Product Design

Brainstorming

• Defer judgment • Build on ideas of others • Stay focussed • One person at a time• Go for quantity • Encourage wild ideas• Be Visual

• Rapid prototyping (Rough, Rapid and Right)

Product Design Process

• Contract manufacturers – An organization capable of manufacturing and / or

purchasing all the components needed to produce a finished product or a device

• Core competency – One thing that the company can do better than its

competitors (e.g. Honda engines, Volvo safety

Examples of Highly Successful Companies

• Samsung screens for iPod • GE engines for Airbus • Japanese components for US defense

Product Development Process ... 1

• Phase 0 - Planning – Corporate strategy, technology assessment – Target market, business goals, key assumptions

and constraints • Phase 1 – Concept development – Identify target market, evaluate alternative

concepts, select a concept for further development

Product Development Process ... 2

• Phase 2 – System-level design– Definition of product architecture– Decomposition of the product in to sub-systems – Functional specification and preliminary process

flow diagram • Phase 3 – Design Detail – Complete specification– Drawings, computer files

Product Development Process ... 3

• Phase 4 – Testing and refinement – Test the prototype to determine whether the

system would work – Test whether customer requirements would be met

• Production ramp-up – Intended production system is used – Training – Gradual transition from ramp-up to regular

production

Designing for Customers

• Does the customer need all the features• Is it easy to operate• Is it easy to maintain • Is it safe to use • Are the instructions clear • How is the after sales service • What is the life of the product

Quality Function Deployment

• Quality is meeting customer requirements• QFD is a process that helps a company

determine the product characteristics important to the customer and to evaluate its own product in relation to others

• House of Quality – A matrix that helps a product design team translate customer requirements in to operating and engineering goals

Types of Customer Information

• Solicited, Measurable, Routine– Customer & Market Surveys, Trade Trials

• Unsolicited, Measurable, Routine– Customer Complaints, Lawsuits

• Solicited, Subjective, Routine– Focus Groups

• Solicited, Subjective, Haphazard– Trade & Customer Visits, Independent Consultants

• Unsolicited, Subjective, Haphazard– Conventions, Vendors, Suppliers

Building a House of Quality

• List Customer Requirements (What’s)• List Technical Descriptors (How’s)• Develop Relationship (What’s & How’s)• Develop Interrelationship (How’s)• Competitive Assessments• Prioritize Customer Requirements• Prioritize Technical Descriptors

Value Analysis / Value Engineering

• While designing a product, see the value as seen by the customer in the product

• Purpose is to simplify the products and processes • Achieve equivalent or better performance at a

lower cost • Typically purchase department use VA as cost

reduction measure • VE, performed before the production phase is a

cost avoidance measure

VE Definition

• Value Engineering is the systematic application of recognized techniques by multi-disciplined team(s) that identifies the function of a product or service; establishes a worth for that function; generates alternatives through the use of creative thinking; and provides the needed functions, reliably, at the lowest overall cost.

VA / VE Approach

• Value = Function/Cost • Does the item have any design features that

are not necessary?• Can two or more parts be combined in to one?• How can we cut down the weight?• Are there non-standard parts that can be

eliminated?

Designing Products for Manufacture and Assembly

• Design could mean aesthetics like shape, colour, texture etc.

• Or establishing characteristics of various components like generators, pumps etc.

• Also Detailing of material, shapes, tolerance etc.

From Design to Manufacturing

• Design documents are passed on to the assembly line for optimizing and making of final product

• Manufacturing and assembly problems require changes in design that could be very expensive

• One way out is to consult the manufacturing engineers during the design phase

• Concurrent engineering – Emphasizes cross-functional integration and concurrent development of a product and its associated processes

Measuring Product Development Performance ... 1

• New products are very critical for being competitive • Companies must respond to changing customer

needs • New products and processes must be brought

efficiently • Companies need to bring in many more projects just

to retain the market share• Smaller volume per model and shorter design life

mean resource requirements must drop dramatically

Measuring Product Development Performance ... 2

• Speed and frequency of bringing new products

• Productivity of actual development process • Quality of actual products introduced

Time to Market

• Frequency of new product introduction • Time from initial concept to market

introduction • Number started and number completed • Actual vs. Plan• % of sales coming from new products

Productivity

• Engineering hours per project • Cost of materials and tooling per project • Actual vs. Plan

Quality

• Conformance – reliability in use • Design – performance and customer

satisfaction • Yield – factory and field

Costs in INR Development Cost 2,00,000 Development time 2 years Ramp-up cost 7,50,000 marketing and Support Cost per year 5,00,000

Unit production cost 75

Unit price 175

Sales and Production Volume

Year 3 40,000

Year 4 50,000

Year 5 40,000

Project schedule Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5

Development

Ramp-up

Marketing and Support

Production and Sales

Costs in INR '000

Project Schedule Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5

Development cost -1000 -1000Ramp-up -750Marketing and Support -500 -500 -500 -500Production Volume 40 50 40Unit production cost -75 -75 -75Sales volume 40 50 40Unit price 135 135 135Sales revenue 5400 6750 5400Period cash flow -1000 -2250 1900 2500 1900PV year 1 at 12 % -1000 -2009 1515 1779 1207Project NPV 1492