Product Design

1. Product Design Dr. M. Gunawan Alif MMUI & Binus Business School

2. Product Design is not easy • Too bulky or underpowered vacuum cleaners • Cereal boxes with protective packaging that rips when first opened and thus no longer protects. • Unclear labeling on a self-serve pump • The color is so bright and looks cheap. • Etc, etc...

3. Product Design is not easy

4. Product Analysis • Everyday we use thousands of different products • from telephones to bikes and drinks cans to washing machines • How do they work or how are they made? • Product design can be understood through product analysis • the important materials, processing, economic and aesthetic decisions required before any product can be or is manufactured

5. Product Analysis • Become familiar with the product! • What does it do? • How does it do it? • What does it look like? • Consider the obvious mechanical, electrical, ergonomics, and marketing issues • These are likely to have impact on the later design decisions

6. Example: Bicycle • What is the function of a bicycle? • How does the function depend on the type of bike (e.g. racing, or about-town, or child's bike)? • How is it made to be easily maintained? • What should it cost? • What should it look like (colors, spokes, etc.)? • How has it been made comfortable to ride? • How do the mechanical bits work and interact? • How is safety provided for? • … If we do this for a number of products we can begin to see structure.

7. Design Questions (leading to a design specification) • What are the requirements on each part (electrical, mechanical, aesthetic, ergonomic, etc…)? • What is the function of each component and how does each work? • What is each part made of and why? • How many of each part are going to be made? • What manufacturing methods were used to make each part and why? • Are there alternative materials or designs in use and are there possible improvements? • These are specific questions and differ per product

8. Example Cup Design Specification • Provide a leak free environment for storing liquid • Comply with food standards and protect the liquid from health hazards • For fizzy drinks, withstand internal pressurization and prevent escape of bubbles • Provide an aesthetically pleasing view or image of the product • If possible create a brand identity • Be easy to open • Be easy to store and transport • Be cheap to produce for volumes of 10,000+ • …

9. Contribution of Design to NPD Process Design for speed to market Design for Ease of Manufacture Design for differentiation Design to meet customer needs Design to build or Support Corporate identity Design for the environment

10. Universal Design: Principle 1 • Equitable Use: The design is useful and marketable to people with diverse abilities Guidelines 1a. Provide the same means of use for all users: identical whenever possible; equivalent when not 1b. Avoid segregating or stigmatizing any users 1c. Provisions for privacy, security, and safety should be equally available to all users 1d. Make the design appealing to all users

11. Universal Design: Principle 2 • Flexibility in Use: The design accommodates a wide range of individual preferences and abilitiesGuidelines 2a. Provide choice in methods of use2b. Accommodate right- or left-handed access and use2c. Facilitate the user's accuracy and precision2d. Provide adaptability to the user's pace

12. Universal Design: Principle 3 • Simple & Intuitive to use: Use of the design is easy to understand, regardless of the user's experience, knowledge, language skills, or current concentration levelGuidelines 3a. Eliminate unnecessary complexity3b. Be consistent with user expectations and intuition3c. Accommodate a wide range of literacy and language skills3d. Arrange information consistent with its importance3e. Provide effective prompting and feedback during and after task completion

13. Universal Design: Principle 4 • Perceptible Information:The design communicates necessary information effectively to the user, regardless of ambient conditions or the user's sensory abilities Guidelines 4a. Use different modes (pictorial, verbal, tactile) for redundant presentation of essential information4b. Provide adequate contrast between essential information and its surroundings4c. Maximize "legibility" of essential information4d. Differentiate elements in ways that can be described (i.e., make it easy to give instructions or directions)4e. Provide compatibility with a variety of techniques or devices used by people with sensory limitations

14. Universal Design: Principle 5 • Tolerance for Error: The design minimizes hazards and the adverse consequences of accidental or unintended actions Guidelines 5a. Arrange elements to minimize hazards and errors: most used elements, most accessible; hazardous elements eliminated, isolated, or shielded5b. Provide warnings of hazards and errors5c. Provide fail safe features5d. Discourage unconscious action in tasks that require vigilance

15. Universal Design: Principle 6 • Low Physical Effort: The design can be used efficiently and comfortably and with a minimum of fatigue Guidelines 6a. Allow user to maintain a neutral body position6b. Use reasonable operating forces6c. Minimize repetitive actions6d. Minimize sustained physical effort

16. Universal Design: Principle 7 • Size and space for approach & use:The design provides for appropriate size and space for approach, reach, manipulation, and use regardless of user's body size, posture, or mobility Guidelines 7a. Provide a clear line of sight to important elements for any seated or standing user7b. Make reach to all components comfortable for any seated or standing user7c. Accommodate variations in hand and grip size7d. Provide adequate space for the use of assistive devices or personal assistance

17. Product Architecture • Product contains components (CD players has a chassis, motors, disk drive, speaker and so on), that can be combined into chunks (the base, the disk handling system, the recording system, and the sound producing system). A product is also composed of functional elements (for a CD player, these might include reading disks, recording sound, producing sound, and adjusting sound quality). •  The product architecture is how the functional elements are assigned to the chunks and how the chunks are interrelated.

18. Design for Manufacturing (DFM) • Value Analysis (or engineering) • Simplification of products and processes • Modular Design • Multiple products using common parts, processes and modules.

19. Value Analysis • Terms in Value Analysis: • Objective: primary purpose of the product • Basic Function: Makes the objective possible • Secondary Function: How to perform the basic function • Value analysis seeks to improve the secondary function, e.g. how to open a can or make a tool box.

20. Objectives of Value Analysis • Enhance the design of a good or service to provide higher quality at the same price, or the same quality at a lower price. • Modify the design of production process to lower the cost of a good or service while maintaining or improving quality. • In other words, improve the ratio of usefulness (quality) to cost.

21. (a) The original design (b) Revised design (c) Final design One-piece base & elimination of fasteners Assembly using common fasteners Design for push-and-snap assembly DFM: An Example

22. DFM: An Example (continued) • Original Design • 24 different parts to assemble • 7 unique parts to manage in inventory • Revised Design • 4 different parts to assemble • 3 unique parts to manage in inventory • Final Design • 2 parts to assemble and manage • Question: How easy would it be to detect an assembly error with each of the designs?

23. Value Analysis at Toyota GM has 26 different seat frames. Toyota has 2. Toyota’s advantage: $500 million Source: Business Week, 31 July 2006, p. 57.

24. Value Analysis at GM Bo Andersson (VP Global Purchasing) discovered that door hinges on large SUVs and trucks could be made from 3 parts instead of 5. Savings: $21 per truck or $100 million total. It still took him three months to convince the engineers to change. Source: Business Week, 31 July 2006, p. 57.

25. Modular Design • Allows greater variety through ‘mixing and matching’ of modules • Develops a series of basic product components (modules) for later assembly into multiple products • Reduces complexity and costs associated with large number of product variations • Easy to subcontract production of modules

26. Not in VacumNew product must always be iniline with needs and wants of its target audience

27. Forecasters Are Often Right In 1967 they said we would have: • Artificial organs in humans by 1982. • Human organ transplants by 1987. • Credit cards almost eliminating currency by 1986. • Automation throughout industry including some managerial decision making by 1987. • Landing on moon by 1970. • Three of four Americans living in cities or towns by 1986. • Expenditures for recreation and entertainment doubled by 1986.

28. “Futurists” • Consumer insight • Ethnographies • Trend reports

29. Forecasters Can Be Very Wrong They also said we would have: • Permanent base on moon by 1987. • Manned planetary landings by 1980. • Most urbanites living in high-rises by 1986. • Private cars barred from city cores by 1986. • Primitive life forms created in laboratory by 1989. • Full color 3D TV globally available. Source: a 1967 forecast by The Futurist journal. Note: about two-thirds of the forecasts were correct!

30. Forecast: Generational Shifts Civic (Millennials) (GI Generation) • Correct ills of Reactive • Era of prosperity and strength • Pervasive optimism • Uplifting patriotic sentiment Reactive(GenX) Adaptive (Silent) • Follow trends from Civic • More complacent • Head down hard work and life enjoyment • Left reacting to changes initiatedby Idealists • Often era of economic downturn • Feelings of negativity and disenfranchisement ubiquitous Idealist (Boomers) • Change agents as tired of / rebel against status quo of Adaptive • Era of volatility (economic, political, social, etc.)

31. Trends!

32. The Project Overview Uncertainties Selection method Selected design Designer’s preferences Product attributes Design alternatives Objective: Select the product design that accounts for both customer’s requirements and designer’s preferences

33. Input Design Variables Simulation Software Design Attributes Design Variables & Attributes • Design Variables Set of input variables (parameters) to the design simulation software (e.g. Motor type, Gear type, Gear ratio, DC voltage, Ambient temperature) • Performance Attributes Set of attributes that is the output of the simulation software,and identifies a product design (e.g. Manufacturing cost, Weight, Time per operation per battery charge)

34. Design Alternative Generation Two methods for generating designalternatives: • Multiobjective Optimization • Formulate a multiobjective optimization problem, solve for the alternatives that satisfy the objectives (performance attributes) the most. • There is no closed form representation of the objective functions • The design input parameters consist of both continuous and discrete variables • Multiobjective Genetic Algorithm is a good choice to handle this type of problems • The solution points constitute a non-dominated set w.r.t. all objective functions.

35. Design Aternative Generation • Multiobjective Optimization Contd. Example: min Cost (Motor type, Gear type, Batter type, Skin material, Labor) min Weight (Motor type, Gear type, Skin material) s.t. Motor type integer between [1,20] Gear type integer between [1,14] Battery type integer between [1,5] Gear ratio real between [10,20] Skin Material integer [1,3] Cost Pareto Frontier Feasible Region Pareto Solution Weight

36. Design Alternative Generation • Permutation Over Attributes • Generating design alternatives by permuting the attributes over all (or certain) levels • Mapping between the attributes and the design variables is simple(i.e. we can easily obtain the corresponding design variables, once we get the attribute levels) • Very easy to implement but less likely to be able to handle real applications. Example: Motor type [1,5] Gear type [1,3] 5x3x2 = 30 design alternatives Battery type [1,2]

37. The Uncertainty The uncertainty exists in the input design variables • Sources of Uncertainty • The market price of the parts • The fluctuations in input voltage/current • The measurement error in the manufacturing of the parts • The quality of the material/parts • The Uncertainty Modeling • Using presumed distributions for certain events (i.e. normal distribution for measurement error) • Collecting the historical/field data and fit the best distribution using BestFit® (Distribution of input design variables)

38. Ref: Crawford & Benedetto & online sources. Thank you