Chapter 4: Product Design

Design Sources Of Ideas For New Products Or

 Design is a critical process for a firm. It
capitalizes on a firm’s core
competencies and determines what
new competencies need to be
developed.
 The design process itself is beneficial as
it encourages companies to look outside
their boundaries, bring in new ideas,
challenge conventional
thinking, and experiment
AN EFFECTIVE DESIGN PROCESS
 Matches product or service
characteristics with customer
requirements;
 Ensures that customer requirements are
met in the simplest and least costly
manner;
 Reduces the time required to design a
new product or service; and
 Minimizes the revisions necessary to
make a design workable.
The Design Process
Improvements To Existing Products:
• R&D Department
• Customer Complaints or Suggestions
• Marketing Research
• Suppliers
• Salespersons in the Field
• Factory Workers
• New Technological Developments
• Competitors
METHODS OR PROCESSES THAT CAN HELP
COMPANIES LEARN FROM THEIR
COMPETITORS:
Perceptual Maps
 A visual method for comparing
customer perceptions of different
products or services.
Benchmarking
 The process of comparing a product or
process against
the best-in-class product.
Reverse Engineering
 The careful dismantling of a
competitor’s product to improve your
own product.

IDEA GENERATION
• A process of generating new ideas PERCEPTUAL MAP
through understanding the customer
and actively identifying customer needs.


 • Does it draw on corporate strengths?
• Is it compatible with the core business
of the firm?

Feasibility Study PERFORMANCE SPECIFICATIONS

• Are written for product concepts that
• An assessment of all aspects of the
pass the feasibility study and are
proposed products that includes several
approved for development.
types of analysis.
• They describe the function of the
Types of Analyses: product—that is, what the product
should do to satisfy customer needs.
1. Market Analysis
RAPID PROTOTYPING
• Assesses whether there’s enough
• Is the method of creating, testing and
demand for the proposed product to
revising a preliminary design model.
invest in developing it further.
• The design models can be physical or
2. Economic Analyses electronic, rough facsimiles or full-scale
working models
• looks at estimates of production and
development costs and compares them
CONCURRENT DESIGN
with estimated sales volume.
• Involves the simultaneous design of
3. TECHNICAL AND STRATEGIC products and process by design
ANALYSES teams.
• It improves both quality of the
Answer such questions as: design and the time-to-market.
• Does the new product require new
technology?
• Is the risk or capital investment
excessive?
• Does the company have sufficient
labour and management skills to
support the required technology?
• Is sufficient capacity available for
production?
• Does the new product provide a
competitive advantage for the
company?
THREE TYPES OF CONCURRENT DESIGN
 1. Form Design  For example, if two component
• It refers to the physical appearance of a parts are required and each has a
product—its shape, colour, size, and reliability of 0.90, the reliability of
style. the system is 0.90 × 0.90 = 0.81, or
2. Functional Design 81%. The system can be visualized as
• Is concerned with how the product a series of components as follows:
performs. It seeks to meet the
performance specifications of fitness for
use by the customer.
3. Production Design
• is concerned with how the product will
be made.

THREE PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS

CONSIDERED DURING FUNCTIONAL
DESIGN ARE:
Reliability

• is the probability that a product will

perform its intended function for a
specified period of time.

• A product’s or system’s reliability is a

function of the reliabilities of its
component parts and how the parts are
arranged. If all parts must function for
the product or system to operate, then
the system reliability is the product of
the component part reliabilities.
Reliability System Formula
Rs = (R1)(R2) . . . (Rn)
Where:

• Rs is the reliability of system

• R1 is the reliability of component one
• R2 is the reliability of component two
• Rn is the reliability of the nth
component

Maintainability
• It is also called serviceability System Availability
• It refers to the ease and/or cost with =MTBF/ (MTBF+MTTR)
which a product or service is maintained
or repaired.
• One quantitative measure of
maintainability is mean time to repair
(MTTR). Combined with the reliability
measure of mean time between failures Usability
(MTBF), we can calculate the average • the ease of use of a product or service
availability or “uptime” of a system as • a combination of factors that affect the
user’s experience with a product,
System Availability Formula
including:

 ease of learning
 ease of use
 ease of remembering how to us
 frequency and severity of errors
 user satisfaction with the experience

Production Design

1. Simplification
 attempt to reduce the number of parts,
assemblies, or options in a product.

Figure 4.4 Design Simplification

2. Standardization

• the process in which commonly

available and interchangeable parts are
used.

3. Modular Design

• the process that combines standardized

building blocks, or modules, to create
unique finished products.
Design for Manufacture (DFM)
• the process of designing a product so that
it can be produced easily and
economically.
DFM Guidelines Promote Good Design
Practice, Such As:
• Minimize the number of parts and sub-
assemblies
• Avoid tools, separate fasteners, and
adjustments
• Use standard parts when possible and
repeatable, well-understood processes.
• Design parts for many uses, and
modules that can be combined in
different ways
• Design for ease of assembly, minimal
handling, and proper presentation
• Allow for efficient and adequate testing
and replacement of parts
DESIGN FOR SUPPLY CHAIN (DFSC)
• the process of designing the supply
chain to strike the right balance among
the cost of inventory, freight charges,
and production costs.
FINAL DESIGN AND PROCESS PLANS
Final Design
• consists of detailed drawings and
specifications for the new product or
service.
Process Plans
• workable instructions for manufacture,
including necessary equipment and
tooling, component sourcing
recommendations, job descriptions and
procedures for workers, and computer
programs for automated machine.
Chapter 4.2 TECHNOLOGY IN DESIGN
TECHNOLOGY IN DESIGN
• computer-aided systems available for
the design of new products and their
related production processes.
• It begins with computer-aided design
(CAD) and includes related technologies
such as computer-aided engineering
(CAE), computer-aided manufacturing
(CAM), and collaborative product design
(CPD).
Computer-aided design (CAD)
• software system that uses computer
graphics to assist in the creation,
modification, and analysis of a design.
• Facilitates standardization of parts,
prompts ideas, and eliminates building a
design from scratch.
Computer-aided engineering (CAE)
• a software system that tests and
analyzes designs on the computer
screen.
• retrieves the description and geometry
of a part from a CAD database and
subjects it to testing and analysis on the
computer screen without physically
building a prototype.
COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN/ COMPUTER-
AIDED MANUFACTURING (CAD/CAM)
• the
ultimate design-to-manufacture
connection.
• involves the automatic conversion of
CAD design data into processing
instructions for computer-controlled
equipment and the subsequent
manufacture of the part as it was
designed.
• enhance communication and promote
innovation in multifunctional design
teams by providing a visual, interactive
focus for discussion.
• can more thoroughly test rapid
prototypes, and these systems can also
test more prototypes.
PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT

 a system for managing the entire life

cycle of a product
VALUE ANALYSIS (VA)
Collaborative product design (CPD) • Also known as value engineering in
• a software system for collaborative 1947.
design and development among trading
• Is a procedure for eliminating
partners.
unnecessary features and functions
Chapter 4.3 DESIGN QUALITY REVIEWS

• Use two techniques for analyzing

Chapter 4.4 DESIGN FOR THE
eliminating unnecessary design
ENVIRONMENT
features.ng design failures and one
SUSTAINABILITY
technique for.
• the ability to meet present needs
FAILURE MODE AND EFFECTS ANALYSIS
without compromising future
(FMEA)
generations.
• Is a systematic approach for analyzing
DESIGN FOR ENVIRONMENT (DFE)
the causes and effects of product
failures. • the process of designing a product from
• The objective of FMEA is to anticipate material that can be recycled or easily
failures and prevent them from repaired rather than discarded.
occurring.
GREEN SOURCING
FAULT TREE ANALYSIS (FTA)
• Is a visual method for analysing the
interrelationship among failures.

Figure 4.5
Fault Tree Analysis for Potato Chips

Figure 4.6 Design for Environment Life

Cycle
GREEN MANUFACTURING

• is the renewal of production processes

and the establishment of
 environmentally-friendly operations
within the manufacturing field. 1. Customer requirements section
2. Competitive assessment section
3. Design characteristics section
CARBON FOOTPRINTS 4. Relationship matrix
5. Trade-off matrix
• a measure of greenhouse gases.
6. Target values section
GREEN CONSUMPTION
Figure 4.7 Outline of the house
• is based on consumer health protection Quality
and resource conservation and
conforms to people’s health and
environmental protection.

Extended Producer Responsibility

• a concept that holds companies
responsible for their product even after
its useful life.

RECYCLING AND REUSE

CUSTOMER REQUIREMENTS
• Recycling means turning an item into Product - Steam Iron
raw materials which can be used again, Groups
usually for a completely new product. • “Irons well” and its categories
• Reusing refers to using an object as it is • “Easy and safe to use” and its categories
without treatment. Rate
• from scale 1 to 10 (with 10 being the
Chapter 4.5 QUALITY FUNCTION most important)
DEPLOYMENT

QUALITY FUNCTION DEPLOYMENT

• IS THE USE OF QUALITY FUNCTION
DESIGN AS A DESIGN TOOL

• IS A PROCESS THAT TRANSLATE THE

VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER TO
TECHNICAL DESIGN REQUIREMENTS

Note: QFD USES A MATRIX DIAGRAM THAT

RESEMBLE CONNECTED HOUSES.

THE 1ST MATRIX DUBBED THE “HOUSE OF

Figure 4.8 A Competitive Assessment
QUALITY”
of Customer Requirements
SIX SECTIONS OF HOUSE OF QUALITY COMPETITIVE ASSESSMENT
• X = Steam Iron
 • A and B = competitors • A thicker soleplate would
• RATE – scale 1 to 5 (5 highest, decrease the flow of water
lowest)
through the holes, and increase
the time it takes for the iron to
heat up or cool down.
• Designers must take all these

DESIGN CHARACTERISTICS
• To change the product design to better
satisfy customer requirements, we need
to translate those requirements to
measurable design characteristics.
RELATIONSHIP MATRIX
• In the body of the matrix, we identify factors into account when
how the design characteristics relate to determining a final design.
customer requirements.

Figure 4.10 The Trade-off Matrix: Effects

of Increasing Soleplate Thickness
Figure 4.9 Converting Customer Requirements to
Design Characteristics
The Trade-off Matrix: Effects of Increasing
Soleplate Thickness
• Increasing the thickness of the
soleplate would increase the
weight of the iron but decrease
the energy needed to press.
 Figure 4.12 The Completed House of
Quality for a Steam Iron

A Series of Connected QFD Houses

Figure 4.11 Targeted Changes in Design Figure 4.13 A Series of Connected QFD
• Measuring our iron X against Houses
competitors A and B, we find that our
iron is heavier, larger, and has a thicker DESIGN FOR ROBUSTNESS
soleplate. Also, it takes longer to heat Robust Product
up and cool down, but requires less
energy to press and provides more • designed to withstand variations in
steam than other irons. environmental and operating
• To decide which design characteristics conditions.
to change, we compare the estimated
Robust Design
impact of the change with the estimated
cost. • a process that yields a product or a
The Completed House of Quality for a service designed to withstand
Steam Iron variations.
• Shows the completed house of quality Controllable Factors
for the steam iron • design parameters such as material
used, dimensions, and form of
processing.
Uncontrollable Factors
• user’s control (length of use,
maintenance, settings, etc.).
Tolerances
• the allowable ranges of variation.
• according to Genichi Taguchi,
consistency is more important to quality
than being within tolerances.
GENICHI TAGUCHI OBSERVATIONS

1. Consistent errors can be more

easily corrected than random
errors.
 2. Parts within tolerance limits may
produce assemblies that are not
within limits.
3. Consumers have a strong
preference for product
characteristics near their ideal
values.

TAGUCHI'S QUALITY LOSS FUNCTION

• is used to emphasize that customer
preferences are strongly oriented
toward consistently meeting quality
expectations

Figure 4.14 Taguchi’s Quality Loss Function