various requirements in terms of some elements namely these four-definition schedule style
stunning styles validation of specifications to requirement based around certain themes just as
you did in the case of organizational elements ok.
So, you doing some things related to the other products and schedules and the planning
needed similarly you will have you know another aspect of the elements needed for the major
elements needed for the concurrent engineering environment setup which is about
communication.
So, you have already in compass to the organization aspects on the requirement that given to
this organization know how to communicate is also one of the key elements of this
concurrent engineering. It means, you know you’re providing either horizontal
communication among all functional areas which include design which include
manufacturing. Let us say, support you know with to the customers as well as supply various
stages of let us say the product life cycle see the objective here, is to optimize what you are
designing and the decisions that you are taking in terms of designs.
Just because you want to improve the product development process in manufacturing of the
product and also the getting of support service the people who are uses for the particular
product for communication needs to be very, very effective. So, if I wanted to list different
sub elements responsible for these communications to maintain a concurrent engineering-
based atmosphere.
So, you have the following communication elements based around the following things
which would be considered in this particular case for finding out the different communication
needs of such a concurrent engineering and atmosphere. So, one of them could be for
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example, the management of working data. The theme of this could be of control that what
level of control need to be exercised by the management to the accessibility related to the
management of the working data. Similarly, there can be another important element here
which is about data acquisition and sharing which again can we based along the central theme
of accessibility.
So, how accessible you are making? The particular data and how you know accessible is your
acquired data. Also who comes into maps into the communication elements associated with
the concurrent engineering network? Then you can also think of what are the lessons learnt
from feedback.
So, this to be based around the central theme of experience so; obviously, if more experiential
learning is embedded into a concurrent engineering environment the decision making is going
to much faster and an appropriate. So, the reasons for all this communication-based
requirements are in principle the fact that these objectives to optimize design decisions really
depends on broadly on the communication process ok. So, it is it is very important to sort of
you can say the hierarchical various which are created within an organization at to exchange
information in a timely and accurate manner.
So, that over all there is a satisfaction of the dynamism that exits with an organization for
satisfying some predatory requirement etcetera. There can also be other communication
elements except from how you manage the working data or how you acquire and share the
data. How you are learning from feedback the fourth more major communication element
could be something related to decision traceability.
So, there you know you can basically talked about legacy issues for example, who was
responsible for a certain decision at a point of time, because of which some particular
environment has been created related to the CE environment ok. And then you can also talk
about interpersonal communications as another element which talks about mostly quality that
what is that you need to know and how equality is in terms of you know or how equal it maps
in terms of any other person within the same organization? Which can actually; set these
communication elements for CE environment.
So, just as we did a degradation of the past two requirements. Namely, the organizational
aspects as well as even though you know the influencing dimensions into A to D category. We
can actually have categories to again organize this requirement elements and communication
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elements of CE environment in terms of various levels at which they can be placed. And so,
once this whole hierarchy of phase two is being developed with phase one you would like to
map, where we are in terms of the influencing dimensions and phase two.
Again, where we are in terms of the various elements that constitutes the existing concurrent
engineering economy and then we can take of course, the decision that where we would need
to go to help ourselves get into shape, for the to be concurrent engineering environment. I am
going to know before going ahead share with you and other important in a requirement on
another important element for concurrent engineering environment which is about product
development methodology.
Following which we will look into some of these tabular means of representation into various
levels of the requirement communication. And the 3rd product development methodology and
then we will go into the final analysis phase will take a case study and try to talk about the
exact map of where the organization is given some conditions and where we want to take it
ahead. So, this particular module, I would like to end now. And in the next module I would
like to go ahead with the next part of phase two which is about the product development
methodology. So, thank you very much for attending this lecture.
Thank you.
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Design Practice
Lecture – 17
Product Development Methodology
Hello and welcome to this Design Practice Module 16 and 17.
So, the next major elements for a concurrent engineering setup are basically the product
development methodology. We started with organisational unit you know needs when we
start all the requirements which are going to be there by the organisation. We also discussed
about the communication structure.
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So, the fourth issue here which is of importance and one of the major elements of concurrent
engineering environment is what is the methodology, which is being used for product
development, ok. So, I just call it product methodology or let say we call it product
development methodology and you know that product development being a very complex
process involving number of people from various functional areas, the methodology for
development of products really includes all the activities involved in customer requirements
planning. For example, the total product development process the design of manufacturing
process, design of the product support process, all stages of life cycles are some or other
involved in determining what is going to be the product development overall mythology.
So, the various sub elements if you wanted to consider what kind of you know development
methodology elements may be involved. So, one could be that the whole development
process is based on optimisation techniques, and optimisation could be with an essence of
central theme of how customer is satisfied, ok. So, optimization in the sense that whatever
increases the customer satisfaction index should be a basis for carrying out the optimisation
for all the designs that have been developed.
Similarly if we talk about let say data libraries for different products which already exist, so
in this particular case you know the theme could be consistency that what is new, what is
already there ah. So, it should be a part of the development plan or the development
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methodology. We can also talk about development processes as such, ok. So, is this
something which you need to be in your control or you want just the free ideas to flow.
So, there can be a central theme of controllability that how much of it you really want to
control in terms of you know the process of the product development because obviously, that
one to be schedules which you need to meet as a management and management need to
always going to be how to control such development process here. The methodology can also
be formulated based on whatever the reviews you know received at every stage of the
development process.
So, there should be typically non interrupted product development even if you know the
reviews, the detrimental, there should be a sort of an adaptive planning process which can
formulate the strategy in a manner which is commiserate with the reviews obtained we can
also think a process measurements as a part of the development methodology.
So, the process method measurements could be based on central theme of what is going to be
the information content of the measurements is it going to be a part of influencing the
development strategy for example, when we add robustness to a design, that is always almost
the case that we learn from sudden failures which are there related to the quality of
performance functionality so on so forth and add on to the product and they are you need
process measurements, in the development of methodology to make the design robust.
So, the central theme could be related to what is the kind of information level that is needed
for the design to make itself robust with every iteration. So, that is how the product
development methodology can shape up. So, that can be one of the important elements. Then,
also it can be about analysis architecture whether it is going to be a hierarchical architecture
or what is the level of hierarchy, it could be even a parallel architecture, ok.
So, I need to sort of think of what are the analysis strategies which are to be used for
development of a sort of a map about how effective is the development process, ok. So, it
could be hierarchical or non-hierarchical. That is how the analytical architecture could be and
then, finally in the verification you know in the product development methodology, there can
be a verification step which talks about compliance to standards for example. So, the different
elements like communication for example or the requirements or the product development
methodology also have their further categorisations into levels A B C D depending on what is
going to be available complexity in each.
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Let us just simply consider that has been taken from the CALS CE. CE electronic systems
work book report and that is how the source lies here. So, this is about let us say the
organisation elements which I have already sort of discussed earlier.
So, just as we did for the organisational elements, you know in the last one of the slides and
we categorise them into various levels, we are going to do the same thing for the requirement
elements now and these elements are for example, definition. Definition could be sort of an
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itemized requirement either at level A or. So, they are based on this itemized requirement;
there is a database which is available.
So, theme is thoroughness. So, how well defined the requirements are, how thorough they are
for setting up the considered you know concurrent engineering environments, there could
also be a level B which talks about requirement traceability. So, first level is of course what
are the itemized requirements and other is how easily you can proceed traceability could also
mean cross referencing. For example, equipments or items needed for one part could be cross
reference by some another user very easily. So, there is some indexing which is there
probably.
So, that is at level B. So, some organisational aspect added to what you call rick itemize
requirements in the previous level. There could yet be another level C where you talk about
requirements waiting that not only their index property and not only their itemize properly,
but then you have to, you have some kind of way depending on what are the requirements
you know of the particular trade.
So, you have certain requirement rate study capabilities added on to the list of items for
which are required and then, of course there is the highest level D which talks about
unambiguous specifications. This could be executed specifications according to the
environment real time changes in the specifications as needed you know in the definition of
the requirements. So, this is typically the most desirable level when we talk about concurrent
engineering environment are all companies are not at this level. So, therefore, it is important
to trace what level they are done and what should be the constitution of the should be
concurrent engineering in atmosphere environment.
Also, I mentioned is a schedule types. So, you can see the theme here is running in parallel.
Mostly schedules could be either based on task duration. Individual tasks are to be split up for
the whole work study and can charge could be plotted and scheduling can be done based on
what are the number of tasks which are involved. They could also be a sort of presidents
requirement put in all the tasks what proceeds what and then, there is a calendar based
schedule which talks about what point of time in the month or may be on planning horizon
which is slightly more than day, how the schedules are sort of running parallel to each other.
There could also be even based schedules; even driven program management tools can be
used. For example, if there were a shortage in some material, then what is the kind of task
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that exists for meeting that particular type of shortage? So, it is even based and so, there are
several such events which formulate the basis of making this level c. There could still be
another higher level d where we talked about continuous addition of value to the enterprise.
So, this is a sort of a new scheduling paradigm that how it can be better by the day, how the
schedule can improve voice plus delta every time. So, that kind of schedule based on the
learning of day today is more or less real time schedule based on our, schedule based on real
time learning.
So, that is the most desirable for concurrent engineering environment. Similarly you have
planning methodology based requirements for him is adaptability. So, in the first level could
typically be a sort of a bottom of strategy of collection of all task definitions and then, use of
task management planning tools to sort of see how they are labelled with respect to each
other. So, split up to the very fundamental level of individual tasks. Then, you have a
methodology which talks about top down determination of the task definitions, ok. So, you
talk about requirements related to satisfaction driven work you know and then, what is the
breakdown structure for a particular task.
So, up to that level there is some kind of, some kind of inclusion in the planning
methodology, there could also be another level where we talked about syncretisation of the
concurrent inter related tasks how in time in they are spaced with respect to each other, the
inter related processes, do they have a planning tool to lay them out parallel in time as well as
you know sequentially.
So, that is what the level c for such planning methodology would be and yet another level C.
The highest level is basically the iteratively refined task, the abstract plans which are
environment. So, if the environment changes the planning methodology changes based on its
ok. So, this is something which is the most latest you know and the most I would say highest
level of requirement elements that could be offered to concurrent engineering by a concurrent
engineering environment.
Then, there is of course validation of specific requirements where theme is accuracy. So, we
talked about validation to itemize requirements which are laid out, well laid out in the specs
or validation with respect to the given particular specifications. There may be some inter
related constraints which are there.
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So, validation of the design that constrained that could be the level B, however this is a much
shorter planning horizon, but if the horizon were about the end use requirements of certain
product of system, then accurate environment would typically look at the validation to that
induce requirement rather than just locally focusing on what is go to the next step and that of
course, there is still another very complex level will be talked about validation to end use and
product business strategy as such. So, there is a life cycle concept embedded in this kind of
level. So, in a similar manner, we want to do the same kind of structuring in terms of different
levels for the communication elements.
So, you know that communication elements again have been split up into working data
management with the theme is control. So, there could be a certain level of certain concurrent
engineering environment which talks about just local individual data management
requirements, ok. So, it is related to just workstation release control systems. Think about
operator punching the chassis number of a car which is passing the assembly line or assembly
stage.
So, this would be something related to just that workstation based data generated which keeps
an individual data record you know for number of vehicles or chassis. Chassis of vehicles
which have role, there could be slightly higher level where you have structured data for
project wide sharing maybe some useful information is generated out of the data that is there
which would help you in sort of further management or of related to different futuristic tasks.
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So, we configure some of the data to find out an implication of the data on the general work
environment of any system. So, then there can be yet another level which talks about program
repository of working data. So, we talked about just along the time horizon here where we
have stored from few months or few years and there is a central program data based on which
everything has been recorded.
So, from there could we have some work in data which gives us experiential learning from
the past and then, of course there is again very high level environment which talks about
enterprise wide repository of working data. It is not only related to local environment, but
across the domain of the whole organisation, how data is being managed and how you can
extend that database to variety of some functions related to direct working of the environment
or even indirect working. So, that is what the different levels should be for the work data
management.
Similarly, you have communications related to data acquisition and sharing this is a sub
element where the theme is accessibility. So, there could be the first level which talks about
as needed data extraction. So, if you are requiring something that is a proper procedure for
requiring for showing you are ah, you know justification and then, through network work
station and file management systems, you could actually trace that data or extract that
particular data, however exposed to the whole data ah, there is also another level.
Now, in the data acquisition which talks about data supplied by most knowledgeable sources,
so these are the most reliable data and you have certain degree of control on that in terms of
accessibility. There could be some communication involved here. So, network
communication is typically what is enabled in such environments for doing that most reliable
knowledgeable source data sharing.
There could also be again a third level which talks about data available is generated. So, it is
like almost the whole control of the data for a particular task or task structures. So, we could
do some program sharing here, some central based storage and program network through
which you could actually get a tab on most of the data, share most of the data as needed by
your particular domain on the area and the third and the forth category is again typically one
where there is a enterprise wide availability of data, ok. Some on the, it is the data, the data
structure or the data acquisition of sharing scheme is just functionality. Remember it is
available across majority of the functions to each other.
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So, that is another mode of how data can be acquired or shared. So, typically this is what is
needed as a highest level in concurrent engineering environments. Then, there are again
communications, communication elements related to experiential feedback where theme is
again experience and here there could be the first level which talks about only design guides
with rational intent checking, with structured query capability that kind of a program ah, there
could also be a level B which talks about consolidated design guidelines with rational. So,
just not a single design, but talking about the overall let say concept or ideas which is
involved in the you know in the existence for an organisation that can be of that is made
available is a consolidated design, ok.
So, you can check with structured query and your capabilities are enhanced by integrating
certain rules through which you could actually go into different portions of this consolidated
design guide ah. There could be another yet, yet another level of experiential learning which
talks about again the rational in the waiting for each product development rule, checking with
unstructured query capabilities with impact weighing.
So, at this level we are thinking about taking some kind of artificial intelligence for which
looks into a data structure with some kind of a query capability and with giving a sort of
weightage or an impact to what would be the most useful query in a particular situation. So,
you kind of defining or driving the rational also by using weighing factor. So, that could be a
level of you know explanation learning.
Then, finally the highest level which is about the continuous shot of a dynamic changes, you
learn kind of a situation where whatever lessons are learnt through feedback are almost
immediately routed into your on structured query capability, so that you know the impact
assessment for every question that you pose for getting feedback sort of vary is based on the
real time aspects which are there in the dynamic environment that you are working in. So,
these are the different levels again of experiential learning. Similarly, they could be decision
traceability in terms of who is the owner of a particular decision.
So, there could be a individual decision making rational or an ownership that could be used
as a model for a certain environment, for work or you could have repository with structured
keyword searches which talks about pin pointing to a certain you know centre for sudden
decision to emerge something like that. There could be another level which talks about the
project decision rational ownership repository with unstructured keyword searches ah. This
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typically would talk about legacy level where there are certain decisions which have been
made through a certain you know thinking process or logic and it has certain kind of
ownership history associated to team or a set of teams which may have been involved in such
a decision making.
So, making such a repository with some kind of unstructured keyword search could be one of
the basis for doing decision traceability. You could also have another, yet another level of a
concurrent engineering environment which you can talk about probably again instead of just
having a project overview, you have a program overview for the whole set of activities which
are involved in may be incomplete product line or something and not just looking into
specific activity related to a certain aspect of a product.
So, whole program of a certain line in which has been created, you have the decision,
decision rational and unstructured keyword search option available for all such decisions
which have been made in the past for in to learn from them and then, of course there is an
enterprise wide rational with again unstructured keyword search which talk about at what
level is, what decisions are being taken and who are the concerned owners, for running the
whole enterprises search which may be considered consisting of several programs or only one
program.
So, we are talking about more like a global decision traceability matrix which would be there.
So, these are again the four levels ah. We can talk about the fifth you know communication
element which is about the interpersonal relationships are communications theme is equality.
So, they could be sort of members specific terminology that could be a kind of business
environment and this terminology can be shared with each other through electronic
communication. There also could be some kind of a common terminology which could have
multiple views, and then, there can be some translator to translate between let say
terminology used in one section or part and terminology used in the other section or part in
terms of personnel who are owning those to the different sections. So, there could be equal
input from all sections which would create some kind of an impact which increase the overall
knowledge level and based on that, this knowledge tool can be used for all the kind of
communications, interpersonal communications between the different sections.
Then, you still have another level which is totally based on the knowledge based perspective.
So, you have any generative tool which works on what knowledge sort of comes out because
10
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of these interpersonal discussions to be used for some overall goal for the organisation
etcetera.
So, this is how a communication element setup can be split up into multiple sub elements and
their different levels. I am going to also look at the product development methodology and
then, start with analysing a certain situation of introducing sort of a line of product for which
we see what is the existing environment and map into what is going to be the, should be
concurrent engineering environment for something.
So, process improvement can be based on that and decisions can be taken at the management
level on the base of which are those elements or which are those influential dimensions which
should be mapped in finally for the final environment that the organisation should be in. So,
with this I would like to end this module.
11
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Design Practice
Lecture – 18
Elements of concurrent engineering: Optimization in product development
Hello and welcome to the design practice module 18, discussing about a CALS C E case
study, reported by the electronics systems working room report by Linton. Linton at all
made in 2000 1992. So, we looked into the various aspects of the major elements for AC
environment which included organizational requirements or organizational details
requirement details communication details and now, we are left with only the product
methodology.
So, when we talk about again product methodology, as you have already been told
earlier, there are various sub elements, which related to how the product development
methodology can go within organizations. There could be an optimization based the
strategy.
For example, here the central theme could be customer satisfaction. So, whatever is done
is optimized based on reviews ok, reviews received from again customers who are the
end users.
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Now, there could be sort of a single requirement-based optimization at a certain
elementary level of the c environment, where a certain review which comes or a set of
reviews which come are used as criteria as for optimization of a certain design parameter.
There could yet be another level which we talk about for sort of limited interrelated
requirement optimization.
So, out of these needs which are arising here, based on the reviews, there is some kind of
interrelated requirements would get generated and there are certain multiple
requirements of the of this type which can be used for finally optimizing ok. Some
themes or adding some optimized themes to the design. We have yet another level where
we talk about the same sort of a requirement optimization not on single section-based
requirements, but almost on a program wide scale.
So, there also you have multiple requirement optimization strategies which are to be
used. And then finally, you have the most desirable C environment which talks about a
sort of a weighted requirement optimization. So, here also, within the program wide
needs which are there for optimization, there can be certain areas which are to be
weighted more for optimization because, they would affect the overall order winning
criteria in a more appropriate manner in comparison to those which are weighted less.
So, there is some kind of a choosing and priority of one over another when we talk about
such requirements for optimization. So, this could be one of the basis for doing product
development in terms of design changes etcetera. So, here we are referring to mostly
process libraries or part libraries ok, the theme there is consistency. Similarly, there are
other product development methodology elements like the development process and the
controllability over the process reviews.
You know, reviews may be related to schedule driven product or process critiques or
even driven reviews, some immediate issue resolution based reviews or status reporting
reviews based on which all these environments can be set in there are other elements like
measurements analysis architecture and verification and you could actually go through
all this list here right for the different levels A to D for different concurrent engineering
environments.
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Given this, we are now, in a position to sort of do the next step or the next phase which is
analysis. And I would like to do the analysis with respect to a sort of a case study which I
mentioned here.
So, let us suppose, given all this requirement from the CALS C E concurrent engineering
facility or group, we are now left with sort of some kind of an optimization. So, we will
consider the following example.
So, let us say, we consider a scenario where, there is a program manager of a company,
we just call it some fictitious A B C company ok, who has been charged with the
responsibility of developing a line of sort of high quality notebook size computers. Some
constraints have been given based on which he has to typically beat the competition. So,
the goal here is to beat the existing competition. There are already a lot of such
notebooks existing in the market. And so, one has to do a careful analysis as to how you
know the various elements or the influential dimensions can be controlled to place the
company somewhere which will take it at a level which will beat the competition.
So, the idea is to market with increased features. So, obviously, the first goal here would
be to increase the features in the existing notebook. It should be the pricing should be
highly competitive ok. So, let us say, highly competitive pricing is another goal, that
overall would be for setting up such a concurrent engineering environment. And this
would definitely result in a high market share.
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So, obviously, when we talk about features, the product must have certain key features.
So, the product must have some key features like, for example, it should be lightweight
model compared to the existing which are there in the market already. It should be highly
portable. These are features which are almost granted when we talk about notebook sized
computers; it should all be self-contained in a single casing.
There should not be separate keyboard or separate display unit or central processing unit.
They are all to be on board on one particular packaging, there should be also some size
constraints. So, size to fit briefcases is what the buzzword is for getting into the world of
making these no notebooks I species.
Generally, it is advisable to have a standard keyboard layout just so that, you could, you
know, everybody around the world could use and it could be an international product
with international competent competition. And then, finally, it should have a compatible
operating system, which is repairable everywhere or which is trouble-shooter everywhere
equally well. These are some of the key features that the product should have ok. The
assignment also possesses a number of requirements or needs that drive these product
attributes and constraints and let us list some of the product requirements.
So, the following product requirements must be met. So, the first requirement is that, a
low risk approach necessitates you know, the sort of important technology choices that
one needs to make or design reuse and so forth. So, that is what the assignment is going
to be off. So, let us say, the program manager decides to go for a low risk approach
driving technology choices we want to make it low cost for example. So, this is very
important to have something unique, but at the same time not very expensive ok, if you
possibly have reuse of the design, which is set forth.
So, there is also a price competitiveness constraint which would drive material choices,
design complexity, etcetera. So, let us say, it should not be too weird in terms of the
design. It should have a low price. So, price competitiveness drives aspects like material
choices, design complexity etcetera. Also, the market share, we need to have a high
market share; that is, the constraint given to the concerned individual ok. So, high
competitive pricing leads to this market share.
So, that drives the need for a reliable testable producible product. So, these are the
requirements coming out of some of the requirements frame for beating the existing
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competition by the manager. So, let us say, we call this market share driven need for
reliable, testable, producible products some of the aspects then finally, which affect the
program of the program structure affecting the program include multiple products
underway at various stages. I mean, it could be the concept stage or production phase
down all the way up to the, you know marketability sale stage.
So, multiple products are underway ok, that is one of the aspects which might affect the
program. You need to produce something which is very unique and so, there should be
iterations at almost all levels. So, I will say, concept through production to all following
phases, there can be multiple products with multiple designs. In order to beat the
competition and be in business the pricing model that is made, should kind of signify
short individual product life.
At the same time, it should not jeopardize the quality. It should be that you know, the
product design changes quite rapidly, so that, there is a need for upgrading the product
because, some of the issues like software’s, etcetera become outdated because of the
advancement made in the product after a few years. So, one has to discard or dispose off.
So, that is what short individual product life means. And then, of course, you should have
a long-term production capacity. So, if it gets discontinued, at least the production should
be such which is willing to accept some of these changes as a function of time, etcetera
which gets considered. So, given the scenario of the need for marketing a line of
notebooks, there is a certain c environment which has to be found out by looking at what
is the existing environment which is there and how it should be changed, and this calls
for analysis which is actually the third phase for the CALS C E workgroups case study.
So, we will like to look at the analysis part now point by point. So that, we are able to
figure out what is the existing level of the C environment and how we want to change
that, so that, this line of notebook can be introduced in this particular C environment.
So, the analysis phase happens on the basis of the scenario which has been drawn here
and in comparison, to what we had analysed earlier for the various influential dimensions
as well as the requirement elements or the elements for the concurrent engineering
environment.
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So, let us carry out phase three that is analysis in this particular problem example. So, if
we use the information on product features, product requirements and some other aspects
that affect the program, obviously, subjective decisions regarding the levels of all the
influencing dimensions on an individual basis are established. And this knowledge may
also be staying within the organization because of it is previous experience in several
lines of similar products you know, done earlier.
So, the relative importance of the dimensions is considered, this establishes what you call
the, should be concurrent engineering environment, because the relative importance that
is there of the various dimensions would gauge the level of the concurrent engineering
environment to be one out of the four.
And because of the overall tightness in the competitive environment, it is desirable to

move up scale. So, once that is level is established, it is not very difficult to gauge what
is go to be the next level for which you have to now draw a set of requirements as per the
analysis the elements, you know, draw the elements at certain levels as per the analysis
given in the last two lectures.
So, let us look at the whole map of analysis by finding out number one, the relative
importance of the dimensions related to the program to be launched; that is, the line of
new notebooks. So, we can determine the where am I assessment of the concurrent
engineering dimensions looking at what are the most influential dimensions and what is
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their average level in the existing scenario. So, this is average level or most repeated
level. So, let us say, most repeated average level in all dimensions.
So, given this, the goal here is to understand, the where am I and where I should be, c
environment through the resource planning process. So that, adequate resources can be
routed into the different aspects which would shape up the different C requirements ok;
C elements could be requirements elements could be organizational requirements,
product requirements, you know, communication requirements, development
methodology requirements and so, you can actually focus on where you want to divert
the resources so that, the overall engineering element or overall dimensions can change
from a certain level to the next level.
So, in this particular case, let us start doing the analysis, we consider the influencing
dimensions at the level of complexity one by one. So, considering the influencing
dimension and their level of complexity; let us say, we talk about the first dimension
which is product complexity. We know, in our case, the design is highly producible,
because, you know, it is easier to use only common packaged devices that are auto in
certain build into double sided boards.
And therefore, there is a sort of an order of complexity which you can, which you could
say to be little state of the art related to the product line, but may not be exactly as for the
product line. So, you could gauge this as level B for the product complexity. So, let us
write this down here.
So, the design is highly producible. Obviously, we want to make it highly producible
because, there are repair issues or after sales issues, which would only happen in a design
which is not too complex ok. So, highly producible because only common packaged
devices that are auto insert able into double sided boards, are utilized. So, let us say, the
order of complexity is B in this case ok. I am going to tabulate this all this later so that,
we can have an idea what is going to be the existing level of the c environment.
So, let us talk about the next dimension which is product technology. Obviously, new
application of existing technology is required for the overall product design because; we
want to beat the competition. There already existing lines of notebooks which are there
in the market and if you want to really beat that line, you need new applications of
existing technology ok. So, obviously, you cannot think something completely out of the
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box because, that may put you at risk. Number two is the fact that, these are technologies
which are not very high lifetime technologies. So, therefore, if you do this in the market
once it may be possible that you are run over by somebody else who will take a sort of a
higher-level technology and your product life cycle gets shortened because of that. So,
you are investing more and getting less return.
So, it is a better idea to sort of have new application of existing technology. So, this is
required for the product design. So, we can say that, the level of complexity is now B,
but it can move to C where there can be slightly newer application in mind although, not
the invention of core technology new core technology is involved ok. So, that is level D.
So, we will say that at the level of complexity is currently at B although it may be
moving to C to beat the competition.
Let us talk about the third influential dimension, which is about the program structure,
how the program is shaped to carry out this whole introduction of the new line of
notebooks. So, the size of the program staff including development and production is
moderately large. Remember, we have in our initial criteria, laid out; I have mentioned
that, multiple products should be underway at various stages so that, there is always a
higher chance of success of the product in the particular market. So, therefore,
moderately large staff is needed for handling such a reasonably big program.
So, the size of the program staff or including of course, you know people who are
involved in the development as well as production, including development slash
production staff is moderately large and that is because of multiple products being
underway from various design to you know, production phase or even down the line
sales and marketing phase.
So, the program structure is fairly well established. Otherwise, this could not have
happened and will not be utilize something which is already there. So, we can use the
program structure for this purpose. So, the level of the structure is currently at C you can
say corresponding to a level, where we talk about multiple locations, formal
communication among them and maybe not a very deep reporting structure. But then
certainly manageable level of reporting among the various stakeholders of the program is
what level C is all about, which is actually the case here in this case of the company
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introducing a new line. There is of course, some experience from before and some
program structure in place already which can be utilized.
We now talk about the next dimension of determining the, for the particular program that
is in question which is about program future. So, here the investment in manufacturing
automation has to be made because of the somewhat new design to the existing designs
which are already there.
And therefore, there has to be some kind of a planning in place about how the program
feature would typically look like in a in a few years time. And so, therefore, I would say
that the level of program features in this case is C. So, let us say investment in
manufacturing automation, which does not go without planning is in place and that is the
level of program future is let us say C.
So, we will also talk about maybe in the next few slides, in the next module, the other
aspects of the different dimensions related to again the product line in question, which is
about business relationships or resources or schedule tightness of the team scope, so on,
so forth. And then, we will try to map an overall level for of operation and where it
should go to if you wanted to introduce this line of notebook. So, I like to end this lecture
here in the interest of time.
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Design Practice
Lecture – 19
Business relationships in concurrent engineering
Hello and welcome to the design practice module 19. We were discussing about the various
influential dimensions in how to introduce a new line of notebooks in the computer in the
market, which is plotted with already quite a number of products and C environment has to
be planned. So, that it can upgrade the notebook to sort of higher capability with the limited
source you know.
So, the price should not vary too much, but the capability should be reasonably high which
can beat the competition. So, we started thinking about the various dimensions; like the
product features or product complexities or even you know associated things related to the
program structures and program future. We would now like to go for the fifth aspect of the
dimensions which is related to business relationships.
So, let us see what level this operates. So, we know that relationships to suppliers are mostly
of commercial transactions. So, therefore, this level can actually be said as level A, the
company buys mostly parts and assemblies. So, with the suppliers their relationship is as
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good as a buyer and seller and. So, it is at the very basic level of operation. So, let us say we
call it that relationships with suppliers are mostly commercial transactions.
And therefore, we can map the existing level at who level A; however, just some key
suppliers may be involved in a sort of a, just in time relationship as and when needed,
whatever is needed they provide, and so they involve some kind of a joint development
referred. And so therefore, the level of business relationships in this particular case may be
shifting to B which is probably a good idea. So, this a shifting to B, because of some
suppliers were there and their trying to make a joint venture kind of a you know working
model for promoting the just in time concepts related to such an industry.
Let us also talk about the sixth dimension, which is team scope. So; obviously, there is a very
good team effort; however, manufacturing is the dominant activity given the level of the
product design and technology, complexity and therefore, obviously, team score category in
this case would be rated as B. If you go back to the influence and dimensions of the product
so, level B indicates some kind of a dominant perspective, and here; obviously, it is
manufacturing dominating. So, will say that there is good team effort; however,
manufacturing is the dominant player of the key player, and so level B would be the most
appropriate rate level in the situation manufacturing is the dominant activity.
And therefore, category B could be actually defined as the team scope level of dimension of
the product, will also talk about two other aspects left over for the different dimensions; one
is resource tightness. So; obviously, in this case the level of resource tightness is of the order
of A in the beginning maybe B later on, because of price sensitivity of the product, you
cannot manage to have abundant resources. In fact, strategies like just in time or you know
inventory reduction is just with the goal of how to curtail the resources.
So, the level of resources is minuscule, and we can say that the level is currently A, but
moving to B and then when we talk about schedule tightness; obviously, these products based
on whatever the type of market is really need a very tight schedule. So, if you have planned
the date of launch, the product should be ready at least a week before the lunch and. So, we
are working on very stiff timelines, and therefore, it has to be extremely tight schedule that
we are working on, probably the objective of introducing more products in the market and
increasing market share will lead to constrained schedules of the level of, let us say C which
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is going to soon go up to D, because you want to make it more want to enter another, you
know level of competitions by introducing a new line ok.
So, remember short and throughput time is one of the dimensions for increasing market share
and profitability, and of course, the program manager has this requirement of improving the
profitability of the program. So, we will say that the schedule tightness is quite constraint is
operated on a constraint schedule, you want to grab as much of market share is possible. So,
let us say it was C, existing level is C and it should go up to D ok.
So, that is the expected level that it should go up. So, if we summarise all these influential
dimensions or influencing dimensions into matrix form, let us see what happens how many
Bs or how many C’s are there, which will try to determine what is the average level. So, we
have let us say on one side the influencing dimension and we have all these different
categories A B C D, where will see what is the existing level of the mapping.
So, the first influencing dimension that is the product complexity we know is, currently at
level B ok. Similarly products technology we just defined to be at level C or let us say it was
at B, and it was supposed to go to level C, because of the existing competition when we talk
about program structure, the current program structure is already at level C given that you
already in the line of business. You have a large infrastructure in place and this should be
withheld. Let us see based on whatever is the scenario right, now remember you have to be
competitive. So, you cannot afford to have any more edition in terms of you know size of
staff etcetera.
So, then we talk about program futures, so; obviously, currently the program future is based
on C, but the dimension is slowly moving to D in the competitive scenario. You have to make
certain investment decisions in terms of automation etcetera and. So, therefore, it has
sustainable model. So, one has to think of this future. Of course, there is quite a bit of
competition which is in the market, but will not you know.
So, because of that competition we need to change a little bit of the other dimensions, which
are important here. For example, the business relationship; So, business relationship currently
is at a lower level, it is only at A, because people are just sort of you know transaction based,
as far as interrelationships are concerned; however, there are certain vendors who have started
this concept of moving into as, and when needed to supply, and so therefore, it move up to
the level B.
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Similarly, if I had, look into team scope. So, we know that the team scope currently is at level
B and will continue to do so for some time. There is no way that we can introduce any kind
of you know competitive prospective here. Still it is by and large manufacturing based, and is
going to remain manufacturing base, because line of notebook consults concerns about that
manufacturing.
So, then we talk about resource tightness, and; obviously, resource tightness is quite keep, we
are going to become cost conscious. So, as a company, and so therefore, one cannot afford to
have any more resources then what is being utilised. So, the currently level is A, but it is
going to move up to B, because of price sensitivity and then of course, when we look into
schedule tightness.
Schedule tightness is already provided as C, but it is going to move up to B, because of the

extremely competitive environment in which once operating. So, if you look at the various
levels at which all these different dimensions are placed currently, we find maximum number
of dimensions to be placed in level B. And so therefore, B is currently the concurrent or it can
be concluded that B is currently the concurrent engineering environment, and which the
system is operating right now. And of course, there is a need to increasingly migrate to C,
because that will help us to gauge the various you know resources or of the route, the various
resources in a manner, so that we can be participating in the fierce competition which is
already there in the market.
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So, having said you know this thing that there is a certain level, we have already A mapped
what is the level and we have already map, where we have to go, all it is left over now for us
to see, is that in phase two what do we tweak in terms of the different elements which
comprise the concurrent engineering management environment. So, that we can operate at
level C ok, given our level B at this current junction of time, and so once we are able to divert
the resources to convert it into level C in terms of the C elements.
So, we are now going to actually look at the various elements, the major elements which are
going to define the concurrent engineering environment, and will do the self assessment
format or mode, as we had learnt in a few tables earlier, the related to the development
methodology the communication, the organisation as such are the requirements for the
particular product.
So, in this particular module let us start understanding you know the criteria set for the
various elements. I would just call them C elements and As such look at the needed
improvements, where the resources need to be directed. So, one has to understand the
resource limitation is always A of paramount, consideration to all these management
environment setups, and therefore, resources are abundantly available. So, you have to justify
what resources you are putting in what particular portion of the elements to grade up from
level 1 to level 2, level A to level B or B to C whatever, so that you can ultimately meet the
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concurrent environment to be C as for as the influencing dimensions of the product line are
concerned.
So, here for example, let us look at the first aspect that is organisation. So, what kind of
organisation is involved in this particular product line? So, we learn a few things about the
organisation; one aspect is that the majority of team members or product oriented, the product
manager being appointed by the management. So, let us just product oriented manager is
appointed by the management.
Also there are certain dominant members which are mostly manufacturing engineers. So, the
membership, team membership is all about those dominant members. So, probably category
A, if you just recall what we have discussed in the organisation table of self assessment, we
had different categories A to D, where we will talk about the various aspects of organisation;
like team membership, team leadership. The team interaction, business relationship, teaching
or educational functions or responsibility authority a function management decisions so on
and so forth.
So, we are going to categorise each and every aspect of the current organisation in terms of
the levels, at which these different sub elements are position for it to define the current level
of the organisation, and then look at some of these elements that how given a certain
influencing dimension changing from category B to category C would necessitate A sub
element of this organisation, to go into a different category. So, that we could achieve the
phase one functions. So, that is how the concurrent engineering environment is setup.
So, again if you look at the other aspects of the organisation; in this case the team is
manufacturing engineer dominating. So, we will let us say that the dominant members are
manufacturing professionals in this current setup so, second of unidirectional team. Although
there are certain you know other advisors which you receive from time to time from design
influencing the centreline , but the domination in terms of decision making, is mostly done by
the manufacturing. The relationships, that are there in the business level with the suppliers
and mostly based on purchasing.
So, it is like a buy and sell kind of relationship, probably first level again level A. So,
relationships with suppliers based on purchasing, there is some scope; however, of design and
development exchanges which some key suppliers or their very well identified suppliers, and
their probably situated close by. So, they can go for just in time model and other things
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related to you know a certain level of interrelationship is stake holding is involved ok, mutual
stake holding is involved.
When we talk about the training module or training functions, training is encouraged, but
mostly discipline oriented. So, in this kind of a setup it is only the particular subject in
question, that is used for training purposes. There is no motivational training as such which
needed, because it is a very fix setup. Also there are some performance awards and they are
mostly for key individuals. So, it is an individual achievement centric setup. The organization
is in that manner and; obviously, there is an aspect of long term investments being made to
penetrate the market. So, we will just say that long term investments are being made to
penetrate the market.
So, that is how we understand the various parametric related to the organisation, regarding
the second element; namely requirements, the various modalities associated are that. In this
case the customer requirements are documented. So, you should actually have a good need
finding mechanism and customer reviews are the basis or the whole processes customer
review centric in terms of documentation etcetera. The customer needs a recognised through
market surveys and competitive benchmarking. So, they have given a methodology here that
needs recognised through benchmarking market service etcetera.
Similarly, in this case the product repetition is critical. So, products will not be released
unless they are ready for production. So, that is another requirement related to the schedule
types. So, the reputation is critical. Remember there is a high level of competition and so
therefore, the reliability of the product is very major aspect to the high selling of the product
or achieving of major portion, the market share by the product.
So, products will not be released unless they are ready for production. The regarding the
planning, scheduling, the schedules are mostly program event driven schedules. So, that maps
has case B or level B in the requirement matrix. And of course, the product specifications in
this case are validated through exact customer requirements. So, that gives as or defines the
level for the validation based on which some documentation can be done. So, this is how you
work on for the requirements. Similarly we have another communication module.
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Which talks about the various aspects related to how the data, the design data is stored at the
program level. So, in the communication module, the basic design data is stored at the
program level, the production information is shared across just product projects. So, we are
not concerned with entrepreneur’s enterprise wide sharing of this information. So, just the
local sharing is what, is necessary for communication module to be just a proper. So, product
information is shared across product projects.
So, you can think of probably commonality of certain designs or reuse, if necessary the team
members are mostly focused on the product or project goals. So, that is how the level of
communication is going to be, mostly between the members and one on message. So, that
how the communication module would be, and then finally, the development methodology;
that is being utilised here in this particular set up on the existing modules or existing
environment, is based on an objective to consider all interrelated customer requirements in
the product design.
So, also the data libraries in this case have been establish across the program. So, let us call it
program by the data sharing libraries established, and the design methodology is documented
and followed. So, there is a verification process also which is very thorough to ensure proper
performance of products delivered to the customers.
So, good and proper verification process and design documentation is being obeyed. So, this
kind of brings us to summary of all the different aspects or elements related to, what is the
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current level of the concurrent engineering and we will like to now rate everything in terms of
again levels A B C and D, as per the three or four tables of self assessments, shared in this
four different elements with variety of different sub elements, and see where is the current
level, so that we can see.
Now that based on whatever phase one requirements are, for a grading the level from B to C
what all sub elements can be changed in this whole matrix. So, that you can have a resource
allocation based on the change, needed for different sub elements of this particular matrix.
This is the more important cracks of what is underneath to establish a certain C level and
these are some sub elements for investment is needed if you want to upgrade, because
resources scanty therefore you pin point us to where those resources are to be directed. So,
that overall that B level of C can change to C level of the influential dimension of the
product.
So, having said that, I would like to end today’s module here, but in the next module, try to
make a matrix based analysis of all these different phase two elements of concurrent
engineering, and try to upgrade the level giving you clear cut indication of where the
resources need to invested.
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Design Practice
Lecture – 20 & 21
Organizational elements in concurrent engineering
Hello and welcome to this module 20 and 21 of the course design practice. We were talking
about how to gauge the various sub elements of C environment given some influential
dimensions and they are already established level and they are projected level in the; should
be environment C environment. So, in context of that we talked about the various sub
elements.
And the various you know factors influencing; the different sub elements including
organizational aspects the requirement aspects for the product line.
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The community communication aspects between the; program stakeholders and then also the
development methodology for the product development process and in context of that I
would like to also just recap.
About how the various levels had been earlier set for different organizational elements
between A to D into the various sub elements like the membership, leadership, member
contribution, business relationship, training, education, responsibilities, management
decisions. So, on. So, forth
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Similarly, a similar analysis was done for the.
The requirement elements definition schedule types planning methodology and validation.
And also the communication elements related to working data management, data acquisition,
lessons learned from feedback decision treatability interpersonal levels of C environment.
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And then finally, also the product development metallurgy elements related to optimization or
maintaining of the data libraries or the development process or the reviews or the
measurements or verification or analysis architecture etcetera. So, there were different levels
in all these self assessment matrices and you have also found out from the last about two
three slides how the different elements map into some of these sub element levels and based
on these we want to draw out a matrix for the element slash sub element in a way that we can
estimate what is the current level and what is going to be the expected level
So, let us write about this. So, let us prepare the.
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We call it the C environment assessment matrix this will give us some you know basis for the
allocation of resources in certain zones without really considering a whole lot of
improvements to be done which would be more targeted or pinpointed for the overall
influencing dimensions to change levels between B and C as was the target given earlier.
So, in this particular case let us say we have the following elements of concurrent engineering
and we have different levels here in this environment. Let us call this A, B, C and D. So, the
first you know element that we are concerned with is the organizational aspects and in the
organizational aspects you know that there are certain sub elements like. For example, team
membership is the sub element of the organizational aspect.
So, let us look at where we are placed when we go to the organizational aspect, we find out
that you know the organization has a vast majority of team members who are product
oriented and then manager is appointed by the management. So, if we look again into the self
assessment matrix we see that for the membership if membership tasks perspectives; it is
generally appropriate to group them under category A ok.
You can see this particular instance here; in this case also the members have a task V
perspective they are on the oriented towards more towards production and or product and. So,
therefore, it is a good idea for the team membership to be having a level A ok. So, we just
create level A for the team membership just mark this.
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Similarly, we look at the second sub element for example; the second sub element in this case
is team leadership. And you know that in this model that we are talking about the leader is
appointed by the management and if we go back into the self assessment matrix for the
organizational elements. You see that for team leadership management appointed team leader
is there it is considered to be level A and it is upgradeable to level D of course, all the way to
D as you can see here, but right now we are at a level A as regards a team leadership.
So, we will just put level A here on the team leadership the third sub element that we are
considering here for the organizational aspect is the team interaction. Again, let us look at
what is the feature in the organization which can lead us to map into the self assessment
matrix. So, for you know as regards the.
So, we find out that in this particular case in the organization although the dominant members
are from manufacturing, but they do occasionally receive advice from other you know design
influencing disciplines and. So, there is a sort of a multidisciplinary approach in their you
know behavioural pattern as far as advisement goes and if I looked at the organizational
aspect again and see the team member contributions there is a case B; here which talks about
interface tools and multidisciplinary advisors. So, this is where the most appropriate fit would
be of the current status of the organization
So, let us now gauge the team interaction to be at level B based on that, then we talk about
business relationships. So, in this case we will just again go back and see what is the kind of
relationship level that this organization is at and what is found out is that you know mostly
you know there are apart from some themes you know or some specific vendors mostly the
relationships with suppliers are based on purchasing of course, there are certain vendors we
who are also stakeholders I will just write this down here ah.
So, some suppliers have some stakes participate in the design exchanges design and
development exchanges, but they are only few I am not all of them. So, the business
relationship seems to be sort of contractual we are very less amount of stake holding is there
mostly the environment is purchase driven or you know you can you can say that it is
contract based relationship. So, we will get this business relationship at level B of the current
organization.
So, business relationships is at level B, then we talk about the next organizational sub element
which is about training education and in the training education domain. If we go back to look
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at how the organization you know in the current form is in terms of managing training. So,
we find out that the training is encouraged mostly discipline oriented very specific very
focused theme based training and it is not really motivational in nature. So, therefore, the
training education could be somewhere around level B. Again which talks about just a little
bit of approach multidisciplinary, but again computer based focused training where you know
you just learn about the activity that you are doing
So, there is no training education of let us say more motivational cooperative decision
making processes or synergistic knowledge based processes and. So, we can say that the level
at which the training education of the current level of organization is again B. So, we will just
mark that B here again the sub element related to responsibility authority if we look at very
closely here responsibility authority you know that in this particular organization.
The performance awards are given to key individuals ok. So, there is some kind of
recognition which is there and the responsibility level is really based on some kind of a
rewarding bases which again if we go back into the self assessment criteria’s it hits the
category a here where it talks about member responsibilities and rewards.
So, we will just map this into case a and the responsibility authority is at level A of the
current organization let us also look at the last element or sub element of the organization
which is management decisions. And in this particular case; if we go back again into the
requirement of the organization, we find out that long term investments are being made to
penetrate into the market and.
So, in a way the management decision that would be there is not going to be just sort of a
single phase planning or investment or a profit based cost based decision, but again you know
sort of a multi phase planning at a longer horizon of time investments using sort of value
based decision support systems which enables case or the level to be at level C
So, we are talking about this particular level here we are not talking about just a single phase
of investment or something which is you know positive and decision making, but we are
talking about almost a multi phase planning and therefore, you know something which has a
value based decision support system of a longer time horizon ah. So, management decisions
if the current level are at level C for this particular organization. So, let us put level C here.
So, this is how you gauge all the organizational aspects if we looked at the requirement
aspects again
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So, let us look at what are the requirement elements or sub elements which have to be
considered. So, the first requirement sub element is definition related to the product line
which is in question and we already know that you know in our earlier analysis we have said
that the requirements in this case are mostly customer requirements which are documented
and customer means which are recognized through market surveys and competitive
benchmarking.
So, if we again go back into the requirements. So, requirements self assessment matrix; we
find out that this corresponds to the level a here which talks about itemize requirements
definition or requirements database. So, it is very very specific related to need based you
know design ideas ok. So, therefore, the definition happens to be at level A. So, we will just
mark the definition at level A.
Similarly, when we talk about the other sub element of requirements; which is schedule types.
So, we know from our initial analysis of the organization that for the; requirements you know
the product reputation being very critical the products will not be released unless they are
ready for production and. So, in a way if we look at what is going to be the level of schedule
types that we are considering it has to be an even based schedules are even based or even
driven ah.
So, here this corresponds to a case C, if we look at let us say the requirement elements based
self assessment criteria for the schedule types the even by schedules happen to be at level C
where there is even driven program management tools which are being utilized. So, we will
mark this or grade this sub element schedule types at level C somewhere here and then,
similarly we have the other sub element for requirement that is planning and methodology
that will be the third sub element.
And we will try to find out again using the same comparative method; where we are placed in
terms of the current organizations strategy and we see here that the products would kind of
get released only when they are ready for production ok.
So, therefore, we can think of a particular level of the planning methodology which more
based on synchronization of concurrent interrelated tasks interrelated process driven planning
tools to be executed unless that happens we are not able to fore C; whether a product is
production ready ok. So, therefore, we talk about level C as far as the planning methodology
is concerned this particular level and map that as level C.
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Under the planning methodology sub element which is being documented here; when we talk
about again validation product validation. So, we know that the validation here. In this
particular case is against the customer requirements the product specifications are validated
against customer requirements and. So, therefore, you have to have the validation at level
beep particularly in this case; because if we look at into the self assessment criteria again for
the requirement elements. The validation of interrelated constraints are what actually comes
out of the customer requirements and
So, therefore, we will put the validation level at B or level B. Similarly, when we do the same
practice for the third element which is communications we have very clear cut you know
aspect of communication here for example, the data management accessibility would happen
typically on this particular organizational structure that we are talking about at the program
level ok.
So, you can see that the basic design data is stored at the program level in the
communications module of this particular concrete engineering environment. So, if we look
at again the self assessment criteria for the communication elements you see that you know
level C really corresponds to a program repository of working data central program database
ok. So, this is how at the program level things can be done. So, when we talk about data
management and accessibility it happens to be at level C.
So, let us write this sub element here data management accessibility ok. So, we talked about
level C in this particular case, when we talked about data acquisition and sharing that is the
second sub element. In case of the communication module we find out because you know; we
are talking about a concept of product information being shared across product projects and
you know you have some kind of you know commonality of design and project goal oriented
views in such information being shared.
So, if we looked at the levels the different levels of the section on data acquisition and
sharing on the communication sub element self assessment matrix. We see that we are
somewhere here when we talk about data available as generated program sharing central
database storage on program network. So, we are talking about the level of data acquisition
and sharing to be at level C let us mark level C here for data acquisition and sharing.
Similarly, when we talk about let us say lessons learnt for feedback that is the third sub
element and this is mostly about exponential feedback we know that the team members are
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focused on product and their project goals. So, a very kind of skewed way of thinking here
and if I looked at again the lessons learned. So, if you have a consolidated design guide with
rational and checking a little bit of structured query capability or with increasingly integrated
rules you are talking about a level B where such feedback can be generated.
So, you have some rationale behind; what you are thinking? Although, a very miniscule level
of rationale which is good enough at this state, because we talked about again team members
focused on their project goals ok. So, slightly above the product orientation. So, we will say
that this is a station that level B again when we took a look at design traceability we can
record this to be at level C. In this particular case in the organizational aspects; obviously,
there is some kind of communication of design and project goal oriented views which is there
of the data and. So, when we look at press ability issues, we are talking about a sort of a
program decision rational ownership and a repository with the unstructured keyword search
which is available program wide.
So, again something which is where the level of the current organization seems to be and then
of course, in the other sub element factor that is interpersonal. In this particular case people
are generally focused to the; product or project goals. And in this case we can say that we
have sort of equal inputs across the whole program coming out from different sectors which
is corresponding to again case C as one can see here where; although, it is not really a
knowledge based perspective with generates further knowledge, but you know it is about
really the product as such or let us say about the project how it is going? So, that equal input
or impact helps in you know sort of interpersonal knowledge generated across several
different sectors of the particular program.
So, interpersonal can be mapped at level C. Similarly, we also have a mapping for product
development methodology, which I am not going to go into details anymore, but I am just
going to show you how the different sub elements like; optimization, data library,
development process reviews measurements analysis architecture verification etcetera are
again classified into the different levels A, B, C and D. So, let us just write this down here.
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This is element D; in one case we are talking about product development methodology and
several sub elements involved. In this case A is related to optimization. So, we know that you
know the level of optimization that will be there in this particular case, because we are we are
considering all the interrelated customer requirements in the product design. So, we are
thinking or we are we are stationed at somewhere around level B. So, with limited
interrelated requirements we carry out optimization.
So, let us just grade these into different levels. So, optimization is at level B, similarly in this
particular case the data libraries are established across the program to provide application
independent data to all projects as well as complete product design data packages. So, this
corresponds to a level C, which talks about you know independent libraries technology
information external to tools. So, you can think of a level here ok.
So, this is level C, where the data libraries of the program are. So, we just create this level C
similarly, when we talk about development process the development process here in this case.
So, regarding the development process we have station that level C again sorry level B again
which talks about if we look at the product development methodology; we are having a sort
of a good and proper verification process design documentation being followed and then also
the verification process is very thorough to ensure proper performance of products delivered
to the customers these are the existing levels of the organizer at which the organization is in
and we talk about a design methodology which is quite well documented.
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So, when we look at the self assessment criteria’s here for the product development
methodology. The development process where the central theme control ability should be
based around this which talks about measurement standards definition you know. So, it is a
well documented kind of a design process you know you have key parameter identification
tools, which are there through which you could access any particular portion measure it
measure the efficacy and compare it with definitions.
So, we have there for the development process at level B. Similarly when we talk about
reviews again if we look at the section on reviews the reviews are. Typically, in this case even
to driven that is what has happened earlier also when we talked about you know even the part
related to the requirements that in the requirements section as you ah as you may have found
out earlier that the schedules are sort of program even interval.
So; obviously, the review should also be even driven as far as the development
methodologies go. So, we will have the fourth sub element here reviews categorized under
again category B similarly we have measurements this is another sub element in the product
development methodology. So, this is a station that; if we look at the measurements we have
sort of a deterministic indices based system where you can have function specific
measurement method ok.
So, because it is very methodical the design process is very methodical and well documented
it is as well pertinent for us to consider that; in this particular organization, we have a very
good measurement information system which can handle sort of varied project requirements.
So, we can have the same measurements the station at level A ok. When we talk about again
analysis architecture the analysis architecture. In this case has been found to be at level A
again and the verification scheme in the product development methodology happens to be at
level B which is about multidisciplinary analysis tools based verification.
So, it is a very well defined design methodology so; obviously, these aspects are a part of
different sub elements associated with the development methodology here. So, if we in
general look at this whole matrix that we have drawn for assessing the current level of the
concurrent engineering environment we find out that the way that you know the different A,
B’s and C’s are classified a total number of six as are recorded. In this particular table as far
as B goes then about nine B’s which are again recorded and as far as C’s go there is no level
D. So, C is our 7 actually eight C’s which are recorded in this particular scheme of events.
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So, as far as the task structuring of the element structuring is concerned you can probably say
that again the level of operation here as far as all the elements are concerned is the majority if
we have equal weight adjust to all these different elements related to C and. So, at present the
level of the C environment is set at B and we want to migrate to C. So, basically we would
like to invest into some of these which I have direct consequences which will get into level C.
So, what we are going to do now? What we are going to sort of think of is that? What is the
requirement in terms of the influential dimensions? Which will gauge these levels to translate
ahead you already know that considering the current scenario the level of difference between
the B and the C’s are not very high and. So, if the overall level of the concurrent engineering
environment is at level C; then relatively less effort would be needed to establish by directing
some of the resources to some of these elements here for making or upgrading the level from
B to C ok.
So, we all need all we need is to sort of have a representation majority representation in this
matrix; if provided all the elements are equally weighted of more number of C’s than Bs for
the environment to change gears into the next higher level you already recorded in the earlier
you know few slides that for influential dimensions for the product line to be introduced the
manager must consider setting up the environment to level C of the concurrent engineering
you know atmosphere or environment from the existing level B.
So, this is the sort of a map which tells that how much effort would be needed to do that in
terms of structuring all the elements. So, I hope that you get a good idea about how on a
practical situation. Let us say when you know in a management environment needs to be set
up for implementing concurrent engineering solutions; one needs to look at independently for
your own specific case, the various elements that are needed or involved in setting up that
environment which would be able to assist or influence the product dimensions ok.
And then when any new production line is introduced or any new product is introduced or
any new program is introduced in a overall let us say enterprise like environment it is
important for one to consider the phase one about; what are the critical dimensions? What are
going to be the current levels? Where the level is being is projected for the sales of the new
product line to be higher and then accordingly, tweak the; the elements in a manner by
limited resources by investing limited resources into them. So, that you could change gears
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from the current level to A mapped level as necessitated by the phase one influential
dimensions of the particular product.
So, this is how you plan a concurrent engineering environment. So, we will sort of round off
here this particular module, but in the next module we look at some of the basic tools which
are related to by designers to work in a concurrent engineering like; setup and these tools are
relatively handy in terms of structured approaches for carrying out the exact customers
psyche if it is. Let us say related to failure modes related to a product we have a methodology
called f m e a, which means failure mode effect analysis if it is related to training of the voice
of the customer there should be a sort of a methodology, where the need the exact need
finding a part of the customer should come ahead through a very organized matrix called the
quality function deployment matrix QFD.
So, we will talk about these various aspects of concurrent engineering environments which
will enable designers to proceed in a particular manner to do the best product designs. So,
with that I would like to conclude this particular module thank you very much and I will see
you in the next week’s module.
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Design Practice
Lecture - 22
Techniques for the Implementation of concurrent engineering environment
Hello and welcome to the design practice module 22. In the last few modules we were
looking at a very interesting case study by the CALS C electronic system working group
about how you set up a concurrent engineering environment, and what kind of diverse, what
kind of direct applications of resources you could kind of plans. So, that the level of the
concurrent engineering environment moves up one grade. So, when we talk about you know
such a system is in place. How do you actually record or measure or how do you actually find
out whether the C system is effectively sort of implemented.
So, there are a variety of techniques which are useful for implementing the concurrent
engineering environment and I am going to now take case by case some of these techniques
which are important for you to understand, how a C E is really practiced for from product
design all the way to every part of the lifecycle of a product.
So, we will now discuss some techniques for implementing the concurrent engineering
philosophy, or you know for making. So, you exactly know what is it, that needs to be
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pumped with resources in terms of elements, but we do not know how to implement, and so
therefore, it is important that we get an understanding of this process.
So, there are a few of the techniques which are very commonly used in a C environment for
implementing concurrent engineering philosophy. One of them is actually adding robustness
to the product design, this was proposed by Taguchi which, which really is about learning
from mistakes in terms of non compliance to standards or specifications and trying to do
some improvement in the design through a organized cost structure. So, that one can in fact,
determine you know, or one can in fact, make take decision making regarding or arrive at
decision making regarding, whether a certain cost structure needs to be included in a process
for ensuring compliance to some specifications or some standards.
In context of that there are a few other techniques which are important for me to discuss; one
of them is called the failure mode effect analysis. We will try to look at this aspect and how
you know from a systems implementation point of view FMEA can be utilized for
eliminating a processed effect through design improvements. Then there is also a very
interesting tool called quality function deployment or house of quality, which is used for
really mapping the exact need which comes in to directly into the scene environment. In fact,
need that exists out there in the market for which there is a product definition.
If you go a little bit further you have this very interesting Carnot model, which talks about
mind of the customer quality. Function deployment is really about the voice of the customer,
but here this is about how exactly he would be delighted. So, there is a delight factor over and
above what basic functionality is this tool right here would serve.
We will also talk about the interesting area of axiomatic design and then design for
manufacturing and assembly and some aspects of group technology, which may be needed to
understand for thoroughly implementing a concurrent engineering environment. So, let us
start with robustness and robustness. The term robustness really comes with the term quality,
and so if we look at the product cycle really and if we wanted to see how quality can be
improved or what is the purpose of the quality to be improved.
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We all know that in today’s competitive business environment it is very very important to
deliver products that meet exactly the customer requirements and requirements could be in
terms of the functionality, the quality of the functionality or quality of the product itself. It
could be in terms of cost, overall cost; it could be in terms of maintaining schedules delivery
lead times for example. And not only that in today’s framework of all enterprises, the
management philosophy really aims at how to continuously have a sustained product quality
improvement program
So, what are the opportunities which are there to improve product quality in any product
lifecycle, let us say if we look at a lifecycle, it really starts from the design stage, product
design stage? Then we talk about a process design was the, product design is kind of
established. We also talked about production phase. We also talked about maintenance and
product service which is after sales phase. And then finally, a very important disposal phase
which is not mentioned here, but I will just add it here product disposal phase.
So, these are different aspects of product lifecycle and you know the design should be done at
have ensure steps in a manner. So, that it builds the quality right at the very beginning. So,
quality is built at the beginning. So, what I mean really is, that can be specifications be set to
an extent that it gives any useful know, how about what is the capability of a process; that is
already there, where little addition deletion may enable the process to start generating new
products ok.
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So, you basically learning from the improvements that need to be done in the design. So, that
are changes that then need to be done in the design. So, that it suits the process design. So, it
is basically adding you know more and more value, I would say to the design the initial
stages itself making it more robust in nature. Robust meaning there are hardly any failures
along the way of the product cycle from the design to manufacturing to sales to, you know
after sales and disposal the product goes smoothly without having to go through any hitches.
And so therefore, that is what we know by robustness, we mean by robustness, so adding
robustness to the design. So, that it survives the lifecycle.
The preferable approach therefore, would be to improve the product quality by building
quality into the products itself at the design stage itself, and this is followed by; obviously,
improvements at the process design state. So, that there are certain fits which you can make.
You had done that example of how a shaft could be manufactured over a series of you know
lathe machines, and we learned how to you know have the right manufacturing option
assemble for the right specification. So, that amount of scrap produced is minimanistic
So, that is about how you can improve the process at the design stage itself. And then of
course, you can have these improvements from coming from all the different steps; like
production, engineering, maintenance product service stages so on so forth, which builds in
the necessary amount of robustness.
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So, when we look at a product, you know product design, you know that it is a prime activity
in the process of realizing any product, and therefore, you know this design really would have
the greatest impact on the quality of the product, and whenever there is a deviation in this
quality, there is going to be some kind of loss associated with such deviations. Although this
loss does not really come on a balance sheet, but these losses are notional and if this losses
come in, it gives you an idea about how to proceed.
So, that you can do some loss minimization, some numbers are there rather than just
qualitative index indices, and therefore, it is a very good strategy to monitor the deviation of
all the functional characteristics of products from their target values through adding notional
losses to quality. So in fact, Taguchi when he started apply applying this process.
I proposed the philosophy and mythology saying that designing quality into products and
processes should be at the very beginning, and he postulates that a process of designing a
product or a process should be viewed in terms of a system design phase, parameter design
phase and tolerance design phases. So, of course, I will come into the details of all these
different techniques. So, just before going there, let us learn little more about the different
losses which are there in this aspect of quality degradation, because of deviation from target.
So, one of the most important aspects of the product development process, is to translate the
customer requirements into product specifications and; obviously, the main goal here is this
one term right. Here the product specifications which are arrived at through a meticulous you
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know process of product design, and; obviously, the manufactured products which are there
and not meeting specifications should either have to be repaired or they have to be
completely rejected or the market kind of does not accept them, and their losses.
So, the prime quality costs for supplying satisfactory products to customers include sort of
producing, identifying, avoiding or repairing the products which do not meet such customer
expectations or requirements. So, if there are certain preliminary issues which have cropped
up in the products, which have made them non compliant to what exactly is specified as to
how a product should be produced.
Then; obviously, that is not acceptable for the end user who is the customer, and therefore,
one can leave some of these notional costs onto the system in of different categories, where
these costs would kind of guide you through giving you a lead into what has to be improved
at every stage, either the design or the product itself or the process itself, or you know
anything related to the different phases of the life cycle. So, that this end user satisfaction
index goes up, and you are compliant to what is needed ok. And so it is it is basically about
what you need and how do you satisfy the need. Are you satisfying the need accurately or
not?
So, we are giving you sort of a quantitative basis to do that, and so if I looked at different
kind of costs which are available in different categories for describing the quality, there
would be costs related to prevention for these non specified, or for this deviation from targets
to happen. There can be costs needed for sort of appraisal. For example, measurement costs
there are parameters to be measured of produced items, where you know after measurement
you find there is a deviation.
So, that an appraisal has to be done in a continuity. There is also something called an internal
failure cost which has to be absorbed once a system has been already partially built. let us for
example, look at a car making facility, if you have already produced a weld body just up to
the final stages, and then you realize that you have a spot dent then the whole body is lost,
and it is an internal failure cost which happens, which comes to the business since in fact, and
then either you have to somehow repair it offline or if repairing is not possible. Then
scrapping, it would mean a humongous amount of metal has already been wasted into the
which goes into the car body
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Similarly, there are external failure costs and these are in fact, more prestige issues, when
such failures happen in the market which is related to giving a lot of you know poor visibility
for the company’s quality or also maybe in terms of some losses of market share etcetera. So,
what has to be done in order to levy the costs at the right time, so that these costs do not drop
up really a lot, and they get controlled at the very outset you know by complying the
standards which are sort of made. So, let us look at some of the details about such costs, and
how it can be prevented from happening.
So, particularly prevention costs it includes all the efforts that go into designing and
manufacturing a product that meets some customer requirements and. So, prevention costs is
the cost you add on to the system to prevent the non compliance or the non conformance.
There may be various elements of prevention costs, which may include activities involving.
Let us say quality planning at different phases of the production or production engineering.
There can be something related to the new product reviews which gives you an idea about
you know how a product is doing in the market, or what are the expectations of the customer
which way the market goes in terms of liability aspirations develop by the customer so on so
forth.
There can be also some kind of you know cost put in to do product design or process design
an appropriate manner in a robust manner. So, that failures do not happen, and automatically
there is the right mapping of the right capability that you have in terms of manufacturing
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options to the right designs, that you are going to manufactured. There could also be
prevention in terms of accurate process control, this needs for a strategically a strategic way
of monitoring measuring recording and then trying to statistically analyse whether we are in
control or out of control, or whether it is needed to do something to the process.
So, that it comes back into control. So, all those costs which are levied, because of such
activities fall in the category of prevention cost. There could also be components related to
training of individuals or new to the system, so that they do not do any non conformance, or
let us say when things related to quality data acquisition, either automated or in a manual
manner or some kind of an analysis from trench which leads us to believe that and this is also
known as prognosis that something will happen at a futuristic point of time related to a
product ah
So, you are preventing a failure much early to actually the failure started happening this, than
Lauren aerospace industries these days for you know meeting up health monitoring
aspirations, engineering aspirations, related to such products and they are also appraisal costs.
Appraisal costs are typically inclusive of those costs which are involved in measuring
evaluating you know of whatever we are producing, or even sometimes auditing the products
to see if they are as per the norms, they are as per the specified requirements.
They could be cost involved in again inspection of auditing of the individual components or
sometimes purchase material from vendors which directly go into the assemblies, and to
ensure the conformance with standards and specifications; that is always going to be this
essential measuring recording and sort of using this for policing purpose. So, the process
design control
So, that is called appraisal cost. You know it typically includes cost of activities such as
inspection for example. This is of course, non value added component. In fact, in the latest
process designs from particularly Japanese manufacturers inspection has been almost
combined with the process itself. So, that the idea is that outside the assembly line or outside
the final product line, there should not be any unit which goes in an uninspected manner or in
an undetected manner.
So, this is a part of so called total quality management TQM that people perform ok. So, then
you also have tests of incoming materials, you have product inspection and other tests, you
have materials and services consumed and maintaining accuracy of test equipments. All these
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levy costs and they are just, because you want to appraise the system of what is the quality
level. So, that is why appraisal costs internal failure cost, as I told occurs when the product
fails to meet customer requirements before being shipped.
So, something has failed within the domain of the production itself. So, there is still a control
of the processes and still there is a scope of improvement quickly. So, these are not that
serious in you know terms of putting a lot of bad name and you know affecting the prestige,
but yes internal failure cost sometimes are very very critical and how you handle them, and
how, what kind of awareness level you create is definitely the most important management
strategy which enables one to zero down the failures within the ambits of the production
facility
So, internal failure costs include all costs involved in rectifying the failure which has
happened. You can have examples of for example, internal failure cost elements could be out
of failure analysis out of the scrap generated, you know what are the kind of repairs that are
being met a product; like anise automotive is made and there are twenty thirty defects in that
automobile after it rolls out of an assembly line. So, it is; obviously, an additional cost that
you are putting in terms of repair time. So, that all these card different difference could be
successfully repaired. So, it is non value added, and therefore, levies the cost again and there
may be a failure if left unrepaired and sent to the customer.
So, there are costs related to for example, retesting of something which has happened. For
example, there is a door noise or an instrument panel noise. So, you might have to just go
through a process of iterative testing and repair. So, that you finally, arrest and these problems
failures could be related to downtime of equipments which causes major problems in
schedule issues related to you. Remember schedule is also a very important part of customer
expectation or requirement. There are also yield losses sometimes and downgrading of usual
specifications, because just because the specification spray we had to tight for under the,
under the existing manufacturing environment, and unless you downgrade them there is a
possibility of almost all failures happening to whatever is produced.
So, these are all, because there is improper planning, because of which some of these failure
costs would come external failures. On the other hand are very very serious in nature and
consequences. It is basically something related to directly when the products do not function
satisfactorily at all after being supplied to the customers. So, there are many activities to do
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these compliance adjustments. For example, sometimes products are returned back under
warranty and there are warranty claims issued to the company. It actually goes into the
balance sheet of the company. There are the costs which are liability costs. For example,
some accidental casualty has happened because of use of a product, because of its failure.
So, that is levied on the particular manufacturer. So, one has to be very careful about these
external failure costs as well, when you talk about maintaining a general regular system of
quality. So, when we talk about the other issue; that is the Taguchi’s approach for building
robustness in a manner. We want to specify the design steps in a manner so that we have a
system level design, we have a design of parameters and then of course, the third level which
talks about the tolerance design. And here we would like to use system design as a process of
applying scientific knowledge to produce a basic functional prototype.
This can be typically a face at the very beginning of the, let us say product designing process,
where new concepts, new ideas methods are synthesized, and they provide new or improved
products to the customer. This means that the basic design concept is established during this
phase including selection of the parts which are involved in the design or the materials or the
sub assemblies. let us give a small example that you are designing a car and the following
questions need to be addressed; like should the internal combustion engine block be made out
of a material cast iron or aluminium alloy, depending on what is the weight requirements
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should the brakes be anti lock type. That is another you know question that we need to
address while doing the system level planning or designing
So, we are talking about a functional system layout, maybe just decomposing the various
functions in terms of subsystems, and then using these subsystems to sort of connect to each
other to create a functional map. So, that is the first phase of any sort of design activity. And
it you know really a yield into the overall layout of the integrity is behind a system, which is
planned to be designed. So, the relationships between inputs and outputs also are established
in such subsystem level, as well as the overall system, level and functions of parts and
subsystems are determined during this phase. So, you have already done some mapping
related to wagons and carts earlier in the first few lectures, when you talk about just laying
out functionally decomposing the system into various subsystems level information.
So, once this level is crossed we go to the next level which is the parameter design phase. So,
where the levels of the products or process design parameters are set to make the system
performance less sensitive to causes of variation. Here is an aspect of non conformance
which is being embedded in this statement; obviously, causes of variations are deviation from
the target. And if you want to create design parameters which would randomly yield a variety
of such noise or deviation from targets.
Then; obviously, it is a low quality design, it is a less robust design, but the idea here or the
goal here, is to introduce as less variation as possible to the performance of the system that
has been planned in the last step by setting the parameters related to processes or related to
the products at the right levels. So, in parameter design, maybe white tolerances or noise
factors are assumed to allow low manufacturing cost. It is quite costly to control noise factors
as you know, but during the parametric design phase the quality is improved without
controlling or removing the causes of variations
So, you are talking about setting up the right specification, which will be producible. I will I
will show you some problem examples later with costs you could actually try to determine,
what is the tolerance level or the specification, related to a certain in you know engineering
product just, because you would have a living of greater cost while the component goes out in
the market. So, a of, sort of a permanent cost put in the process for carrying out a small check
or and that inspection might just change the paradigm and create the system or make a
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system, which is this lower you know in terms of its sensitivity to variation, and you could
address the problem right. There in the process itself
So there are a lot of methods which are used in this particular parameter design phase. For
example, DOE design of experiments are very widely used to set up what is going to be the
right set of parameters, which would help you to operate at an no noise level, low noise level.
There are also simulations and optimization packages which are used as techniques at the
parameter stage to set up some parameters related to a system. And then of course, the third
phase that Taguchi suggests in order to build robustness into the design are the tolerance
design phases, where it usually follows the parameter design phase.
But here the basic purpose is an improvement in the quality by tightening tolerances around
the chosen target value. So, whenever there is a huge deviation you might be able to design
the process or maybe the specification in a manner. So, that these tight tolerances around the
target values, may help guide the right quality to be produced, and choose the control factors
which are available to the designers in a manner, so that it reduce the performance variations.
I will come to this when I exemplify a case of you know, let us say steering control on a on a
car, and I will show you how these different factors would influence the overall design.
So, overall the quality improvement must happen in terms of reduction in quality loss, which
is a notional loss, again levied upon the system. And although there may be a increase in the
manufacturing cost, the lessening of quality loss in the way would be helping you to guide in
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the right manner, so that your variation or deviation from the targets are as less as possible.
And so this is where the aspect of robustness builds in the design, that if your variation of you
know a system matching to the right process is minimized, you are successful to add
robustness to the design.
There is not going to be any kind of non conformance. These are all linked usually the
customer is the one who judges and so the customer does not get any non compliance is
happy. And that is the goal of everybody working in the business, including the designers, as
well as for the for the product, as well as the system in the process
So, let us now look at the approach of how we penalize in terms of giving some notional
losses, as there is a deviation from the target, because this would be the basic tool used to set
up these specifications ok, are the designs later, on the designs later or maybe doing tolerance
design based on the quality loss. So, we will do that in the next step. So, in this particular
case let us start defining the loss function now.
So, traditional understanding of quality loss is given in this particular figure that you have
two different limits. Let us say the upper specification and the lower specification image. And
whatever is beyond these for example, some particular component or system which crosses
the USL or the LSL are considered to be hundred percent loss they are rejects
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So, basically you are rejecting the whole cross overs and accepting all this, which is in this
white area right. Here at the target or beyond the target by a distance of whatever specified
tolerances have been given in the system, but Taguchis loss function is slightly different is
basically postulates that the loss starts not at the crossover of the USL, LSL, but right at the
deviation state itself. So, anything which gets deviated from the target, levies sort of a loss.
Although this is not an actual loss, because you are not going to waste the component, but
there is a notional loss which comes to you, which helps you to sort of go ahead and modify
yourself at an early stage. So, that this situation does not come over at all ok. So, you can see
that the overall loss level is reduced, because you have a tightness of control. So, this is more
about a management practice I guess which you are going to follow
So, this is what we are going to use for our studies and we will try to find out based on this
loss equation, what is going to be the kind of average quality loss. So, let us suppose there are
you know different measurements. Let us say I measurements of this quality characteristic
which is there and these I measurements vary between, let us say some 1, 2, .., n different
measurements this yi shows the i th measurement. So, in that event, what would be the kind
of average loss which will be levied on the system? Let us look at that and then let us try to
tweak that in terms of what are the desirables, and what are the undesirables of
characteristics.
There are some characteristics in products which you might need to retain. For example,
ultimate yield strength the higher the better or there are some, where it is are completely
undesirable and you typically envision to operate at a value which is close to zero for
example. They should not be friction or wear and tear in components; they should be kept at a
level of zero. So, the loss equation might vary, it is not that there is a target friction value
which is there, friction needs to be at target zero. So, loss equation might slightly vary and so
does the average quality loss
So, let us actually have an understanding of all this from a standpoint that whenever such a
loss is levied to the system, it will help you to improvise your design specifications and you
will get an emergent design, which is actually robust enough to handle you know a situation
like a failure situation like that. So, it goes without having a failure, because the right
specification could be imparted just after it crossed the target at the right time. So, that it did
not cross over a maximum threshold or something
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So, let us look at average quality loss. So, in you know you know the i measurements that I
have been talking about the average quality loss would be defined as loss due to y1
characteristics plus y2 plus so on up to loss due to yn characteristics averaged out with
respect to n measurements.
1
η[
¿ L ( y 1 )+ L ( y 2 ) + …+ L ( y n ) ]
And if I wanted to just use the Taguchi’s loss equation about l y equals k times of y minus T
square here. So; obviously, for the average quality loss we are going to represent this in terms
of k by n times of y1 minus T square plus y2 minus T square plus y3 minus T square plus so
on so forth up to yn minus T square.
k
¿
η [ ( y 1 −T )2 + ( y2 −T ) 2+ ( y 3−T )2+ …+ ( y n−T )2 ]
And we would like to iterate this oracle second manipulated this equation in a manner so that
known quantities which are measurable related to, let us say the mean for the distribution of
these measurements or the sigma standard deviation for the distribution, they are utilized, to
describe what you call the average quality loss
So, it just as empirically trying to solve this, we have y 1 square plus T square minus twice y1
T plus y2 square plus T square minus twice T2 Ty3 square plus T square minus thrice y3 T
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[noise so on so forth up to y n square plus T square minus twice y and T is what the average
quality loss equation is going to be like.
¿k [ y 21+ y 22+ …+ y 2n 2 2T
η
+T − ( y + y +…+ y n )
η 1 2 ]
And if I try to group these squares together, for example, all the y i squares together or for
example, all the twice y i T terms together or the ts together, we are left with three different
terms here. So, it is y 1 square plus y2 square plus one up to yn square divided by n plus n T
square by n. So, n it goes off. So, you have only T squared minus twice T by n times of y1
plus y2 plus 1 up to y n
[ ]
2 2 2
y + y + …+ y n 2
¿k 1 2 +T −2 Tk
η
So, we all know that you know the y 1 plus y 2 plus. So, on up to y n by n also written as 1 by
n i wearing from 1 to n y i is the average mu for the particular distribution. And we have here
a case where I can write this equation as y 1 square plus y 2 square plus. So, on up to y n
square by n plus T square minus twice T times of mu and let us suppose we try to convert this
a little further by bringing in slight modification to this first term right here and recording this
as y 1 minus mu square plus y 2 minus mu square so on up to y n minus mu square, all
divided by n minus off, because there are exactly n mu squares which are involved.
[ )+T −2Tμ ]
2 2 2
( y 1−μ ) + ( y 2 −μ ) +…+ ( y n −μ )
¿k
η
−μ2 +2 μ ( y + y +…+
1
η
2 y n 2
I will just subtract minus mu square and also add further twice mu times of y 1 plus y2 plus
y3 plus so on up to y n divided by n to this whole equation plus T square minus twice T mu.
So, that is how I am going to represent this whole equation, which is finally, going to change
into k times of n minus 1 by n times of sigma yi minus mu square i wearing between 1 to n, 1
by n minus 1 minus off a plus of mu minus T whole square this right
¿k
[ ( η−1 ) n
∑ ( y −μ )2 +( μ−T )2
η i=1 i ]
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Here is sigma standard deviation ok; that is how the standard deviation for in distribution
would be, and so we are left with an actual value which equals to k times of n minus 1 by n
times of sigma square. I am sorry this is sigma square square of standard deviation plus mu
minus T whole square. So, that is how we will record the average quality loss of a situation
where a target value T is not achieved, because of a certain mean and variance of recorded
values around the target.
¿k [ ( η−1 ) 2
η
σ + ( μ−T )2 ]
So, this is exactly where the Taguchi’s average quality loss or how the Taguchi’s average
quality loss is calculated. We do record that in case n is quite large then n minus 1 by n could
be recorded as converging to 1. And so we have the loss equation in that case to be simply a
summation of sigma square and mu minus T square times of k. So, the AQL will change once
the n value or the subset of observations are quite large.
¿ k [ σ 2 + ( μ−T )2 ]
So, I think I will bring my lecture, this lecture to an end, but in the next lecture I will take it
up and try to analyse the situation more from a practical standpoint, where we will see that
based on the different quality characteristics that we are considering this loss function will
also vary, the equation will also vary and we will start applying this for calculating
specifications which would be important for the product design stage itself. So, thank you
very much for this into me.
Thank you again.
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Design Practice
Lecture - 23
Average quality loss
Hello and welcome to this design practice module, 23. We were discussing about the Average
Quality Loss AQL and we calculated the Average Quality Loss.
AQL to be equal to K times of n minus 1 by n square of sigma plus mu minus T whole

square, which converged into K times of square of sigma plus mu minus T square in case n
were very large. So, the average quality loss really, now is you know as you can see made up
of two components. So, the AQL has one component, which is the loss due to deviation of the
average value of observations or according or measurements from the target.
AQL=k [ ( n−1 ) 2
n
σ + ( μ−T )2 ]
And then there is yet another part of the AQL. So, this is that K times of mu minus T square
loss and then there is a component of the loss due to the K sigma square part of the
component. This is, because of the mean square deviation of y around its own mean. So, what
we are referring here is that from a standpoint of prevention of any non compliance, it is
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important to not only have a tab on the mu or the central, you know tendency of the
distribution, but also a tab on what is the overall deviation from mu.
¿ k [ σ 2 + ( μ−T )2 ] if n ≫1
Okay. So, both these need to be in control, for you to have a lower equal value and that is
exactly the concept, what has been built in to it, to what is known as you know introducing
robustness in, in the whole design so; obviously.
The common variations of loss functions are, because of product characteristics. They are
like barometers, of the quality of the products and they sort of describe and measure the
performance, the product performance relative to the requirements and expectations coming
out of the product. So, the customer point of view is really about somehow minimization of
this loss.
So, that most of the quality characteristics, which are set in as are more or less at the target
values and; obviously, the target values as I have told you in case of many, as many kind of
quality parameters are many different kinds for example, customer would have a different
opinion from product to product and this can be characterized, at different target values. Let
us look at some, some, some quality indices or quality characteristics from a customer point
of view, which are very common place in normal products available.
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Ah. So, there are for example, some products, which have dimensional specifications; length,
breadth, height, you know diameter so on. So, forth some viscosity values, clearance values,
these are definitive quantitative values, which are associated with the specification, which the
customer wants and in such cases, one can easily estimate that the loss would be
minimalistic, if the deviation is lesser and lesser. So, why should we add the target value that
is how the loss function is defined.
So, we call these kind of characteristics, you know the quality dimensions, where nominal is
the best strategy. So, the lesser it is away from the target, the better it is in terms of inducted,
you know minimalistic inducted losses; however, that is not the only kind of characteristics,
which product may have, there may be characteristics, where they are essential, they are quite
undesirable yet, they are there, because of a natural process. For example, there are
characteristics related to wear shrinkage deterioration of life of products friction losses,
particularly moving machinery.
2
L ( y )=k ( y−T )
Let us say micro finishing aspects of machined surface ok. So, these are some of the quality
characteristics, where one wants that, the smaller it is, the better it is ok. So, we call this
smaller the better and here the type of loss; obviously, is set at a target value T equal to 0 ok,
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where we talk about L y simply as K y square. So, it is only how much, you know, the y is
away from 0 target, which defines what is the loss.
L ( y )=k ( y )2 if T =0
So, there again other loss functions, which are related to some of the desirable qualities in
different cases different situations. So, in these cases you; obviously, expect the value to be as
large as possible, because they are desirable values for a system to run, in high quality and so,
we call this larger the better and here the loss equation of course, will have to be different
here. The last equation should have an inverse term K by y square.
k
L ( y )=
y2
Where y going to infinity would mean the loss is going to go to zero and therefore,, because
the loss function is varying in all the three cases; obviously, the average quality loss also
should vary based on, whatever you know statistical significance, is there and one can
calculate really the value of K for all these three different situations, and from there a lot of
things related to what should be the target specification, etcetera could come out as
consequences, which would help us to add the robustness at minimalistic loss, which is
realistic for any system to operate.
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So, the value of K for nominal, the best case is given by as you know L y equals K times of y
minus T whole square and, if we suppose, suppose that a tolerance of plus minus d is the
operational the functional limit for the quality characteristic y.
2
L ( y )=k ( y−T )
let y=T ± d
So, for example, functional limit of characteristic y is provided by y equal to T plus minus d
the product is supposed to have failed or supposed to be scrapped, beyond these particular
limits typically, if it does not meet T plus d standard or T minus d standard and let us say, if
such a case occurs the unit cost, because of such failure not meeting y equal to T plus minus d
is some value A ok. So, we can easily calculate, what is the K? So, A becomes equal to K
times of T plus d minus T square in other words K becomes A by d square. So, once the d is
known to you.
A=k ( T +d −T )2
A
→ k= 2
d
And the A is known to you, you can find out what is going to be the lost constant and if we
just, use the smaller, the better value, just as we use the nominal, the best case here, the lost
A
constants would typically be K equal to A by d square k= or K equal to A d square,
d2
2
k =A d if it changes to larger the better value so. In fact, what you are seeing is that based
on the loss equations modified to different aspects of quality parameters. You are having
different loss constants in all these different cases, which would be somehow used to
determine, some of the design specifications at the outset, based on certain cost decisions,
which will come in as I will go along the way. So, the average quality losses for all these
functions are completely different.
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So, the average quality loss for, let us say the nominal the best, you have already seen this
value is going to be K times of sigma square plus mu minus T whole square assuming a large
value of n for smaller, the better.
Nominal the better: L ( y )=k [ σ 2 + ( μ−T )2 ]
Smaller the better: L ( y )=k [ σ 2 + ( μ )2 ]
This loss L y goes at K times of sigma square plus mu square at T equal to zero, you want the
target to be zero in undesirable qualities or undesirable parameters and for larger the better
case, although I will not derive this out, but the L y typically, you can, you can do it for
yourself in the same manner as I did for the average quality loss for the other two cases, but
here this is K times of one by square of mu times of one plus three sigma square by mu
square.
2
Larger the better: L ( y )=k
( )(
1
μ
2
3σ
1+ 2
μ )
So, that is how the loss is calculated in all these different cases, average quality loss is
calculated. So, if you have a distribution of measurements associated with maintaining a
system, you can always try to leave a cost and based on it you can take a decision, whether a
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lower at a lower cost, if the specifications could be made right or set right, will there be a
definite advantage to do that. So, a tighter specification for example, might help to generate
as less defects as possible and something, which can be easily done at the line side, can
prevent any kind of failures or non compliance as to go into the market out, in the market and
that is called robustness, adding robustness to the design.
So, let us look at a problem example here. For example, let us say we will, we will see how
quality loss function can be used as a decision support tool, whenever we are designing a
number of situations well let us talk about this particular situation, where we are determining
what is going to be the best factory tolerance, the loss function here can be used to determine
what is the most economical affected tolerance. Now, the example is that of.
So, for the automatic transmissions, for trucks you know there is an uncomfortable zone, that
almost all truck drivers would, feel, when the shift point is shifted the gearshift point from let
us say the first to the second gear is shifted by about 35 rpm. So, supposing, it was supposed
to be changing gears at let us say 50 rpm instead of 50. Now, it changes at 85 rpm. So,
obviously, there is a certain amount of time, which is spend to accelerate hard.
So, that the engine does not stall and it is really a quality problem, where the user is directly
affected, the customer is directly affected and what was studied by this company, which
produces the automatic transmissions and fits in the car in the tracks is that suppose, it costs
the manufacturer about two hundred dollars to adjust the valve body; obviously, when you
are trying to assemble or disassemble and change the parametric within the transmission. So,
that. So, that you know the shift point can be again shifted back.
So, that cost is quite high, because of the disassembly involved and instead of that, if
supposing you were to invest about sixteen and a half dollars for just labour charges with the
person who will make adjustments during the manufacturing stage itself.
So, that this problem does not go ahead, you see that in that case the, because of
manufacturing and testing introduced to the line at a lower cost, you are able to do the very
same. So, for that we need to determine what is going to be this level of tolerance that we
want to set. So, that this cost option is better than the 200 dollars cost option. So, let us look
at this problem and try to see, if the specifications can be designed. So, the loss caused by the
product variation here from the target value.
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Let us say L y is K times of y minus T square, where y happens to be equal to T plus minus d
and accordingly the K can be defined as a ratio between A by d square.
So, this is the case, where we are talking about nominal the best and, because it has to be at
the target point, target shift point and it is a way by about thirty-five rpm right now. So, a
total amount of loss 200 dollars is incurred, if it goes out and it has to be adjusted in the
market. So, let us say A equal to 200 dollars so; obviously, the K that would get built up is
200 divided by thirty-five square, because d. So, y is set at T plus minus d, where d is now
thirty-five rpm. The transmission shift point is away by thirty-five rpm, while training from
first to second gear. So, this happens to be.
A 200
→ k= = =0.164
d 2 352
Now, a value of K, which is equal to 0.164 dollar per rpm square and the factory tolerance
needs to be now, determined, based on the cost incurred, because of an additional labour that
you are putting on the line, who will do the adjustments and repair. So, that cost is about
sixteen and a half dollars, this is, because of adjustments within the factory. Let us say of
adjustments, so; obviously, in this particular case and the new value of d that will come out is
going to be based on the K value, in the case of transmission shafts, which is 0.164. So, the d
happens to be again equal to plus minus 10 rpm.
d=± 10 rpm
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So, if one can set within the factory tolerances or what one can set within the factory? The
rpm shift point to be within plus minus 10 rpm, then you do not have a problem of any,
vehicle, going out in the market and it is cheaper to adjust the, vehicle in the factory itself,
rather than wait for a complaint and make adjustments in warranty; obviously, it is a lost
repetition as well when such failures start happening in the market. So, just write this down
here that this means that if the transmission shift point is farther than 10 rpm in the nominal.
It is cheaper to adjust the shift point at the factory, then to wait for a complaint in order to
make an adjustment. So, you can see here, that we are essentially determining the
specification, the final specification of the product based on an impost quality loss on us.
So, this is how you going to add robustness to all the, designs or design specifications. So,
that you can avoid all criticalities, which come as a result of different phases of the product
lifecycle, levied on to the way that the propagates through the lifecycle. So, I think, I could
give you an understanding of what I mean by, adding robustness to a particular design. So, I
think you know, there are many other example problems, where similar kind of situations
would be arrived and, where you could actually make decisions related to even sometimes,
which products should be selected, to be assembled into a design. for example, this other,
problem which is there is about such a product selection we have.
Ah you know some kind of a design, where, we have a part, a screw or a bolt, which has to be
bought in order to do the assembly and this is exactly an example of what would happen,
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when there is a characteristic, which is desirable and we have these characteristics desirable
to be operating at level infinity, for the last to be as low as possible.
So, here we talked about assembling bolts and this company here buys about thousands of
bolts to be used in its design; obviously, the designer has given options, related to you know
some tested systems of two or three different companies across which, such bolts, can be
received, they are highly reliable. In fact, and they are one of the critical components, for the
rotor to successfully operate.
So, in of bolt failures, the system repair cost is estimated to be about 15 dollars and you know
the two companies, that are being sourced out for these bolts, which would be able to meet
the quality requirements of the high tech rotor dynamics, they offer different kind of alloys in
their products and be to supply the bolts to the company ah; obviously, the high tech decision
is based on destructive testing of twenty specimens to see, if the ultimate yield strength
measured in kg force per millimetre square is as per the specification or not.
So, the lower specification limit for these bolts is about at least eleven kg force per millimetre
square and one needs to have bolts above this specification limit and the and much above
eleven is going to be better. In fact, eleven is the selection criteria for the bolts, the quantity
that is being purchased is about 20000 and; obviously, there are unit costs of the products. So,
the different unit costs are represented here and one has to help to select, which bolt would be
the better bolt in this particular case to add to the design.
So, I like to, solve this example in the next module, in the interest of time, but as of now,
your kind of understand, what we mean by adding or building robustness or in the in the
overall design through situations, which come along the various phases of product life cycle.
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Design Practice
Lecture – 24
Robustness in Design
Hello and welcome to this lecture on design practice module 24. We were talking about how
to do robustness of design and the same can in fact, be utilized for studies related to materials
exploration or material selection and design. I will give you a case study on an example
today, where we will talk about selecting between two different sources of bolts on the basis
of the engineering parameter ultimate yield strength of those bolts. So, we will do some
material exploration you know example, where we will try to select on the basis of quality
costs adding robustness to the system there was in fact, a case which was discussed in the last
lecture before the end of the lecture about high tech rotor dynamics.
Which are planning to buy and select a couple of thousand bolts to be used in their systems
the systems require highly reliable bolts, in case there is a bolt failure the estimated repair
cost is given to be about 15 dollars, and there are two different sources from which these
different kind of alloys are utilized for supplying the bolts.
So, each bolt is of a different alloy different type and the criteria that high tech decides to use
for doing the product selection or the material selection in this case is that it basically does
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destructive testing using about 20 specimens and try to find out from each source, what is
going to be the ultimate tensile strength measured in kg force per millimetre square
Now, in this particular example, the quality parameter that would be used for the robustness
is basically the higher the better because; obviously, it is desirable to have the highest
possible ultimate yield strength of the bolts in such entering assemblies. The lower
specification limit is given to be 11 kg force per millimetre square. So, this is a qualifier if a
bowl does not meet this particular specification it is going to be rejected and it will give some
kind of a you know if supposing it is selected and used it is going to give some quality cost to
the company and based on this cost we have to take an explore the you know material select
criteria can be sort of a gauge to based on this quality cost that comes up. Also is given that
for these two different products that we are going to make a selection from each of them costs
14 cents and 13 cents respectively and we have to take a decision as to which of these two
bolts are good for high tech dynamics.
The strength data is given here for the destructive testing done using A and b. So, now, you
are not only measuring, but trying to implement robustness of quality through this
measurement into delivering a cost parametric. So, on the basis of which you will see
whether there is you know A more expensive or B more expensive in terms of selection and a
criterion is determined for selecting the same. So, let us say in this case if we try to solve, it is
better to have a higher ultimate tensile strength. So, ideally one should go for an infinite
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tensile strength although it is not practicable, but the loss equation and the average loss that
comes out. So, the average quality loss equation that comes out for the higher the better case.
If you may remember we had discussed it in one of the last lectures is basically AQL equals
K times of 1 by square of the mean times of 1 by 3 times square of sigma a standard deviation
by mu square.
3 σ2
1
( )(
AQL=K 2 1+ 2
μ μ )
So mu and sigma has its own connotations mu is 1 by n sigma I varying between 1 to y i and
sigma square is 1 by n minus 1, i wearing between 1 to n y i minus mu square. So, that is how
you represent the higher the ultimate strength or higher the better quality parametric to be.
n
1
μ= ∑y
n i=1 i
n
1
σ2= ∑
n−1 i=1
( y i −μ )2
So, using this as a criterion for selection, we need to find out what kind of average quality
loss will incur in these two distributions provided that are lower cut off limit has been given
as 11 kg force per millimetre square this is the lower specification limit. So, anything below it
typically should be rejected. So, anywhere if the distribution starts moving towards you know
the lower specification limit that is 11 kg force per millimetre square it will start incurring a
loss, which will be a notional loss again and based on that we can make a criterion for
selecting between A and B.
So, if I used the statistics which was which came out of the non destructive testing of all these
different samples, there are 20 samples of each category A and B, we have accordingly you
know we can make the different means and standard deviations for A and B.
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So, let us write the mean for the distribution A or bolt A as 14.66 as is apparent from the
numbers, which are listed in the table earlier and the sigma A. the standard deviation happens
to be 0.656 from again the tabulated data. Similarly, for the case B, bolt B the mean
distribution happens to be 14.41 and this sigma in this particular case comes out to be again
2.327. So, given these and applying the AQL formulation for the higher the better value, we
can probably get an estimation first of the K value.
And then proceed with the K to do a selection between A and B just as we did in the case of
automatic transmission for setting up a factory specification for what exactly should be the
tolerance to set up the cut off r p m, when it you know the 80 goes from first gear to second
gear. So, in this particular case again we are trying to develop a similar criterion for doing
material selection, this is a very important aspect of designing components or designing
systems. So, for larger the better type of quality characteristics, the estimation of k is based
on the lower specification limit; obviously, because anything which is below this is not
qualified to be even counted.
Ok. So, therefore, I could find out the K A value here to be equal to you know the last
equation in this particular case L y happens to be. So, the L y happens to be equal to K by y
square, y being the quality characteristics or parameter in this case y tends to infinity means
that you have almost zero loss and so, higher the better of y is a valuable strategy for
planning out the average quality loss to be at its minimum level. So, in this particular case let
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us again go back to our problem example, we have a 15 dollars’ loss as being suggested, if
the specifications of 11 kg force per millimetre square is not met. So, if y is somehow less
than 11 kg force per millimetre square, you will incur less than or equal to you will incur a
loss of about 15 dollars and any where higher than 11 kg force per millimetre square will not
incur this loss.
So, we get K A by you know y square is the total amount of loss which is 15 or K A happens
to be equal to 1815 and similarly if I looked at bolt b also similar characteristics are obeyed
similar cost distribution is there for repairing of the rotor if such a bold failure happens and
the K B in this case also comes out to be 1815. So, therefore, given all these issues together
the L A or the loss incurred the quality loss that is incurred given the bolt A characteristic
happens to be equal to K A times of 1 by square of mu A times of 1 plus 3 sigma A square by
mu A square.
3 σ A2
L A=K A
( )(
1
μ A2
1+
) (
μA 2
=1815
1
)(
14.66 2
1+
3 × 0.6562
14.66 2 )=$ 8.48
So it is actually 1815 times of 1 by 14.66 square times of 1 plus 3 into 0.656 square by 14.66
square respectively and this happens to be an average quality loss in case of bolt a stationed
at about 8 dollars and 48 cents. So, this is how loss in case of component a is defined, I would
have a similar definition for the loss in case of component b. So, you know that in case of b
again we have a separate mu b and sigma b value.
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2
( )( )
2
3 σB
LB =K B
1
μ B2
1+
μ B2
=1815
1
(
14.412
1+
)(
3× 2.372
14.412 )
=$ 9.40
So, the L B in this case would be defined as 1815 times of 1 by the mean of b square times of
1 plus 3 times of the standard deviation 2.372 in the case of second distribution that is related
to b by 14.41 square.
And this happens to be about 9 dollars and 40 cents. So, which has a higher loss average
quality loss is visible here. So, in case of b for the selected samples with the certain amount
of you know distribution related to ultimate tensile strength, the loss happens to be bigger
number if you are selecting from b in comparison to if you are selecting from a. So obviously,
this is on one of the factors, the other issue is that supposing you are going for getting a
purchase made on A and B there are two different numbers related to their unit cost we are
typically wanting to buy a couple of 1000 bolts for our systems.
So let us say we make a number about 5000 volts. So, we can look at what is going to be the
incremental difference. So, product A is definitely expensive than B and B has a better
obvious a higher quality loss in comparison to A. So, therefore, a trade off has to be made
between B and A based on the unit price, that was there for the particular agency high tech
dynamics and also the loss that they would incur in case there is a failure within the system,
quality loss that would be incurred. So, it again depends on what is your strategy at the time,
if quality is over imposing and if quality is one of the strictest guidelines, which are needed in
this case maybe this rotor is a part of an assembly which otherwise a failure of a rotor would
mean a lot of damage to the assembly. So, you might have to stick with higher priced
component, just because of the fact that it has a lower quality loss level.
So, you are seeing that how robustness is being added at every step of the design including
material selection, in the earlier one you saw how you draw specifications. So, in this way
you have to build up the robustness of the system and finalize your design before giving it
out. So, in this particular case quality loss for the lot of let us say 20000 units or product A is
less than that of B and therefore, based purely on the quality loss criterion. Product A is
preferable; however, if we also consider the purchasing cost as a criterion, the company
incurs loss in buying 20000 parts of 200 dollars, if the buying is made from A. So, one has to
really decide now what would be a more realistic approach to consider if we are talking about
very large number of units.
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So in that event probably it may be a better idea to go for purchasing decision with the cost
criteria, but almost seldom it is that people overlook the robustness aspect and go to the next
step. Particularly because in an assembly where the rotor is probably one important part, if a
failure of rotor chains up line of failures related to an overall system I think it is always a
better idea and the management always wants to go ahead with the decision made based on
the quality loss, and still goes for a higher cost product in the market. So, that is how you
characterize some of these material exploration issues or material selection issues by defining
certain quality parametric or quality criterion.
So, having said that now, let us go to sort of an approach that we regard board as robust
design of products and processes.
And you know it is an approach to design of products or processes that emphasizes reduction
in performance variation and this reduction in performance variation is mostly used by design
techniques that would reduce overall sensitivity to the sources of the variation. So, it is very
important to identify what are the sources, what are the sources from which there are
variations coming into product lines or by various processes by various material quality
issues by various you know challenges related to out of time supply of the products so on so
forth. So, in order to do robust designing, we want to really achieve the target of quality
characteristic, but at the same time we want to minimize the variation in the products
functional characteristics. So, that is what the whole approaches of adding robustness to the
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design and you know that how I give you actually numerical examples also in case if you
have products functional characteristics.
You have an option to gauge it using some notional losses which are otherwise not a part of
the balance sheet, but it is important to figure out, how this function loss can be quantified
somehow. So, that there is minimization of the variation and variation is in terms of what
your target value is and how you are performing in comparison to your target value and what
is the distribution of you know information related to quality characteristics or any other
measurements related to the product either physical dimensions or physical properties so on
so forth. And we considered various example problems in that for looking at what you call
robust approach of designing. So, typically the target and the variants of products quality
characteristics are affected by variables you can look at this from an engineered system point
of view.
So, in engineering systems of course, have certain variables which are classified as
controllable factors, certain which are uncontrollable factors or noise factors and so,
combination of these noise factors and control factors along with the signal that you are
giving as a user of this particular engineering system gives out response ok. So, the response
is coupled through several different sources and noise factors are really not in your control.
So, therefore, you have start avoiding as much noise factors as possible in your design, when
we are looking at from a systems point of view and understanding robust designing of
products and processes.
So, the target here is of course, how to reduce this noise and that is why all these different
examples of motional losses you know deviation from the target etcetera on the is to sort of
avoid that variation, which is not in your control or it is because of randomness. So, you
design the pro the system in the manner so that at least that randomness is not scaled up, it is
always mellowed down as regards the noise factors in systems that. In fact, I am going to
show you some examples about how you can control an engineering system from a
standpoint of signal factors control factors noise factors so on so forth.
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So, if we looked at all the for example, controllable factors which are there, they are basically
defined as those which can be easily controlled you know this can be things related to choice
of material for example, at the design stage or even the mold temperature depends quite a bit
on the material that you are using maybe a cutting speed on a machine tool these are some of
the aspects which you could really control very easily and if you looked at again a bunch of
these controllable factors they are different aspects of even controlling one is controlled by
the user or the operator.
which is something which is related to the users you know a spirit every user’s way of
handling the product user’s way of let’s say if he is creating a signal to control a product how
effective he is in generating the similar signal at all points of time or is there a variability in
the way that he is generating that signal. So, this is something dependent on the operator or
the user and then again all controllable factors which are defined dependent on the designer
said those where it is at the outset you have made certain interventions of the design at the
product architecture level itself so that you know the factors can get controlled ok. So, these
are the two broad groups in which you can put all the controllable factors are.
Let us look at some examples. So, for the user operator factor we also call this or regard this
as a signal factor you had seen that how the signal factor is routed in the cartoon earlier which
comes from one side into the engineering system. So, what is a signal factor or what is a user
dependent or operator dependent control factor, it carries the intent to you know for a
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required performance of a system a signal needs to be generated. For example, if you are let
us say looking at an automotive and you are trying to steer the automotive and you are trying
to take a right turn.
So you will basically take the steering and then rotate it on the right so, that the automotive
turns on the on the right side. So, you are a user you are a driver for these automotive and you
are basically generating a signal factor by rotating to the right. So, that the automotive also
takes a right turn now from between the input that you have given and the actual turning of
the automotives there is a cycle of events which are happening a chain of events which are
happening, many of which are controlled by the designers ok. For example, let us say the
kind of gear ratios that would be involved in transmission of your effort may be very high
and that may lead to a small amount of effort on the part of the user getting magnified several
folds ok. So, that the automotive takes a huge turn. Now you have to sensitize the user to
generate a signal which is good enough for creating a certain engineered performance of a
system. So, that is a signal factor.
So just as I said that you if you consider the steering of a car and a drivers intent is to change
the direction, and for this purpose the driver changes the steering wheel position and it gives
a signal to the automotive to change directions but; obviously, there are certain issues
involved in the chain, where you can probably put a better gear ratio or you can put just the
sensitive gear ratio, where too much of turn is also not very desirable that if you have just
miniscule turned the steering wheel it requires you automotive to suddenly go into one
direction, that is also something that the user will not want.
So, the right level of the user judgement corresponding to the actual turning is what a
designer would have in his hand while designing this particular system, and those are called
the factors controlled by the designers. So, you very well know that what is signal, what is the
intent which is given to a system and what is what happens after the intent has been given is
something which the system does and that is dependent on how the system is being designed.
So, the other examples of signal factors for example, if we considered the remote control of a
button of a television set,
that is also going to control either the volume or the overall brightness level or for example, if
you have a temperature control of a refrigerator, it controls the overall cabin temperature, but
what you are generally changing by turning the dial gauge or maybe in this case of television
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306
by setting up a remote button is to give a certain level of intent to the television and
remaining what electronics is there within would take up that signal and try to perform
something in terms of functionality so that you can get a list necessary output or response of
the system.
And this response chain from the intent is what is in the hand of the designer. So, I will like to
talk a lot more on you know factors, which can be controlled by the designers as well as
factors which are completely uncontrollable and how to minimize it, but I will probably wait
for the next module to do that, in the interest of time I am going to finish this particular
module.
Thank you very much for being within.
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307
Design Practice
Lecture - 25
Robustness in Design – 2
Hello and welcome to this design practice module 25. We were talking about the robust
design approach, where we indicated that any engineering system can be really speed up into
signal factors control, controllable factors, where control can depend either on the user or in
the designer, depending on what is it the level of control that is needed. And then there are
noise factors which are responsible for causing really the variation of the performance.
And so with the signal factor coupled with the noise factors as well as the control factors,
engineering system would typically give response, and the response might vary. And so all
these factors have to be the tweaked, where the only and controllable part is the noise, and
somehow something needs to be done through design, so that that noise can be avoided
completely. Although is not itself that impossible do that. In real life situation there are many
causes for which variations might happen or creepen which are beyond control, but at least
the part which is in control of the designer or of the user should be made the manners, so that
there is not much variation in the performance measure or performance characteristics.
So, on one hand one aspect is to rule out. So, how do you measure what is the performance
variation. So, you have to actually again go back to the target value and then try to see how
well deviated you are from the target, or are you within range. And then the Taguchi’s
approach says that the moment you are of target, you should start attributing a cost, so that
you know exactly that of your target and your panelise for that at least virtually, so that you
can come back to the target again, and there are hardly and variation which are involved
there.
So, today I am going to take this further and try to give you some understanding about the,
because I have already told you about the user defined control factors. We should also have a
look, very broad look at the designer defines control factors and for that we will just start this
lecture by looking into what are the factors which are controlled by the designer himself as
regards the engineering design.
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So, if you really split it up into different categories. There are three different categories where
we can actually attribute this controllable factors, where control depends more on the
designers; one of course, the variability control factors. So, this is about variability of the
response of the performance output and you can you can say that if there is some kind of
variability in response, it is it is the goal of the designer to somehow strategized in a manner,
so that such variability reduces, and there is overall and improvement in the performance
being on target rather than off target
So, we will look at the very important example here that which was actually proposed by
Taguchi himself about transistor gain in an electrical power circuit, where we will talk on one
hand about the response level of a transistor circuit, based on the gain voltage. And on the
other hand, because of the non-linear characteristics of the target you would find out that in
two different voltage rangers for the gain voltage, there will be different output levels.
One would be much varied in comparison to the other, and it may all be an appropriate idea
to go and higher level of voltage, output voltage in put a resistance you know in series to that.
So, that there is a drop and voltage and the available voltage that is the available comes down
to the desired level for the system, and all your ensuring is control in the variability aspect by
doing this job.
So, that example we are going to sort of seen details here, about what really you mean by
such variability control factors. We will also talk about target control factors. Target control
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factors are typically those which can be easily adjusted to achieve the desired functional
relationship between the input signal and the response, any engineering system as we know
has user signal which is being given by user control and also by a certain response output
level and.
So, if there is the variability in the response output level due to different causes; obviously,
the function relationship between the signal and that response would change, because user
would typically want to be to the desired level, and so therefore, he has to do for an example
you think about the case of the steering wheel. If suppose in the user finds out that he is
turned the steering wheel by let us say ten degrees, and the automotive takes a turn by very
small amount, let us say five degrees. User has to do little more of the steering turning so that
the automotive could desired take the desirable turned.
So, the response level actually gives your feedback, particularly when your user for a system
to somehow change your signal level so that you know, the response can happen according to
your wishes and. So, this is about that target that you are achieving are. If there is a factor
which actually helps you to achieve the target faster in between; that is called a target control
factor. You can you can think about the gear ratio for example, in such a steering mechanism
of an automotive, and you can be selected during in the product design stage itself, where you
can get the required sensitivity so that the user is happy always.
So, if you are able to gauge of the user has a general habit of turning the steering x degrees,
which will allow the automotive to turn y degrees, and he is in the comfort zone saying that if
it is turned x degrees, if finds automotive exactly turn according to his aspirations on needs.
Then you can say that it is a rightly defined gear ratio, and this can be one of the target
control factors, which you the, which are designer can put in place. So, that with the input
signal which is being generally given by the user the, there is no variability to the response
signal.
So, we can get the required sensitivity of turning radius to change in the steering angle in this
particular basis. However, this can be controlled only once, because at the design stage when
you’re actually planning the product, you have to be very careful about such factors. There is
also third different kind of factor which is also otherwise known as a neutral factor.
These are factors which will do not affect either the mean response or the variability in the
response, but still are existing. Why they are important is that, there may be sometimes. There
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may be sometimes useful to know that they exist so that modifications in those where the
response or the input signal level, response of the variability does not get affected, can easily
we taken off so that there is cost saving.
So, you have to identify those factors which are essential and which exists so that you know
if they are, if the system is unaffected by their presence, although there highly required by the
system to support the system. So, they may as well be gotten rid of, or sometimes may be
connected to a level where, there are probably excessively designed and you can get savings
out of changing those level to the normal values. So, you can say that typically neutral factors
are to be identified for cost saving aspects related to the overall design.
So, you can set them at their most economical levels ok, so that such factors do not happen.
So, such factor does not affect the response of the target control. For example, in this case of,
let us say the gear ratio, and if it is the manual steering system. So; obviously, the amount of
effort that you are doing on the steering wheel, is going to get translated in terms of gear
ratio, in terms of the final turning radius of the for bar steering mechanism of an automobile.
But if you are introducing something like a lubricant ok, and the rate at which the lubricant is
being infused into the system to perform, you know for satisfactory improve or satisfactory
performance of the system, is being controlled to a lower level, while still being you know
useful to so there is no relation between the response level or the, let us say the signal level or
let us say the variability aspect, related to this automotive steering mechanism, because of the
oil.
The oil always helps you to get some other desirable characteristics; like necessary lifetime
for example, or the product, or maybe a little bit of more user comfort to some extent you
know, because of the lubricating capacity. So, unless we are jeopardizing that user comfort
level, and we can still reduce the neutral factor to a level where oil uses are minimum, you
may be able to do a better job with the lower cost. Although the presence of oil is very
important, because that will give you some sense of lubricity while you trying to do, you
know trying to change directions in case of this automotive.
So, such factors are then known as neutral factors. So, having said that let us look into these
two very important aspects that how we can change the variable control variable t v control
factors and the target control factors, in a real life problem, but before doing that, I would
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also like to emphasise a little more on the, the little more different kind of aspect which is
about the noise.
Noise which is an essentially evil in all engineering systems, and somehow the question is
can noise also be classified into several different types, where there can be probably some
strategies to remove the noise or even like mediate the noise to lower level. So, if you look at
the noise factors. The noise factors are general generally responsible for the functional
characteristics of a product ok, deviating from the target value.
And; obviously, even such a such a such a functionality deviation happens, it results in loss;
emotional loss and; obviously, if you looked at large variety of this noise factors, we could
categorize them into many different types based on what they coming from. For example,
there can be outer noise ok. So, outer noise is typically due to the variables which are not
really within the product, but external to the product, but they do affect the performance of
the product.
For example, let us say if we talked about oil film for lubrication within the gear box,
typically would depend on, you know the flow rate of the oil would typically depend on also
other factors like temperature, humidity and dust levels, which are otherwise not controllable,
but based on this temperature levels, you know you may have a thinner version of the oil or
slightly thicker version of the oil, and you might have different application aspect to the to
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the product which is being considered, because of a factor which is probably there, and is
essential annual factor which has no other way to control ok
So, temperature in which your automotive your operating your steering mechanism for
example, as laid out earlier, is not in your control. So, but still there is some noise, because of
the variability in the film thickness, related to the lubricity that is being provided by the oil in
between. So, those are outer noise. Then there a noise inner noise. Inner noise mostly come as
a result of variations due to deterioration of parts, parts and materials. For example, let us say
when we talked about springs, with time there is a loss and resilience of a springs or maybe
you can wear out parts due to essential component of friction. There may also be an increase
in resistors, let us say with age and use of all the different resistances, and circuitry.
And with the as a function of time, such parameters keep on changing and contributing to
some uncontrollable factors which are present in the design and you can treat them, because
the noise is resulting, because of variation from within the component. Resistor for example,
in place and working for twenty-four hours for the next about ten days, may slightly vary in
their resistance, because of such long working hours, and because of the fact that it is a piece
of such a kind of change in the resistance all the product with age, could be considered to be
an inner noise to the resistance itself, for to the product itself
So, there are there is a third different kind of noise which we commonly known as between
product noise, which basically would mean that there is a lot of variation from unit to unit of
manufacture what is happening in a process. Obviously, there is no control on only one aspect
which will lead to such variation. No controlling of one aspect with lead to such variation,
there are many aspects associated with the manufacturing process. There is aspect related to
materials for example, which is coming going to come in there is aspect related to the skill set
of a person, who is go to work in the particular, you know whatever contribution is making to
the whole work system which may vary, because of it such noise may come.
So, there is going to be between the products from one material to the other, from one you
know let us say batch to the other batch of the same products for the same process and for the
same material supply system, that are noise may generate. And so this is inevitable, you
cannot help to prevent it, metal variation for example, is one of the major cause of such a
noise. If you could control it would have been very useful, but you cannot help to control this
between product noise which would keep coming
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So, as the name suggest, the noise is a noise, because it’s some controllable, you cannot give
a definite of strategy to control such noise, and sometimes even controlling such noise maybe
a very expensive proposition, because you may have to think out of the box, change the
whole process all together or sometimes create you know more or add or build more
robustness by designs, so that such noises may eliminate for example, Let us say look at the
bolt example of an upper lower limit of let us say 11 k g force per millimetre square which
we considered in some of the earlier lectures, for the selection criteria of a bolt ok
So, if this level world does in increase to lecture 15 or 20 k g force for millimetres square; of
course, the overall cost would be higher in that case, but then, because of the over
development of the design the, definitely would add robustness, and so there may be less
possibility of overall variation because of between product noise, or let us say even like inner
noise so on and so forth. So, because you’re over designing on. At the same time there is the
cost aspect involved in over designing products, and so there really has to be a trade of,
which has to be the basic theme for all designers, particularly in engineering design of a
products.
So, when we talk about the Taguchi’s approach to robust design a products and processes. We
attempt to typically reduce the variability and that is that is approached by changing the all
the variability control factors through good design, maintaining required average
performance. So, it does not go outside the target range for the response of a system. There is
of course, targets set of for the response of such engineering systems. And this average
performance can be through appropriate adjustments in the target control factors so on so
forth, and that basically gives you an idea of how robust design can be carried out
So, let us look at little more details now as I talked earlier about what is, so different about
variability control factor and target control factor. And in this case I would look at an example
given by Taguchi’s itself about.
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A transistor gain let us say when we talk about an electrical power circuit design. You know
the quality characteristic that may be have interest to the production personal, is in one case it
could be something related to the output voltage, output voltage of the product. Let us call the
output voltage y as in this particular case, and there may be a target value for this output
voltage, and this is what we are referring to is the transistor output voltage ok. The target
value of y0 is set in for a output voltage of particularly y, and y could be away from y0 as you
know, because of process variability.
So, there always deviated and typically when we look at the transistor setup in the circuit, as
this output voltage of the transistor is also very inherently connected to something called the
gain, gain of the transistor. So, gain is sort of factor which is an amplification factor used for
multiplying the input response, so that the output response can be multiple folds and so
typically in this case, let us consider the gain of the transistor circuit to be about x ok, whose
nominal value can be controlled.
And because of such control you, as well see that the responsible transistor is such that its
highly non-linear in fact, that it results into a situation where by intelligent designing we can
reduce the variability somehow in the output voltage y ok. So; obviously, when will look at x
which is gain, the product design engineer can select the nominal value of x to be about x0
, which is the target gain factor of the circuit.
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And to achieve the target value of y0 this is sufficient ok. So, at gain x0 you can say
that the transistor circuit ideally given output voltage of y 0 . However, as you know in real
life situations the transistor gain deviate quite a bit from the nominal value x 0 . So, there
would be a range of values, let us say x across which this deviates from gain x0 to any
other x, which is greater or lesser than 0. And these are typically because of many reasons
like, let us say variation in manufacturing, there may be imperfections of defects, particularly
in the purity are the silicon crystals, which have been used to make transistors or even some
other polymers which are used sometimes to make transistors.
You can also have deterioration during the circuits lifespan, change of resistance elements,
related to the interconnects which may lead to such response variation. You may also have
some variations related to temperatures at which these a circuits are operated, not every
transistor circuit is setup on to operate at a constant temperature. So, there is going to be is
selective. There is going to be a certain amount of deviation, definitively on the gain value x
and because of that there is also going to be change in the output voltage, and so there is the
question of variability which comes.
So, how much away from y0 is y, at what level of gain x from x0 which is the target
level. So, let us look at this that in fact, if we select the or if you look at the non-linear
response of the output voltage y versus the x, as you can see here.
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One can recall that let us say it gain value over at x 0 earlier; that means, the gain is setup
at x 0, and there is sudden variation here in x 0 . This variation is with x0 centred as a
mean value. So, obviously, at x 0 as you know, as we have discussed earlier, there is going to
be an output voltage y 0 , but because the x 0 is varying between let us say some level
x 0 minus 2 x 0 plus ok.
There is going to be some variation in the output voltage also, let us call it y0 plus and
y 0 minus ok. And you seeing that the range of variation here is quite high, but because the
resistance or the output is actually a non-linear function of the gain at a higher gain voltage,
let us say if you operated x 1 , where the variability here is accommodated more ok. So,
you can really go up to a greater amount of x1 plus. I am sorry x1 minus and x1
plus range. Excuse me. So, x1 plus minus x1 minus as you know is definitely much
greater than x 0 plus minus x 0 minus.
−¿
+¿−x ¿0
−¿ ≫ x ¿0
+¿−x ¿1
x ¿1
So, you are accommodating a higher amount of gain range, but the overall effective variation
here between y 1 plus and y 1 minus, let us say is much lesser ok. So, y 1 plus minus
y1 minus, which are the two extremities with mean round y 1 , is much lesser in
comparison to y 0 plus minus y 0 minus.
−¿
+¿− y¿0
−¿ ≪ y ¿0
+¿− y ¿1
y ¿1
Yeah I am sorry this see a sign needs to change much much lesser here. So, but then the
question that comes out here, is that y 1 ; obviously, is a much higher voltage, which is
away from the target y 0 . It should have been operating at a output voltage of y 0, but now
it is y 1 . So; obviously, you have to add a resistance and circuit
10
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So, let us suppose that if supposing the resistance r 1 at the you know series level. The
voltages some around y1 and it can reduce y0 if you could change or increase the
resistance from r 1 to r 0. So, you add certain resistance component to the output voltage. So,
that because of the drop, the y1 changes to the target value y 0 . So, in this case, the,
target control factor is the resistance. So, the resistance is actually allowing the output voltage
to change back to the target value. So, you can call this to be a target control factor ok, target
control factor, and the variability control factor is the transistor gain ok
So, you seeing that for a larger amount of gain, you are getting a small amount of output
range of the voltage ok. So, variability control factor is transistor gain. So, it’s very
appropriate example to understand what pars means pi target control for factor an a
variability control factor, as for as engineering systems or concerned, or engineering system
design is concerned.
So, I would like to probably migrate to new topic about you know carrying out strategies a
processes industry with respect to the implementation of concurrent engineering as well as
giving you a methodology to understand where a deviation is coming and what are the
reasons for such deviation to happen. And there is a technique very useful technique call
failure mode effect analysis, which is used in most of the industries for looking at some
engineering design performances and recording as to what would be the appropriate causes of
variation.
So, in the next module when I start next week, I would like to probably go ahead and give
introductory session on this FMEA and try to ca do it from a process point of view, that if the
reason existing process how FMEA can be done to improve the process where we are
essentially again improving the variability as a, you know as an approach to the robust design
at the behest of controlling some important factors and not a whole lot of factors. And FMEA
kind of gives you a roadmap of privatization, as to what needs to be addressed more priority
in comparison to the other factors, so that the overall variability can reduce effectively.
So, with this I like to end the lecture module here, and will do FMEA in the next lecture.
11
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Design Practice
Prof. Shanthanu Bhattacharya
Lecture – 26 and 27
Material selection in Engineering design
Hello everyone. Welcome to the course Design Practice. I am Sanjay Kumar Course TA for
this course, and on behalf of Professor Shantanu Bhattacharya. I will be taking few lecture
modules for this course. In the past week you have already learned concurrent engineering in
detail, and in the present of module 26 and 27, I will discuss a new topic, it is called material
selection in engineering design ok. This topic is very important topic for the design purpose.
For example, if you want to convert your idea into your practical or product, then what you
will do? You will require a material to fabricate it ok.
So, you know that in universe we have a variety of materials are available. So, to do the
appropriate metal for your particular product, there some process is needed. So, in this
module you will learn these things. So, in that this kind of things we will discuss in, we will
discuss in our coming module ok, and structure of this module is following.
First we will study some engineering materials and properties, then their classification of
some materials, then again general properties of materials. Then since in this module we will
focus only on mechanical aspect of designing, so we will study some in brief mechanical
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properties; such for example, stress strain diagram and etcetera. And after that we will study
material selection process.
Now metal classification, in this you, we know that there are a variety of materials are
available in our universe, and these are broadly classified in these groups; metals, polymers,
ceramics, glasses, elastomers hybrids ok. Metals; metals are generally in crystalline in nature,
and the items of the metals are held together by metallic bonding. These metals are very
strong and hard, and some materials are ductile, some materials are very brittle in nature, and
we will we will a study these things in detail in coming in next slide ok.
Now ceramic; ceramics are also it may be crystalline or non crystalline. And here molecules
are bonded with ionic or covalent bond. Ceramics are very higher strength, of course, it
possesses very higher strength while in compression ok. Ceramics are generally a brittle in
nature. So, when you will apply a tension in this metal so, there will be a, it will fracture
immediately compared to, in compression to metal a fracture will take place in a very a real
time.
So, and this material, also these materials are electrically insulating, chemical inert etcetera.
Polymers it is made with many repeating ‘mers’ to form very large molecule, and molecules
are bonded with covalent bonding molecules and several elements are present in polymers
such as oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen etcetera.
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Polymers are generally in ductile in nature. And now elastomer; elastomer is also a polymer
with viscoelasticity. Elastomers are generally very weak, their inter molecular forces are very
weak. Elastomers you can take example of rubber, for metals we have a variety of metals
available in our universe, such as aluminum, iron, bronze etcetera. Now materials are
discovered, variety of metals are discovered with a time ok.
So, we, we can see from in this table that is a variety of materials gold, copper, bronze, iron
and their advent time is mentioned here. So, in stone age that is the 10000 BC, and here some
materials were discovered that was the ceramic wood, skin, fibers, woods and stone were
used as for their armory.
And in a bronze age, bronze area; that is the time period between 4000 to 1000 BC, here
bronze was discovered. In iron age, iron age lies between 1000 to 1620 BC, and here you can
say irons, cast iron and some natural glue from the tree was discovered. And cast iron was
first was dominant in 1620s and we, but you can see from this plot that these materials.
The use of these materials continuously decreased with the time, and as well as their new
materials was discovered at a span of time, depend on type, time see. And see we can see that
in 18 50 steel was discovered; steel it is another form of iron, purified form you can say.
Now, after that from the 1940-60s now people approaches towards the light alloy, lighter
alloy, hybrid alloy.
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Hybrid alloy, it consists of two or more materials. These materials are light. The main
properties of these materials are light in weight and higher strength and from the past few
decades, we can see that there the use of polymer based materials has increased enormously,
as well as composites and ceramics ok, but a comparison with metals the polymer, the use of
polymers increased at higher pace ok.
From this chart we can see that there are a lot of materials are available to design a any, any
component of a system or as or you want to, or a machine something like that. So, we have a
variety of choice. So, in these materials each material has some specific property, some
specific quality and some disadvantages also, but to choose a proper material from this chart,
it is a very difficult for a design engineer to which material will be suitable for our product.
So criteria 1; we can choose or select material on the basis of properties of materials ok. What
are the properties? They are, each material possesses physical properties, chemical properties,
thermal, mechanical, electrical, optical properties etcetera. The physical property, first we
will discuss physical properties of a material.
Physical properties describe the state of material which is observable or miserable, you can
take property physical property of any material by your naked eye, density, melting point,
boiling point etcetera are the some of the commonly known physical property. Suppose that
density, what is the density? Density of any material can be defined as mass per unit volume
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ok, and amount of the mass content by unit volume of the material. If any material has a,
suppose that iron, iron has a higher density than aluminum.
It means if you fabricate something using iron that weight will be higher. So, suppose that if
you take a constraint that material part should be a lighter in weight, lighter in weight. So,
you will have to choose very intelligently which material will be, will be suitable for your
product. Melting point, melting point is the temperature at which the material changes its
state from solid to liquid.
For example, iron has a melting point of about 1530 degree Celsius ok, while aluminum has a
melting point around 660 degrees Celsius. So, you can see that at 660-degree Celsius
aluminum will get melt, melted away at 660 degrees Celsius. While at 660-degree Celsius
iron will be present in solid form. Boiling point; boiling point is the temperature at which the
material changes its states from liquid to gaseous.
So, boiling point, you know everybody knows that boiling point of water; that is the 100
degree Celsius, it means at 100-degree Celsius liquid will start boiling and there will be it, it
will start converting into gaseous media. These are the main permanent physical property of
any material density, melting point, boiling point etcetera.
Now, we will talk about thermal property. Every, each material has thermal property. What is
the thermal property? It is a thermal property means transfer of heat through media; that is the
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conduction, it can be, and heat transfer can take place using conduction, convection,
radiation.
In conduction what happens, suppose that you have a one metal slab of thickness x, and at
this point suppose that here is a one boiler and it emits heat and temperature at this place is
T1 and. So, what happens, that temperature gets the, when heat will get transferred through
this slab, so at in this way and there will be a temperature of T2.
So, if you want to calculate the, what will be the heat exact amount of heat transfer then what
you, it is calculated using Fourier’s law of heat conduction; that is the Q is equal to K into A
into dT by dx, where K is the thermal conductivity, A is the area of the slab and delta T
change in temperature, and d x is the thickness.
dT
Q=KA
dX
Thermal conductivity; thermal conductivity is a property of material and it defines as a rate at

which the heat is conducted through a solid at a steady state. Steady state means at time
constant, time will be constant at the steady state, and another property is the in thermal
property of any material is a specific heat, and specific heat of a material is defined as the
quantity of heat energy required to increase the temperature of a unit mass of the material by
one degree, means the amount, how much energy is required to increase; suppose that one
this is your part, one sample is there at temperature 10 degree Celsius.
And if you are heating this sample and temperature gets increased to 11 degree Celsius. So,
there is a increase in one degree Celsius. So, how much heat is required to increase the
temperature of sample to the 11-degree Celsius means one difference is, net difference is one
degree Celsius. So, that amount is the specific heat. Another property is the third property is
thermal diffusivity and thermal diffusivity it is the measures the rate of transfer of heat of a
material from the hot side to the cold side.
It means it signifies the any material, how fast it transfers the heat, and it can be calculated as
thermal diffusivity is signifying alpha, alpha is equal to k by rho c, where k is the thermal
conductivity, and c is your a specific heat of material and rho is the density of the material.
So, if you know density of material specific heat and thermal conductivity, then you can
easily calculate the thermal diffusivity of that particular material.
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This table shows some common thermal properties of selected materials and you can see for
metals such like; for example, aluminum, the specific heat is 0.21, forecast iron it is 0.11,
copper 0.092 kilo Kelvin, Kelvin per gram into Kelvin thermal conductivity, if you see the
aluminum at 0.22 joule per second mm, forecast iron 0.06 for zinc 0.112.
So, in comparison, what you are getting aluminum thermal conductivity of aluminum is
higher than thermal conductivity of cast iron also, thermal conductivity of copper is higher
than these two. So, it means will conduct heat at faster rate as compared to aluminum and
cast iron. Some another ceramic you can say alumina is 0.029, for polymer. Polymers are
very poor in heat conducting.
Now some other properties of material are that optical property. An optical property, it
depends on wavelength and types of material, another parameter which can affect the optical
property is the incidence angle; suppose that here is your one material and light is coming
like this; that is the theta i, theta i is the angle of incidence that is make to the perpendicular
to your material, and it’s get reflected that is the reflection, and that is the transmission
incidence ok.
So, algebraically incident intensity Ii plus I r plus I t will be 1. Some metals are very
reflective in nature; some materials are transfer very poor reflex very poor reflection. So,
these properties are important if you want to design, suppose that microscope for example,
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microscopic lens. So, this optical property will play predominant role, but in this module we
will focus only on our mechanical part, mechanical properties.
So, mechanical property, this describes the behavior of material in terms of deformation and
resistance to deformation under specific mechanical loading condition and these are the
various properties of comes under a mechanical property that is a strength, yield strength,
ultimate tensile strength, fracture strength, ductility, Young’s modulus, Poisson ratio,
hardness. We will study in detail these things in coming slide ok.
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First we will start from the stress strain diagram ok. Here what we are doing, we have, we
take 1 bar solid bar of length L naught, initial length L naught and an axial force F is applied
on both side and there is a that is the call tensile loading, tensile load is applied on both side
axially and what happens after sometimes, when the load is applied, the material which
stretched, axial and length is increased.
You can say that there is an increase in length due to the tensile load ok, and for that and
corresponding changes in displacement by using your load applied, one plot is generated in
machine that is the tensile machine. Here you can see that these are the various points in this
plot A, B, Y, C, D, E and each point has some significance ok. So, we will discuss point by
point.
Generally, stress has a unit of Newton per meter square, and each stress versus strain. Here O
A that is called proportionality limit, means when you will apply a load on a bar. So, the
length will increase axially, but after stop. Suppose that you have an after removing of this
load F. So, what will happen, again this distance, it is just like a spring in nature.
This deflection will again a bar will come into its original position, it will return back up to
that point O A, and this point follows the Hooke’s law, it’s a linear in nature. It means
suppose that if you are applying a load and deflection elongation takes place so low and up to
this point ok, and this point is somewhere between before the point A, and after stop applying
the load what will happen, the load will follow the same path and it will come sit at origin its
origin O O dash.
So, O suppose that it will o and this point is O dash. So, it will come from O dash to O that is
the proportionality limit, and for B up to point B; that is the elastic limit, means after removal
of load applied load, what will happen, it will again material, length of material will come to
its original position, but it will not follow Hooke’s law. So, up to this point B these are the
elastic, elastic region ok.
So, if you are applying a load on any material, this diagram is for mild steel, every material
will have a different kind of stress strain diagram for in. In case of mild steel, you suppose
that if you are applying a load somewhere up to, somewhere this one. So, what will happen
after removal of load? metal will come into its original position. So, that will be the elastic
region. So, there is another point that is called Y Y, the location of Y can be traced from that
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like that, you just take a 0.2 percent distance, suppose that this is the strength stress and
parallel to OA and wherever it will intersect that point is the yield point ok.
So, this is 0.2 percent of the strain, and yield strength can be defined as stress at which
material begins to plastically deform. It means from there that; that is called y is the upper
yield point and C is the lower yield point, and from C we can see that the stress value is seen
to be rise again from point C here by hm, and from materiality. So, actually what happens
from beyond C their material is getting strained hardened, this region it means load beyond y,
elongation occurs at much faster rate, you can see that, there is a small change in the strength
the value of a stress is very high ok.
Suppose that you are taking this much strain here in from Y to D region, in Y to D region, in a
small deflection elongation, the change in stress is high. So; that means, elongation occurs at
very much faster rate. And after reaching point D, after reaching point D what happens,
making the shape of the bar gets start changing like that, you can say that naking takes place,
making, making formation, it starts from point D and this point is called ultimate tensile
strength.
It can be defined as the proper strength of any material up to which the material can sustain
their shape in a plastic deformation and if you are continuously elongation is you are
applying load then what will happen, the stress sudden steep fall in stress beyond point D,
means making will take place, and this cross sectional area at place where fracture will take
place, it gets reduced and. So, that up to at point E fracture will take place.
So, main motto of this steady stress strain diagram is that, what, suppose that if you want to
design something and for a suppose that you are making a beam for a bridge ok. So, you will
have to consider each materials ultimate tensile ultimate strength. So, that up to up to which
that material can sustain itself; otherwise what will happen if you will suppose that if you are
to join something material, which have a, which cannot sustain much load so that what will
happen fracture will take place.
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So, there is another term which comes in stress strain diagram that is called engineering stress
strain and true stress strain. There is a difference between engineering stress strain and true
stress strain ok. First engineering stress strain, first I will discuss engineering stress strain.
Actually what happens during calculation of, stress is what, engineering stress can be defined
as force that is applied in axial direction to the cross sectional area of the beam here; that is
the cross sectional area of each A naught and force is F engineering study that is the A naught
is original cross sectional area, before applied any load, and engineering a strain is defined as
change in length due to applied load divided by original length.
So, what is the change in length suppose that first bar length is L naught and after applied
load length for particular law at a particular load, length is L. So, change in length will be L
naught minus L naught divided by L naught theta L naught minus L, where L is equal to
length at any point during the elongation. So, Hooke’s law of linearity for up to the for point
O A what will happen, stress is directly proportional to strain and E to E, where E is the
modulus of elasticity, it is a measure of the inherent stiffness of material.
l−l 0 l
e=
l0 ( )
= −1
l0
Now we will study true stress strain relation. What is the true stress? Which is the ratio of
force per unit area; that is the actual area, means for a particular load F length is increased to
L and cross sectional area is change to A ok. So, that is sigma is equal to F by A, A is the
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actual area at particular load, and true strain, true strain is equal to since deformation
elongation takes place in continue continuously on applying of load.
So, we can write that using same thing change in length divided by original length. So,
suppose that first initial length was L naught and final length is L at particular load and
change in length what is d L and initial, and if you will solve log L by L naught. So, if we
substitute the value of L naught from here, so what will happen 1 plus e, this is the relation
between true strain versus and injuring strain, means two strain is equal to ln one plus
engineering strain. Similarly, we can derive an expression for two stress versus engineering
stress.
l
ε =∫
l0
dl
l
=ln
[]
l
l0
=ln ( 1+ e )
σ =S (1+ e )
Now I will discuss some more mechanical properties like ductility or ductility that is the
ability of a material to plastically deform without failure ok, and if you want to quantify
ductility then you will have to measure either percentage elongation or area reduction. What
is the percentage elongation? It is the ratio of difference between final length minus L naught
divided by L naught, where Lf is equal to length of a specimen at fracture, what happens
initially length, initial length is L naught.
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l f −l 0
elongation=
l0
So, after fracture Lf, after fracture just divide both part and measured length of actual length
of that specimen, so that is the length of a specimen at fracture. So, from here this formula
you can calculate the percentage elongation of that specimen. Another is area reduction, again
this is initial cross sectional area minus cross sectional area of specimen after fracture divided
by original cross sectional area. So, first suppose that cross sectional area was A naught and
now cross sectional area is Af.
A 0− A f
Area reduction=
A0
So after measuring the cross sectional area of the, actual cross section area after fracture of
that specimen, you can calculate area reduction. So, these both terms define the ductility of
any material. Now other properties hardness of the material hardness, it is the resistance of
material against abrasion or indentation.
Generally, Rockwell and Brinell test are used for hardness testing. Now the toughness, it
measures the resistance of a material to the propagation of a crack. These are some
mechanical properties which are very important during the consideration of selection of
material.
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Now, we will do some problem solving example ok, here you can see that problem statement
is that, a tensile test uses a test specimen that has a gauge length of 50 mm and an area of 20
mm squared; that is a cross sectional area during the test, the specimen yields under a load of
98,000 Newton. This corresponding gauge length is equal to 50.23 mm this is the 0.2 percent
yield point ok, the maximum load is 168000 Newton that is a reached at gauge length of 64.2
mm. So, determined yield strength modulus of elasticity and tensile strength.
So, what are the things given that gauge length of 50 mm, L naught is equal to 50 mm A
naught is equal to 200 mm square yield Y is equal to, means specimens yields under a load of
98,000 Newton. So, if you want to calculate yield strength, what this yielding, correspond
load corresponding to a yielding point that is the 98,000 Newton and the cross sectional area
of the specimen is 200 mm square.
So, that will be 490 mega Pascal or either you can write Newton per mm square. Now
modulus of elasticity; modulus of elasticity we can calculate by Hooke’s law, what is this
states yield strength, Y is equal to young’s modulus into strength, this one. So, E is equal to Y
by E, so what is the strength. So, first we will see ordinal gauge length was 50 mm,
corresponding gauge length is 50.123 mm and there is a 0.2 percent yield point. Earlier I had
discussed for yield point as a parallel line is calculated, so 0.2 percent that is the yield point
0.2 percent ok.
So, if you calculate the strength, the change in length will be 50.23 minus 50, an original
length. So, in this case originally, what will be original length. Actually we omitted this that
amount of strength zero, for consider taken, we take 0.2 percent strength for locating the yield
point, so we will have to take consider of that thing. So, 50 minus 0.002 percent on
calculating that will be 0.0026 ok.
Now young’s modulus E will be yield strength is 490 and strain is 0.0026 that will be equal to
188.5 into 10 to the power 3 Mega Pascal. Now we calculate tensile strength. So, tensile
strength of any material that is equal to, load corresponds to ultimate point divided by area of
a specimen, that will be equal to area of a specimen is 200, 840 Mega Pascal; that is the
tensile strength
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In the next problem, again what saying in previous problem the determine the percent
elongation, if the specimen necked to an area 92 mm square determine the percent reduction
area, to will use same data 50 mm gauge length cross sectional area 200 mm square, and on
basis of that we will calculate percentage elongation. A percentage elongation with the length
at fracture after fracture minus initial gauge length divided by L naught. Here and up to
maximum 64.2 mm, not fracture you can say ultimate strength, 64.2 given minus 50 divided
by 50 it is equal to, means this material can elongate 28.4 percent without any failure.
l f −l 0 64.2−50
elongation= = =28.4
l0 50
Area reduction.
Again initial cross section area minus area at actual cross sectional area minus divided by a
naught that is equal to, it was earlier 200 minus the specimen neck to an area 92 mm square,
its 200 minus 92 divided by 200 that is equal to 0.54 in the percentage that you can
A 0− A 200−92
Area reduction= = =54
A0 200
write 54 percent.
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Till now you have already learned the various properties; for example, mechanical properties,
physical property, electrical properties, thermal properties as well as optical properties ok.
These properties are instrumental while selection in of material in your design purpose ok.
Now I am closing this module 26 and 27, and the incoming next module I will discuss about
what the steps involved in the selection of a material ok.
Thank you thank you very much
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Design Practice
Lecture - 28 and 29
Material selection in Engineering Design
Hello, welcome to the course Design Practice. in lecture Module 26 and 27, You have already
learned about what are the properties involved in a selection of a material. Now, in the
module 28 and 29, you will learn what are the steps involved in a selection of a material. I
will continue to discuss about material selection in engineering design, ok. For selection of
any material, it has any material has a lot of attributes; that attribute you can say that density,
strength, cost, resistance to bear, resistance to corrosion so on and so forth.
So, for a design demand a certain profile of this things. For example, a lower density
material, that material should be a lower density and higher strength and cost should be
modest, at modest price.
So, here for a designing of any engineering component, it depends on various components,
sub components that is called function, selection of materials, etc.
Choosing of manufacturing process specifying a shape and these all attributes are cross
linked, inter linked to each other, ok. So, for selection of any material, it starts with a
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function. What is the function? What is the function? It means suppose that if you want to
make a frame of a cycle, so what will be the function of that frame, accordingly. So, this
function of that frame will influence the selection of material, and after that suppose that you
we you know that frame of any cycle, it carries load of a person or anything, ok. So, that for
we have to keep in mind load carrying capability. So, that is the main function of your object.
So, we you will have to choose accordingly material of because each material cannot support
the load requirement that way we can say that function influence the selection of material
again.
Now, after selection of material what happens it influences the manufacturing process,
suppose that you select selected an aluminum for frame it poses lighter in weight and higher
strength. So, for fabrication of frame which is to be made of aluminum what will the
appropriate manufacturing process and process are, lot of process are there manufacturing
process are there suppose that casting and it is a sub classification of casting is sand casting
metal casting etcetera of again another process is machining is done by turning operation
another operation you can say milling, joining for example, welding and welding as a several
types suppose that arc welding, gas welding etcetera.
So, to fabricate an aluminum frame of for a cycle you will have to choose appropriate
manufacturing process again this process influences the shape means suppose that shape of a
frame can be of various type this type or you can say this type. So, now this particular shape
may be may not be possible to fabricate in by each process ok. So, you will have to select
appropriate everything. So, again this completes the all four components function of your
component selection of material and manufacturing process and shape these combining these
things, you can select appropriate or you can say you can select or fabricate with appropriate
material and shape. So, in this course I will focus only on the selection of material although,
the other parameters are also necessary for a design of an engineering component, but I will
focus only on selection of material.
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So, question is that how do we select the appropriate material for a given part and this is very
important question because we have a variety of materials in market.
Each material has a specific property and cost of materials are vary. So, keeping these points,
the selection of material is not easy. Material selection is a step in the process of designing
any physical object, ok.
Suppose that you are designing of a pen. So, first step will be how, first function what will be
function of pen? First question, then after designing the function of pen what will be material
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used in fabrication of pen, and we will have to keep in mind cost availability functionality
and properties like mechanical physical etcetera. So, metal selection is a very crucial step in a
process of designing of any physical object.
I am going to explain metal selection while choosing, using a one case study.
Suppose that we are, we want to make a device to open a corked bottle. This is the wine
bottle and cork is placed on the top. So, these are the various possible ways to open the cork.
First what are the process axial traction you are going to pull the cork, top open the bottle.
Second, this is to remove it by shear traction. Suppose that you are applying something here
one force, so that it will get and if you will pull here. So, your cork will bottle will get open.
Third one is push out from below if you are applying a one force from bottom side, then also
it may take out from the bottle. Third one is pulverizing it. So, it is very time consuming and
not a good idea and to bypass it all together by knocking the neck of the bottle is this is the
worst idea we can think of because the things inside the bottle may be very costly or a
precious thing for a moment. So, you cannot break the bottle from the neck and to get that
liquid.
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So, I am taking only three ways to open the bottle. These are the and possible way to open
that bottle working principal suppose that if you want to open from by pulling the cork. So,
what you can do is, you just you will put a screw here, and it will up to the corks bottom
portion and then, you will pull it. So, then cork will get removed. Second one you will make
an arrangement, so that it will like just like here hollow thin tube at this portion, we will get
inserted into cork and then after you will pull it.
So, that cork will get removed from the bottle and third portion is that you will make a
hydraulic pressure kind of piston cylinder arrangement that is called alignment to apply a
force from the bottom side, so that cork will come out from the bottle ok, but the embodiment
of the figure identifies the functional requirement of each component of the device which
might be expressed in statements like a cheap screw to transmit a prescribed load to the cork,
ok. It means your attributes for the designing of openers what is the cheap screw, it means
cost. Second one is a light lever to carry a prescribed bending moment means light in weight
a slender elastic blade that will not buckle when driven between the cork and bottle neck.
It means that is the mechanical property and a thin hollow needle stiff and strong enough to
penetrate a cork. Again it is a mechanical property. So, this your design attributes to make a
cork opener.
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So, here what we can do that for previous one to make axial pull, this may be a possible way
to open the cork. So, here what how it is made one dumbbell shape handle and at centre there
is a screw and it will go through the cork. First there will be a you can handle, you can apply
compressive low force on screw handle. So, the screw will get inserted into the cork, then
you just it will rotate and make a pull, so that it will get open. Second thing, the other three is
that is the levered pull that is the gear lever pull either you can apply a make a lever
arrangement. So, that will give that portion will get fixed at top portion, top bottom, top
corner portion of the cork and then, you will apply a force.
So, due to the torsion, it will get removed. Third one is the geared pull. Here there is a gear
arrangement, so that when you will rotate handle, due to this arrangement what will happen
this gear one will rotate and it will transmit power to that gear and it will help you to get
removed that cork from the bottle and for first portion spring assisted pull, a spring assisted
pull is meaning your applying a force. So, due to the spring force, these are the two springs s
1 and s 2. What will happen there will be compressive load will apply and after rotating that
handle, so that it will get opened. So, you can see that they have four possible ways to make a
cork opener, either you can use a direct pool or either you use geared pool or use spring or a
geared pull spring assisted pool, so direct pool. So, these are the four way to open bottle.
Now, after deciding the best option of cork opener, what you will think now material what be
the material of each component. So, again then metal selection comes into the picture.
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So, here are some properties of the materials. So, first general properties of metal. I will talk
about metal. So, common metals are steel, aluminum, cast iron, magnesium, zinc, copper,
lead etcetera. These things, these metals can be used to make your cork opener, and these
properties, these metals have a specific several property high electrical conductivity, high
heat conductivity ductile easily deformed, high thermal shock resistance suitable for
structural and load bearing application alloy utilized for development of high performance
metal. So, there are variety of properties for these kind of metals, but to select a particular
material, what you will have to look into these things.
Suppose that you are making a handle, cork handle. So, there will be you will use your and to
make it rotate clock wise either or anti-clock wise, this property is what required. These are
the non irrelevant property ok, but ductile. So, this is also not required, ok. So, appropriate
accordingly you are though according to your functionality, you can select your material.
Second property of ceramics, these are the common ceramics available. We have bricks glass
refectory and abrasive ceramics and these materials have several properties, low electrical
conductivity, low heat conductivity, brittle in nature. Ceramics are very brittle, very high
brittleness, you can say, high wear resistance in high temperature, application corrosion
resistance generally used as insulator and load bearing structure and biocompatible materials
and properties of polymers, common properties are elastomers.
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We have discussed in earlier modules plastic adhesive. Plastic and these are produced by
polymerization of organic molecules into large molecular structure and it contains oxygen,
nitrogen, hydrogen. These elements are present in polymers, ok. Low electrical conductivity,
low thermal resistance, low strength lighter material, but strength of polymers is lower
compared to metal or ceramics, but in a particular part, strength may not be important criteria.
So, strength may not be important criteria. So, that at places, those we can choose polymer
for fabrication of those parts, but we have a variety of polymers which now we have varieties
like Ultem, polycarbonate. These are the very higher strength. These are very high strength
material and it is used in various industries such like aeronautical, again in a motor bike
fabrication, auto mobile etcetera.
Other materials are composites. Composites are made of two or more materials, ok. From
past several decades, the significant in research has been made in area of composites because
by if you are supposing that one parent material may not possess all the properties you
required. So, if you will mix another material with this first material, so that is the composite.
You will make a composite, so that your goal will get achieved because after making
composite, the property of hybrid material will be higher than your parent material, ok.
These materials are carbon. For example, carbon, fiber and post polymer fiber reinforced and
these poly composites are lighter in weight and very strong, high fracture toughness, high
thermal, soft resistance and so on. So, you can see that from this slide there are a metal
ceramic polymer composites and each material have variety of proper properties. So, you
have to you will get confused when you will be going to select your material basis on only
properties of the material, ok. So, you will have to think beyond of this.
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So, basic steps in metal selection process, now we will discuss how will select material and in
a stepwise manner, ok. First step is translation. Translation it express design requirements as
constraint and objective means first you will have to define function and objective of your
design that is the translation. Second step is screening; so screening because you have a
variety of materials in your stock. So, the eliminate materials that cannot do the job, suppose
that if you are making an electrical electric insulator product.
So, you cannot use metal, you cannot use cast iron. So, this material you can easily you can
eliminate. These kinds of things, material you can easily eliminate on basis of your
requirement. Then, ranking, after elimination of some material, there will be also still there
will be few materials. Now, we have to rank them, find material that best do the job suppose
that and you after screening you have one, two, three, four materials and these all materials
can fulfill your requirement. Then, it is very confused situation which material I am going to
select, ok.
So, there is a way to how can select best out of four materials. So, that is the ranking and
fourth step is supporting info, ok. After selection of your material, you just compare these
material properties and with respect to your requirement in handbooks expert systems, web
page journals etcetera, so that to confirm whether you have selected right material or not, ok.
First in steps in material selection process, first I will discuss translation process.
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In a translation translate design requirements, first you define what has the, what are your
requirements to design anything, ok? First you will have to decide your requirements and
function of that product which is which you are going to design, ok. So, in for translating the
design requirements, there are four parameters that is the function, objective, constraint and
free variable function. It means what does the component do to define the function of product
again objective what essential condition must be met, for example, if you are making a cycle
frame.
So, the main function of these frame is to carrying a load. So, you will have to essential, so
what will be the essential condition to carry a load up to. Suppose that 100 kg. Now, what is
to be maximized or minimized constraint? What is the constraint you have because in a real
value program, always there will be constraint with your objective. So, we within you in a
constraint environment, you will have to optimize your optimum function and fourth one is
free variable. This is to identify which design variable are free. Free variable means these are
very independent variables and it you can, it does not affect your selection process. So,
suppose that if you it does not affect the material selection process, but it helps in selection
ok. So, we have four parameters function objective constraint and free variable to translate
design requirements, ok.
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So, I am going to explain translation using one example, ok. We are going to select a material
for a light and strong tie road. There is a road of length L and there are cylindrical road of
specified length L to carry a tensile force F without failure, ok. This is the and it is to be a
minimum mass, ok. These are the requirements of your problem, function. What is the
function of this rod? Tie rod to withstand an axial tensile load of F here, load on statement
you can see that a specified length L to carry a force F objective to minimize the mass of the
tie rod because it is to be of minimum mass. So, we will have to minimize the mass of the tie
rod. That is the objective we will have to keep in mind. Fourth one is constraint. Constraint L
is specified means the length of tie rod is fixed. You cannot change the length of your tie rod.
Then, second must not yield under axial tensile load F. It means you will have to design tie
rod, such that it can carry a load and sustain it. It is shape and size, so that failure will not
occur. That is the constraint. Now, free variable is the cross sectional area. Cross sectional
area is not mentioned. It means you can choose any dimension of cross sectional of your tie
rod material, you can choose any material, ok. Now, that is the material any, but using within
this environment objective of minimizing the mass of the tie rod and these constraints which
material will be good that is we will have to decide.
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So, mass of the tie rod, what will be the mass of the tie rod mass is a density into length into
cross sectional area density. Its unit is kilogram per meter cube. It is a material property, ok. L
is a length of your tie rod and A is the cross sectional area of your tie rod. So, from this
equation you can see that rod and L pho is material property and material is supposed that for
particular material, it is constant and L is also fixed, so that only variable is A. So, m to
minimizing the mass can be reduced by reducing the cross sectional area because m is
directly proportional to area.
So, if you will reduce the cross sectional area, then mass of the tie rod will get reduced, but
there is a constraint. The section area must be sufficient to carry the tensile load F because
you are not going to only design the tie rod because here one constraint is that you are
applying a load also axial load f. So, suppose that if you will reduce the cross section of your
tie rod, what will happen? It will get thinner and the load carrying capability capacity will get
reduced. So, what is the constraint? The section area must be sufficient to carry the tensile
load f. That is the requiring that F by A is lesser than or equal to sigma y. Sigma y is yield
strength of any material. We discussed earlier module what the yield strength is. So, if you
reduce now eliminate free variable.
F
≤σy
A
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So, what we are doing, we are substituting the value of cross sectional area from here. What
will be a is equal to m by rho L.
FρL
≤σy
m
So, by after putting this we are getting this 1f rho L by m is equal to sigma y and finally this
one. So, here you can see that in this expression rho is a material property, L is fixed, F is
fixed here, L and F are fixed. So, only variable is that rho and sigma y variable. Now, our free
variables are, what is our free variable? It is any material and any material. So, now that
means, mass can be minimized by maximizing the ratio sigma y by rho, it means if we select
a material such that their density is lower and strength is higher, then what will happen the
mass of will minimized.
See here what we did we just formulate our requirement and we converted into what will be
the we just reduced our domain to selection of a, for selection of material. So, what is the
domain? Our domain now density the material which has a lower density and higher strength,
then if you will use that those materials, then our mass of tie rod will get reduced.
Now, this is the material property chart. So, here our goal is to maximizing the ratio sigma y
by sigma. This material chart is proposed by Michal Ashby and in this chart, we can see that
their variety of materials and it is plotted against strength verses density on log plot and here
you can see that for suppose that if you want to select material for lower density that is
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suppose we are that I am going select for 0.1 and higher strength, then what material will be
good for us rigid polymer, this one foam here variety of foams are different types of foams
are available.
So, here variety of this is the material property chart from this chart, we can easily select we
groups of material that can be used for fabrication of your product.
Another that is the strength verses density. Another plot is Young’s modulus verses density,
ok. Here you can also, you can formulate your problem in function of Young’s Modulus and
density, so that you can select appropriate material. Using this plot here you can see for a
particular suppose that density is one, you are taking one milligram per meter cube and for
that vertical line, and if you are going to select higher material which has Young’s modulus of
one Giga Pascal ok, then your domain will be suppose that E should be equal to one Giga
Pascal requirement is such like such kind of things and density should be lower or equal to
one milligram per mega gram per meter cube.
Then, what will be your search region? This will be your search region. So, you can see that
you just omitted lot of materials from this chart and only now we have only group of few
materials, ok. Now after that you can again you can select most appropriate material in next
steps.
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After deciding your requirement and defining everything objective function and your
constraint and then, after second step comes out that is the screening, screening of material.
In earlier program problem our goal was to how we will reduce the mass of tie rod and we
concluded that it can be minimized by maximizing the yield strength by density ratio, ok.
Now, after getting these things, we will have to screen the material which can group of
material which can satisfy this requirement, ok.
Now, screening the starting point is the entire range of engineering materials or is that we I
showed you in very first slide in lecture module 26, there are variety of materials are there to
fabrication process, in a fabrication process. So, we cannot look every material for our
fabrication of our product, ok. Now, at this stage what we will have to do first we will have to
open up channels in different direction, ok. It means if suppose that if you are going in only
one direction suppose that for lighter, you need lighter material.
So, if you will select only keep in mind only this thing material which is very light in weight,
so that I can make our product with those materials. So, that was not a good idea. We will
have to consider another such that there is strength. Strength should be higher this strength
property, so that you will have to open your channels in different multiple direction, so that
you can get your appropriate material for fabrication. For example, a steel may be the best
material for one design concept while a plastic is best for a different concept even though the
two designs provide similar function. It means steel and plastic. The part made with either a
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steel or plastic have a same functionality, but different properties, ok. So, you will have you
will have to choose either plastic or a steel on basis of your requirement, ok.
Now, the importance of this phase is that it creates alternatives without much regard to their
feasibility, ok. Here you have selected only into 2-3 material. A steel plastic this kind of
things, but still you have not achieved your goal because these are different, this phase is
different, ok. So, still they have a no feasible analysis has been done. Now till now, first. So,
there are various methods of initial screening of solution. First rigid material and process
requirements cost per unit property method, Ashby method, Dargies method and there are
variety of more methods are available for initial screening of your material selection.
First I will discuss rigid materials and process requirements.
Here initial screening of materials can be achieved by first classifying their performance
requirement into team two main category. First is rigid or go-no-go requirement soft or
relative requirement, ok. Rigid requirement means suppose that if you going to make a
electrical insulator, so that rigid requirement is that electrical insulation, the material that
should be electrically insulated, ok. So, you cannot use metal and alloy. So, simply you just
eliminate those materials. So, that is the rigid requirements. Your rigid requirement is that
electrically non conductivity your rigid requirement. So, you simply just eliminate metals and
alloy. So, some significant portion of material list from a material is you just have eliminated
using only one rigid requirements, then first second is soft relative requirements, ok. Now,
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electrical insulator have a variety of material which poses electrical insulation. So, this is the
soft requirement. Now, you will have to suppose that a material a product, suppose that you
are going to make a product which is to be electrically non conducting and lighter in weight
with in expensive, ok. It means you have three requirements. You are going to make a product
which is electrically non conducting that is the hard requirement. Second thing lighter in
weight and fourth one is inexpensive, ok; so this thing cheaper materials, ok.
So, it may be variety of materials will be there in a short range of price, ok. Suppose that
material m1 has a cost 100 rupees and m2 has cost 105 rupees’ m3 cost of 95 INR. So, if you
are going to make a product which is to be used in highly sophisticated place, then these
difference in price is not much important as compared to this one electrically non-conducting,
ok. So, here this requirement is soft or relative requirements for this problem statement.
Now, second method is cost per unit property method. So, this method is important where
cost of the material plays significant role, ok. Suppose that I will explain this method using
one, taking one example.
Consider the case of a bar of a given length L to support a tensile force F. Suppose that there
is bar of length L and tensile force on both end is F; the cross sectional area is an of the bar.
So, that will be given by a is equal to s by s, where s is equal to sigma y divided by factor of
safety. Factor of safety is very important term in designing of mechanical design of material,
ok. So, you will have to consider that factor of safety it factors of safety increases, increase in
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factor of safety will increase material requirement amount of material requirement and cost.
So, you will have to select factor of safety very intelligently for your particular product which
is to be used in a certain operation, ok.
Now, the cost of the bar that is given by c dash is equal to c into m. M is the mass of that bar
or m we already explained in earlier slides. M is equal to rho into a into l and c is the cost of
the material per unit mass and rho is the density of the material. By simplifying, on
simplifying this, we get C rho F L by S that is the cost of the bar a. In the case of the tensile
member, the cost of unit strength C rho by S can be used for initial screening because here F
and L both are the fixed condition length of bar or is fixed. That is not going to be changed
and F, you are applying a load that is fixed you know the product which is to be used in a
particular operation, where that much force will be applied on that product, ok. So, that both
parameters are fixed F and A fixed.
CρFL
C' =C∗m=CρAL=
S
So, only this term C rho by S that is going to be the main term for in a cost property in
calculation. Now, here material with lower cost per unit strength are preferable because after
all you are whatever you are going to make this is for commercial purpose or you are going to
make benefit from the commercially benefited from the market, ok. So, this thing is very
important. Lower cost is very important parameter in material design selection. If an upper
limit is set for quantity C rho by S, then material satisfying this condition can be identified
and used as possible candidate for more detailed analysis in the next stage of the selection.
So, what you will do first, you will calculate cost of the cost of the cost per unit that material
and then, whatever you have think that our cost should be in that range. Suppose that x 1 INR
to x 2 INR, then material that should fall between this range, you are only you can select
those materials for your fabrication.
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Now, these are the sub standard formulas for cost per unit property calculation using different
loading condition. Suppose that there is solid cylinder in tension compression. Solid cylinder
in tension compression means this is the cylinder that is the tension and if you are applying a
load like this that is the compression solid cylinder in bending, here you are applying a load.
So, that it will get bend.
So, cost per unit strength will be this one, if you have density and you know density and yield
strength of your material, then you can use this formula. Either you can use this formula if
you are using Young’s Modulus, you can it means you can design either cost per unit strength
or cost per unit stiffness. Both are. E is the Young’s Modulus solid cylinder in torsion if you
are applying a twisting moment here like this, then what will be cost per unit strength solid
cylindrical bar as a slender column solid rectangle in bending thin walled cylindrical pressure
vessel. So, these are the different loading condition and cross section. The cost per unit
strength as well as cost per unit stiffness changes.
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So, I am going to explain using this case study. Here what program is statement is that
considered a structural member in the form of a simply supported beam of rectangular cross
section. The length of the beam is 1 meter, the width of a 100 mm there is no restriction on
the depth of the beam means depth of the beam is the free variable. So, the beam is subjected
to a concentrated load of 20 kilo newton which act on its middle. The main design
requirement is that the beam should not suffer plastic deformation as a result of load
application.
So, these are the requirement. The main design requirement is that what the requirement is
beam should not suffer plastic deformation. That is the constraint that is the free variable and
other parameters are given, on basis of that they have this table. They have calculated and
found that there are four materials which can full fill this criteria and candidate metal for the
beam and here for working stress and 117 mega Pascal for AISI 1020 AISI 4140 4222 mega
Pascal and these are already considered, they have consider factor of safety of 3, and specific
gravity of these materials are 7.86 2.7 2.11, and using this value and earlier formula this one
because this solid rectangle bending this formula will be suitable for our this question C rho
by S1 by 2 that is the cost per unit for this simply supported beam rectangular cross section.
They have calculated for each material. Cost of rate for each material now we can see that for
AISI 1020 is cost per unit 0.73. This is 0.731, 0.69, 2.26, but for four materials can fulfill our
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criteria. So, what material we will select again? So, the result shows that steel AISI 4140 are
equally suitable and while 16061 and epoxy, both are more expensive, ok.
Now, we are again we have omitted the material. So, now we are reduced our material range
of group of material in only two. So, we can select either two materials, ok. Till now we have
already learned about translation steps and the screening steps in this selection of material,
ok.
Now, I am closing this module and in the next module, I will discuss rest of the two steps that
is involved in a selection of material.
Thank you.
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Design Practice
Lecture – 30
Basic steps in Material Selection Process
Hello everyone. Welcome to the course of Design Practice. in lecture module 28 and 29 we
are discussing about what are the steps involved in a material selection. And till now we have
already learned about learned the first two steps that is the translation and screening methods
that is required in a material selection process. Now in this lecture module I will discuss
remaining two steps that is involved in a selection process and those steps are ranking method
and completion with existing information.
Now, we will discuss in this module about screening by applying attribute limits, that is the
Ashby’s method ok. In this method what happens suppose that in translation steps we got
some constant optimized value that material for particular application should be such that,
their elastic modulus is higher than 10 Giga Pascal and material density will be lower than 3
mega grams per meter cube.
So, they this value these values came from translation steps. Now after getting these value
now we have a variety of materials. So, how we will screen materials for our particular
requirement? So, we will take help of Ashby’s chart that is called Ashby’s material chart.
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Here what we can see that this is the plot between Young’s modulus verses density and the
other.
Log plot; so suppose that our constraint is E should be greater than 10 Giga Pascal. So, there
will be a line we can draw horizontal line parallel to x axis corresponding to 10 Giga Pascal.
Then another const value is we got density should be lesser than 3 mega gram per meter cube
and three will be some over here ok. So, again we will plot one line that will be parallel to y
axis ok. So, now you can see that in material chart here variety of material placed at different-
different location, woods, woods as an around 8 Giga Pascal Young’s modulus and density is
very low compared to polymers.
So, what we have density should be lesser than three then it means our region search region
will be this one ok. And whatever material will lie between in this region all material will be
selected candidate. Suppose that here one thing is mentioned that is composite; it means
selected candidate is composite for a particular requirement. it means now we what we are
saying we are eliminating ceramic metal polymers elastomers form wood etcetera these
materials we are we have simply eliminated using the Ashby’s material chart for particular
condition.
So, this is the simplest way to screening the material and or you can we can say that
eliminating the non usable material that should that that is not suitable for these materials are
not suitable for particular application ok. all though these have a very good property
polymers have a good property metal have a very high strength, ceramic has a very high
strength, but you can say see here that for particular reason these are the useless ok.
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Now, another material property chart you can take in a broad manner, you can take in this you
can see here for density verses strength are variety of materials lie between them, that is the
you can a this another type it is called material index another way it is called material index.
You can you can take help of this plot either Young’s modulus or density or strength verses
density plot. Here you can lot of materials are given here.
Now third step is the ranking after eliminating the several materials from the for our
requirement, now whatever material we found that in that search region suppose that was our
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search region in that plot, this that was our search region. So, whatever material suppose that
m1, m2, m3 material is there in this region. So, now, which one is based? So, rank one
objective defining performing matrix ok. So, what we will do, to decide which material will
be most suitable for our requirement? From we have m1, m2, m3 m4 four type of materials
which can full fill our criteria. So, there are several methods are available for to rank these
materials so that best can from that this ok.
So, first method is using ranking using mat material index. This is very simple way to
represent to rank the material. In this approach here you can see that for some for example,
for tie rod minimum weight is stiffness described. So, for tie rod and for lighter weight and
E
stiffed material the =C . And by taking log what we did? We got log E is equal to log
ρ
row plus and log C and same thing is plotted here ok.
Now I will tell you the significant of this line on material chart ok. Suppose that we had three
material m 1, m 2 and m 3 ok. So, what happens the line whatever material which lie on the
line that will be the suitable material for design, and the material which lie below the line
suppose for example, m1 that is the worst material. So, you do not use [FL] and for m3 which
is lied above the constant line, then this is called E by row is equal to C line is the better
materials.
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So, using this plot what we are doing? We are doing 2 kind of thing. First whatever the
material which is lie below the line with this constant line, we just discover these material
this is not usable for our design. So, now, we have two options m3 and m2 either we can use
m2 or m3. So, if suppose that we have m2 and m3, two materials ok. So, now, we will have to
check different criteria for selecting the best material either you can check cost or since your
goal is to make lighter in weight. So, accordingly we can choose the material either m 2 or m
3. This is the selection of material based on the material index.
Now second method of ranking is that weighted properties method. In this method what we
what did it in this method each material requirement is assigned a certain weight, depending
on its importance. And a weighted property value is obtained by multiplying the scaled value
of the property by the weighting factor.
These are the term which is to be used in this method weighting factor and scaling factor. And
the weighted property value of each material are then summed to give a performance index,
the material with the highest performance index is optimum for the application. So, in this
method our goal is to make a performance index using the weighting factor and scaling factor
ok. So, first here B is equal to scaled property.
So, numerical value of property and maximum value in the least, suppose that after screening
you found that there is a m 1, m 2 and m 3 material are suitable for design. Then what you
will do? You just judge these materials on property basis. So, you calculate for each material
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scaled property. So, how you will calculate? There is a numerical value of the property
suppose that each has a density ρ1 is equal to 100 kilo gram per meter cube ρ2 is equal
to.
Something like that 150 or ρ3 is equal to 500 kilograms per meter cube now. So, in this
list what is the maximum 500 kilo gram per meter cube? So, and if you are you are
calculating scale property for m 1 then what will happen? 100 into 100 divided by 500 ok.
For m 2 150 into 100 divided by 500 and for m3, 500 into 100 by 500. It means you are
scaling the all materials suitable materials ok. Now and you can also scale your material
based on the cost corrosion loss etcetera and you know cost is a very its predominant role in
martial selection ok. So, you cannot ignore the cost of the material. So, on based of cost what
will be desirable? A lower value is more desirable and the lowest values is rated as 100.
So, in the that case you will first you will find unit cost per strength means unit cost for to
fabricate to fabrication of each material m1, m2, m3 then suppose that your calculating you
are scaling the m1. for m1 material then minimum value in the least whatever the minimum
cost for any material, you will put here then numerical value of that particular material and
after from calculating using this formula, you can calculate the scale property now. So, then
after calculating the scale property, then what we will calc our goal is to calculate material
performance index ok. So, how we will calculate? We calculated already we calculated this
one the scale property now here as the line says weighted property method we. So, you will
have to assign certain weightage m1, m2 and m3 suppose that you decided that its weightage
will be 30, 40 percent and 30 percent ok.
And this weightage is based on martial chart or you can say material index now as well as
you as per your requirement. So, after that for each material you have a scale property as well
as weighting factor, then you just using this formula you calculate over all material
performance index ok.
Now you using you can make a table and you will find that B1 alpha1 B2 alpha 2, B 3 alpha
3 each for each material, you will get some value and from this table you can easily screened
out which material will be most suitable for you that is the weighted properties method. And
it requires for since for simplification process, we consider only 3 materials per in actual
practice you will get around 10 to 50 some something like that group materials, which are
suitable for your design. Then at that moment this calculation is very time consuming. So, for
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this purpose specific software and computer you can take help from computer. So, that you
can find or the most appropriated material for your design that is the ranking method. Now
after ranking after ranking you will have to again recheck ok.
Now till now what we did first we did translation, then after translation of program we just
screening out some material eliminate eliminated some material in a screening steps. After
that we ranked each selected material that is called ranking steps. And now you have a now
after following this steps you have optimized material or specific product.
So, but after optimization you achieved you got material appropriate material for your design,
but whether you have to ensure whether your selected selection is right you will have to
perform compression ok. Now question is that compression with what, how you will compare
your result ok. So, there are variety of variety of methods are available so, that you can
compare your result, but few results few methods are that is the step four ok.
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Here what you are doing? You are taking help of supporting information. A supporting
information here text book is available, here good for general information everything has a
certain advantage and disadvantage both some has table of properties not good for detailed
specification property, a useful first point of call.
And if you are taking help from data book, then one of the quickest source of detailed
information usually contained grades and specification as well as property small and perfectly
formed pocketbook like that, you can store it in a you can see this are in your iPad mobile
etcetera is it to navigate around internet site. Internet site can be real mine minefield that is
true, but lots of poorly presented information, because nobody has controlled internet every
can everybody can upload anything and may be good or wrong information or internet or if
you will do Google search. Then, it may be possible that you may find at a in a first attempt
wrong information and if you will compare your optimized result with that wrong
information so, that your design will be get failed. So, hard to find technical information best
to use non commercial sites; when you can also follow manufactures literature.
Suppose that you are going to make a pen so, that already variety of pen are available in
market which are fabricated by various industry. So, you can take help variable in quality and
usefulness often only cover their product. Usually do not compare materials because these
manufacture what they so, only their good thing not limitation or bad thing ok.
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So, if you will compare with your result with these data. So, you may find that a some may be
possible that you have done something good, but after comparing these literatures you will
you may think like a I have done some wrong thing. So, it can be biased good for final
selection before ordering ok.
So, their variety of sources are available to compare your result, but after that at the end we
can say that of expertise matters in material selection. So, that you can if you have a expertise
in this area. So, you can always choose a good material, for your fabrication of your product
ok.
Now this is a case study of a bike, this is a one real value problem. So, you can see goal is to
make a bike. So, what you based on your previous our discussion, what you have to do? First
you will have to decide what is a function of bike ok. So, what does the unction depends on
the types of bike? Variety of types of bikes are available or depending on your application
racing for racing purpose touring purpose mountain bike, commuter child and for each
purpose the design is there is a variety variation in designing of bicycle.
So, first you will have to decided whatever your designing what you’re going to fabricate,
what will be its main purpose. Suppose that you’re going to make a bike for mountain bike
ok. So, you will have design accordingly because in mountain bike there should be for
example, there should be some shock absorber here, tire should be higher thicker tire and
spore should be some thicker so, that strength will be high, gear system should be there ok.
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So, this kind of things matters in mountain bike. So, you will have to choose every. So, first
to make a mountain bike, what will have to do?
First we will have to divide it in a component. So, each cycle has a frame for wheel saddle
and suppose that for mountain bike you will have to gear assembly shock absorber. These
kinds of things are required for to fabricate a mountain bike ok. So, now suppose that if you
want to select a material, appropriate metal for frame, what you will do? Frame has a purpose
what purpose? Earlier I told you suppose that frame for your cycle. So, the purpose is to carry
a load as well as to support the wheels these kind of things are.
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So, material selection for frame; so for initial screening, when you will do screening initial
screening you will find that there are variety of materials and it will have used for fabrication
of frame and this frame is not a new because lot of companies already fabricating this frame
using either this material or a steel, aluminum, composite, but in your particular problem you
have to decide which material will be appropriate for your particular bike ok.
So, suppose that if you want to make a frame using steel. So, their properties of a steel are
strong stiff heavy, but cheap. aluminum, weaker, lighter more expensive than steel composite
strong stiff very light, but expensive to buy and fabricate ok. So, sometimes when your
design something for a specific purpose. So, sometime you will have to sacrifice your cost
ok. We will have to pay more to get a better thing ok. Here you can say that if you will use
aluminum rather than a steel. So, it will be lighter weight that will be very beneficial for
mountain bike, but cost is higher than the steel.
So, you will have to scarifies sometime cost. So, this is your again home assignment for
practice only. You just think or you will make a buy mountain bike and which material will
be appropriate for what component and using what I discussed with you there are four steps,
translation, material selection steps, then you do screening, then you do ranking and compare.
You can simply follow these steps to select materials for your mountain bike. So, you can do
it in home and this is for only practice purpose.
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Now I am going to close this lecture module for material selection in engineering design and
in next class we will discuss something else.
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Design Practice
Lecture - 31 and 32
Design of Work Systems
Hello everyone. welcome to the course Design Practice, lecture module 31 and 32, I am
Sanjay Kumar course TA, and again I will continue this week also for. And I will in this week
I will cover design of work system. This is a new topic and in this topic you will learn how to
design if your job, and your workshop or your method, process, and how you can continue
quantitatively measure the time which is required to process any product which in a
workshop.
In this module I will cover, first one that will be our what are the work system, what are the
elements of work system. And after that I will cover what are the all elements in detail, there
after we will do some problem solving.
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So, what is the work system work system is a physical entity that is a system that consists of
humane, information, equipment designed, to perform useful work. And it contributes to the
production of a product or delivery of a service. Suppose that if you want to develop a system
for your organization.
So, how you will have to develop a system for that, So, it includes everything, man power,
machine, money, and you will have to integrate all the things in such a way that there should
be some suitable system, that is required to develop a successful organization here for
example, here what you are saying worker operating a machine tool in a factory ok.
So, in factory in actual case in each machine m1, m2, m3, in every machine they are certain 2
to 4 or maybe one worker is assigned ok. So, for worker case you will have to satisfy their
need, robotic welding line in an automobile, plant parcel, service agent driving in a delivery
truck to make customer delivery designer working at a CAD workstation.
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So, you can see here these all elements, when you will integrate all elements, then there will
be a formation of work system here, elements of a work system here, you can see human
workers are involved equipment are required, and certain information are required so that
when you will integrate all the things, then it will get process out. And it will convert in a
useful work can be either in a form of product or service.
I will discuss work system in detail now. As a field of professional practice work system
includes three things, that is first one is job design, second one is work measurement, and
third one is work management. Job design job design is related to workers. This is the
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analysis and design of task and jobs involving human work activity, third one is work
measurement when worker perform some work, then how you will quantify their effort ok.
So, you will have to use certain methods. So, that you can quantify their effort, that is the
analysis of a task to determine the time that should be allowed to perform the task, and third
one is a work management ok. This is the actually more basically related to a management
ok. It is an administrative function that must be accomplished to achieve high productivity,
and effective supervision of workers ok.
So, first I will discuss job design what is job design, job design specifies work activity of an
individual or group, it involves specifying the content and method of job here, certain
questions must be asked before designing a job. So, what will be done, what are you going to
produce in your factory, what will be the job, who will do the job, and means it related to
workers type it may be either from technical background, non technical either you can divide
in a skilled or skilled and non-skilled labour, how the job will be done, and it means related to
your process.
Suppose that you are going to make a nut, fabrication of nut and bolt, then which machine
should be used that is the question ok, then other question is where the job will be done, that
is related to place, and this is very important in a work system, because if you want to
produce something that is not acceptable in that region for example, so if you want to open a
chemical plant. So, you cannot open this plant near to Agra, because environmental and
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pollution board you will you will not allow you to establish a company related to chemical,
that may harm to the Taj Mahal.
This is the one aspect another aspect a lot of aspects technical aspect is also there, to in a
selection of process, and place and last step is ergonomics. This is related to the comfort level
of human being ok, and I will discuss everything in detail in next slides, job design success.
If you are designing a job properly, that resulted in it for that you must be carried out by
experienced personal with the necessary training and background, consistent with the goals of
the organization, because experienced person is very important, because in last slide you seen
that there are a lot of factors are involved in a job design. So, experienced person matters.
And second thing consistent with goal of the organization means, whatever you are designing
for a work system, always keep in a mind that what is the goal of your organization, without
goal of your organization if you are deviating from that, and you are designing a proper work
system. So, it will not work in actual condition, because goal is in top priority it must keep in
top priority.
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Now, specialization in business advantages what is the advantage of job design, for
management, and for labour, is as a for management simplifies training, and higher
productivity low wage cost. Simplifies training it means it saves money, and time, because in
a structured manner, if you are executing your plan, then lot of time can be saved.
Higher productivity proper job design results in higher productivity, what is the productivity,
productivity is the what is the output of your organization in a certain input ok, and
productivity may be in form of time, money, worker efficiency, etcetera. So, proper job
design resulted in higher productivity and low wage cost, this is the also important benefit
related to cost.
Because in a work system you all of you will also perform cost analysis, and for labour, for
labour low education, and skill requirement means, if you have planned proper job design for
your organization, then you know how many worker is required for skilled one, and unskilled
one.
So, you can estimate the number of skilled, and non professional labour is required for
organization minimum responsibility. So, each worker has described responsibility, and he or
she is responsible only for their task assigned task, third one is minimum mental fatigue. If
you have designed a proper job design in a work system, then what will be happen each
worker will be allotted balanced workload and job satisfaction. So, they are the benefits in a
business of job design.
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Now, job design has a certain disadvantage also here, for management you can see difficult to
motivate quality sometimes you cannot improve your quality of product in a short notice,
because you have already planned, and you have already proper plan for your work system.
So, you will have to change everything, if you want to motivate the quality of your product,
worker’s dissatisfaction possibly resulting in absenteeism, high turnover, disruptive tactics,
and poor attention to quality, it means in a competitive world what happens.
Quality sometimes quality is sacrificed to compete with another industry at higher pace. So,
this may result in a poor that in a technical term you that may result in a poor work system
design, and the company may be at loss in near future, for labour monotonous work limited
opportunity for advancement and little control over work, little opportunity for self
fulfilment, with the others some limitations of job design.
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Now, at the behaviour approaches to job design, what are the approaches first one is job
enlargement, second one is job rotation, and third one is job enrichment, job enlargement
here, giving a worker a larger portion of the total task by horizontal loading horizontal
loading means, suppose that that is the level of difficulty level one, level two, and if you are
assigning more work suppose that a labour is working, and he is capable of producing
something suppose that X amount of product.
And if you are assigning him Y now Y amount of product, So, at same level, and Y is greater
than X, then it means he is getting more workload, and difficulty level is same, there is no
change in difficulty level that is called horizontal loading, and it you can say job enlargement.
Now, second one is job rotation workers periodically exchange jobs, and example you in any
educational institution, or industries, the assignment of guard is rotated periodically, one day
he will be assigned in a main gate, he will another day, it may be possible that in another day
he will assign in the hostel. So, this is the job rotation and it helps a to motivation better
motivation of worker.
Third one is job enrichment here as name suggests increasing responsibility for planning, and
coordination task by vertical loading it means, same I am taking same example here, that is
the level of difficulty, and here is L1, L2, L3 here. Suppose that a worker is working at this
level of difficulty, and he is producing x amount of work.
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So, now, if you are assigning him some different work which has a difficulty level of L2 and
L2 is greater than L1, and amount may be same will be same or lesser than X, then that is
called vertical loading of a worker here, what you are doing you are you are making him a
more responsible to the organization. So, he may feel motivated, and she or he may feel
motivated for doing new work.
So, here you can see that you are not changing, you are not replacing the worker, your worker
is same, but you are only tweaking here you what you are doing you are assigning him more
work. So, here you are rotating there his job periodically and here, you are making him more
responsible. So, that is the approach for a successful job design.
Now, design of work system, these are the tool of the earning of work system that I have
already explained behavioural approaches to job design, second thing team is required for a
designing of a work system, and some technical tool that is called method analysis, I will
explain in later motional study, working condition.
This method analysis so, this is more related to process, and this is related to time analysis,
and here it is this is more related to environment. So, for designing of work system these
things are required team, team member, some technical analysis that is methods analysis
motions study working condition.
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Now, first I will explain method analysis for the job design. So, here are certain several steps
you which I have to follow to for analysis of a method analysis steps. First step is job and
task or process selection, it involves following considerations economic consideration,
technological considerations, human considerations, first I will explain economic
consideration.
Economic consideration here cost effectiveness to check whether or not the work study
application would pay, first you will have to check what you are planning, and it should not
be go in a task, it should be implemented in an industry. So, first you will have to check
whether whatever you are going to design for a for a work system. So, that should be cost
effective, for this key profit giving cost costliest operation with largest waste scrap should be
attacked first here, you will have to do cost analysis of each process at every step.
Then only you can make a system more cost effective, next after analysis next bottleneck
operations, repetitive operation, repeated material handling, operations should be studied, and
if required if necessary, then it should be repetitive operation it should be minimized or
removed. For locating most important operation Pareto analysis could be used, this is the
again this is a technical tool for analysis, and I will explain later.
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Second one is technological consideration after realizing that you your work system design is
going to is very cost effective then you will have to check you have to go in a technical aspect
you will have to check.
The analysis involves application of work study for the selection of the operation process,
where new technology for example, automation should be introduced here, continuously
progress to improve productivity of a system automation is required, and automation actually
it means main drawback of automation is minimization of worker.
And this is and this is also a benefit to adopt a automation, and what another benefit of
automation is it will improve accuracy production rate etcetera, then you will have to take
consider consideration human being that analysis involves location of those operations which
present the sources of dissatisfaction, and annoyance to the worker due to fatigue or
monotony or unsafe environment or a work which is clumsy in nature, that is why we are
studied in earlier slides that is the that called job enlargement job enrichment, and job
rotation.
This is a one kind of method which may help in reducing absenteeism of worker, improved
self-motivation, and job satisfaction. So, this is the first steps.
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Now, second step of method analysis that is the recording the fact; so whatever you are in
visualizing in your industry or analysing you’re in an industry, you will have to make a
documentation of that. So, for that you would have to record those things.
So, there are various tools are involved in a recording for first recording purpose, first is
chart, is a basic tool which may help you in a quantification or separation of work, in a
system. And charts are based on sequence that is a outline process chart, flow process chart,
Two-handed chart, they are the variety of charts are available for in a method analysis in a
work system, and second one is based on time scale. So, you can make you can take
consideration of time a in a process. So, that that is first method is multiple activity chart
second one is SIMO chart.
And another method is diagram. So, diagram is a very convenient, and fast way to record the
fact, it may be of the following types flow diagram, string diagram, travel chart cycle graph,
and Chronocyclegraph. So, these are the very important tools for in a method analysis ok, and
I will explain each one of them in next slides.
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So, first one, first type of chart is operation process chart ok, what is the operation process
chart this is a graphic presentation of the sequence of all operations, and inspections involved
in the process. It means it is a graphical representation. So, it graphical representation mean
any worker is skilled, or unskilled can understand. So, this is very popular method, in this
chart all components or material entry points are indicated by the horizontal lines.
And the processing of these metals are shown vertically here, all operation and operation
process chart provided a compact overall view of the whole system of operation involved in
the manufacturing of a product. So, these are the benefits of the operation process chart here.
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To make a graphical representation of your system, you will have to use some symbols. So,
these are the five basic symbols which is used in a process chart, and it is recommended by
the ASME, and there are five standard symbol. First one is operation.
And this is represented as circular solid circular, if you see so, this one this is the main step of
the task job involving modification change. So, if in a chart you are saying this one so, you
may consider that there is an operation is going on. Second one is inspection that is the
checking quality and quantity, and this symbol is used for there is a quality department ok.
They are where sample is going to an inspect. So, this symbol is used in a for inspection
purpose, and there is arrow you can see that is for transportation or movement of person or
material fourth one is delay if, if suppose that you an assembly work system, here is A1
Workstation A1, A2, A3, and A4.
So, suppose that it takes 5 minute to produce one part, and it takes 7 minute to process next
step. So, here you can see that produced part from A1 workstation it will move through
transported through some automated guided wheal, and it will reach at A2 point, but he has to
wait till this save up to the for extra two minutes. So, that this part should be completed in a
A2. So, that two minute is a you can see represent it as a delay temporally for waiting time of
operation operator or material. And fifth one is storage.
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After inspection everything this is a storage department from where your product is going to
market ok. So, that is why it is sometimes it says permanent delay, and this delay results in lot
of money wastage of money, and place.
And suppose that if there is a in any workstation where two operation is happening parallel,
then you will have to make this kind of symbol for example, suppose that in a work station
where operation inspection is happening parallel, then you will represent it as a square one,
and in centre there is circle, for square that is the inspection, and for circle this is used for
operation. So, this symbol is used for parallel operation next here.
There are variety of process chart first type is outline process charts, it gives the overall view
of the whole process by recording in sequence only the main operation and inspection ok. In
this chart only operation, and inspection is measured means operation you will represent it as
a circle, and for inspection you will represent it as a square.
So, it uses only operation and inspection symbol here, in Two handed process chart, it
provides a synchronized and graphical representation of the sequence of manual activity of
the worker, Two handed as name suggest here whatever you are doing. Suppose that you are
assembling it nut and bolt. So, you will have to your both hand will be involved in assembly
of nut, and bolt.
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So, so whatever you are doing from your left hand, it should be recorded and whatever you
are doing with your right hand it should be recorded parallel. So, that is why it is called Two
handed process chart, records the activity of the left hand and the right hand of the worker as
related to each other, and a time scale can also be provided on the chart.
So, benefit of this chart is that, you are parallel you are making counting working time of
both hand, and that is the time study you are also doing here, and this is used for repetitive
work for short duration. And third one is flow process chart here records all the events in a
sequence using process chart symbol, and marks distance, and time taken for completing an
activity. So, this is more beneficial from both chart as compared to have A Two chart, because
it gives you distance, and time measurement ok. So, I will explain each chart with some
examples.
So, first I will explain outline process chart. What is the outline process chart? It is the first
step to a detailed analysis of the process, and it gives the overall view of the whole process by
recording only the main operations, and sequence in a proper sequence. It uses only
operations and inspection symbol, as I told you in earlier slide operation and inspection
symbol.
So, this symbol is for operation and this is for inspection here, I am explaining using one
example here, this is an outline process chart it is made in some industry ok. So, here you can
see here each word has some significance part number. So, this is the part reorganization
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purpose, which in which for which part you are doing this chart is for part name part name is
riveted plate assembly location, where it has been done assembly shop method, which
method is used charted by who is the working personnel, who had made this one, who has
approved it.
So, we will focus in this part only. So, here you can see there are Two rivet of this size, and
they are plate 1 and plate 2. So, here you can see, what you will do you will have to rivet it
both plate so, that there will be rivet joint between Two plate, both plate will be joined by
rivet using rivets. So, what first what you will do for plate 2, first you will have to cut with a
specified length, it means cutting means it is operation. So, that is why there is a circle.
Again you will have to make a drill of certain diameter. So, that rivet joint can be injected.
So, again it is the operation. So, it is again it is invented as circle by a circle, then unspent for
bar. So, whatever you after drilling the plate, you will have to inspect whether there is a notch
or bar is there or not. So, that is for inspection purpose so, it is square again here, plate one
again you have to perform some operation you will have to make a cut of certain size of that
plate will again drill.
Then countersunk for you have to take inspection purpose, unspent for bar, then locate plate
after doing both you are making closure you are making closure to both plate, and then locate
plates one on top of plate Two, then injured rivets and from formed rivet heads, and unspent it
means again here all steps you can see that either they have used operation or inspection
operation inspection, operation, operation and here is inspection final assembly inspection of
final assembly.
So, this kind of chart is known as outline process chart here, you can see the only operation
and inspection is used.
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Now, second one is Two handed process chart, here again I am going to make a take example
and explaining what how Two handed process chart is going to make, here I am taking an
example to assemble Two washer and nut to bolt. Can you wherever you will get this kind of
chart, then there should be some coding should be there that for part number for recognizing
purpose, operator, what made it again chart starts, chart ends completed assembly method,
and charted by an approved by, in some chart date is also there ok.
Here you can see you have to assemble Two washer and nut to a bolt. So, you will have to
use both hand to do this assembly. So, in a left hand what you are doing move to bolt ok, first
you are moving your hand to bolt and that is for transportation symbol, again here parallelly
what you are doing right hand with a right hand move to first washer.
Again since you are moving, your hand to the first washer again it is a transportation, then
with a in a left hand grasp the bolt after reaching the bolt location you just you will grasp the
bolt, and that is the operation, because you are grasping the bolt. Again here in a parallely you
are what you are doing here with a right hand pickup grasp the washer, then you are pick
picking up washer so, it is an operation, then in a left hand move to position, again make an
alignment. So, that assembly should be done. So, again it is a transportation, again you are
you are doing in same thing with the right hand, then you are holding your bolt that is for
storage permanent storage.
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And here assembled to bolt then, after that you will have to make a stationary, and you will
have to hold till the rest of the operation is done by your right hand move to second washer
pickup grasp the washer, then to position then assembled to bolt after that move to nut here,
transportation pick up the nut again operation and after that move to box. So, move and to
position.
So, again now you are after assembly you are moving your left hand. So, that it will be kept
in a box again due to the position aside to box you are moving aside box, then assembled to
bolt ok. This is the so, here you can see that you will have to use both hands, and process is
recorded. So, that is why involvement of Two hands make it name Two handed process chart.
Now, third one flow process chart, now I will explain you what is the flow process chart. It
uses all the five symbol like the outline process chart, it uses all the five symbol, and provides
the total sum detail of the process and job under study here, if flow process chart may be of
the following types that is called man type, metal type, and another type is called machine
type. Machine type and there is another type that is the hybrid type you can say man, and
machine type man and material type. So, I will explain some of them here material type.
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For operation is gear manufacturing part number is something like that, method charted by
someone approved by someone, and dated someone on some date.
Here you can see in this example shop machine shop here, these are the operation, transport,
inspection delay storage, and distance is counted as 16 meter, and each has assigned some
coding 5, 8, 2, 5, 2 here, since in a material type chart here you can see element description
for gear manufacturing. So, first you have to take a bar of diameters of 50 mm, so from a
store so this is placed somewhere. So, if this is a storage sent to cutting machine. So, you will
have to transport it. So, there is a symbol and here it will reach. So, you will have to count
distance. So, parallel it is counted at fifteen meter, again cut to size it means operation this is
related to operation, send to lathe again transportation then from delay or wait.
So, there is some delay suppose that there is some delay. So, there will be this one again
facing drilling and dreaming ok, they again it will there will be some operation to lathe again
transportation again, facing on other side turn to size again, it is a operation. So, this is going
on and after finally, what happens after make heat treatment, weight, hardening inspection,
then we will have to inspection for each one every property. So, that gear can be selling out to
spare party stores that is for transportation and storage for reuse, so either for reuse or for
selling.
So, this is the metal type flow process chart here, you can see here you have taken all the
symbols to make a chart for gear manufacturing here, distance and time is parallel if counted
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ok. So, this is providing more detailed information as compared to outlined process chart, and
Two handed chart.
Now, next is man machine chart, this is the hybrid chart, this explains graphically the activity
of a man, and machine he is attending with reference to a time scale. This study he
undertaken, it means in this chart man and machine involvement of man, and machine is
recorded in this type one study undertaken to find what number of machine each worker can
operate, or how many workers can work on each machine.
That enables the management to minimize the idle time of the worker, and to use the
machines to their full capacity idle time. This is the time when idle time may be related to
worker or machine both, sometimes machine is waiting for next operation, and sometimes
worker is waiting till the operation in a machine.
First I will explain, I am taking three example for man machine chart, here condition one is
that one worker operates one machine. So, in this example you can see that, this is the time in
the Y axis this is a time. So, what he is doing first this is the setup time, this is the operator
and this is the machine. So, what he is doing he is setting up machine. So, that machining can
restart, and this is the time required ok, and this time machine is being set up and he is
because only one machine, and one worker is there so, he is doing this work. So, he is
involved somewhere in this machine.
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So, that is for your this time is set up time or working time for work operator, but you for
worker, and after that when machine will start processing, and he has to wait till that part is
fabricated machined or fabricated. So, suppose that that machine is taking this much amount
of time. So, till this time this operator will have to wait. So, this is the idle time of the
operator. So, here in this case you can see that if you are have assigned one operator to one
machine. So, he has to wait most of the time, until that work is finished in that machine.
So, here you can see idle time is significant ok, in the second case you can see one worker
operates two machine here are two machine is available m1 and m2, and worker only one
workers there. So, what first what we will doing here, you can see in a machine 2 is already
running from the previous analysis.
So, in meantime in that time worker what this worker is doing he is preparing the that
machine setting up that machine. So, that machining can be start in a m1, in meanwhile in
that time m2 is already running ok. So, that is the here you can see all m1 is m2 is already
running m1 is being setting up, and worker is involved in m1.
After that here m1 will start working so, and here after that here, what he will do now worker
at that time that m2 will finish his machining process. So, he left to again removed that part,
and again being setting up for the next operation. So, again worker is busy in m2 now.
So, after that it will start working. So, that is the running and here for m 1 it will finish at this
time, and here again it starts working. So, this is the main idle time here all both machines are
busy, and worker is in rest position ok. So, that is the idle time. So, you can see here idle time
from case 1 and case 2. So, if I can say idle time I1 here I2. So, I1 is greater than I2 idle time.
Now, I am taking third one, one worker operates three machine here, you can see m3 already
working and m1, m2 is already working, and m1 is being set up by worker one , here worker
is involved in a machine one, after that what will happen it will start working running to
processing something. So, in that time that machine will get stopped, and here machine is
waiting for being set up for another operation. So, here is this idle time is for machine, and
here worker because worker is not free in this time because he is involved in setting up m1
ok.
After that what will happen that worker will again go to the machine m2, and he will start
some pre processing. So, that machining will start, and at that time in some between in that
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time what will happen m3 operation of m3 will complete. and again it will start it he will wait
for another operation.
But because here worker is busy in m2, and after that again this will finish their work, and he
will go to the m3 for being set up for another operation, and you can see there for each
machine there will be some idle time, but worker will always busy. So, this kind of
arrangement is made in an industry. So, that idle time can reduce or finally, productivity is
improved.
Now, flow diagram this is another way to represent your operation here, this is the very
simplest technique, and it is the plan view of a work to a certain scale, and link diagram
indicating the path followed by the objective under study here, path is made by flow diagram.
It gives an overall view of an existing process, and is used for making improvement ok, it
shows the path followed by the material man and equipment.
Here for example, here you can see that first one material is taken from store, that is for
already in storage point, you can see the symbol, then it is transported to that workshop A
here, there will be some operation after that again it will transport to workshop through the
two route, and it will reach that workstation two here, they will be again some operation on
that machine that product.
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Again it will transport it to workstation three, where again some operation will be there, then
it will have a some temporarily delay, and after that here you can say that after some
inspection will be also there, and after that it will transport it to the storage six, and again and
from that this product will go out to the market. So, this is the simplest way to how it will
movement it records movement of your material.
Now after that was the all the things for the method of study, till now we have studied what
are the how we will do a machine shop method analysis, and we will how we will perform
job design so that for a work as a system.
So, in this module now I am closing this module, and in the next module, I will cover the next
topic that is called motion study, it means either you can say time measurement for a work
system design.
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Design Practice
Lecture – 33
Motion Study
Hello. Welcome to the course Design Practice, lecture module 33, from the previous lecture
modules we are discussing about design of a work system, in a previous lecture module. We
have already covered the basics of work system, the elements involved in a work system
design, and job description what are the approaches to job design, and what are the method
analysis which you can perform for a designing in a job in a work system, in this current
module I will discuss remaining topics for this work system in design ok.
Now I will start covering the motion study. What is the motion study?
Motion study is a systematic study of the human motion used to perform an operation, in
previous module we have already learnt method analysis, in that analysis what we did we
performed operation of a product in a structured manner. So, this analysis helps in a
structuring of your operation. Now in a motion study you are focusing now on the human
motion used to perform an operation. Again it is a type of making a chart in a process for a
work design, for in a different way in a here you will also count time and your graphical
representation in a more detail.
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Because in method analysis there were only five symbols which were used to design a work
system, here you will get variety of representation to represent your operation in a more
elaborate way.
So, there are variety of techniques already available in a motion study. So, motion study is the
first technique motion study principles analysis of Therblig’s macro motion study, and charts
again charts is also available here for in a motion study also. So, motion study principle it
guidelines for designing motion efficient work procedure, this is for standard guidelines is
available for motion study analysis of Therblig.
Therblig is a set of graphical pasteurization of operation and various movements, so that it

from using this you can make a graphical representation of any process or operation, it basic
elemental motion into which a job can be broken down ok. In this analysis a job is divided in
a several parts, and each part is represented with a unique graphical picture, here in a macro
motion study use of motion pictures, and slow motion to a study motion that otherwise would
be too rapid to analyse. In this study what happens each operation is recorded at a very slower
rate, continuous images, each frame is recorded for a certain operation suppose that you are
your hand is somewhere here, and you want to move it from there so.
And you are taking one product from here to this one. So, whatever path you are following to
reach this product to that point b. So, those image path is recorded in a camera, and multiple
continuous picture is recorded, and each after that each picture is analyzed to see what is the
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actual time is required to transport this part to here, from a point a to point b, and also charts
is also available for a motion study.
So, I will explain method of Therblig’s first. So, here fundamental hand motion that is
Therblig’s analysis also called hand motion ok, that is a system of symbol that represent
every elementary of hand, and arm, and eye movements the word Therblig’s was first
proposed by frank bunker Gilberth and Lillian Moller Gilberth. So, inspite of those people
these hand motions are known as Therblig.
There are three categories of Therblig, first is motion required for performing an operation.
So, in this category what are the motions which is required to performing an operation. So,
each operation will have some specific graphical symbol here, there are variety of motions
which is required for a performing an operation, first one is transport empty grasp transport
loaded, a carry, position use assembly, disassembly, release load, inspection, etcetera here,
there is the one graphical here you can say that if you are placing a one paper in this box. So,
you will have to perform various operation, second type is motion that tend to slow down
type one motion ok, this one is related to search find select plan and pre position, if you are
searching something. So, it will take time.
So, what happens suppose that you are transporting something from here to here you have to
transports, one product from one place to another place, and somehow you have missed that
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product where it has placed. So, you have to make a search for that product. So, it takes time.
So, what happens it slows down your motion of transportation motion.
Second one is find selection this takes time, and third one is motion that do not perform an
operation, at the hold unavoidable delay avoidable delay rest, these are the motions which is
for permanent you can storage or delay kind of thing. So, it slows down the slows it just stops
down the operation, suppose that if there is an unavoidable delay in a workshop. So, you will
have to stop everything, or your whole operation will get stopped three because of this one.
So, each operation has some specific symbol that is called Therblig’s, here you can see here
Therblig, if you are searching something. So, there is a colour coding with that. So, that a
worker can understand here you will have to make a search of that something like that. So,
there is a symbol for search operation again find. So, it is a colour is grey and find there is a
unique symbol for find, select, grasp hold transport loaded, transport empty, position, blue
colour.
If for assembling something so as line use if I using something. So, its colour code is purple
and colour code may vary to industry to industry, it is not a stick to that if you are making a
assembly, but so in most of the cases these are the standard colour coding. So, everybody can
understand. So, that the colour is most probably this colours there for this motion study, your
assembly something you are the symbol will be like this one inspection this one. So, they are
the various operations, and each have a specific colour code with their symbols, and these
symbols, and colour code is used in a motion study.
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We will use in this chat that is called simultaneous motion cycle chart, and is called SIMO
chart here, we will use those Therblig’s to make a SIMO chart what is the SIMO chart it is a
chart often based on film analysis used to record, simultaneously on a common time scale the
Therblig or group of Therblig’s performed by different parts of the body of one or more
workers ok, here is a kind of film analysis. So, first film is recorded and all job is broken in
various part, and each part is assigned operation is assigned using a Therblig’s, and we will
explain in a table.
So, time scale is represented in a wink, and wink is a one is to by 2000 of the minute that is
the time scale in a SIMO chart generally used, and the SIMO chart is the micro motion form
of the man type flow process chart we have already discussed man type flow process chart in
a previous lecture module, because SIMO chart are used primarily for operation of short
duration often performed with extreme rapidity. It is generally a necessary to compile them
from films made of the operation which can be stopped at any point or projected in slow
motion. So, if you are doing film analysis. So, you can stop your recording any time and also
if you want to analyze in a detail. So, that you can slow down your video so, that you can
analysis any more detail, analyze the more detailed your operation.
What are the basic step for SIMO chart step see motion, made by operators right and left
hand? So, first what is happing using the video recorder motion of right and left hand is
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recorded after that notice what the finger of each hand do, after that each fingers movement is
not get noticed after that detect where one motion ends and another begins.
So, that you can count the time, judge the length of motion estimate time of the motion ok,
length of the motion and time estimate time of the motion after that you will have to fill that
table for a SIMO chart this is a one standard chart for a SIMO chart, you have to mention
drawing number, name, film number, chart number, sheet number, date, who is who made this
chart who is approved this chart, operation number, component name, name of the operator
ok.
And here you can see that left hand description, whatever your hand is doing suppose that in
a you have already seen in last previous module here, we had in a two handed chart here, we
used both hand in we recorded operation of both handed using a phi symbol. Here what you
are doing you have make a video of your operation of your both hand movements of your
hand.
Then you just breaking all the operation in a various part, and whatever you are after
distinguishing left hand right hand, then you will have to make symbol for each operation
whatever you are doing by your hand, and that what the time is required for that operation.
And it is in wink form. So, wink is 1 by 2000 minute of a minute of a one minute.
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So, this is the example of filing of workpiece here again, these things should be fulfilled first
department, film number, what is operation charted by date operator here.
You can see that after recording a video. So, you have already distinguished in a distributed
all your operation in a left hand and right hand here you can see, searching and lifting
workpiece. So, what is the Therblig’s is used SH and H here, again what is the what was the
time for that operation 400 wink, again clamping work piece in vice we can do the head filing
operation check the dimension remove the workplace. So, again here parallely you are using
Therblig’s, and you are recording the time, using your film analysis. So, this is called SIMO
chart here both thing Therblig and time is available for analysis.
Now, film analysis how film analysis is done, at a concept record movement of a working
operator with an appropriate film technique, then list all the observed motion and time
employed into an analysis sheet that is the thing I said in earlier slide.
That first you will record whole operation, then you will break it in a better various motion
observed motion, and then you will have to calculate time that is the whole complete process
for the film analysis. These are the film production methods are available macro motion,
memo motion cyclegraphic chronocyclegraphic macro motion is the slowing slow recording
of an operation, cyclegraph chronograph I will explain some of them in next slide.
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Now, cyclegraph this is the film analysis video recording techniques cycle graph, it was
introduced by Gilberth first. It is a photographic record of the path of the movement of the
operator doing a job, here what happens little source of light is attached to the hand of finger
or finger any or any other body part, with motion are to be analysed.
When he or she performs the operation, and photograph is taken continuously, the path of the
motion is recorded on the film as continuous streak of light as shown below here, you can see
that here suppose that you have started working from this point, and you have done several
kind of things here, here, here in suppose that each point, this is the main path you have
followed to complete that process.
And camera is one light bulb is attached to your finger or some or you can say your hand. So,
that this path is recorded ok, and this is called cyclegraph whatever you path you path you
have followed, it is recorded in a camera ok. So, that after that suppose that here a variety of
suppose that x number of operation, you performed ok. So, first what you will do you will
break operation into x1, x2, x3, x4, you can write here x 1, x 2, x 3, x 4, x 5, x 6 like that.
Then after suppose that here from x1 to x2 whatever you have done. So, this will you have to
make if you are making SIMO chart, then you will use Therblig’s symbol, and as well as
what is the time required from this operation to this operation ok. So, everything you can
analysis after recording this cycle. So, this is called known as cycle graph, and this is very
useful method in a motion study.
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Second one is chronocyclegraph here, it is a special type of cyclegraph in which the light
source bulb is suitably interrupted electrically. So, that the path of the motion in the
photograph appears as series of pear shaped spot instead of continuous streak of light as
shown in below, here this is a different from cyclegraph here, what you are doing, you are
just you are making shadow of light you are using shadow concept in with the light.
So, they suitably interrupted electrically so that path of the motion in the photograph appears
as series of pear shaped. So, if pointed end of the pear shows the direction of movement. So,
this point suppose that this is the actual shadow light. So, this is the point directions. So, it
shows the direction where from where you are moving your hand from here to there ok, and
length of this one it denotes the time, it is calibrated by time. So, whatever if length is more
than, suppose that if length is more than, the time required from for this operation is higher.
And more elongated and spaced pear spot indicate highest speed of operation also time, as
well as speed is very high, because here you can see that the width is higher as compared to
here and length is so, here speed you have moved speed is higher, you have moved your hand
rapidly in this is for this area as compared to previous one.
So, now it helps in studying the complex and restricted motion also ok. So, that if suppose
that some where it is very difficult to for your hand to make a recording that is at a by camera
that is attached to your finger. So, this technique is very useful because its make a shadow
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light, it technique of shadow light. So, that shadowing some anything can be possible so,
restricted motion can also be performed using chronocyclegraph.
Now, after recording of your images, then you can make a SIMO chart for your motional
study now.
I will explain now third step of work system design that is the after method analysis and
motional study, then this is the critical examination. Suppose that if you are prepared already
a chart, then how you will you will have to judge it critical examined, whether you have
made it actual in an actual way or something wrong is there.
So, the fact recorded in the flow process chart are now examined critically, by applying the
various questioning techniques, these are the one of the techniques which is for critical
examination ok, questioning technique is very preliminary stage of your examination
purpose. So, here following sequence you will have to follow for examination purpose. For
which the activities done, then you will have to check which place at which the activity is
done.
Then sequence here sequence is followed properly or not again person, and means by which
because sometimes chart preparation is varied between person to person skilled, and
experienced person may be more suitable for your making a chart, and he will make more
efficiently means by which and what for what means you are making this chart. So, these are
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the several questions you should have arrived in your mind while your you are examining the
chart.
With the objective of eliminating combining rearranging simplifying the activity involved in
the process, questioning techniques involve primary question secondary question. So, this is
the trial and error method, suppose that you are you have made something you realise that
you have made wrong sequence in your chart preparation, then you can again you will
improve your chart, then you will have to again you will follow these steps to for
examination of your chart. So, in a board way they are these questions are divided in a two-
part: primary question, and secondary questions.
What is the primary questions? According to question technique the primary question is as
follow purpose based, what is actually done why is the activity necessary at all if you have
you have found that this activity is not necessary then you just eliminate it place based, where
is it being done why at this place sequence based, when it is done why at that time person
based who is doing it and why by this person. So, this all parameter you just combine or
rearrange you can rearrange the things. So, that your chart will get improved ok, means based
how is it being done why in that particular way ok, suppose that you have made a good chat
in a right manner, but in a complex you have you went through complex route.
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So, if this route can be simplified further. So, that chart look better and understandable ok.
So, these are the primary questions you will have to keep in mind while doing your
examination critical examination of your chart.
Now, secondary questions secondary question corresponding to each answer obtained

through the primary question, further question is raised to explore about the alternative. Now
if after that suppose that you have already examined your chart, then you will have to look for
alternative, whether there any alternative is available whether it suppose that if you have
made a one chart, and there is an already alternative chart is already available in your
workshop.
And so it what will happen just it will simplify, it will save your time, and cost. This
methodology makes use of secondary question given as follows.
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These are the secondary question what else might be done, they are for alternative looking for
where else might it be done, you can change your place suppose that you cannot fix in a one
place suppose that in a that place somehow work is not going on then how your production is
will be continue. So, you will have to look for another place, when else might it be done who
else might do it suppose that you have a one-person, skilled person for a chart preparation
and he is on leave.
So, what who is the other person who is capable of doing this? So, you will have to take a one
already backup for that ok, how else might it be done, by examining the primary and
secondary question we use the systematic critical examination in order to evolve a better
method of doing that work. So, critical examination is always necessary for designing a work
system.
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Now, I will explain the work environment, after examining, after making your chart
preparation, job designing, now you will come we will have come to work environment this
is also a very important factor, here working condition can affect worker productivity product
quality and worker safety.
Temperature, ventilation, noise, and lighting are all factor in work system design.
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These are the congress passed OSHA in 1970 to mandate specific safety conditions that must
be met this is was proposed in America USA for working environment, these are the some in
this guidelines there are some standard guideline protocol is there for a to a make a working
better work environment.
So, here you can see that work environment quality, if there I suppose that you are working in
an environment, where temperature is high and humid. So, what will happen worker’s
efficiency will get reduced, because of that because fatigue will be there for each worker.
So, lightning condition you can also say lightning that is the working environment. So, better
lightning condition required for proper visualisation of worker ok, suppose that a worker is
assigned to work in a machine, and lightning is not proper. So, he may face some he may face
some accident so, that he may get injured.
So, these are the very critical factors which is involved for you have to take consider in a
work design. So, work environment is also necessary part.
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Now, work measurement after your designing your method analysis motional study, and
designing of taking consideration of work environment, then you will have to consider you
have to technically measure work measurement. So, work measurement what you will have
to measure the effort of your workers.
So, that you can grade your worker or your process or you can if you want to measure your
productivity of your system, then you will have to measure it. So, work measurement will
helps determine how long it should take to do a job in a standard way suppose that a one
worker is doing something on machine, and if you want to calculate what is the machining
timing suppose that. So, you will have to measure how much time required to complete the
one process.
So, in work determining standard time and standard time for each; one for job for process the
length of the time a qualified worker using appropriate process and tools to complete a
specific job, allowing time for personal fatigue and unavoidable delay. So, you will have to
take all consideration in personal fatigue, and unavoidable delay, idle time in a calculation of
standard time.
Till now, we have already learned through in a work system design, where we learnt what are
the elements to be followed in a work, so involved in a work system design. And what are the
methods available to make a proper system work system, for an industry. Now I am closing
this module here, and in a next module I will cover some other topic.
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Design Practice
Lecture – 34 and 35
Axiomatic Design
Welcome to the course Design Practice, lecture module 34 and 35. In this module I will start
a new topic that is called Axiomatic Design.
So, first I will discuss what is the design. So, design is interplay between what we want to
achieve and how we want to achieve them. So, first what you are saying there, there is you
will have to interlink both this questions in a design. So, although they have only two point
you are targeting, but in between there are lot of steps are involved to jump from one to two.
So, we have already discussed variety of several methodologies in design, you have already
learned concurrent engineering. In this approach you will have already learned how you
convert your idea into product, through various steps. Another methodology you have learned
material selection in engineering design. So, in this topic what you have learned how you will
select best material for your product in a certain condition.
So, in these models you have already learnt how in metal selection in any both questions
were involved there ok. So, first you initiated the idea which product you want to fabricate
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then you went through the various process and after that to a final material selection. So, now
in continuation with that I will start a new topic that is called axiomatic design.
This design this method was by professor Suh at in MIT USA in 1990, he proposed approach
that is a basic more about a design framework rather than any principle. So, he proposed a
new technique that is called axiomatic design.
So, it is a system design methodology using matrix method systematically analyse the
transformation of customer need into functional requirement design parameters and process
variables here in this approach what he proposed he just used mathematical approach, to
analyse the need and convert it into final goal.
So, for that he used four domains that was the functional requirement design parameter sorry
first was customer need second was functional requirement third was design parameter and
last one was process variable, I will discuss each element in detail in next slides ok.
Also axiomatic design offers a systematic and orderly way to proceed through the software
development process ok. So, using this method design process can be automated. So,
basically axiomatic design provides you an identification of a good design and how to pick
the best out of a set of good design suppose that you are going to make something some
product and you have a set of good design available.
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So, which 1 will be best for you that you, you can find the solution in that axiomatic design
best out of set of good design also axiomatic design provides for a methodology that ensures
developer make the best design decision by providing decision making criteria. So, it takes
you from argument to analysis in design evaluation and this methodology is very simple and
based on mathematical approach.
So, ultimate goal of the axiomatic design is to establish a science base for design and to
improve, design activity existing what about existing design you have you can improve using
this method axiomatic design and, and how you will improve this activity by providing the
designer with a theoretical foundation based on logical and rational thought process and tools.
It means axiomatic design provides you a tool for complete process, you can compare it with
engineering design in engineering design first you make assumption which process will be
correct and or not.
So, you are making assumption first then after it requires iteration trial and error method like
and finally, evaluation and general evaluation is make by experienced people in department.
So, like engineering design axiomatic design also have several steps, first it assumes you will
have to also make an assumption here in a form of axiom I will explain you what is the axiom
later then it requires decomposition of your need and then evaluation that is the most critical
parameter and it is done by rules and axioms.
So, here unlike engineering design here experienced people is involved in evolution process,
but in this process there is an already rules are available for that. So, process is very fast and
accurate.
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Now, so what is the axiomatic design framework here you can see that it has a general in
general axiomatic design framework consist of four domains first one is customer domain
second one is functional domain, third one is physical domain, fourth one is process domain
ok. So, what I will explain you each one in brief.
So, customer domain in this domain it relates to consumer attributes, it categorise the design
in a consumer domain and what is the consumer attributes it is in a generally in a form of
wishes customers wishes. And it may be technical or non technical suppose that if someone
wants to buy a car with automatic temperature controller. So, he makes customer makes a
wishes, he wants some automatic controller in his car.
So, first what you will have to do this is the customer domain, and these are the attributes of a
customer then you will have what you will have to do first you will have to map it in a
functional requirement that is called a functional domain. In functional domain what does
functional requirement does it is a minimum set of independent requirements that completely
characterize the functional needs of the product.
So, that means, you have to convert customers wishes into some engineering or technical
form. So, there may be a for one need, one wishes you have a several it may be possible that
you have a several functional requirements for that.
After that again this functional requirement will have to mapped again for a designing of a
product. And this comes into a physical domain in this is DP is for design parameter, how you
will how your requirements will have fulfilled, so you will have to select design parameters
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for that. So, it describes the design in a physical solution space and design parameters are the
physical characteristics of a particular design that has been specified through the design
process.
So, whatever requirements you have, so you have to choose accordingly designing
parameters required, after that and as well as here you will have to also select constraint for
that what is the limitation for customers wishes. So, after that after choosing a designing
parameters for your functional requirements then again you will have to map into a process
domain.
So, that is called a process design suppose that you have a parameter to make a bolt, so which
machine will be available for fabrication of bolt. So, that machine is comes into a process,
process parameters process variables here it comes fabrication process etcetera.
So, you can see that here customers need what you need here in a left side that is the
customers need and it is finally, converted in a how you will get it. So, this from this to this
one is converted in an it is decomposed in four steps. So, now and all domain is in an
axiomatic design it is represented in a matrix form.
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So, you have four domains for an axiomatic design, so how it works. So, first customer need
what I said that in earlier slide then again after getting your needs from your customer then
convert his wishes into your functional requirement then again it you have to map it in a
designing parameter then it if suppose that say more than if DP has more than one in a
number then you will have to decompose it.
So, that each parameter effect of each parameter should be taken into account of solving your
customers need ok. After that after decomposition of designing parameters you just define
models for each one, so that. So, that you can make a full design matrix for that after that just
divide it in a classes.
So, class one, class two class three, so that parameter can be ranked. So, DP 1 DP 2 DP 2, in
such a way you will have to make a classification of designing parameters after that you will
have to make an interface between your parameter functional requirement and what is the
process variables are available for that, will be required to achieve your customers need ok.
After that if you can convert it in a coding system then you can automate your system
designing process. So, it will come it as a software product. So, this is the way to do how you
will do axiomatic design step by step.
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So, here characteristics of the four domain of design world, so here you can see here variety
of process are available here domain character vectors are manufacturing. So, for in a
customer domain what is the attributes which consumer desire, after that what is the need is
converted into functional requirement that is specified for the product after that this
functional requirement is mapped into a physical variable which can satisfy the functional
requirement.
Again process variable that can control design parameters this is the constraint ok. So, for
material if you are doing an axiomatic design for material then what you will have to do first
desired performance ok, suppose that a customer need a lightweight cycle. So, so you will
have to make a selection accordingly light weight cycle is a functional requirement.
So, you have to require some properties for that how you will make it then what would be the
macro structure for that or other parameters like some mechanical properties, chemical
properties, and electrical properties etcetera, then and by which process you will be going to
make it ok. So, again in case of software there is an attributes desired in a software again you
will have to convert in a functional require domain output specs of program codes and like
that.
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So, so I will discuss what are the elements of axiomatic design ok. So, that is called axioms is
the self-evidence truth or fundamental truth for which there is no counter examples or
exception. It cannot be derived from other law of nature or principles it is just a hypothesis
axiom is a hypothesis, and it cannot be supported by any law or you cannot validate this
hypothesis ok, so it is based on hypothesis.
So, various statements are available regarding axioms and these are first a statement that is
stipulated to be true for the purpose of constructing a theory. So, this statement was given by
Harper Collins in a dictionary of mathematics.
So, what is what this statement said that, so there is a you will have to make a statement for a
particular design process and there would have an only that will be only hypothesis only then
another statement is that fundamental truth axiom are the fundamental truths that are always
observed to be valid and for which there are no counterexamples or exceptions. And these
were given by professor Suh in a department of mechanical engineering MIT, USA and in a
book principle of design.
And third one axiom are posited as accepted truth and a system of logic that is built around
them ok. So, you can see that these are the only hypothesis only. So, they have no any base
and support of technical support. So, axioms you will have to make an axiom for your design
process.
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So, in a broad way the design axioms can be classified into two parts first one is the
independence axiom, and what is the independence axiom. It maintains the independence of a
functional requirement, it indicates that the aspect in the proceeding domain should be
independently satisfied by the choices carried out in the next domain, and second one is the
information axiom here the primary purpose of this axiom is that minimize the information
content; so that you can make the design independent.
Design independency is required and you can achieve by minimizing the information content.
So, that your matrix will be uncoupled and all parameters design parameters will be
independent with each other for a particular function functional requirements here.
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So, first I will explain the first axiom the independence axiom here. So, for your any
axiomatic design process first you have to make a design matrix formation of design matrix.
So, here what is the design matrix it is the relationship between your functional requirements
and design parameters and that can be written as in a matrix form FRs is equal to A into DPs,
where A is called a design matrix that relates to functional requirements and design
parameters here A relates functional requirements to designing parameters.
∂ F Ri
A ij =
∂ D Pi
So, it is an interlinking it interlinks each other and characterise the product design in a
another term you can write it in A ratio term that is the differential functional requirement in
differential form divided by partial differentiation of design parameters.
So, here I will take an example how you will write a design matrix for a particular problem
ok, here design matrix is of the following form suppose that we are giving a design which has
a 3 functional requirements and three designing parameters for that. Here that is the design
matrix for that here A 11, A 12, A 13, A 21, A22, A23 these are the non-zero term and each
has some significance and it has it relates with it makes relationship between functional
requirements and designing parameters.
So, if you want to write in a matrix form for a this one. So, how you will write it because you
have three functional requirement FR 1, FR 2, and FR 3; so according to equation 1 we can
write it A 11, A 12, A 13, A 22, A 23, A 31, A 32, A 33, and we have also 3 design parameters
that is DP 1 DP 2 DP 3.
So, if you write in a standard form, so what will be FR1 is equal to A1 1 into DP 1 plus a 1 2
into DP 2 plus A 13 DP 3. Similarly, you can write FR 2 is equal to A 21, A 22 into DP 2 plus
A 32 3 into DP 3, and again for third functional requirement A 31 DP 1 plus A 32 DP 2 plus A
33 DP 3. So, here you can see that all functional requirements are there is a relationship
between functional requirements and designing parameters with the help of this design
matrix. So, the above equation can be written in a differential form as DFR is equal to A into
DPs. So, in a broad way in a functional requirement is equal to design matrix into matrix of
designing parameters.

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Now, types of design matrix here a in a broad way there are three types of design matrices
first one is uncoupled design when the design matrix a is diagonal each of the FR functional
requirements can be satisfied independently by means of it respective designing parameter
such a design is called uncoupled design. So, for the independent axiom what was the
equation FR is equal to design matrix into designing parameter.
So, here you can see that if design matrix a diagonal matrix only in a there is a null 0 term in
diagonal only and rest of the elements are 0 term ok. So, and if you are making a matrix for
that suppose that FR 1 FR 2 FR 3 3 functional requirement is equal to A 11, 0, 0, 0,A 22 , 0,
0, 0, A 33 into you have A 3 designing parameters, then you can write it FR 1 is equal to A 11
DP 1, FR 2 is equal to A 22 DP 2 and FR 3 is equal to A 33 into DP 3.
So, here you can see that all the designed parameters are independent ok, this parameters are
related only with the functional requirement 1 DP 2 is only related with the functional
requirement 2 and it has a no effect on functional requirement 3. So, this is called
independent design.
So, for a better good design their matrix should always should be uncoupled. So, each
parameter will be independent with each other second one is decoupled design second type
when the matrix is triangular and the independence of functional requirement can be
guaranteed if and only if the DP designing parameters are determined in a proper sequence,
such a design is called decoupled design here you can see that this is the triangular matrix
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triangular matrix, and if you will write again similar to this matrix FR 1 FR 2 FR 3 here A 1
1, A 2 1, A 3 1, 0 ,0 ,A 2 2, 0, A 3 2, A 3 3, and DP 1 DP 2 DP 3.
So, after solving what you will get FR 1 is equal to A 11 DP 1, FR 2 is equal to A 21 DP 1

plus A 22 DP 2, so similarly you can write for FR 3 also.
Here you can see that suppose that first in a functional requirement 1 here DP 1 is related to
functional requirement 1 here, first and if you have determined functional requirement 1 with
the help of DP 1. Now you will you have to make it fixed DP 1 fixed then in a second step the
FR 2 is satisfied only if that DP 2 will be DP 2 will be satisfied by FR 2 and DP 1 is already
fixed.
So, here you can see that if design parameters are in a proper sequence than your functional
requirement will be independent ok, so here because here DP 1 is fixed and you are moving
only varying only DP 2. So, and DP 1 is fixed ok. So, it means although it includes DP is
included in this equation, but it has a no effect only if DP 1 is you have make a fixed here for
functional requirement 1, so similarly FR 3 if you will write here.
So, what will happen for FR 3. So, all parameters will be included FR 3 A 3 1 DP 1 plus A 3 2
DP 2 plus A 3 3 DP 3 here DP 3 will satisfy only FR 3 only if only DP 2 and DP 1 will be
fixed ok. So, although this is the decoupled design, but here parameters are independent now
third part is couple design.
Any other form of the design matrix apart from diagonal and triangular, so that will be a that
will make you full matrix and result in a couple design. So, here you can see that there is a
full matrix A 11 is there no zero parameters.
So, there is a final equation is that like this one and this is the no sequence of designing
parameters can satisfy the functional requirements independently. So, couple design falls
under the bad design and uncoupled design falls into a good design. So, always you will have
to focus to make a matrix such that it is an uncoupled design.
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Now, I am taking one example to explain how you will formulate design equation and I am
giving you one example of mechanical pencil, suppose that you want to make a pencil and
there is a customer need after your you have make a questionnaire from customer and those
needs is converted into functional requirement and what are the functional requirement first
one is erase lead.
So, it should have a facility to that lead will we get erased import and store eraser they have a
storage facility of eraser import and store lead can be changed in that pencil advanced lead
support lead in use and position lead in use that is a for ecstatic part, they are the functional
requirements for your fabrication of your pencil.
So, here your functional requirements will have to mapped in a designing parameter. So, what
are the designing parameters first one is eraser you will have to make use of eraser. So, that
lead can be erased opening for eraser cylinder with stopper spring lead advancer. So, that they
will be a much smoother writing chuck to hold lead and external grip to hold pencil bit in a
better way.
So, if you are going to make a matrix using your functional requirements and designing
parameters. So, what be designing matrix here you can see that this is the design metrics. A
design matrix and these are the design this is the design equation here you can see that in this
equation lead can be erased only with eraser.
So, here other parameters are 0 and only x is there that is the non zero parameter will you. So,
if you will write FR 1 is equal to what will be FR 1 is equal to x into DP 1.
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And this is true because lead can be erased only using eraser similarly import and store eraser
here you can see that there is a 2 non zero value ok if you write equation for that FR 2 what it
will be x DP 2 plus x DP 3.
So, here two designing parameters which is required for that your functional requirement 2.
And so again here you can see that there is a four non zero parameters and in a form the
previous slide you can see that in this matrix this matrix not a neither a triangular matrix and
nor a diagonal matrix. So, it will be a just couple design. So, whatever you have made a
matrix.
And this is a not a good for your fabrication of pencil, the matrix form indicates that the
design is not uncoupled and nor is it decoupled because for uncoupled you will have a you
should have diagonal matrix, diagonal design matrix.
And for decoupled you should have triangular matrix, matrix the current does not fulfil the
independence axiom each individual functional requirement is not satisfied by fully
independent physical components or subsystem here for example, you can see that here for
function to satisfy the functional requirement two, there is a two designing parameter is
involved similarly in a case of FR 3 there 4 designing parameter is involved to satisfy one
requirement. So, this makes a very complex I increase complexity of your problem, so that is
why it is a bad design.
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Now, I am talking I will talk about constraints. So, after your functional requirement and
designing parameters you will have to consider take consideration of constraint, what are the
constraints are available for your design constraint provide the bounds it is a limitation it
provide it will provide you limitation on the acceptable design solution and differ from the
functional requirements in that they do not have to be independent.
So, that is the limitation of your design process. So, there are variety of constraints in a, but in
a broad way you we can divide it into a kind of constraints input constraint and system
constraint, what is the input constraint? Input maybe input are specific to overall design goals
all designs that are proposed must satisfy these it may be in form of current voltage for a
designing of a transformer system constraint, that are the specific to a given design they are
result of design decision made.
So, they are the two basic constraint that is that is always available in a axiomatic design
process.
Now, I am taking giving you an another example design of a refrigerator door, here there is
two kind of refrigerator is available here gate will open like this way and this case gate will
open like this way. So, that is the horizontal hung door and it is vertically hung door.
So, we will have to decide which one has the better design, but design. So, you cannot say in
a broad way which one is a better design always you will have to focus at what is your
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requirement a designer will ask you what is your requirement then only he can say which one
will be better for your purpose.
So, first you will have to decide your functional requirements. So, what are the functional
requirement functional requirements 1 is that provide, access to the items stored in a
refrigerator and second requirement is that minimize energy loss. Here are only two
requirements are available and on basis of that will have to select which one is better
requirement, first requirement is that provide access to the items placed in a refrigerator and
second one is a minimize energy loss.
So, first, I will analyse vertically hung door, here what is your design parameter for will be
for that purpose. So, design parameter one will be vertically hung door and designing
parameter two will be thermal insulation in a gate. So, that energy loss can be minimized if
you will write in a matrix form then FR 1 FR 2 equal to x1, 0, x 1, x 2, DP 1, DP 2.
[ ][
FR 1 = X 1 0 DP 1
FR 2 0 X 2 DP 2 ][ ]
So, FR 1 is equal to x 1 DP 1 and FR 2 is equal to x 1 DP 1 plus x 2 DP 2. So, here you can
see that there is a triangular matrix designing matrix. So, this design equation is decoupled
one. here you will have to rely more than one parameter for a particular requirement.
Here you can see that for vertically hung door if you will open the you will make a
horizontally hung door then your first requirement will get fulfilled, but if you will open the
door at the same time energy will be get evicted from your fridge ok, so there will be energy
loss. So, here x 1 and x 2 there are two non-zero design term in a design matrix and it
involves in a to fulfil criteria of functional requirement two.
So; however, when we open the door, what will happen energy loss occurs due to x 1 into DP
1 plus x 2 DP 2 ok. So, for to fulfil functional requirement two and functional requirement
simultaneously this 1 you will have to make a fixed then only your FR 1 and FR 2 will be get
independent.
So, in case of now in case of horizontally hung door horizontal type, here designs
requirement parameter 1 is horizontally hung door and parameter two is thermal insulation.
So, for that design equation FR 1 FR 2 here this is the diagonal matrix and here you can see
that you have a two design parameter and two requirements. So, that is the for ideal case and
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x 1 x 2 is a placed in a diagonal form, so it is an uncoupled one ok. So, you can here both
parameter DP 1 and DP 2 is independent in each case for functional requirement one and
functional requirement two why.
Because when we open the door, cold air will remain in the refrigerator and energy loss can
be minimized ok. So, here in this case for that particular function requirement you can see
that horizontal type is better than vertical type refrigerator, but this is always not fixed better
design for particular requirement. So, for different requirement the design may be changed.
So, it may be possible that for certain requirements vertically hung door will be better.
Now, what is the ideal design, redundant design and coupled design, again you can
distinguish your design in an another form that is for case one if number of design parameter
is less than number of functional requirements that is called coupled design that bad design
bad one.
Here what is they are saying when the number of design parameters is less than the number
of function requirements are there a coupled design result or the functional requirements
cannot be satisfied, suppose that here you can write it FR 1 FR 2 FR 3 there are 3
requirements and you have a design matrix and you have only two design parameter.
[ ][
FR 1 X
FR 2 = 0
FR 3 0
0
X
0
0
0
X][
DP 1
DP 2 ]
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So, in that case the design matrix equation will be coupled design second one case two if
number of design parameter is greater than the number of FRs functional requirements then it
is called redundant design.
So, in you can see here if here if you have only two requirements and they are five
parameters. If design parameter one and design parameter 4 are varied after DP 2, suppose
that DP 1 and DP 4 is varied after DP 2. So, here they are talking about sequencing and DP 5
is fixed to control the value of functional requirements then design is a couple design ok,
because here what are the how many variables are there 1, 2 ,3.
So, in second case if you fix the value of DP 1, DP 4, DP 5, DP 1, DP 4, DP 5, then there only
two design parameter and two requirements. So, in that case it will make uncoupled design
best one in that condition ok.
So, third condition if DP 3, DP 4 and DP 5, are fixed DP 3, DP 4 and 3 all are fixed than the
design is called decoupled design, because here if you make an equation for that FR 1 FR 2
they are that in each requirements the involvement of both parameters will be there. So, here
for that case if you will write FR 1 is equal to A 1 1 DP 1 and FR 2 is equal to A 21 DP 1 plus
A 22 DP 2.
So, here you can see that this is the case of decoupled design. So, if last one if DP 1 and DP 4
are set first and then the design behaves as an uncoupled redundant design and in this case
you are not neglecting anyone and you are taking consideration of all the things, but you are
making DP 1 DP 4 before than the parameters. So, it is an uncoupled, but still it is a
redundant design.
Now, in a case three that is the if number of design parameter is equal to number of
functional requirement, so in that case that will be the ideal design. So, your objective should
be always to make an ideal design.
In an ideal design the number of design parameters is equal to the number of functional
requirements and it and benefit of that a functional requirement are always kept independent
from the each other. So, suppose that if you have more than the you have supposed four
functional requirements and you have a six design parameters for that. So, you will have to
illuminate two design parameters using the second axiom. So, I will explain what is the
second axiom later.
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Now decomposition of functional requirements and parameters, so in an ideal condition

functional requirements and parameters are a very few in numbers, but in actual condition
there are a lot of requirement functional requirements involved there to in a fabrication of one
product.
So, in that case you have to decompose your product in a variety of sub element. So, that you
can make involvement you can take consideration of each elements in your design
consideration, so I am giving you one example for how you will decompose your functional
requirements as well as your designing parameters.
Now, here you can see that they are this is the decomposition of functional requirement and
this is the designing parameter. Here you can see functional requirement is divided in a sub
various sub element FR 1, FR 2, again FR 1 is subdivided in FR 11 FR 12 here similarly FR
21, FR 22.
And here also correspondingly design parameters is also divided in a various sub parameters
and each parameter are linked to sub elements functional requirements here FR 21 FR 22, is
linked to DP 1 you can see in example. So, here you can see that you have decomposed your
functional domain and as well as physical domain so for example,
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Decomposition process for a lathe using an axiomatic design. So, for lathe what you have to
do for lathe what is the function of lathe it is a metal removal machine ok. So, for material
removal device what are the functional requirements you have a functional requirement.
So, these are your functional requirements power supply, workpiece rotation source speed
changing device workpiece support and tool holder support structure tool positioner and
again here you can divide it a workpiece support in a various form, tool holder positioner
support structure again you can divide in tool holder in a sub functions. So, tool holder maybe
longitudinal clamp rotations stop and tool holder.
So, how in this way you can divide your functional requirements. now after your
decomposition of functional domain will have to decompose your designing parameters
accordingly here you can see that for a lathe there are lot of parameters are involved in a
process motor drive, head stock, gear box tail stock, bed. Here also tails this one is divided
into frame spindle feed, screw frame again your spindle assembly is subdivided into clamp,
handle, belt, pin and tapered bore.
So, how what you are doing here, so you are dividing your main functional requirement this
was your main functional requirements and you are dividing in a various requirements FR 1,
FR 2, FR 3, like that and similarly here you are your first designing parameter to material
removal process is the lathe machine ok.
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So, this was the DP and for designing that lathe machine you have to divide it in a various
parameter. So, each parameter is involved in a machining process. So, this is the how you can
decompose your process.
Now, earlier I said that if there is a more than number of designing parameter is more than
functional requirement. So, you will have to reduce your designing parameters. So, that that
design system will be a good design. So, what is that second axiom is a hypothesis ok.
So, here what is the goal of information axiom to minimize the information content of the
design and it is mathematically it is represented as I is equal to log base 2, one by P s, here P s
is the probability that a product can satisfy all the functional requirements that the is called
probability of success and here, base two is only used to express the information content with
the bed because your final goal is to convert it in a software for your designing process.
3 3
I =∑ I i=∑ log 2
i=1 i=1
( P1 )
i
So, you will have to convert your mathematical value in a bit form. So, that, so that is why
here two is taken. So, what will have to do for minimization of information here only one
parameter is variable that is the probability. So, probability of success will have to maximize
the probability of that success ok. So, that your information content will get minimized and
this information axiom provides a theoretical foundation of your robust design, and one type
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of robust design that is called Taguchi design you have already learned in a concurrent
engineering module.
Now, I am giving one example for that how information axiom is calculated mathematically,
suppose that for a system design system you have a three functional requirements and as well
as 3 designing parameters and it is a diagonal matrix.
So, it is that is fall into an uncoupled design diagonal matrix and let us supposed that P1, P2,
P3 are the probability of satisfying FR 1, FR 2, FR 3 with the parameters respective
parameters DP 1, DP 2 and DP 3.
So, so if you are going to calculate information content for that design. So, what it will be
usually summation of you have a 3 parameter and 3 functional requirements. So, you can
write in a way log 2 summation of 1 by Pi. So, this is the information content for this
uncoupled design example.
Now, I am giving you one real example that is the bottle can opener and we are going to
calculate information matrix for that bottle can opener this is the bottle can opener using this
you can open your bottle beverage bottle as well as your aluminium can. So, it has a more
than two functionalities, so it is available to open both of these. So, what are the functional
requirement for this problem design a device that can open bottles and design a device that
can open cans ok.
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So, you are making a one device which can which is capable of open a open either a
beverages bottle or can. So, for that purpose suppose that for variety of satisfying functional
requirement one with DP 1 is 0.95 and the one for FR 2 with DP designing parameter 2 is
0.85, then how you will calculate information contained.
I =I 1 + I 2=log 2 ( 0.951 )+ log ( 0.851 )=0.0739+0.2345=0.3084(bit )

2
So, I will be I 1 plus I 2 and we know that I is equal to log 21 divided by probability
corresponding. So, we will take 0.95 and plus log 21 divided by 0.85 I you will solve it. So,
will happen 0.0739 plus 0.2345. So, that will be equal to, so this is how you will calculate
mathematically your information content ok. So, this is how you designing your process. So,
this is your calculation for axiomatic second axiom.
Now, what are the strengths of the axiomatic design. So, first you can there are variety of
benefits are available for axiomatic design. So, what are the strength that first one is
mathematically based, second one is vehicle to related functional requirements and designing
parameters third one is the powerful if the relationship is linear.
So, if there is an equal number of functional requirements and designing parameters and both
are the independent all physical requirements are independent with their corresponding
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designing parameters. So, that is the then relationship is very powerful and your design will
be good very good design it provides a procedure for decomposing decision process.
So, your idea of thought can be decomposed in a mathematical way in this design. So, it is a
very authenticate tool for a designing process. then last one in is the basis for comparing
alternative design. So, it provides you a comparative study you can do with the other
competing design concept. So, because whatever you are getting here in a mathematical form.
So, that comparison is very easy with other designing process.
And there is also some weakness is associated with the axiomatic design first one itself axiom
is a selection of axiom because it is a hypothesis. So, you cannot argue with that your axiom
on the basis of your technical information.
So, always you will have to make a proper selection of axiom. So, that your you are
designing your design will be a good design otherwise if you have selected wrong axiom. So,
you might you may be may be possible that design is not good for that process.
Then second one randomness chances of repetition because there is variety of randomness is
available in each domain. So, it may be possible that some very parameters get repeated in
your matrix and it will increase your complexity in a design.
Third one is designs are usually coupled in a real practice you it is very difficult to find an
uncoupled design. So, a designs are always related one requirements are related with the
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more than one designing parameters. So, you will have to always minimize your designing
parameters and information content.
So, that your design will get converted into coupled design, so it is very tedious task and last
one is a axiom two, that is the minimization of information content that is I have said earlier
that information, it is a seems to be it is very easy looks very easy, but it is not a very easy
process to reduce the information contained because when you will start doing designing
process designing process then you will make find that some parameters are very difficult to
remove in a from your process.
Now, axiomatic designs have a variety of applications are it helps in a decision mainly design
decision making process, sometime it is called also called design decision making process.
So, it helps in a correct decision shorten it shortens the lead time it improves the quality of
product deal with complex systems, simplify service and maintenance and enhances
creativity and as always as well as productivity improvement it offers a systematic and
orderly way to proceed through the software development process.
So, in this process you have learned that in the axiomatic design it is a very convenient way
to convert your hypothesis into mathematical form. So, that you can represent your idea in
some standard formulation you can atomise for it and make a software for that.
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So, that next time when you will be going to design new product then that software will help
you to development of that new product. So, now, I am closing thus module and in the next
module I will discuss some new topics.
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Design Practice
Lecture - 36 and 37
Introduction to Group Technology
Welcome to the course Design Practice lecture module 36 and 37. I am Sanjay Kumar, course
TA for this course and today we will study a new topic that is called Group Technology.
Group technology, in this topic you will know how to organise the workshop such that where
machines will be assembled and parts will be distinguished with each other. Group
technology is a manufacturing philosophy that seeks to improve productivity. Actually the
motto of this group technology is to improve the productivity by grouping parts and products
with similar characteristics into families and forming production cell with a group of
dissimilar machining process. It means it is a grouping of products and machine, so that your
productivity can be improved.
This was first introduced by Frederick Taylor in 1999 as a way to improve productivity and
one of the long term benefit of group technology is it helps implement a manufacturing
strategy aimed at greater automation, using use your GT. You can you can transform your
industry into an automation that is the requirement of 21st century automation.
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Why group technology? Group technology, it helps in an average lot size decreasing because
your lot size is continuously decreasing in every industry part variety increasing,
Now, it is a pressure on any industry to increase the variety of parts. Suppose that you take an
example of mobile phone. So, in every year manufacturer has to design in a new mobile
phone in such a way that whole that designing will be slight different with previous one,. So,
this is the most challenging task and as well as the pressure in input on industry increased
variety of materials with diverse property.
Now, every industry is going in direction of lighter material lighter and stronger as well as
cheaper. So, focusing on these characteristics company had a lot of pressure on him so that
because of materials, variety of metals are increasing requirements for closure tolerance.
Now, parts are fabricating with close tolerances and it increases cost. So, that is why if group
technology comes into the play, using the group technology you can achieve your cost close
tolerance and you can manage your industry or your fabrication process. With the variety of
materials and variety of parts, you can fabricate using this technology.
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So, I am taking one example for that. So, this is the fast food chain, doctor, dentists, and also
manufacturing to find fast food chain. What happens one company is opening lot of store all
over the world, but most challenge of task is mental test, taste of food and as well as quality
of food. So, with the help of food technology, you can achieve these kind of properties for
food chain store and similarly, you can see here the family of part. I will explain what the
family of part is. You know you can say see here they are four parts and each has some
similarity. All are circular in shape.
So, this is the circular shape and you can distinguish these objects by circular shaped. So,
these are called family of part.
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So, implementing group technology, where to implement good technology? Generally, plants
using traditional batch production and process type layout where you can implement your
group technology if the parts can be grouped into part family, your part family.
So, product with similar characteristics can be group together, and this group is known as part
family where you are grouping variety of products with the similar characteristics. How to
implement group technology? First you will have to identify part family, so that you can
make lot of family; family 1, family 2, family 3 and each family has a variety of parts which
have a similar characteristic, rearrange production machine into machine cell. So, to
implement group technology will have to rearrange your production machine, existing
production machine into machine sale, machine cell.
So, machine cell, what is machine cell? It is a group of machines with similar kind of
operation. For example, drilling machine, boring machine. You can plug both machine into
one, so that because main task of these machines are to make a hole and to enlarge a hole
with the higher dimension. So, the grouping of these machines with similar characteristics is
called machine cells. So, in a group technology you will have to do first two things. First you
will have to group together, you will have to make a part family, first one and second one
machine cells. Then part family variety of parts is a group of variety of parts and here as well
as variety of machines. So, you will have to first identify your part family, then you will have
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to make a machine cell and for machine cell, you will have to change rearrange your
production machine.
So, group technology can be implemented. So, first I will discuss what are the types of
layout. These are the layout means rearrangement of arrangement of workshop for example.
So, in most of today’s factories, it is possible to divide all the made components into family
and all the machines into group, in such a way that the part in each family can be completely
processed in one group only.
So, your ideal time will get reduced. And finally your productivity will be increased.
Generally, they are three main types of existing layouts are used in industry. First one is line
layout. That is also called product layout. Second one is functional layout and third one is a
group layout. So, what is the line layout? Actually in this layout you as a name signifies
product layout.
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So, it is arranged in such a way that product here you can see it involves the arrangement of
machines in one line depending on the sequence of operations.
So, suppose that if you want to make a screw thread threaded screw, so first you will have to
do, first will have to make a sank sit a whole without threaded one screw and then, after that
another machine there will be threading on this part. So, here it will be done on m1, it will
have done m2. So, this is product is arranged in such a way that operation will get in
sequence, mass sequence manner. In product layout if there is more than one line of
production, there are many line of machine.
So, suppose that they are parallel line layout is used at present in some simple process
industry, in continuous assembly and for mass production of components required in very
large quantity, where in this example you can see that that for product one it will get
processed in this way. This was the machine 1, M2 and M3 and M4, M5. Finally, it will get
out from your assembly, your workshop. That will be the final product. Similarly, it is for P2,
P3.
Here you can see that for each product, they are parallel, 3 machines are required here. three
machines are required. here one machine is required. Again when this part will get processed,
after that it will go through there. Again there is one another machine is required. Similar
kind of machine is required. So, here you can see that there are a number of machines
engagement of number of machines are more, and one foremen and one team of workers
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complete each part. Here in each of production line they are one foremen and one team of
workers. Worker 1 here W2, W3, W4. There are four workers in a one production line, other
in production line 2, another they will be W5, W6, W7 ,W8 here. So, you can see that here
manpower requirement is high. So, in this kind of layout machines requirements are high and
as well as manpower requirement is high. So, cost will be, the product cost will be very high
as compared to other layout process.
So, here the second type of layout is the functional layout. All machines of the same type, all
laid out together in the same section under the same foremen and each foremen and his team
of workers specialize in one process and work independently.
So, this type of layout is based on process is specialization, here. What happens is your
machines or similar kind are grouped together. Here you can see they are the four machines
are available of similar l machine 4 number. Here also number of M machine 4, here also
their number of G machine 4 most really here. So, this is workstation 1, group 1 you can say,
group 2, group 3 and group 4 here. Here one product will come here. So, what will happen
here it will get processed out, then after finishing this work it will go through in this group 4
area and here in machine D, it will get processed again. Then, it will go from here to there
and again it will finally, it will be out from your workshop as a product, final product.
So, in this kind of layout, their four foremen and their men are involved in component
completion. So, in previous layout what saw they are four foremen was required there in each
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production line, there are four workers with one foreman. So, number of workers were 5,
human being was four plus one equals to 5. Again here 5 and in this case you can see that
they are only 1 foreman, and 1 foreman, 1 foreman, 1 foreman, here foreman and each
machine. If these machines are worked in sequentially, then only one worker will be required.
If all machines are engaged parallel that is may be possible that more than one worker will be
required in each group.
So, as compared to your product layout, here number of human being, woman worker will be
reduced and also, there will be it will act in a functional manner. So, suppose that you have
four three-part family P1, P2, P3, these are the part family. Part family I told you earlier; what
is the group of similar kind of parts. Here it may be possible that 1, 2, 3, 4. Therefore, parts in
will be there in one group. So, that is called P3 part family. So, suppose that one-part family
will come here and there one drilling is required. So, it will all drilling will be processed in
this machine, then it will transfer to this machine again. So, it works in a functional manner.
Now, last one is a group layout. In a group layout is foremen and his team is specialised in
the production of one list of parts and corporate in the completion of common task. This type
of layout based on component specialisation. Here what happens one foremen your one team
of worker complete each part. Here one-part family enters in group 1 area, this is the group 2,
group 3 and group 4 and what will happen is this part will be processed only in this group
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only, and one and each machine there will be one specialized person assigned to these
machines.
So, what will happen when it will come to here, then specialized person will process this part
in this machine. Again this will transfer it to this machine drilling and after that drilling,
milling will take place here. So, as it machines one worker is assigned and these are
specialised doing this work in lathe. So, here what happens these are after the exit. It will
come out as a finished product.
So, here again part P2 will come enter in this place like this one, then it will, they may be
done this again this one. Then, it will enter it to two lathe and after that it will take out. So,
here you can see that all family part 1, P1, P2, P3, P4 a process parallel with a similar number
of human beings as compared to functional layout, but here productivity is higher in this case
because your all machines are engaged in the same time and your four products are available,
finished product are available. So, this is the most appropriate layout that is being used in
industry that is called group layout.
So, what is actually I am showing you what is the difference between group and functional
layout. These are, this layout is called functional layout here. In this operation you can see
that this is the office here, material in touch here and there a lot of machines available, lathe
machine, milling machine, drilling machine and you can see that in each product will enter in
this workshop and it will process at various machines and after that you know the transfer
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transportation of this product part from one machine to another machine, it creates a zigzag
path.
So, it is very complicated and it is very difficult to manage for a production engineer to
manage the workshop. So, if number of part are less, then it may work out, but generally in
actual condition what happens due to variety of parts are processed in one workshop this day.
So, these are the parts, these are the very becomes very complicated. So, as compared to your
functional layout here, you can see that in a group layout here you can see that everything is
well mannered designed. One part will enter through in one group and here what will happen,
it will go through there. Then, lathe machine, then milling drilling and after that it will come
out as a reached product.
So, here you can see that it a very simplified. It takes very low space and lower in one’s part
move to in a very lower area as compared to your functional parts. Suppose that here one part
enters here, it will go through there, then it will come out there. So, it moves. So,
transportation time is higher. Transportation time of part in a workshop is higher, here. It is
very parts are fabricated in a very simplified manner. So, I am giving you one example.
Suppose that we have a three-part family A, B and C. So, in a functional layout what happens
they are group of machines of similar functionality is placed at group wise 1, 2 here 11, 12,
13 here 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. There fifteen machines are available and it has
we have divided in five groups; group 1 group 2, group 3, group 4 and group 5.
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So, for part family, it enters group 1, and it processed in a machine 1, then it will move
through the group 2. It will again process in a machine 11, then it will move through move
into a group 3 and here it will process. Now, after finishing the work on machine 11, it will
get into machine 4 from here. It will get transferred to machine 4 and after that it will go to
machine 9 again machine 10, then it will come as a final product.
Similarly, for machine, for part family B it will enter here in on machine 7 and group 2, then
it will move through the group 1 in a machine 2. Again it will move through machine 13.
Then, it will move to group 4 group 5, sorry and it will come out as a final product. So, here
again for group part family C, it will enter into group 4 on machine 8, then it will move
through group 2 on machine 12, then group 1 on machine 3, then on group 2 on machine 6,
then it will move to group machine 5, then it will come out as a final product.
So, you can see that how it is very complicated. All parts are moved in a very complicated
manner. So, you will have to design very precise design is required and it takes lot of floral
space, here. So, suppose that after finish for a part family c, after finishing the work on
machine 8, it will move to machine 12 in a group 2. So, these will time required to reach from
8 to 12 which is very high.
So, we will have to design the pathway for each part family to transport from each one
machine to another machine, and if suppose that similar part family it will process in a group
layout, then in a group layout what happens one-part family enters in only one group and it
will be processed on various machines and after that it will come out as a final product.
So, instead of making five groups, you will have to make since we have a part, three-part
family. So, you have to make three groups group 1 group 2 group 3 and here what will
happen part family will come to one that will here. What we are doing? We are rearranging
the machining position of machine and we are making new groups. So, 1 to 11 again, 11 to 4,
4 to 14 and 14 to 9, 9 to 10 and after that it will have come out as a will enter here in one and
it will out at 10 Af that is the final product.
Similarly, for a part family B, it will enter at 7, then you will move to 2 that will again move
to 13, then it will move to 15 and it will come out as a final product and similarly in for part
family C, it will enter at machine 8, then it will go to 12, then it will go to the machine 3,
after that it will go machine 6, then it will go to machine 5 and finally, it will come out as a
final product. So, you can see that the number of grouping is lesser than as compared to
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functional layout and as well as this complicated pathway are completely eliminated or
partially eliminated in group layout. So, always that is why group layout is better than
functional layout.
Now, come to the point how you will identify your part family because in a group technology,
I told you two things are required; part family and second one is machine cells. It is grouping
of machine of similar nature and grouping of parts machine cells. So, now we will discuss
how to identify your part family. Large manufacturing system can be decomposed into
smaller sub system of part family based on similarity in design attributes and manufacturing
features.
So, first you will have to break down your whole one product into a, you have to dissemble
this product in a variety of P1, P2, P3. Again P1 will have to decompose in a P1, P2, P3
similarly, and this will this decomposition will you have to be done on basis of design
attributes and manufacturing features after that will have to you can club your parts in one
family.
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So, design attributes, what are the design attributes? Part configuration for example round or
prismatic dimensional envelope length to diameter ratio, you can distinguish your parts using
L by D ratio, surface integrity. Surface roughness dimension tolerance suppose that we have
one ball one square and each have a surface roughness of 10 microns. So, we can club both
parts in one group. On basis of surface roughness, a material type suppose that this is made
by steel. Again it is made by steel, but shape is different, but material is same, so that we can
club both materials in a one family.
So, raw material state it depends on how you your planning to make a family of different
parts.
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These are the design attributes, and part manufacturing features and they are the
manufacturing attributes. How you will club your parts according to your manufacturing
features? For example, operations and operation sequence suppose that in each part turning is
required. So, you can club those parts in one group. So, that will be called to one-part family,
batch size machine tool, cutting tool work holding devices processing times. So, these are the
way to do how you will make a part family. On basis of design attributes and manufacturing
features, you can identify your part family.
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Group technology emphasis on part family based on similarities in design attributes and
manufacturing; therefore, GT contributes to the integration of CAD and CAM because you
are using design attributes as well as manufacturing attributes.
So, these attributed to CAD and this tend related to CAM. So, finally in actual case you are
clubbing CAM and CAM. So, that is why in a good technology technique, this is the
complete integration of CAD and CAM, computer aided designing and computer aided
manufacturing.
Now, I will tell you what is the part family. A part family is a collection having similar design
characteristics. Here you can see that for example, these also different parts, but it has a these
have similar characteristics. You will have to make a drilling of diameter in each part, so that
the other round in shape. So, you can club together in one family.
They are the manufacturing process. So, here you can see these are the parts part 1, part 2,
part 3, part 4 , part 5, part 6, but each parts required similar kind of process. Suppose you will
have to make drilling in each part. So, drilling will be done here. So, these parts are grouped
together on basis of manufacturing process. So, these are the part family equal to function of
P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, P6, on basis of your operation drilling is required. So, that in each part
that is why you have clubbed together on the basis of manufacturing process.
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They are generally three methods of for identifying part family. First one is visual inspection,
second one is classification and coding and third one is production flow analysis. I will
discuss each method in detail.
First is visual inspection method. In this method what happens use photos or part prints
utilize subjective judgement here you can see they are the variety of parts are available, but
on basis of visualisation, one professional experience professionals are required for visual
inspection.
So, by using visual inspection, you can distinguish these parts in a variety of groups, so that
part family will be complete. Here you can see that these are the after visual inspection. There
two groups are G1 and G2 part family and G1 part G2 part family here, here the prismatic
parts; this one this one, this one and this one. So, these are the prismatic in shape and here
they are rotational part. So, these are clubbed together and they are clubbed together in
different. So, these are completely based on the visual inspection, but sometimes it is very
fast process, but if the variety of parts are available more, lot of parts are available in a
workshop, so it is very difficult for an engineer to distinguish all parts in different groups. So,
it is very well experienced person is required.
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Sometimes it results in incorrect results. Human error may be possible, different judgement
by different people because it is completely judgemental process and inexpensive. It is very
cost serving saving process and least sophisticated and very fast, good for a small company
having smaller number of parts. So, if you have a with smaller number of variety of parts, so
you can use visual inspection method to make a part family.
Now, second process classification is coding. In this process the process of assigning symbols
to the part where symbol represent design attributes of parts, manufacturing features of parts
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or both code. Geometry or design manufacturing info about a component codes are
alphanumeric string. Generally, if you have a variety of parts number of parts are available,
you are going to fabricate in your workshop.
So, each parts you can have to make a code for that, so that you can distinguish each part.
One part from another during codes and classification, the process of categorisation of a set
of part into part family is known as classification. After coding you can make a different
group, classify all code in different groups. So, those are known as part family.
It is a string of characters capturing information about an item. Three main types of coding
system structure are available. Classification coding first one is called monocode or
hierarchical structure. Second one is polycode or chain type structure and third one is mixed
mode structure.
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Monocode here this is a code in which each digit amplifies the information given in the
previous digit and it is very difficult to construct. It is also known as hierarchical layout.
Coding system here you can see that first this one is suppose that one code is 3 2 x. Here
again this x, this one depends on this one, previous one.
So, it makes hierarchy for that and each code, one code is dependent on your previous code.
So, it is very difficult to construct and provide a deep analysis usually and it is generally used
for generally permanent information. So, monocode generally used in an engine. So, you can
find it in any automobile engine. There standard code is, the unique code is available there.
So, that is generally based on monocode.
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It provides a large amount of information, relatively small number of digits useful for storage
and trivial of design related information, such as part geometry, material, size etcetera and it
is very difficult to capture information on manufacturing sequence because in a hierarchical
manner, applicability of this code is manufacturing is rather limited because suppose that you
have a code 3 2 5 6 7, and here this code is dependent on previous machines from operation.
So, you will not be aware and how it is supposing that if you want something, some changes
in your part. So, you will have to change here code also, but this code is dependent on
previous one. So, you will have to again change your previous machining operation. So, it is
very difficult.
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Another type code is Polycode. This code symbols are independent of each other. So, benefit
advantage of this code is, it is independent of each other and each digit in specific location of
the code describes a unique property of the work piece and it is very easy to learn and useful
infatuating situations. Even you can understand what the code is, meaning of that code.
So, Polycode suppose that one part has to travel through for operation and at each operation,
it signifies one code. So, one worker who does not belong to that work of, but if you will
provide a seat for coding, coding seat to him, so what will happen he can understand, this
code signifies to this operation. So, this part can be processed in this manner. So, here I will
be going to one example for that.
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Here suppose that one part has one code that is called 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. So, here 1 signifies
material to it is always signified material shape, 3 is material chemistry, 4 is product
production quantity, 5 is surface finish tolerance. So, related to 6 and 7 is related to machine
element orientation.
Here you can see that code 1 is completely different to independent to code 2. Also code 3 is
independent. So, suppose that if you want to change your shape of your part, so easily you
can change your shape of part. It will not affect your material, chemistry, production,
quantity, and these kinds of things. So, this is the independent coding system, and easier to
accommodate changes.
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Now, one other example you can see that their class of feature external shape, this is the digit
signified by one again in a. So, therefore, digits are available 1 2 3 4 and suppose that if you
are choosing external shape, so here if you want to make its cylindrical with deviations, you
just will take 1 2. So, this code will be 1 2. It means 1 3 means this part has an external shape
and cylindrical in shape and without any deviation. So, external shape can be either
cylindrical prismatic. So, that is why 1 and 2 are independent.
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Now, third one is a hybrid structure and it includes both polycode monocode. So, here we can
see that is using it uses both type of codes; polycode and monocode. Also here you can see
Polycode are independent 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and we have to
Monocode suppose that this one depends on 15, 12, 9, 6, and 3. So, you suppose that if I am
saying one code is alive in sequence, so you cannot say on which machine or previous
machine, either 9 or 6 it has processed.
So, you will have to go in detail for that to know on which because it depends on a previous
coding system. So, on which machine it has been processed again here similar kind of, so that
if you are mixed together both codes, then it will become a hybrid structure.
So, there is I am going to give one example that is Optiz classification system. This is based
on the mixed mode system. So, it was developed by Optiz and it is most widely used in
industry. It provides a basic framework by understanding the classification and coding
process and it considers both design and manufacturing information, here.
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This is the general form of mixed code. In Optiz classification system here that three types of
codes generally used in this system form code, supplementary code and secondary code.
What is the form code? It focuses on part geometry dimensions and feature relevant to part
design and supplementary code includes information relevant to manufacturing, such as raw
material tolerance and surface roughness, and it is for example, it is signified by 6 7 8 9 and
the secondary code intended to identify the production operation type and sequence and it is
generally signified by A B C D, and it can be designed by the user firm to serve own need.
So, it is not a standard coding system. You can change your coding system according to your
requirement.
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So, these are the basic structure of Optiz system, where part shape one digit. Digit 1 signifies
the part shape class rotation versus non rotational, digit 2 signifies external shape features
various types of distinguish, digit 8 signifies original shape of raw material. So, there are
variety of digits and each has some meaning related to your code digits’ system.
Here you can see for basic structure in Optiz system, here are the form code, here and these
are the part class. So, suppose that for a part of dimension having L by D greater than or
smaller than 3, so what your first digit will be this signifies the digit 2. So, we will have to
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select D 2 and in a form code suppose that it requires external shape element, then it will go
through the internal shape element machining plane of surface other holes and teeth. So, it
signifies as a digit again 2.
Suppose that it will go external shape is required, again for material characterization, here
will have to go supplementary code. Then, again for material will have to suppose you have
taking materials type 7, so this code signifies what is the dimension of your part and in which
machine it will go through and what kind of material it is.
So, you have when a in a more detail you can see parts by that l l l by D ratio is smaller than
0.5 and it requires suppose that if you are you are going to make a threaded screw, so you will
have to assign this digit 5 for threading system. For digit 3 digit 3 here again it required
supposed that functional group, then it will have to take 6 again. Suppose that no further
machining is required, then it will have to assign 0 and no auxiliary hole is required, we have
to assign 0. So, final code will be 0 5 6 0 0. This is the Optiz system. So, this 0 signifies the L
by D ratio is 0 less than 0.5. 5 signifies it will be threaded a screw and 6 is functional group is
required and their no further machining is required and no auxiliary hole is there.
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So, this is the form code 5, digit form code. There you can see here one example for that this
is the one rotational part design below determine the form code in Optiz part classification
and coding system. So, here you can see length is 1.5 and diameter is 1. So, L by D is equal
to 1.5. So, for L by D 1.5 you have to take one signifies digit with one digit. 1 is equal to digit
1. Again both ends stepped with the screw threaded one end. Here you can see that one end is
screwed and it is stepped in the shape. So, digit 2 is 5 here. You can see threaded, this
threaded to step into both end. So, one part is threaded.
So, you have to choose 5 again for internal shape part contains a through hole. There is one
hole through hole in this part. So, for through hole part, you will have to select here one
smooth or step to one end and no shape element functional group. So, you will have to
choose one again planar surface machining, no machining is required. So, 0 and auxiliary
holes, there no holes are there. So, again on digit 5, it signifies as 0.
So, final form code of this Optiz system is 1 5 1 0 0. So, this is the way how you will make a
form code for your part and this is very easy.
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Another example you can see here L by D for two based on the pitch circle diameter of the
gear. So, fifth digit is 1 again. For external shape, there is steppes on one side with functional
groups. So, second digit is 3. Internal shape, the third digit is 1 because of a through hole
plane surface machining the four digit is 0 because there is no plane surface machining, there
is no any machining on outer side auxiliary holes and gear teeth. The fifth digit is 6 because
there are spur gear teeth on the part. Here you can see that the teeths are available. So, you
will have to design it with 6. So, final code will be 1 3 1 0 6 for the system.
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Now, this is the third type of coding system. This is called Flow Analysis and product flow
analysis method for identifying part family and associated machine grouping based on the
required manufacturing process need for each part.
Here you can see that you are, these are the machines M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 and these
are the part family A B C D E F. So, what you are doing is, you are making a flow system,
you are giving 1 1 1 1 1. So, machines are either one suppose that for part family, it will be
machine on M1 and M5. So, you will have to assign it with 1 1. Rest of there will be either
you can write 0 or nothing. 0 0 again for part family B, it will be processed only on 1. So, rest
of the machine will be 0, you assign 0 0. So, it is a matrix method. Here you can represent
your flow system flow diagram in a matrix form. So, spot for example, for E machine, it is it
will have processed on machine 2 and machine 3. Now, after doing this which product will be
processed on which machine, then you can group together. Here you can see that CEI EI. So,
CEI and it will get it processed on 3 2 6 generally.
So, here these are the 1 1 1. Rest of will be 0. So, generally partially this CEIR one-part
family, on basis of machining operation. So, this is based on matrix mathematical matrix
form.
So, how you will select your classification and coding system? So, first define your objective,
then robustness and expandability can it work with current product or accommodate unknown
future product and application. Again you will have to always keep in mind automation
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because every industry is moving towards to automation complete automation. It is easy to
get information in and out in a timely manner. So, that automatic retrieval system is an
incorporating industry.
So, you will have to make coding, make a code for accordingly will people use it or not cost
as an engineering decision with far reaching impact. What is the true cost one will have to
always keep in mind cost because every industry is situated only for making profit?
So, benefit of group technology, some of the well known tangible and intangible benefit of
implementing GT are engineering section for equipment specifications, facility planning
process planning, production control, quality control, tool design, purchasing, service,
etcetera.
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So, engineering design if you are improving group technology in engineering design, so what
will happen is, reduction in a new part design, reduction in number of drawing through
standardization and reduction of number of similar part easy retrieval of similar function part
and identification of substitute parts and you can easily change your design because based on
your group technology if you are changing one part, so rest of it will be same, but only that
particular operation will get changed using a group technology techniques.
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So, another is layout planning. So, you can plan your workshop in such a way that lead time,
age reduced and productivity will be higher than reduced metal handling effort because it
requires space as well as manpower and time.
Specification of equipment, tools, jigs and fixtures; you can standardization of equipment,
implementation of cellular manufacturing system and significant reduction in upfront cost
incurred in the release of new parts for manufacturing.
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There are the benefit, other benefits in manufacturing process planning. The reduction in set
of time and production time, alternative routing leading to improve part routing and reduction
in number of machine operation and numerical control programming time. So, using group
technology process plan can be done.
Production control reduced work in process inventory easy identification of bottlenecks,

improved materials flow and reduced warehouse cost, faster response to schedule changes
and improved usage of jigs, fixture, pallets tools. So, you can design one fixture for one-part
family, so that in one-part family, there are variety of products are there. So, these all product
can be claimed to one fixture. So, number of fixture requirement get reduced. So, that is you
can also say that instant derision of fixture.
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Quality controlled always if you will use group technology, then always quality will improve.
Overall quality will be improved; so reduction in number of defect leading to the reduced
inspection effort because all products are machine in well manner. So, failure of a part is very
few. So, inspection time will get reduced. Reduce is the scrap generation. So, material saving
will be done, better output quality and increased accountability of operators and supervisor
responsible for quality production.
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Now, purchasing, coding of purchase part leading to standardized rule of purchasing
economics in purchasing possible because of accurate knowledge of raw metal requirements.
So, if you use standard coding system, so any buyer can check. You can check coding system
of that part and can say that this is made by this material. So, this is very easier. This will be
very easier for the buyer as well as the vendor. So, reduced number of parts and raw materials
simplified vendor evolution procedure leading to just in time purchasing.
Also, inventory will be also reduced using group technology because if in a functional layout
near every machine has some space to keep them to hold some parts, so those parts will get
finished after in serial manner. So, those kind of inventory will get reduced in a group
technology by customer service.
Accurate and faster cost estimates, you can estimate your cost of a product very efficiently
because you have planned everything. For that you have a well stabilized process layout. So,
that part will become this machine and it will get what is the lead time, how many workers
should be required and what will be each work machines efficiency machine production rate.
So, you can include those all factors, you can estimate your cost in a better way. Efficient
spare part management leading to better customer service and lower lead times, these are the
benefits of the group technology, but as well as a group technology has certain limitations
also because in every industry, you cannot.
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Suppose that one industry is 50-year-old and they are using functional layout and suppose
that if you are going to incorporate group technology. So, what you will have to do you have
to move your all machines from here to there. So, it will take a lot of time manpower as well
as cost. So, sometimes worker will not be happy to change their work.
So, it is very difficult to, sometime it is very difficult to incorporate group technology
techniques in existing old industries, but it takes lot of money to incorporate these techniques,
but if you will look in a long term, then group technology will be better for your industry in a
long term, because it will suppose that you have invested a 10 million rupees for
incorporating group technology, so you cannot return back those moneys in within a year. So,
you will have to wait for that. So, overall group technology technique is a very good
technique to incorporate. So, it is generally actually you can say that it is a factory designing
layout designing system.
So, I am closing this module here and in the next module, I will discuss some other topics.
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Design Practice
Lecture - 38
Failure Mode Effect Analysis
Hello and welcome to this design practice module number 38. In the last few modules you
have seen how you know different aspects of design; like for example, principles of material
selection in design, development of any process or system or for example, design issues
related to formulation of a work system and also axiomatic design, as a concept in the theory
has been taught to you. It has also been, you have also been taken across the various theories
of group technology which is a very important essential tool for concrete engineering, which
we did in a very elaborate manner at towards the beginning of this course.
So, I would now like to introduce two more very important concepts, as regards the steps
related to concrete engineering. One of them is better known as the failure mode effect
analysis and the other is also known as the quality function deployment. So, all these
different steps like group technology QFD quality function deployment or failure mode effect
analysis. These are nothing, but techniques which will improvise the design and there are
direct benefits which happen, if you invest in these processes even before the production
starts setting in.
For example, in case of QFD if we invest more towards design planning design development
by making customer as your center of attraction or your focus. You will see that towards the
start of the production and beyond the start of the production, the processes would be very
simple in the cost that would be involved, would be tremendously low in comparison to, if
you would do this development after production starts. So, we will also give an example of
shipbuilding, when we talk about introducing these QFD concepts.
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So, let us look first at FMEA or failure mode effect analysis. So, it is a very important
technique; that is quite widely used in the industry now and mostly related to automobile
manufacturers, particularly the three major automobile manufacturers and FMEA is used as
not only planning for a product or product design, but also for process design. In fact, an
example will be shared with you more towards the process side here, when we talk about a
very simple problem of rusting in doors associated with paint shop and associated with
vehicles during it is manufacture.
So, the FMEA technique is typically used for a continuous product quality improvement so
that you can have. Generally, a customer satisfaction and indices can be drawn to find out
whether FMEA is working in a proper manner. So, generally FMEA can be described again
as a system, I systematize group of activities intended to do three-fold development. One is to
recognize and evaluate the potential failure. Modes of a product meaning thereby that we
need to identify what is the cause of a certain defect or a failure to happen which will create
customer dissatisfaction.
And then associate what are the important processes, which are involved in such a product
development failure or product failure and also what are the effects of these processes which
will set in the failure, then we can identify as a process of the FMEA. Some actions or
countermeasures that could eliminate or reduce the chances of such potential failure modes to
happen. So, that you can have quality improvement within the product design and also
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product manufacture and then finally, you document the process in a proper manner. So, that
references can be made in the future, supposing this failure mode occurs again during the
product life cycle there.
There can be an easy way of eliminating by just looking back into the process and seeing
whether whatever stipulated action was frame or stipulated countermeasures were identified,
are they being followed or not. So, it is a very organized manner of the identifying the modes,
because of which a failure would happen in a product and trying to eliminate those and also
there is a qualitative judgment which is involved here. So, there is some kind of a rating
which is given at different steps and we can, as monitoring the failures are continuously
going down by looking at numbers associated with these ratings.
So, you can not only validate everything qualitatively, but also looking at some of the
numbers, in order to certain, whether a failure mode is really coming down, because of the
countermeasure, which has been implemented or action which has been identified as causing
to reduce the modes of the failure behind the product. So, FMEA is a generic approach. This
can be used to identify, as I told failure modes and analyze their effects on system
performance. And the objective is to develop a preventive strategy, so that failure mode
should not happen and how we do FMEA is that, there is a threefold methodology which is
used.
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So, in the in the processor FMEA, typically we formulate a methodology for evaluating the
process for possible ways in which failures may occur, failures may occur in the production
or the product; that is being produced. The primary objective is to eliminate the potential
production failure effects by identifying important characteristics that have been measured,
controlled and monitored.
So, typically how FMEA is carried out is that the philosophy is based on characterization of
these failure modes in terms of their occurrences. Occurrences mean how often a failure
would occur. For example, if there is a certain defect like a dust pot and a paint, how often it
is going to repeat. You know in a in production is something of importance when we talk
about FMEA; obviously, you have to do some kind of prioritization in terms of what are the
most abundantly available defects and what are the less abundantly, and how important it is to
as a as a consequence to the product if the particular failure mode happens on the product.
For example, in an automobile, if you look at failure; like a wheel nut not torqued properly
can cause a life or life loss or a limb loss or an injury. So, there may be very important from a
priority point of view in comparison to something, like an appearance defect, like a dent. So,
therefore, it is very important to sort of prioritize what is the failure mode, which is of
consequence and what is, which has lesser consequence, which may not be tackled at the
outset or at you know and may not be even sometimes tackled, and that way you get a
perspective of where your efforts need to be done towards the beginning, in order to improve
the failures related to the product.
So, the occurrence is followed by another parameter, the severity. So, how serious the failure
is, in terms of it is contribution to the failure; that is in question and then of course, once the
occurrence in the severity is mapped. The third issue is, how easy or difficult it is to detect
whether the failure is happening or not. So, one part is; obviously, what is the failure and
other part is how often the failure happens. Then it is about how severe the failure is, and then
how easy it is to detect. So, you are giving all aspects of a failure mode and if these aspects
are covered in a very organized manner and everywhere, there is some improvement which is
given.
Maybe in the modes in which detection of failure is possible or even you know doing
something with the design improvement, where there is a lessening of the severity, this failure
happens or even something related to countermeasure which may just reduce the occurrence
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of the failure you ensuring that the product is good quality and that is exactly what the whole
essences of FMEA activities. Failures can include many different aspects.
Like for example, there may be components which are cracked or dirty or deformed or bent
or burred, you know and sometimes tooling’s which are worn and improper setups may create
a variety of such failure modes and identification of these, an elimination of this is very
important. So, to implement the FMEA a certain algorithm is followed and this algorithm is
something that is important for me to tell.
You will do it in terms of a process, which is carried out in a paint shop, related to waxing of
the doors. You know the, there is a door inner. Typically, a door of a car is comprised of a
door inner and outer, which is hemmed together at certain points and the defect that we will
consider here is that, because of splashes coming out in the road from. Let us say splashed
water or splashed mud. There is always a possibility of a water level to go inside the door
which may create, which will jeopardize the different components associated with either the
door closing, opening or the windows, which are an essential part of the doors in an
automotive.
So, what we are going to do is, through FMEA process try to see, if there we can make a
system level and a process level improvement. So, that this defect or the failure mode comes
down. The failure in this particular case would be related to rusting of the door. So, the
following steps are usually followed in the algorithm for doing FMEA. One is identifying the
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problems for each operation and this can be using brainstorming or committee discussions
and then try to plot, maybe cause and effect diagrams which will give you an idea of what are
the reasons in terms of man, material, machine and methods, which all together give you the
onset of a problem or a failure mode.
And once this organized fishbone diagram is put on the table. It is very important to one by
one eliminate the different causes related to the people who are involved in the production or
the machines, which are involved in the production material, which comes in for the
production and the methods, which are being utilized for the production. And in all these four
aspects, you would have some countermeasures planned, so that overall, there is a systemic
improvement which happens for this failure mode to completely eliminate.
So, for example, the potential causes of a machine failure could be involving mechanical,
electrical subsystem failure. It can involve failure of tools; can involve some inspection
equipments which are not able to do a preventive maintenance in a proper manner or even
operators. So, all these identified have to be removed, identified contributions to the failure
modes have to be removed somehow. So, you can use process flowcharts as a basis for
understanding the problem, the problems this, it may provide a common basis for
communication among the committee members. So, that in an organized manner you list
down what are the basic reasons for a failure to happen
And in order to again numerals the various aspects related to occurrence severity and
detection related to a process, we can look into a list of for example, failures, we can
countermeasures and a list of detection methods for the failure to be detected before it it goes
out as a part of the product and then try to find out what is the occurrence level in terms of a
rating, rating could be between 1 and10 in a group of failures. Or what is the severity of a
failure related to other failures which may be existing, again rated in a group of 1 to10 and
then the detectability of a certain failure mode, how much probable it is that the failure would
escape the notice, the people who are involved in make contributing to some kind of a
process deviation which leads to the to the failure.
So, that also can be rated in terms of some 1 to10 numbers, and then we generate something
which is known as a multiple of this tuple; that is occurrence severity detection multiplied to
each other and we call it a risk priority number. So, this is a index number, which is given
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your judgment of a certain process and your ability to judge things in terms of priorities or
failures, occurrences of failures, severity of failures, detection of failures.
You are trying to get your judgment to a set of different failures, so that you can identify what
are the most probable contributors to the overall failure of a product, and then do a praetor
analysis, so that the first 20 percent which contribute to 80 percent of the failures can be sort
of removed and countermeasures can be planned in those areas. Again rpms can be revisited
with different iterations.
Iterations could be in terms of different countermeasures, countermeasures could be again in

terms of improving the detectability or why, you know from a root cause analysis of why a
failure is coming and try to remove that or even doing some design improvements, so that a
failure may not be as severe to the product as possible. So, all these different things are
necessary for having an RPM number and how the RPM number would change is also very
necessary, to give you an indicator of what you are doing is effective or ineffective in terms
of elimination of a failure mode.
So, we will try to do this again in a problem example, where you will understand it better
what I am saying in terms of, you know how ratings could affect by generating a number and
revising the number after various countermeasures have been carried out.
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So, let us look at a problem example from one of the automotive companies, which talks
about a failure mode, related to insufficient wax coverage over a specified surface of the door
inner. Generally, if I look at how a door of an automotive would be looking like. So, if I
remove.
Let us say the door stand alone and if I wanted to investigate the door by looking at a cross
section of this door, you may find out that after removing of all the trim boards etcetera
which are there within the passenger cabin, the door looks like a structural hollow with some
ribbed members on the inner side and an outer member which is a metal sheet on the outside
and it has the curves and curves or the overall automotive.
There is of course, a provision of a window, which is somewhere in this region and this
window is supposed to go all the way to the upper corner of the sash right here and fit, so that
is it basically becomes a leak free system. And; obviously, for moving this window, there are
various, different equipments which are mounted within the door inner. One of them being
some kind of a Caesar lift, which if you rotate the window regulator, would allow the window
to sort of move up and down along this sash and fit on the upper sash right here, so that there
is a leak proof joint.
So, there are a lot of components, then there are door hinges of course, the hinges are on let
us say one side of this particular door. There are door locks which would allow the door to
sort of fit to the remaining portion of the body and then there can be a latch analog both,
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where in one case the door can simply get press fitted another locked. So, that one cannot
open it without removing some kind of a lever for actuation.
So, this is a very complex geometry or complex engineering product, where there is a
problem, because if we look at the door and if we look at the pressure that it creates with
respect to the body, in order to prevent the shower or other leakages, coming out from the
door, there is a weather strip door, weather strip which is around this whole door and it is
basically a rubber cushion which actually press fits from with door on one side and the side
body on another side, and this rubber cushion is actually fitted with some small holes which
are there at different portions of the door inner and outer.
So, the inner and outer, the inner member being the, the ribbed member and the outer member
being a continuous member are hemmed together. So, the cross section of the door might
look something like this, where there is an outer member, which is actually connected to this
inner member and there is a hemming which happens. The outer number of course, has the
same curves and curves as the automotive outer and the inner member as the rip kind of
structure, where there are many components which are in this space you know inside, the
hollow which is being created because of the hemming here and maybe somewhere here of
the inner and the outer structure of the door.
The weather strip is connected in the manner. So, that the weather strip place you know it is
role in terms of generation of pressure, there are certain lips which are probably there which
sits to the car body and if I looked at the weather strip, the weather strip actually goes all way
round this periphery, as you can see here and it might have more than two lips which would
create, you know and these are made up of completely made up of rubber with a certain you
know lips which would create a sort of pressure a closing pressure or the door on the on the
side body of the automotive. So, that there is prevention of leakage which may happen.
So, because there are certain holes in the whole periphery of the door which will create the
fitment of this rubber strip to be possible there is always a problem that if supposing some of
these holes are, because of the natural degradation of the rubber and the rubber coming off,
may be exposed to do splashes and particularly when the door is, when the automotive is
moving on a road there is a chance of leakage of water from this gap which is created
between the rubber strip.
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So, there is a point typically where there is not, so much of pressure, because of some
deterioration of the rubber part and the water may actually go inside the door and create a
logging water logging and this water logging, if it continues after, let us say a few thousand
miles of driving, may create rust problems associated with lot of bad appearance defects
particularly when the automotives are older.
And also it creates jeopardizing, or it creates or it sort of tries to jeopardize the moving
components within the door which may be related to the hangers or let say related to the
scissor lift which is used for the regulation of the window or movement of the window along
the door sash etcetera of an automotive. So, such is a problem which has to be investigated in
this particular case and we had to draw out a way or a method for doing this prevention of
water logging to happen and so, normally auto manufacturers use some kind of a wax
dispensing unit, particularly when the body comes from the welded body and goes through
the decode process and goes into finally, the primary secondary and tertiary coats of a paint.
So, just before the final paint coating and the end of the E D process, the on the line there is a
wax applicator which would create a sort of a wax layer on the door inside, meaning thereby
we are targeting this particular region with the wax layer, which we are trying to whose out
through a wax gun on the line.
And, so typically if the automotives in a paint shop, if you look at this process, it may be
something like trolleys carrying the automotives with door in open position and the wax
applicator with the manual application station, where there are operators which would
actually dispense the wax while moving the gun from inside periphery through these
skeletons or through these hollows which are there on the door inside. So, this wax
application process may result in some kind of water longing action, if it is not carried out
properly. If the wax layer thickness or the viscosity or let us say the application points are not
as per the specified limits, there may always a problem of, there may be always a problem of
holes getting uncovered and, because of which water longing must are taking place
So, the FMEA process that we want to develop is to sort of study the wax application in a
more appropriate manner within the inside of a door, so that this problem of corrosion can be
retarded and the potential failure mode happens, because of insufficient wax coverage over
the specified surface, which relates to a process function requirement, which is about, you
know the main functional requirement of the wax is to sort of manually apply inside the door,
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so that you can cover the inner door lower surfaces at minimum wax thickness and corrosion
can thus be retarded within such assemblies, door assemblies.
So, the potential effects of these failures may be many, including it may be and it may lead to
deteriorated life of the door of the door parts. There may be impaired functionality of the
interior hardware of the door. For example, after a substantial amount of water longing for
some amount of time, the way that the window regulator is going to move you know in
placing the window back into place in the window up position on the window down position
that may get impaired, because of rust and improper lubrication.
Rust actually spreads, whenever there is a metal to metal contact. It may also lead to some
kind of movement problems related to the door hinges, you always find spooky noises when
doors open in old automotives, let us say after 5 years 6 years of drive you always find that
the improperly lubricated door hinges may result in some very strange hearing kind of
squeaky noises, while opening which may not be very well appreciated by the user or the
customer.
So, these water logging problems would result to such kind of failure modes. The other most
important potential effect for the failure could be related to the appearance problem due to
rust coming up from the door outer, sometimes there is a paint scratch or a paint peel off on
the outside, and then if there is a rusted door in the rust may always come up on the surface
of the automotive and it may be a very bad look and it may jeopardize the whole painting
process. So, a layer of paint may get actually peeled off, because of such rust coming out and
it may be again another consequence or consequential effect of the failure mode related to
insufficient wax coverage.
So, here after looking at several different defects or a group of different failure modes, a
quality engineer analyzes the severity of this particular defect and he rates the severity of this
defect to be 7 on a scale of 1 to10, as compared to the other defects which are probably
around. And then he tries to understand what are the potential causes why this failure is
happening on a line by doing a line study, and what he finds out is that there are more than
one causes, multiple causes which lead to such failures.
One is that the manually inserted spray head, which is supposed to spray the wax on the door
interior, is not inserted far enough, so that it can go to the right depth where the wax needs to
be spread. For example, if I looked at the door in our hardware and there is a wax gun which
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comes all the way here, the wax gun should actually come to the bottommost point where the
thickness of the wax should start and if we just allow the gun to not come or come in
sufficiently.
Let us say for example, in another case if the gun comes somewhere on the top here and is
not able to come all the way to the level where the wax dispensing has to happen, there may
be a possibility of wax falling down as lumps and it may not be a continuity. So, it may have
beads of wax without having any connections between those beads and there may be holes in
between, because of such application, unless the wax melts and reflows back. In such kind of
cases, because we are talking about automotives running in all sort of conditions, wax also
and the viscosity and the melting point of the wax also is sufficiently revised. So, that the
melting does not happen ah; otherwise remember there are always holes through which the
wax may flow out.
So, these melting temperature of the wax probably that is being used is a little higher than the
normal operational temperature which may be close to about 48 or 50 degree Celsius in a
peak summer period. So, we are talking about wax of a slightly higher melting point also. So,
there is a possibility that reflow and leveling of the wax. Because of the incorrect disposal of
the wax at a certain height may not be possible leading to beading and discontinuity of the
wax layer which is being applied. So, that is one issue because the manually inserted spray
head may not have been inserted far enough because of an operator.
There can be another failure mode related to the clogged spray head. Sometimes because of
continuous spraying and insufficient maintenance the wax may jeopardize the orifice of the
disposer the dispenser and it may create to lesser flow. Lesser flow may always you know,
because there is a certain time cycle which can be utilized for coating the wax on the door
inner, you cannot go beyond the time cycle because always you know in a line production,
this cycle time has to be obeyed. There can be that there is a possibility that you may leave
one vehicle, because you have made sufficiently longer time on another vehicle in front of it.
So, in order to line balance, the situation, if the spray head has been clogged, the only
alternative can be that within the time cycle that the operator needs to do for one vehicle. he
may dispense of a thin layer which may get jeopardize later in terms of cracks or holes you
know. So, the clogged spray heads may occur due to various reasons. For example, if the
viscosity sometimes is too high that may create such clogging, even when we are applying
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the wax from the line, there may be an overall temperature, low temperature at which this
applicator is working.
So, that could be one of the reasons again for clogging, or even if sometimes the pressure is
too low, the pressure of pumping the wax from a wax cylinder onto the dispenser even that
also may lead to clogging and. So, therefore, there has to be a checkpoint related to, whether
the wax spray is reasonably on the door inside, so that you have a thin layer of wax, sitting
on, covering those holes which will prevent water logging from happening.
Sometimes the quality engineer also observes that there is a case of spray head being
deformed due to wrong handling of the gun. Guns are sometimes used to impact the doors to
open it you know; you have to remember it is post electro deposition process that we are
trying to apply the wax. So, always there is a E D oven and E D tank which is involved and
there may be a possibility that the doors might not open up so well. There may be some
restriction between the door and the outer body and that may be that may be open by
sometimes using a false pretext particularly by operators working on the line, where they may
use the gun as a potential hammering unit for opening the door. So, that may lead to some
spray head deformation and because of which there may again be a problem of insufficient
wax application.
Also there is another problem that the quality engineer finds, which is in terms of spray time
insufficient. So, sometimes you know, because of the untrained operator, because of his
inability to go on in flow with the production process, you might find time between many
vehicles which are come in sequentially, to be insufficient to coat the whole vehicle with a
certain wax layer. On one hand the line is balanced for a skilled operator and if you put an
unskilled operator these problems are going to happen.
So, the quality engineer again tries to decide on the occurrence levels, which leads to this
failure mode of the various mechanisms. So, he rates the manually inserted spray, not inserted
far enough failure mode or failure mechanism, to have a rating of 8. Similarly, because the
spray heads clogged he rates this occurrence to be 5; that means, almost 50 percent of the
times this might be the reason or 80 percent of the times manually inserted spray, not inserted
far enough maybe the reason, about 25 percent of the times he feels that spray heads are
deformed and he does it on a large set of observation, maybe he observes few shits shifts in
an in a month you know and then based on that he concludes by giving his rating.
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And then he also records the spray time insufficient, reason to be about 80 percent of the
times the main reason why a failure mode should happen. So, therefore, what he has done is a
sort of a defector analysis, where because of this failure mode, whatever are the reasons
associated with the failure mode are rated in terms of how much contribution they made to
contribute to the failure mode in terms of their occurrences etcetera.
So, once this is classified then he looks at that; obviously, if these are the various mechanisms
of failure, are there any check points to see, whether these failures through these different
reasons are being monitored and are being controlled and. So, he finds out that there are
certain current process controls which talk about, what are the you know, what are the
monitoring points through which such mechanisms for the overall failure can be influenced.
For example, in the manually inserted spray head not inserted far enough may a mechanism
for failure, he finds out a process control is to visually check each hour, maybe one vehicle
per shift for a film thickness. This can be done using a depth meter where you know the
insertion into the wax layer might give a marking on the scale through which you could
measure, what is the thickness of the wax which is being measured.
And also the coverage can be measured by, maybe just jeopardizing one wax layer from, by
moving the pointer from one side of the door to the other side of the door to see, if the whole
layer is executed or if there is some kind of a you know hole or a crevice in between which
has been left or if it is insufficient at certain times, because of beading and other effects.
So, only a visual check is initiated at this particular you know failure mode for doing a
process control. Similarly, for the spray head clock, there is a test spray pattern which is
being utilized at the startup and after ideal periods. There is always a possibility that the wax
which is coming or being dispensed out of a cylinder, wax cylinder which comes from a
vendor, may have these different parameters like viscosity or temperature or pressure
dependence, and it may result in lower flows through the spray heads and also some remnant
wax inside the spray heads may get clogged and make the orifice smaller.
So, the best idea is to sort of at every shift end or at every shift beginning, check whether the
dispenser is properly dispensing by spraying a pattern and seeing how much of that is being
covered. So, that is one preventive maintenance step that is there for the current process
control. For the spray head deform there is of course, a program of maintenance, where it is
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necessitating to check every Sunday or every Saturday at certain point after the shift is over,
you know whether the spray head is really in good shape or it has been deformed.
And so if it is deformed it is replaced, but then again it is after certain time intervals and what
happens if something happens in between is also not there. And based on that, also for the
spray time insufficient probably there is a10 doors per shift check point done by a certain
supervisor, to ensure that if some operator is untrained and is not doing the job properly and
the spray time is insufficient. So, the 10 doors per shift checking protocol is just to see
whether these spray time is insufficient, and because of which there is a coverage issue of the
wax on the door inner.
And again the quality in charge who looks at this defectory, sees the various you know levels
of detectability with the current process controls and rates about you know 50 percent to the
step 1; that is visual check for film thickness. So, about 50 percent of the times you can detect
the manually inserted spray head, not inserted far enough through just a visual check on the
film thickness. About 30 percent of the times again you can detect whether the spray heads
are clogged through the test spray pattern control point which is there on the in the system
already, and then with preventive maintenance again about 20 percent of the times you are
able to see the spread spray head gets deformed, because of in some in inappropriate operator
use.
And similarly this10 doors per shift checking gives you a very good instance about 70
percent of the time you can detect this spray time to be insufficient or not. So, these are the
various detectabilities. So, the RPM number which is again the multiple of this tuple; that is
severity occurrence and detectability, is calculated here to be 7 cross 8 cross 5 that is 280, and
similarly for the other different root cause tree which is causing the of, which are the
responsible causes for the or mechanisms for the failure to happen, the RPMs are calculated
to be 100 and 528 and 392.
So, now, one has to do something, so that the RPMs could change, and the RPM have to be
brought down in terms of maybe either decreasing the occurrence percentage of a certain
defect cause or again you know, do some design improvements, so that it may not be as
severe. The failure mode may not be as severe. So, in this case it is out rule, because the
process is fairly well established the design is well established.
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So, we cannot do anything about the severity, but; obviously, we can make some
countermeasures, so that overall occurrence of a certain defect can reduce and then also the
detectability can, either be at the same level or go slightly up. So, that overall the RPM,
because of the dominance of the reduction of occurrence may come down. So, the idea is to
tackle actually you know the occurrence part and make it lesser and detectability part to go
higher.
So, that you can ensure that any failure mechanism which is causing this particular failure
mode to happen, eliminate completely and whatever you know generation of that failure
mode or that reason is still existent, is very well detectable. So, that it does not lead to much
occurrences or it does not lead to much undetected failures going out of the process.
So, in a way by controlling mostly the occurrences by control measure planning, proper
countermeasure planning the RPM should be reduced. So, in this particular case the
following actions are recommended by the quality engineer. So, for the manually inserted
spray head, not inserted far enough, the engineer suggests a sort of a full proofing. The full
proofing is related to adding of a positive depth stop to the sprayer. It may be some kind of a
limit switch which will lead to; you know a signal to the overall PLC which controls the
assembly line. If supposing the spray gun is actuated with some kind of a liber.
Let us say there is a liber here, which gets pressed, because some component in the door at a
certain depth fouls with this liber which allows this liber to go all the way down here, only
then such a pressing of this particular liber may happen. So, this adds a signal which will
allow the line to continue otherwise the line will stop. So, these are known as poka yoke or
full proofing, from a lean manufacturing system standpoint and such a full proofing is
abundantly present in the line particularly for automakers, to ensure that some of the
criticalities get obeyed in terms of compliance to quality standards.
So, in this particular case the adding of a positive depth stop may necessitate, that if the
manually inserted spray head is not inserted to a certain level, the line will not even work and
the line will stop. So, therefore, it has to ensure that that particular lever gets hit and it gets
deflected for a count, so that the PLC can signal the line to start again. So, this is sort of a full
proofing which has now, as you can see led to a situation where the multiple occurrences of
this particular event has been reduced to almost 20 percent of the times, earlier it was 80
percent. The other step that is recommended is sort of a automatic spraying you know.
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So, basically you have a robot oriented spraying process where the gun actually goes into the
door inner at a certain level and start spraying for the whole span of you know length over
which the spray has to be made, but such a solution is rejected, because there are different
contours of doors, there are there is only not a single model production, but mixed model
production in such lines, and handling such an automatic, fully automatic system may be a
problem and. So, therefore, this idea is rejected completely and the idea for the positive depth
stop has been implemented.
So, for the process control test spray pattern and also the spray head clock problem and the
quality engineer suggest the use of DOE or design of experiments to get a proper, you know
value related to the viscosity temperature pressure based on the operating conditions or the
operating temperatures, in which this process is carried out on the line and. So, this DOE
gives you an idea what is going to be the optimum, you know biometrics in terms of
operational viscosity temperature and pressure values.
Also a additional checkpoint is recommended, where you know it is recommended by the Q

A that a fraction defective charge be plotted here, in order to show that due to this particular
reason, how many such problems of insufficient wax coverages result, and, so the
temperature and pressure limits are kind of obeyed or not, gives you a sort of you know an
idea of what is going to be the fraction defective coming out of the particular line. So, it is
recommended that a P chart are to be plotted in this particular case, in order to maintain the
deviation if any from the optimized parameters, which have been fine found out using the
DOE
So, here again the occurrence goes down severely from 30 percent earlier. So, from 50
percent earlier to almost about 10 percent and that results in an overall reduction in the RPM
again. So, the RPM changes in the first case to about 70 from 280 and about 21 from 105.
There is no need for change of RPM in the third case; that is pre head deform, because
already the ipn is quite low and then in the fourth root cause; that is basically spirit I means
insufficient again, it strongly suggested by the Q A to install a spray timer which will lead to
automatic spraying for a certain time and until and unless that time cycle is obeyed the next
vehicle will not come up and the line will stop.
So, again a full proofing and also a maintenance of a C P K value showing, how much of
fraction defectives go after the installing of the spray timer and how much was there before,
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in order to find out whether there is any change. And so in this case 1 records that from 70
percent occurrence, the occurrence has come down to almost10 percent and the RPM is
reduced to about close to 49 from 392. So, this is definitely a process improvement where the
occurrence is reduced with the probably same degree of severity, and maybe a slightly higher
detectability limit. As you see here in this particular case, the detectability does not change
much you know in almost all the root causes, but generally if an additional step can be done
to see the minuscule amount of occurrences to be detected very accurately, it may be a better
strategy.
So, reduction in RPM as recorded through these countermeasures are documented finally, So,
that 10 years down the line is the same defect gets repeated, you can come back to this
particular documentation of a one sheet representation of the whole defectory and the
countermeasure, and then see what went wrong, so that the defect again came up. So, this is
the sort of a control which needs to be there for every process, every design aspect related to
a product, which goes through a manufacturing process and it is a very useful tool as such to
carry out good quality product synthesis.
So, we will also like to now visit another very important tool after this FMEA tool, which is
heavily used for the conquer engineering environments and that tool is known as, better
known as quality function deployment or Q F D, which is about again the planning of a
design at the very beginning and investment of resources and manpower towards the
beginning, even way where before the production starts to take place, so that you do not have
any hiccups after the production has happened and you know the product lifecycle he can get
executed without much of breaks, because of this initial investment.
So, let us look at quality function deployment. So, QFD or quality function deployment is
merely a tool, it is a quality tool, which is typically utilized for betterment of the product
design. So, that there are not many hitches towards the end of the road, you know in the
product development process or even post manufacturing product life is part of product life
cycles, parts of product life cycle.
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So, a definition if we look at, what really is QFD. The term QFD actually calls for quality
function deployment, it is a quality technique which evaluates the ideas of key stakeholders
to produce a product which better addresses the customer’s needs. So, typically we call QFD
to be the voice of the customer or VOC. So, this voice gets trapped somehow in the design
phase itself of the product. So, that it caters better to the needs and necessities imposed by the
customers, because of which the product.
So, the voice, the customers voice is trapped at the very initial phase towards the
development of the product and it is basically a way of also evaluating where you are placed
in terms of your service or your product in comparison to your competitors. So, in a way, it
gives you a variety of information related to what is the current status, how you can record
the voice of the customer and how you can imbibe that, so that your status with respect to
your competitors are different you know, and there are more preferential inclinations towards
your products in comparison to the competitors were there in the market.
So, the customer requirements are gathered together into a visual document, it is also known
as the house of quality worksheet and I am going to typically focus on this house of quality
worksheet and tell you about the various instances. And we will do some design related to the
dry cleaning business, where we will talk about setting up a dry cleaning facility and compare
it to the existing facilities which are available. So, that we can get an idea of what needs to be
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the focus in the process of setting up a dry cleaning business for the business to run well in
comparison to the other competitors.
So, the customer requirements gather into a visual document or a check sheet are, you know
evaluated again remodeled and these are carried out many times iteratively, so that we can
have a proper construction of the whole product of the service that we are aiming at and. So,
through this whole process of recording in a worksheet, what you essentially get, are those
important requirements which sort of standout, which need to be addressed in order to
improvise the product of the system which is in question. So, let us now look into some of the
requirements of what really is required by this area of QFD once you plan to do it with your
products and processes.
So; obviously, one of the major investments that you have to make, if you really want to do
this quality function deployment are a lot of time and effort and also patience towards
studying properly a process or a product and mapping it to the aspirations of what a customer
would really like to have. He would also necessitate the a proper, you know and impeded
access to the stakeholder groups, the people who are customers which would finally, use the
product of the service.
So, you need a proper access to all their minds and; obviously, how you will do that access is
dependent on you, but if the customers are open to such discussions, then the QFD process
definitely becomes a lot better, in terms of the output that it yields. The benefits of QFD are
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not realized immediately. So, you have to patiently wait for this, not until later in the project.
So, once the manufacturing just starts to happen, you have to wait quite a bit for the whole
product lifecycle to be executed from post manufacturing services to 1 D troubles to you
know the service requirements and followed by finally, the product end of lifecycle disposal
so on so forth.
So, it is a huge amount of weight, up till the full results can be realized, but the results are
definitely better, as I will illustrate in some cases later on. If you do QFD base planning
towards the very beginning of the product cycle; that is at the product design stage;
obviously, the amount of cost invested are the number of impediments which would come,
they would be very favorable, when you talk about implementation of QFD at the design
phase. So, QFD also requires full management support.
One needs to understand that the additional time effort which is being invested in two is
going to make something better over a long period of time. It may not necessarily result in
immediate returns, which may be a point where management starts thinking about whether it
is worth, but the essence here is or the impression that has been generated out of a repeated
application of these processes is that in the long run definitely organizations with the proper
quality function deployment scheme, function much better and much healthy in comparison
to those who do not.
So, priority for the QFD process must not be changed, if even if the benefits are quite long
standing. And if really you want to get the benefit out of QFD, you need to wait patiently and
keep or keep investing resources in terms of times and efforts for substantial amount of time.
We also talk next about why we use QFD, is there reason why QFD leads to making a
difference in the businesses.
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So, QFD process leads participants to a sort of a common understanding of the project
direction and goals. This helps quite a bit, because now team efforts can be well directed
towards a certain goal, a certain objective. It forces organizations to interact across their
functional boundaries. Again it goes very much in line with what concurrent approaches have
said earlier that all wings of organizations work together.
Ah it reduces design changes, because; obviously, whatever you are designing at the first
instance, if it maps the customers mind well and the voice well, then not much changing is
needed, because whatever you are developing is what is the aspiration of the customer. So,
later on down the line post production, if you want to incorporate a change it is always
costlier. So, do it at the first before even production starts beginning, so that there is no, you
know additional cost impositions because of changes later. So, that is how, that is why one
must use the QFD.
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Now let us talk about the organized approach the algorithm which is needed for doing QFD,
just as we did in FMEA. So, it is a set of matrices which contains the requirements,
requirements could be in terms of what’s, and what’s typically would mean things related to
what are the exact customer requirements behind a certain process or a certain product. We
look at a dry cleaning example as I had mentioned.
Ah it also in one particular sheet mentions about the, not only the, what is, but also
information to achieve those requirements ah; that is the how’s and the how much’s. For
example, if supposing we wanted to achieve, whatever is to be achieved, how much should
we achieve them and how should we achieve them. These are two different aspects of one is
related to the logistics of what changes, so that what changes can be incorporated. So, that
the, what is can be achieved and to an extent of how much that should be changed we
incorporated. These also are indicated in that one sheet which we call the house of quality
check sheet or a work sheet.
So, the stakeholder groups fill in the matrices based on their priorities and goals, and a key to
this house of quality is making sure that each group answers the same questions about the
same relationships, what versus how cells are typically placed. So, the what versus how cells
are typically represented as shown here.
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So you have a how segment here, how do you achieve, what do you want to achieve, how
much do you want to achieve, what do you want to achieve and why do you in to achieve. So,
So, there is a sort of a common connection between all the different questions here, what,
how, why and how much and that is what is the organized way of looking at the product
development process or a process development scheme. So, there is of course, a roof part also
which talks about correlations between the different houses.
There may be a possibility that many strategies are involved in achieving, what do you want
to achieve, but there may be some kind of a tradeoff between these possibilities. There may
be some kind of a strong correlation or poor correlation between these possibilities. So,
therefore, if one gets you know imprinted access and the other one is poorly correlated to
that, only then you need not consider the second one if one is excess.
So, these things like that are more on a quantitative level can be a certain through these house
of quality worksheet. And basically the it is again a correlation matrix which will give you
connections between all these different questions that have been asked about any process or
any product which is being developed.
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So, let us just expand the house of quality matrix a little more. So, the what is typically are
the customer requirements, about a process or a product. The house are the technical
specifications which will take you to satisfying some of the requirements. The whys are the
importance ratings of, you know let us say all the requirements, may not be as important to
the customers and there may be some variation in the level of importance. There must be
some requirements which are the most important requirements.
So, it is a sort of a organized scale to look at you know prioritization of even the
requirements, if there are huge amount of requirements. And the whys are also trying to
support market evaluations for example, if there are many competitors, where we talk about
the what is versus whys we can we can talk about that whatever are the customer
requirements are being executed across through a variety of players in the market, and where
we are positioned with respect to those players. So, that can be given through this y end here.
There is also a section for how much, which means once the requirements in terms of
technical specifications are defined, each technical specification should have a certain base
level and we must evaluate our competitors with respect to that base level in comparison to
what we have. So, that this gives you an illustration of technically where you are placed with
respect to all are your competitors, as regards these technical specifications which are
important to carry out the requirement levels. And of course, these specifications are related
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to the requirements through this matrix right here, which is also the relationship matrix which
talks about what is strongly related one is weekly related.
Not all technical specs are important for all requirements. Now, there has to be some
correlation rating, based on which one can think of the relationship between requirements and
specifications. Then we also give some overall importance ratings in the how much about you
know different technical specifications and how much they can be thought of to contribute to
the what is are the requirements.
And then we can evaluate the degree of technical you know maturity of, again our
organization or our process with respect to the competitor’s process. So, all this with a
correlation matrix about you know the different technical specifications and their associated
correlations, which is available in this roof part, formulates what we call the house of quality.
Now let us look at a clear cut example problem, which will talk about establishing of, let us
say a drycleaner shop. And here in this particular problem I would like to draw the house of
quality matrix for such a requirement. So, supposing we have a problem statement given to us
that we would like to set up a dry cleaning business and there is already existing competition
in this business.
So, we want to see a process, understand the process in terms of the house, the what is, the
whys and the how much is and formulate a correlation matrix, for us to be very clear about
what needs to be done as a next step, if you want to set up such a business. So, let us talk
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about first the how is, first the what is or the customer requirements in a dry cleaning
business. So, I will just draw a correlation matrix here.
So, on one hand we have the customer requirements, but recorded in this vertical column
here, and let us say some of the requirements that are rated here are 5 in number for a dry
cleaning business. One of them could be that one of the requirements major requirements of
all customers is that the clothes that they get should be completely clean. There should not be
any spot or any speck of dust in those clothes that come out of the dry cleaning shop. There
could be another requirement here of that the press of these clothes should be perfect.
So, let us say we have a pressed perfect cloth here in the customer requirements. So, a
completely clean cloth, pressed perfectly is what is the majority of the customer’s aspiration
about a dry cleaning business. There can be some additional requirements which the
customers would like to be very happy on; one is that there should not be any delays at the
counters. So, no delays at the counters supposing the concerned person who is running the
business, you know has given a certain target date or time when the customer needs to collect
the clothes, you know which have been pressed and dry cleaned and then the customer comes
on that particular stipulated time and date and finds out that the clothes are not he had done
and he has to wait quite a bit at the counter in order to take the clothes.
So; obviously, that is something that the customer will not want to do every time and there
may be lost business and non-sales because of that. So, therefore, delays that the counter
should be by and large avoided. So, that is one requirement, customer requirement. Then
there is a requirement about a quick turnaround time, how much time the dry cleaning shop
takes to return back the completed operation on the clothes that have been submitted.
So, supposing there is a dry cleaning shop which has a longer turnaround time that said gives
2 weeks before the customer can come and pay, so; obviously, the customer will not be happy
as opposed to somebody who is going to give only 2 days or 3 days, before the customer can
turn back and take the clothes. So; obviously, the second case would be more preferable to
the customer in comparison to the first case. So, that is another customer requirement. There
could be additional requirements which we probably do not realize, but you know it is
probably important in the game when we talk about customer’s minds; one of them could be
how friendly these services.
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So, if at one instance for example, some, one of the dry cleaner shops decide to just put a
curtsy SMS to a person or maybe let us say a phone call which is made to the person on the
day of, schedule day of collecting of the clothes or the collecting of the finished clothes, that
the clothes are due and you this may be collected at so and so time. So, it always makes an
additional plus delta to the customer which might make the customer very happy.
So, or maybe delighted. So, something like this where you can, from your side offer some
kind of a friendly proposition or a service, which might be a reminder email or a reminder
phone call or reminder a SMS would always be preferred by a customer and that could be one
other important customer requirements. And thus with all these different requirements we can
probably, look at now some of the specifications related to the dry cleaning process which
might help in realizing some of these customer requirements.
And before going there, we would like to just rate these different requirements of the
customer in terms of some importance ratings. So, not all of them are equally preferred by the
customer. So, there may be some which would prefer definitely, and some which may not be
that much needed. Although it might just give you a plus delta pleasure or cause a customer
delight. For example, but the definitive requirement that any customer would want from a dry
cleaning shop is a completely clean set of clothes and of course, perfect pressed on them.
So, this can be number 1 and number 2 in terms of importance ratings. Let us call these
importance ratings to requirements from the customer. Quick turnaround time would be again
something which would have, which would be number three. Similarly, friendly service could
be number 4 and no delays at the counter could be number five. So, these are the order of
importance ratings after talking to variety of customers, which probably our line of business,
which we want to establish, the dry cleaning has done.
So, again for this particular study you have to have access to variety of customers who come
to the existing shops. Remember you are setting up your own drying cleaning unit in
comparison to what is going on in the market and there are two such competitors that you
have in the same place, where you have to have the access to all the customers which code
these places in order to get an idea of what they would like and what they would not, in terms
of their importance ratings to the various requirements.
Even these requirements also as a matter of fact come from, talking to the customers,
preparing questionnaires and trying to then summarize on the basis of a huge amount of
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response over a few months’ period, which gives you what exactly would be the top
requirements and what is going to be the ranking of these requirements.
So, when we talk about the technical specifications which are needed by the DC business or
dry cleaning business to serve some of these customer requirements. We get into the
operations of stage and there are certain operating requirements, which would provide the
house, how to get you know the customer happy or how to get the customer requirements to
be fulfilled. So, let us look at some of these operating requirements for the dry cleaning
business, and if I were to look at some of these requirements related to, particularly dry
cleaning.
One of the basic requirements for the whole process to be proper, whether it is completely
clean, you know a set of clothes or perfect pressed set of clothes is good training so, if the
people who are handling the job, they are at that the dry cleaner is are quite well trained to do
a proper pressing or a proper clean clothes, then that is going to be one of the most important
components for probably meeting a lot of these customer requirements.
So, one operating requirement is good training. So, let us look at some of the other
requirements. One of the requirements could be related to the relatively clean, dry cleaning
solvent. So, whatever soap solution or whatever other solvents we are using for doing the dry
cleaning, should be relatively cleaner. They should have a high degree of cleanliness, because
otherwise they will stain up the clothes and then this requirement of completely clean may
not may meet, because of such unclean kind of solvents which may be occasionally used, if
not careful.
We can also check you know the filters related to the dry cleaning machine. So, we should
have clean dry cleaning filters. If the filters are not cleaned from time to time, then also there
is a reason why thus could be carried back into the clothes while the cleaning process is on,
and it might result in some kind of a you know unclean surface or dusty clothes being given.
So, that is another aspect related to the operating requirements.
There could also be a requirement of we should not allow any rust on the fluid lines. So, let
us say, because you know in this whole dry cleaning business, because it is a high throughput
process there are lines of solvents which have in pumped into the machine, which does the
cleaning and also the drying. So, these solvent lines are very important to be maintained from
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time to time. One must ensure that there are no rusts on these lines, because they are typically
hidden behind the machine and.
So, there has to be some kind of a preventive maintenance or a strategy to look into it. So, let
us write this is one of the operating requirements, no rust in fluid lines. Let us call it solvent
lines. So, that is another operating requirement. There could also be an issue related to the
press pads and by and large one wants a stabilization or a steady set of pads over which the
ironing or the pressing is done. So, we can call this as the firm press pads, which are also
another very pressing requirement for a proper ironing of the clothes.
So, firm press pads and then of course, overall we must have good equipments, well
maintained equipments, we do not get which do not run into trouble or you know do not
jeopardize the delays at the counter probably. So, we can give one of the major requirements
of operations as good equipments. So, when we talk about the house, of how to achieve
whatever we want to achieve here between one to five as indicated in this side of the, you
know customer requirements side of the table.
We can achieve them through these technical specifications good training, clean DC solvent,
clean DC filters, no rust in solvent lines, firm press pads and good equipments. Again these
are some things which are found by talking and having proper access to the people who are
already owning the dry cleaning shops, which are in question and just trying to find out from
them what all are very important for the dry cleaning business. So, you get a learning
experience for that.
Also there is a correlation between some of these points, you know on the house side to the,
what side and this correlation we can probably express in terms of some numbers. So, let us
say we have three different relationships. Which are like rating numbers between the house
and the what is. So, in one case we represent this through a black dot, which means a strong
relationship. So, on a scale of one to nine maybe, the level of relationship is about 9.
Similarly, there could be one which shows a medium relationship. So, that could be shown by
let us say an open circle, something like this.
So, here we could have a medium, for example, rating three kind of relationship between a
one to ten scale. And then we could also have another smaller rating with an open triangle,
which could show a rating of about one. So, when we talk about these different what is or
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customer requirements, we can probably find out these, how these specifications do with
respect to the what is or the what requirements.
For example, let us say if we wanted to consider the specification good training. The good
training probably is related in a medium way to almost all of it; like complete cleaning, a
perfect pressing, or no delays and that the counters or quick turnaround time or friendly
service. These are all a part of training and, so a good training would probably ensure most of
the customer requirements as illustrated here. Then when we talk about let us say the clean
DC solvent.
We might have a strong correlation of complete cleaning with the clean dc solvent; one thing
which is very important to be there in the dry cleaning business, is to have a solvent which is
really good in terms of it is cleanliness. So, that you know there are no oil or dust which is
brought into the region of the cleaning of the clothes or they may not leave any stains in case
that the thing happens and. So, there is a strong correlation between these two.
Similarly, there would be a strong correlation of clean DC filters or clean dry cleaning filters,
with respect to the complete clean requirement of the customer. There may be also the same
degree of strong correlation between no rust on the solvent lines reserve is the complete
clean, the requirement of the customer. So, when we talk about firm press pads, they are of
course, very strongly related to the perfect press, if the press pads are somehow unstable or
they do not have, you know they, they are not they are amenable to movement or vibration,
while the ending is happening, there is going to be imperfect pressing and they are going to
be creases in the clothes which come out. So, therefore, there is a strong correlation we can
indicate that by a black dot again.
Again good equipments are completely responsible for or strongly correlated to complete
cleaning and perfect pressing. However, good equipments can also have a very small
correlation with the turnaround time, because if the equipments are down then this turnaround
time may be affected quite a bit and that should be correlated in a small manner, the good
equipment should be correlated in a small manner to the quick turnaround time. So, these are
again a matter of perception of the person who is doing a study by talking to the various
stakeholders like the people who are doing the dry cleaning as well as the customers and this
importance rating is based on such studies.
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We can also give some kind of a weighing to all these different technical specifications; like
training, you know clean solvent fluid or clean, let us say filters or even like no rust on the
pipelines or firm press or good equipments, by putting some numbers. So, we can give
importance road ratings to these how matrices.
So, while doing that the concerned person who does this rating, finds out that the good
training might have a rating of 15 on a scale of, let us say one to 20 again. Whereas, the clean
dry cleaning solvent might have a rating of 9. Similarly, the clean filters might have another
rating of 9, the no rust on the clean lines or solvent lines could have a rating of 9. Similarly,
from pressed pads whatever rating of 9 and then good equipment would be very important, so
it has a rating of about 19 on a scale of one to 20.
So, that is how you can do importance ratings to this different house, which would help in
achieving the customer requirements; that is what is and then we can also have a sort of a
correlation matrix between all these different specifications which have been laid out which
are important for the dry cleaning, a proper dry cleaning action to happen. So, let us draw a
correlation matrix between the house and the house now. So, let me first make this matrix
here.
So, we can actually have a matrix drawn like this on the roof of the house which will give
you an idea about, how these are correlated with respect to each other. So, we would like to
have a correlation factor again of three different levels, when we relate the different house
with respect to each other, actually four different levels. So, in one case we might need, we
might make a very strong positive correlation between the two houses, which are on records.
I will call this positive strong. We might also have just a positive. So, represented by a just a
open circle. So, we can say positive.
We might have a negative correlation and a strong negative correlation again. So, let us say in
one case we might use a notation of triangle as a negative correlation and a closed triangle is
a strong negative or negative strong. And let us look at now the various house and how they
are correlated to each other. For example, if I look at good training and how it is correlated to
the let us say the clean dc solvent. So; obviously, if a person is well trained, he would be able
to look at a solvent and see how clean it is and it might be having a positive minor positive
correlation. Similarly, the good training might have minor positive correlations with almost
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all these different tools which would indicate clean dry cleaning filters, again no rust in lines
solvent lines so on so forth.
When we talk about no rust in the solvent lines, we can also have a sort of a you know
negative correlation or a strong negative correlation with good equipment. So, if the
equipment is good, then the possibility of having a strong rust on the solvent lines is almost
eliminated. So, I would mark this as a close triangle, and in this manner I would like to
correlate the various things or various house with respect to each other. So, this gives you an
overall idea, about if two or more of such factors which will cause the, what is to come in are
related or not related or unrelated. It will give you a basis of how much independence you can
associate with respect to the different house you know in order to correlate the different whys
or what is.
So, then we talk about how we detect what are the levels of these different technical
specifications and we set up some kind of target values of doing inspection or checking, of
these different associated house about how to achieve the customer requirement. So, let us
say we set up some target values here. This kind of gives you a modality of how do you want
to achieve what you want to achieve.
So, let us say a good training module is considered to be a 4-hour formal training plus a 2
week on the job training. Similarly, for the technical specification clean DC solvent; one can
introduce a visual check daily. So, let us say we have a visual check daily as a target value.
For clean DC filters again we can have a visual check daily and probably clean in a monthly
basis.
So, we have VC daily and cleaning monthly as a target value. For no rust in the lines again
we can have a visual check daily. So, we say this is VC daily. again for the firm press pads,
we might be able to change on a monthly basis the press pads, so that there are no issues of
movements or creases getting altered or spoiled, because of such movements or the pads. For
good equipment there can be a maintain a schedule plan, we talked about let us say
maintained on a monthly basis.
So, you have a monthly plan or maintenance and these can be some of the target values at
which you set up the house of how to achieve, what do you want to achieve. So, these are the,
what is and you have completed the how is. hows are correlated and between the what is and
the hows also we have certain degree of correlation, as given by this matrix. We have an
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importance rating so far to all the what is. We also have importance ratings to all the hows
and target values associated with them.
Now, we come to how we are placed and for that we need to look into our competitive
evaluation. Here we talk about let us say two different companies or two different shops
which are into the same business as we are. Let us say we have a shop A and B. So, shop A is
run by a competitor A and shop B again by competitor B. We read ourselves as x. So, let us
say this is what we are, and we want to see in terms of all the what is and all the hows where
we are placed with respect to our competitors.
So, we will evaluate our competitors in terms of five different ratings with 1 2 3 4 and 5,
where 5 happens to be the best in business and 1 is the worst. And so we will see where we
are positioned with respect to our competitors. So, when we look at, let us say competitors A
and B for the first component here are the, what is that is completely clean. We find out that
they are rated somewhere around 3 and we are much better or much above them in the
completely clean business. We actually need to be above them if you want to setup the
business, because the complete clean is number 1 requirement for all customers as you are
seeing here in the importance rating.
So, you have to be somewhere, at a higher level than A and B both in terms of what they
deliver has completely clean. Similarly, when we look at the perfect press we see that B is not
very good at it and A is reasonably good. So, we can actually B somewhere around 3 rating,
so that we can have the second requirement; that is perfect pressed requirement met
completely. The no delays at the counter requirement which is slightly lower in importance
level when we talk about DC business, can may be this done away with.
So, A is really good at it. So, a somewhere in 5 and B is somewhere around 3 and we cannot
beat the competition here. So, we may as well keep it slightly below, let us say because we
are just starting the business, sending an SMS or something like that, may not be really or,
there may be some delays associated with the process, but because it does not have much of
an importance rating we can do away with it.
Similarly, when we talk about turnaround time we see that both A and B are quite high on
that, A being placed at three and B’s place at you know four. So, we can do away with
probably slightly lower value your turnaround time as well. I mean even if we have a high
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turnaround and we do a, very good job in terms of the primary requirements which is
complete cleaning, and the perfect press fit, a perfect pressing.
So, we should have more customers in comparison to A and B. And then finally, when we
look at friendly service A and B are probably placed at number 1 and we can be slightly better
off here so, that we can design our system in a manner given by this curve right here as A
walkway for our competitive evaluation.
So, we can give different levels to the different what is as required by the customer in respect
to the customer in, the other competitors. A similar evaluation be carried on the technical
front. So, we will do a technical evaluation here, right below. We have similar ratings
between one to 5, I place 5 on top here 5 4 3 2 and one, we call this technical evaluation and
try to see where we are placed with respect to our competitors. B is quite high on the on the
job training and A is somewhere low, so we can be somewhere in the middle.
Similarly, A and B are placed at number two and number one as regards the visual check
daily for the DC solvent lines we can probably, because we are claiming to have complete
cleanliness and better off in terms of A and B, we can place the visual check scheme of clean
DC solvents. slightly higher above A and B. We can again be placing the clean dc filters,
where A is rated 5 and B is rated one, somewhere in between. So, we can rate this at two.
Mind you if we are not giving enough importance to A particular technical spec we are saving
cost, we must have that idea as well in mind while designing the system.
Then we will talk about rust on solvent lines, you know A and B are rated somewhere around
2 and 3. So, we can probably position ourselves slightly better off than them, maybe at 4. And
then when we talk about again the changing monthly schedule for the press pads, again we
find out A and B are rated as 3 and 5. So, we can position ourselves probably somewhere in
between we when we talk about again good equipments, A and B are rated again on level 3
and level 4. So, we can actually rate ourselves quite higher to A and B and develop a strategy
for us, given by this lines connecting all these x marks, through which we can place ourselves
in terms of the how is.
So, we now exactly know what has to be done in our business, that all the hows can be
positioned with respect to our competitors by tweaking the various levels of the different
technical specifications, and all the what is can be achieved by looking at our competitors and
focusing more on certain aspects and the others. So, that we are always being, we can get a
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better share of the market or a better customer share at a slightly lower cost than our
competitors.
So, in one, in a nutshell this one page that we have drawn here, gives you a sort of a correct
positioning of where you need to position your process or your system, so that you can do a
better job from your competitors. So, this is how house of quality is done on processes. We
can do similar activity for products as well and you are feed do things related to, let us say
cell phone businesses, setting up a new cell phone model in the market when already there is
an existing, variety of cell phones which are there or maybe new laptops in comparison to the
laptops which all exist.
Ah only thing is in this case you need to have access to a proper database of customers as
well as manufacturers, for you to be very appropriately placed in terms of what and hows and
how much is of the particular business that you are going to design. So, let us look at.
Some of the key correlation matrices which are there is a part of the house of quality; one is
the roof part of course. So, this identifies the items hows and you know the, it is basically
how versus how and it kind of gives either a strongly supportive positive correlation or a
conflicting negative correlation with respect to one another. So, these are going to give you
an illustration of technical specifications, which you may combine, when you find two or
more strongly positive items, to reduce the development effort.
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So, you can probably combine them together and not treat it as an independent entity and you
know if one is strongly correlated to the other, the essence of one being there would indicate
automatically or be an indicator of the other being there automatically. So, your development
effort is saved, because you are able to get rid of one of the important technical
specifications, because it strongly correlated to another which you are actually developing or
doing.
So, you can also find tradeoffs for negative items by adjusting how much values. You could
trade off you know tradeoffs; obviously, must be resolved or customer requirements will not
be fully satisfying. So, you can take care of all the negative items separately and all the
positive items, strongly correlated items together for you to design a good correlation
between all the hows.
Similarly, there is a relationship matrix between the what is and the hows, which indicates
you know different levels of relationship; like strong, medium and small, correlate hows or
how the hows satisfy the what is. So, there are use of symbolic notations for depicting the
weak medium and strong relationships. If you may remember we did this in our analysis here
when we talked about these three different relationships, which you plug in this correlation
matrix right here.
And here you know A weightage of 139 or 135 is often used, in order to gauge what is going
to be the level of relationship between A what, which is a customer requirement to a technical
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specification which is the how ok. So, more strong are; obviously, an ideal choice. We prefer
to have strong relationships between whatever we are saying as the operating requirements or
the hows of achieving, what we want to achieve and the what is of what we are achieving. So,
we should have a cross checking ability to this relationship matrix.
We also talked about technical specifications. This kind of reflects the voice of engineers or
designers and, the technical specifications of the hows are interpretations of what is in terms
of technical specification or design requirements given to achieve the what is. So, potential
choices for product features for example, could be a part of technical specifications, each
what is must be converted to hows somehow through this relationship matrix.
They have to be actionable, quantifiable, measurable and also the technical specifications
should be giving enough flexibility to the design, and it should be kind of free of technology
and implementation to create a flexibility for design. So, that is how technical specifications
would be recorded.
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So; obviously, there is also an aspect of customer prioritization, prioritizing the importance of
each what is of the customer. We have given importance ratings to each what is and the
ratings are given in terms of 1 to 5 for example, and these have to be completed after due
deliberation with the customers. So, therefore, the access is very important here, and this is
how you get the ratings right here or the matrix in this particular portion of the matrix, when
we talk about different what is or customer requirements rated as 1 to 5. So, that is about the
prioritization.
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Obviously there are evaluations, evaluations in the competitive basis or the technical basis of
where you are positioned. So, therefore, there is a rating given of one to five for each. And
again the question that is asked is why the product is needed. So, the customers evaluate all
products, comparing the same domain, and try to find out what are the items which are
needed on those products which are of importance to him or her.
The results help you to position the product on the market, and similarly you can also identify
the gaps and create strong thirst in those gaps, where you could position yourself as.
So, that is how quality function deployment is done; obviously, there is to be a certain target
goal, which is going to be there for determining the specification that is in there, for the dry
cleaning business the specification was about inspection and measurement of cleanliness or
inspection and measurement of tools related to ironing or pressing of the clothes.
So, by respecting all target requirements and their priorities, you are basically training the
voice of the customer in terms of the design requirements that you finally, give to a certain
product or a process and; obviously, carrying out QFD at an early stage maximizes the
customer satisfaction. So, it is quite needless to say at this level.
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So, the difference between the conventional product development approach and the QFD
driven approach is that in, in the conventional approach, your specifications are based on
internal demands, everything is important, you have to listen to the manufacturing about what
is there in the process. You develop and manufacture again specified tolerances. Try to keep
on the tolerances because change of them would really need to change a lot of internal
dynamics and there are a lot of resistances to such changes within the organization almost
always.
And the approach is kind of passive to reaction from customer problems. Customers keep on
complaining about a problem, one can look into the process and try to do something
incremental change, so that the process can change. So, that it might result in some level of
satisfaction, although the entraining of the customer’s mind into the product itself is never
there, I never achieved.
As opposed to this in the QFD you listen to the customer, decide what is going to be
important for you to do and develop and manufacture towards the measured goals which are
from the customer’s voice right here, and then you optimize the products and processes in a
proactive manner, so that the customer is happy. So, that is how you have a major difference
between the QFD and the conventional product development process.
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Use of QFD definitely becomes better to make demands; it is a systematic working method
an effective target direction tool. it is also a knowledge collection tool, the sheet that you are
preparing is sort of a history and geography of how a product or the process can be
envisioned or can be implemented. QFD also leads to transfer of knowledge; obviously, you
are documenting when you are making a sheet and the sheet is sort of a pivot point for all
future business developers in the area, where you could actually modify the sheet and try to
again get back into business.
Ah you also have a systematic evaluation of existing products. You have lesson earlier
engineering changes, required even before you set up your dry cleaning shop or your process.
So, that you can have exactly the map made, in a manner that customer wants it. You reduce
development times by almost thirty to fifty percent. The need of the customer is really
focused when we talk about use of such QFD tools and basically whatever causes designs to
fail are kind of eliminated, because of this.
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The different causes that why the design should fail, could be related to not enough basic
knowledge at hand when design project starts. It could be related to corporate managements,
ever growing strategy of viewing everything simplistically, not really giving a lot of depth
and importance to each and every angle, which may be very important for the user. There the
is also you know a reason of too little activity at the beginning of the project which causes
most of the projects to fail, designs to fail.
There might be unspecified demands and constraints which suddenly prop up and you are not
enable to modify the design accordingly, because of which you might fail. You can also have
bad or non-existing demand specifications. Time is really not enough to be thorough enough
at various levels. There are unrealistic time frames, because you do not know how much
effort needs to be pumped in order to realize something which is a good design, and then you
have bad cooperation between marketing, customer, design, engineering and manufacturing,
because there is hardly any crosstalk.
Whereas, if you use the QFD and the content engineering routes, almost always these issues
get mitigated, because everything is teamwork, everything is done in a cross functional basis.
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So, here is what kind of you know gives you a sense of where you need to focus. So, the y
axis here shows about capability percentage utilization. And you see that in QFD processes or
organizations driven through QFD processes. There is a lot of emphasis a lot of utilization of
all your resources and capabilities towards the beginning add the product development stage.
So, that the subsequent amount of utilization reduces with time, in all the other ends for
example, preparation for, processors or production to start a problem solving to happen.
Whereas, in conventional as all the other things come into picture, there are relative learnings
through which design improvements happen and every time you have to put a lot of capacity
utilization.
So, I think it is always a better strategy to spend at the very beginning towards the product
development stage more in terms of efforts or patience or capital capacity utilization, so that
you have lesser hurdles at futuristic times for a process to go through the product lifecycle.
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515
QFD actually started way back in Japan in Kobe. QFD was first realized to be a very
important process from shipbuilding industry. There is a shipbuilding yard in Kobe where,
earlier the strategy was to design something by planning engineering specifications or design
specifications, according to a team of engineers and design designers on what they felt and
then later on validating after production whatever they felt through the customer.
So, the customer almost always would have different opinions about how the mast would
look like or how let us say the, the hull of the ship would look like and eventually they would
result in post-production modification of the product, some time to be to the extent of about
30 to 40 percent and still the customer will not be happy. So, QFD actually started first from
the shipbuilding industry, where they learned that if the customer aspiration could be taken at
the very beginning of the product, then the production date does not get shifted too much and
there are not many production delays and post production problems, which otherwise would
start happening, if you design in a conventional manner.
So, here is sort of an illustration of how improvements got registered in the shipbuilding
industry, because of QFD. So, when we talk about the y axis here, it shows the number of
changes, and if the number of changes are high at the very beginning, let us say during the
product development process prior to the production, you always end up into a timely
schedule for the start date and subsequent production.
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516
Whereas if you do not do QFD and go in a conventional manner, there are production delays
and post production problems. a number of changes go almost way into post production
stages which are always hard to do. shipbuilding may be again a process where the product
does not move and all the operations move with respect to the products, and it may be a better
idea to plan everything at the outset. So, that it gives you a well-defined role of such
processes at a later stage, to construct what you have planned or design with a lot of feedback
from your ultimate end customer who is going to buy.
So; obviously, there is a huge cost or penalty of arriving late to the market, if the production
schedules are delayed, then if the company is delayed by six months, the gross profit gets
reduced by about thirty-three percent and that is how the shipbuilding statistics say actually.
Similarly, if it is five months, four months, three months, two months, and one months. So,
the gross profits as you see are reduced by a lower amount if you are early in the business, or,
if your production dates are earlier.
So, this is the kind of history also of QFD. So, with this we would like to end this particular
module where we talked about two different very important techniques of concrete
engineering; that is about FMEA and QFD. And in the next module, we will learn more about
forms and shapes and how to handle these using computer aided design.
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517

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INDEX

S.No. Topic Page No.

1 Brief introduction of Design systems 1

13 Benefits of concurrent engineering 59

19 Business relationships in concurrent engineering 87

25 Material selection in Engineering design 124

31 Introduction to Group Technology 161

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(Refer Slide Time: 24:00)

So, thank you very much for patiently listening to me.

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Thank you very much again.

(Refer Slide Time: 00:47)

And therefore, it is always happening to be an incomplete approach to design and therefore,

(Refer Slide Time: 06:44)

(Refer Slide Time: 11:19)

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(Refer Slide Time: 21:12)

So, design thinking is really a human centered approach to innovation.

Thank you very much.

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Thank you very much.

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(Refer Slide Time: 01:38).

So, you are not going to do this particular beautiful pot.

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