Design of Goods and Services

Chapter 4 from Russel and Taylor

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 The Design Process
• 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,
– Minimizes the revisions necessary to make a design workable.

• Product design:
– Defines the appearance of the product,
– Sets standards for performance,
– Specifies which materials are to be used, and
– Determines dimensions and tolerances.
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The Design Process

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 Idea Generation
• Begin by understanding the customer and their needs.

• Ideas for new products or improvements can come from:

– A company’s own R&D department,
– Customer complaints or suggestions,
– Marketing research,
– Suppliers,
– Salespersons in the field,
– Factory workers,
– New technological developments,
– Competitors

• Perceptual maps, benchmarking, and reverse engineering

can help companies learn from their competitors. 4
Tools Used to Learn from Competitors
• Perceptual Map: Visual method for comparing
customer perceptions of different products or
services.

• Benchmarking: comparing a product or process

against the best-in-class product.
– Could be from a different line of business

• Reverse Engineering: Carefully dismantling a

competitor’s product to improve your own
product.
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A Perceptual Map of Breakfast Cereals

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 Feasibility Study
• Marketing formulates alternative product and service
concepts.

• A feasibility study consists of a market analysis, an

economic analysis, and a technical/strategic analysis.

• Market Analysis: Assesses whether there’s enough

demand for the proposed product to invest in
developing it further.

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 Feasibility Study
• If the demand potential exists, then there’s an economic
analysis that looks at estimates of production and
development costs and compares them to estimated sales
volume.

• Discuss price range

• Quantitative techniques used:

– Cost/benefit analysis,
– Decision theory,
– Net present value, or
– Internal rate of return

• Consider company’s risk aversion level.

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 Feasibility Study
• Technical and Strategic Analyses answers:
– Does the new product require new technology?
– Is the risk or capital investment excessive?
– Does the company have sufficient labor 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?
– Does it draw on corporate strengths?
– Is it compatible with the core business of the firm? 9
 Feasibility Study
• Performance Specifications: Describe the
function of the product—that is, what the
product should do to satisfy customer needs.

• Written for product concepts that pass the

feasibility study and are approved for
development.

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 Rapid Prototyping and
Concurrent Design
• Designers take general performance specifications
and transform them into a physical product or
service with technical design specifications.

• The process involves building a prototype, testing

the prototype, revising the design, retesting, and
so on until a viable design is determined.

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 Rapid Prototyping and
Concurrent Design
• Rapid Prototyping: Creating, testing, and
revising a preliminary design model.
– creates preliminary design models that are quickly
tested and either discarded (as fast failures) or
further refined.

• The iterative process involves form and

functional design, as well as production
design.

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 Rapid Prototyping and
Concurrent Design
• It is important that these design decisions be
performed concurrently at the rapid prototype
stage.

• Design decisions affect sales strategies, efficiency

of manufacture, assembly quality, speed of repair,
and product cost.

• Concurrent Design: A new approach to design

that involves the simultaneous design of products
and processes by design teams.
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Concurrent Design

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 Form Design
• Form design refers to the physical appearance
of a product—its shape, color, size, and style.
– Aesthetics such as image, market appeal, and
personal identification are also part of form
design.

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 Functional Design
• Functional Design: Concerned with how the product
performs.

• It seeks to meet the performance specifications of

fitness for use by the customer.

• Three performance characteristics considered during

this phase of design:
– Reliability,
– Maintainability, and
– Usability

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 Reliability**
• Reliability: The probability that a given part or product will
perform its intended function for a specified length of time
under normal conditions of use.

• A product 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.

• As the number of serial components increases, system

reliability will continue to deteriorate.
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 Reliability**
• Failure of some components in a system is
more critical than others
– Brakes on a car

• To increase the reliability of individual parts

(and thus the system as a whole), redundant
parts can be built in to back up a failure.
– These components are said to operate in parallel.

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Example (See Board)**

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 Reliability**
• Reliability can also be expressed as the length of
time a product or service is in operation before it
fails, called the mean time between failures
(MTBF).

• In this case, we are concerned with the

distribution of failures over time, or the failure
rate.

• MTBF is the reciprocal of the failure rate

(MTBF = 1/failure rate).
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 Maintainability
• Maintainability (serviceability): refers to the ease and/or cost
with which a product or service is maintained or repaired.

• The location of critical parts or parts subject to failure affects

the ease of disassembly and, thus, repair.

• Instructions that teach consumers how to anticipate

malfunctions and correct them themselves can be included with
the product.

• Specifying regular maintenance schedules is part of

maintainability, as is proper planning for the availability of
critical replacement parts.
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 Maintainability
• One quantitative measure of maintainability is
mean time to repair (MTTR).

• Combined with the reliability measure of

MTBF, we can calculate the average availability
or “uptime” of a system as:

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 System Availability Example**
Amy Russell must choose a service provider for
her company’s e-commerce site. Other factors
being equal, she will base her decision on server
availability. Given the following server
performance data, which provider should she
choose?

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 Usability
• Usability is what makes a product or service easy
to use and a good fit for its targeted customer.

• It is a combination of factors that affect the

user’s:
– Ease of learning,
– Ease of use and ease of remembering how to use,
– Frequency and severity of errors, and
– User satisfaction with the experience.
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 Production Design
• Production design is concerned with how the product
will be made.

• Usually done in preliminary design phase.

• Recommended approaches to production design

include:
– Simplification,
– Standardization,
– Modularity, and
– Design for manufacture.

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 Production Design: Simplification
• Design simplification attempts to reduce the
number of parts, subassemblies, and options
in a product.
– It also means avoiding tools, separate fasteners,
and adjustments.

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Production Design: Standardization
• Using standard parts in a product or throughout many
products saves design time, tooling costs, and
production worries.

• Standardization makes possible the interchangeability

of parts among products, resulting in:
– Higher-volume production and purchasing,
– Lower investment in inventory,
– Easier purchasing and material handling,
– Fewer quality inspections, and
– Fewer difficulties in production.

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Production Design: Modular Design
• Modular Design: combines standardized
building blocks, or modules, to create unique
finished products.

• Common in the electronics industry and the

automobile industry.

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 Production Design:
Design for Manufacture
• Design for manufacture (DFM): The process of designing a product so
that it can be produced easily and economically.

• When successful, DFM not only improves the quality of product design
but also reduces both the time and cost of product design and
manufacture.

• DFM guidelines promote good design practice, such as:

– Minimize the number of parts and subassemblies.
– 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.
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 Final Design and Process Plans
• Design changes, known as engineering change orders
(ECOs), are a major source of delay and cost overruns
in the product development process.

• The final design consists of detailed drawings and

specifications for the new product or service.

• The accompanying process plans are workable

instructions for manufacture
– Necessary equipment and tooling, component sourcing
recommendations, job descriptions and procedures for
workers, and computer programs for automated machines.
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 Technology in Design
• Changes in product design are more frequent,
and product lifecycles are shorter.

• IBM estimates the average life of its new product

offerings is about six months.

• The ability to get new products to the market

quickly has revolutionized the competitive
environment and changed the nature of
manufacturing.

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 Technology in Design:
Computer-Aided Design
• Computer-aided design (CAD) is a software system
that uses computer graphics to assist in the creation,
modification, and analysis of a design.

• A geometric design is generated that includes not only

the dimensions of the product but also tolerance
information and material specifications.

• The ability to sort, classify, and retrieve similar designs

from a CAD database facilitates standardization of
parts, prompts ideas, and eliminates building a design
from scratch.

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 Technology in Design:
Computer-Aided Engineering
• Engineering analysis, performed with a CAD
system, is called computer-aided engineering
(CAE).

• CAE 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.

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 Technology in Design: CAD/CAM
• The ultimate design-to-manufacture connection is a
computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing
(CAD/CAM) system.

• CAD/CAM 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.

• This integration of design and manufacture can save

enormous amounts of time, ensure that parts and products
are produced precisely as intended, and facilitate revisions
in design or customized production.
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 Technology in Design
• Product Lifecycle Management (PLM): Managing
the entire lifecycle of a product.

• PLM stores, retrieves, and updates design data

from the product concept, through
manufacturing, revision, service, and retirement
of the product.

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 Collaborative Product Design Systems
• Collaborative design can take place between designers in the
same company, between manufacturers and suppliers, or
between manufacturers and customers.

• Software systems for collaborative design are loosely referred to

as collaborative product design (CPD).

• These systems provide the interconnectivity and translation

capabilities necessary for collaborative work across platforms,
departments, and companies.

• In conjunction with PLM systems, they also manage product

data, set up project workspaces, and follow product
development through the entire product lifecycle.
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 Design Quality Reviews: FMEA
• Before finalizing a design, formal procedures for analyzing
possible failures and rigorously assessing the value of every part
and component should be followed.

• Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) is a systematic

approach to analyzing the causes and effects of product failures.
– List the functions of the product and each of its parts.
– Failure modes are then defined and ranked in order of their
seriousness and likelihood of failure.
– Failures are addressed one by one (beginning with the most
catastrophic),
• Causes are hypothesized, and design changes are made to reduce the chance
of failure.

• The objective of FMEA is to anticipate failures and prevent them

from occurring.
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Failure Mode and Effects Analysis for
Potato Chips

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 Design Quality Reviews: Fault Tree
Analysis (FTA)
• Fault tree analysis (FTA) is a visual method in
tree format of analyzing the interrelationship
among failures.

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Fault Tree Analysis for Potato Chips

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 Design Quality Reviews: Value Analysis
• Value analysis (VA) (also known as value engineering) was
developed by General Electric in 1947 to eliminate
unnecessary features and functions in product designs.

• The design team defines the essential functions of a

component, assembly, or product using a verb and a noun.
– For example, the function of a container might be described as
holds fluid.

• The team assigns a value to each function and determines

the cost of providing the function.

• A ratio of value to cost can be calculated for each item.

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 Design for Environment
• Extended producer responsibility (EPR): Concept that holds
companies responsible for their product even after its useful life.

• Some manufacturers pay a tax for recycling; others include the

cost of disposal in a product's price.

• German law mandates the collection, recycling, and safe disposal

of many electronic devices.

• Nineteen U.S. states have takeback laws that require the return
and recycling of batteries, appliances, and other electronics.

• Companies responsible for disposing of their own products are

more conscious of the design decisions that generated the
excess and toxic waste that can be expensive to process.
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 Design for the Environment
• Eco-Labeling: gives the seal of approval to environmentally
safe products and encourages informed consumer purchase.

• Carbon footprints measure the amount of carbon dioxide

(CO2) and other greenhouse gases that contribute to global
warming and climate change.

• A product’s carbon footprint is calculated by estimating the

greenhouse gas emissions from:
– The energy used in manufacturing and transporting the product
along its supply chain,
– The energy used in stocking and selling the product,
– The energy used by the consumer in using the product, and
– The energy used to recycle and dispose of the product at the end
of its useful life.
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 Design for the Environment
• Sustainability: The ability to meet present needs without
compromising those of future generations.
– Can lead to cost savings

• Design for Environment (DFE): Designing a product from

material that can be recycled or easily repaired rather than
discarded.

• Involves many aspects of design:

– Designing products from recycled material,
– Reducing hazardous chemicals,
– Using materials or components that can be recycled after use,
– Designing a product so that it is easier to repair than discard,
and
– Minimizing unnecessary packaging. 45
Design for Environment Lifecycle

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 Green Sourcing
• Design for environment begins with:
– Using less material,
– Using recycled material if possible,
– Using organic material (e.g., that has not been treated with
chemicals), and
– Using non-toxic materials or chemicals.

• The materials should also be renewable, not endangered or

scarce, and durable, so that the product will last.

• The design should be rationalized so that only the needed

features (and thus material) are included and so that the
product is saleable and will not end up, unused, in landfills.

• Be produced near final destination.

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 Green Manufacture
• In the manufacturing process, green design is concerned with:
– The energy needed to produce the product,
– Whether that energy is renewable,
– How much waste or harmful by-products are generated from the
process, and
– If that waste can be recycled or by-product disposed of safely.

• Production should be in the proper amounts so that inventory is

minimized.

• The manufacturing plant should be located in close proximity to

customers to minimize transportation and its affect on
greenhouse gas emissions.

• The product should have minimal packaging and the boxes or

bins used for transportation should be re-usable.
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 Green Consumption
• Once the product is in the consumer's hands, green
design affects:
– How efficiently the product uses energy,
– How long the product will last, and
– If the product can be repaired instead of discarded

• At the end of the useful life of the product, it should be

recyclable and easy to disassemble for that purpose.

• The product should not cause harm to the customer or

the environment.

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 Recycling and Re-Use
• Many products are discarded because they are
difficult or expensive to repair.

• Materials from discarded products may not be

recycled if the product is difficult to
disassemble.

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 Quality Function Deployment
• Quality Function Deployment (QFD): Translates
the voice of the customer into technical design
requirements.

• Uses a series of matrix diagrams that resemble

connected houses.

• The first matrix (house of quality) converts

customer requirements into product-design
characteristics.

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Outline of the House of Quality

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 A Competitive Assessment of
Customer Requirements for an Iron

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Converting Customer Requirements to
Design Characteristics

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The Tradeoff Matrix: Effects of
Increasing Soleplate Thickness

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Targeted Changes in Design

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60
The Completed House of Quality for a
Steam Iron

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 Quality Function Deployment
• Suppose we decide to meet the customer requirement of
“heats quickly” by reducing the thickness of the soleplate.

• The second house, parts deployment, examines which

component parts are affected by reducing the thickness of
the soleplate.

• These new part characteristics then become inputs to the

third house, process planning.

• The fourth house, operating requirements, prescribes how

the fixtures and gauges for the stamping machine will be
set, what additional training the operator of the machine
needs, and how process control and preventive
maintenance procedures need to be adjusted. 63
A Series of Connected QFD Houses

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 Design for Robustness
• Robust Design: Yields a product or service designed to
withstand variations.

• From a designer’s point of view, the controllable factors are

design parameters such as material used, dimensions, and
form of processing.

• Uncontrollable factors are under the user’s control (length

of use, maintenance, settings, and so on).

• The designer’s job is to choose values for the controllable

variables that react in a robust fashion to the possible
occurrences of uncontrollable factors.
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 Design for Robustness
• To do this, various configurations of the product are tested under
different operating conditions specified in the design of
experiments (DOE).

• The experiment is replicated multiple times.

• The mean performance of an experimental configuration over a

number of trials is called the “signal.”

• The standard deviation of performance is referred to as “noise.”

• The most robust design exhibits the highest signal-to-noise ratio.

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 Design for Robustness
• As part of the design process, design engineers must also specify
certain tolerances, or allowable ranges of variation in the
dimension of a part.

• It is assumed that producing parts within those tolerance limits

will result in a quality product.

• Some say consistency is more important to quality than being

within tolerances.
– Consistent errors can be more easily corrected than random errors,
– Parts within tolerance limits may produce assemblies that are not
within limits, and
– Consumers have a strong preference for product characteristics near
their ideal values.
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 Design for Robustness
• The quality loss function quantifies customer
preferences toward quality.

• The quadratic function, implies that a customer’s

dissatisfaction (or quality loss) increases
geometrically as the actual value deviates from
the target value.

• The quality loss function is used to emphasize

that customer preferences are strongly oriented
toward consistently meeting quality expectations.
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Taguchi’s Quality Loss Function

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