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Product Design

1. Product design is the process of shaping resources to satisfy customer needs and requirements. Good design that is closely tied to organizational strategy leads to more successful products and services. 2. Product and service design translates customer wants into requirements, refines existing offerings, develops new ones, sets quality and cost targets, tests prototypes, and specifies products and processes. 3. Forces that drive redesign include changes in economic, social, political, competitive, cost, and technological factors that create market opportunities and threats.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
127 views18 pages

Product Design

1. Product design is the process of shaping resources to satisfy customer needs and requirements. Good design that is closely tied to organizational strategy leads to more successful products and services. 2. Product and service design translates customer wants into requirements, refines existing offerings, develops new ones, sets quality and cost targets, tests prototypes, and specifies products and processes. 3. Forces that drive redesign include changes in economic, social, political, competitive, cost, and technological factors that create market opportunities and threats.

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Pangitka
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Mariano, Shanne Lei M.

BSA 3-1

Tamayo, Jhao Mico R. Production Operations Management

PRODUCT DESIGN

Product design is the process of a requirement to satisfy customers through shaping or configuration of

the resources that comprise a product. Organizations that have well-designed products or services are

more likely to realize their goals than those with poorly designed products or services. Hence,

organizations have a strategic interest in product and service design. Product or service design should be

closely tied to an organization’s strategy. Good design takes innovative ideas and makes them practical.

Good design also communicates the purpose of the service or product to its market, and brings financial

rewards to the business.

What Does Product and Service Design Do?

1. Translate customer wants and needs into product and service requirements. (marketing, operations)

2. Refine existing products and services. (marketing)

3. Develop new products and/or services. (marketing, operations)

4. Formulate quality goals. (marketing, operations)

5. Formulate cost targets. (accounting, finance, operations)

6. Construct and test prototypes. (operations, marketing, engineering)

7. Document specifications.
8. Translate product and service specifications into process specifications. (engineering, operations)

Reasons for Product and Service Design or Redesign

Product and service design typically had strategic implications for the success and prosperity of an

organization. Consequently, decisions in this area are some of the most fundamental that managers

must make. The main forces that initiate design or redesign are market opportunities and threats. The

factors that give rise to market opportunities and threats can be one or more changes:

• Economic (e.g., low demand, excessive warranty claims, the need to reduce costs).

• Social and demographic (e.g., aging baby boomers, population shifts).

• Political, liability, or legal (e.g., government changes, safety issues, new regulations).

• Competitive (e.g., new or changed products or services, new advertising/promotions).

• Cost or availability (e.g., of raw materials, components, labor, water, energy).

• Technological (e.g., in product components, processes).

Why Is Good Design So Important?

Good design takes innovative ideas and makes them practical. Good design also communicates the

purpose of the service or product to its market, and brings financial rewards to the business. Service and

product design, therefore, can be seen as starting and ending with the customer. So the design activity

has one overriding objective: to provide products, services and processes which will satisfy the

operation’s customers. Product designers try to achieve aesthetically pleasing designs which meet or

exceed customers’ expectations. They also try to design a product which performs well and is reliable
during its lifetime. Further, they should design the product so that it can be manufactured easily and

quickly.

Three Aspects Designed in a Product

Concept – articulates the nature, use and value of the service or product. Developing the concept is a

crucial stage in the design of services and products because customers are buying more than just

physical and evident components; they are buying into a particular concept.

Package – multiple ‘component’ services and products that provide those benefits defined in the

concept. Some parts of the package are ‘core’ in that they are fundamental to achieving the concept and

could not be removed without destroying the nature of the service or product. Other parts are

supporting; they serve to enhance the core.

Process – defines the way in which the component services and products will be created and delivered.

Idea Generation

Ideas for new or redesigned products or services can come from a variety of sources, including

customers, the supply chain, competitors, employees, and research. One of the strongest motivators for

new and improved products or services is competitors’ products and services. By studying a

competitor’s products or services and how the competitor operates (pricing policies, return policies,

warranties, location strategies, etc.), an organization can glean many ideas.

Reverse Engineering - Dismantling and inspecting a competitor’s product to discover product

improvements.
Research and Development (R&D) - Organized efforts to increase scientific knowledge or product

innovation.

 Basic research has the objective of advancing the state of knowledge about a subject,

without any near-term expectation of commercial applications.

 Applied research has the objective of achieving commercial applications.

 Development converts the results of applied research into useful commercial

applications.

Legal and Ethical Considerations

Designers must be careful to take into account a wide array of legal and ethical considerations.

Moreover, if there is a potential to harm the environment, then those issues also become important.

Most organizations are subject to numerous government agencies that regulate them.

Product liability is the responsibility of a manufacturer for any injuries or damages caused by a faulty

product because of poor workmanship or design. Many business firms have faced lawsuits related to

their products, including Firestone Tire & Rubber, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, tobacco

companies, and toy manufacturers. Manufacturers also are faced with the implied warranties created by

state laws under the Uniform Commercial Code, which says that products carry an implication of

merchantability and fitness; that is, a product must be usable for its intended purposes.

Ethical issues often arise in the design of products and services; it is important for managers to be aware

of these issues and for designers to adhere to ethical standards. Designers are often under pressure to

speed up the design process and to cut costs. These pressures often require them to make trade-off

decisions, many of which involve ethical considerations.


Organizations generally want designers to adhere to guidelines such as the following:

• Produce designs that are consistent with the goals of the organization. For instance, if the company

has a goal of high quality, don’t cut corners to save cost, even in areas where it won’t be apparent to the

customer.

• Give customers the value they expect.

• Make health and safety a primary concern. At risk are employees who will produce goods or deliver

services, workers who will transport the products, customers who will use the products or receive the

services, and the general public, which might be endangered by the products or services.

Human Factors

Human factor issues often arise in the design of consumer products. Safety and liability are two critical

issues in many instances, and they must be carefully considered. For example, the crashworthiness of

vehicles is of much interest to consumers, insurance companies, automobile producers, and the

government. Another issue for designers to take into account is adding new features to their products

or services. Companies in certain businesses may seek a competitive edge by adding new features.

Cultural Factors

Product designers in companies that operate globally also must take into account any cultural

differences of different countries or regions related to the product.

Global Product and Service Design


Organizations that operate globally are discovering advantages in global product design, which uses the

combined efforts of a team of designers who work in different countries and even on different

continents. Global product design can provide design outcomes that increase the marketability and

utility of a product. The diversity of an international team may yield different points of view and ideas

and information to enrich the design process. Advances in information technology have played a key

role in the viability of global product design teams by enabling team members to maintain continual

contact with each other and to instantaneously share designs and progress, and to transmit engineering

changes and other necessary information.

Environmental Factors: Sustainability

Cradle-to-Grave Assessment

It is the assessment of the environmental impact of a product or service throughout its useful life,

focusing on such factors as global warming (the amount of carbon dioxide released into the

atmosphere), smog formation, oxygen depletion, and solid waste generation. For products, cradle-to-

grave analysis takes into account impacts in every phase of a product’s life cycle, from raw material

extraction from the earth, or the growing and harvesting of plant materials, through fabrication of parts

and assembly operations, or other processes used to create products, as well as the use or consumption

of the product, and final disposal at the end of a product’s useful life. The goal of cradle-to-grave

assessment is to choose products and services that have the least environmental impact while still

taking into account economic considerations.


End-of-Life Programs

This deal with products that have reached the end of their useful lives. The products include both

consumer products and business equipment. The purpose of these programs is to reduce the dumping

of products, particularly electronic equipment, in landfills or third-world countries, as has been the

common practice, or incineration, which converts materials into hazardous air and water emissions and

generates toxic ash.

The Three Rs: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

-Reduce: Value Analysis

It refers to an examination of the function of parts and materials in an effort to reduce the cost and/or

improve the performance of a product. Typical questions that would be asked as part of the analysis

include: Could a cheaper part or material be used? Is the function necessary?

-Reuse: Remanufacturing

This refers to refurbishing used products by replacing worn-out or defective components, and reselling

the products. This can be done by the original manufacturer, or another company. Designing products

so that they can be more easily taken apart has given rise to yet another design consideration: Design

for disassembly (DFD).

-Recycle

It means recovering materials for future use. This applies not only to manufactured parts but also to

materials used during production, such as lubricants and solvents. Companies recycle for a variety of

reasons, including Cost savings, Environment concerns and Environmental regulations. The pressure to
recycle has given rise to the term design for recycling (DFR), referring to product design that takes into

account the ability to disassemble a used product to recover the recyclable parts.

Other Design Considerations

Strategies for Product Life Stages

It is the succession of strategies by business management as a product goes through its life-cycle. The

conditions in which a product is sold changes over time and must be managed as it moves through its

succession of stages. Wide variations exist in the amount of time a particular product or service takes to

pass through a given phase of its life cycle: some pass through various stages in a relatively short period;

others take considerably longer. Often it is a matter of the basic need for the item and the rate of

technological change.

Introduction - When a product or service is introduced, it may be treated as a curiosity item.

Strategically, companies must carefully weigh the trade-offs in getting all the bugs out versus getting a

leap on the competition, as well as getting to the market at an advantageous time. It is important to

have a reasonable forecast of initial demand so an adequate supply of product or an adequate service

capacity is in place.
Growth - Over time, design improvements and increasing demand yield higher reliability and lower

costs, leading the growth in demand. In the growth phase, it is important to obtain accurate projections

of the demand growth rate and how long that will persist, and then to ensure that capacity increases

coincide with increasing demand.

Maturity - In the next phase, the product or service reaches maturity, and demand levels off. Few, if

any, design changes are needed. Generally, costs are low and productivity is high. An accurate forecast

of how long this phase will last before the market becomes saturated and the decline phase begins is

important.

Decline - In the decline phase, decisions must be made on whether to discontinue a product or service

and replace it with new ones or abandon the market, or to attempt to find new uses or new users for

the existing product or service. For example, duct tape and baking soda are two products that have been

employed well beyond their original uses of taping heating and cooling ducts and cooking. The

advantages of keeping existing products or services can be tremendous. The same workers can produce

the product or provide the service using much of the same equipment, the same supply chain, and

perhaps the same distribution channels. Consequently, costs tend to be very low, and additional

resource needs and training needs are low.

Degree of Standardization

Standardization carries a number of important benefits as well as certain disadvantages. Standardized

products are immediately available to customers. Standardized products mean interchangeable parts,

which greatly lower the cost of production while increasing productivity and making replacement or

repair relatively easy compared with that of customized parts. Design costs are generally lower. Another

benefit of standardization is reduced time and cost to train employees and reduced time to design jobs.
Similarly, scheduling of work, inventory handling, and purchasing and accounting activities become

much more routine, and quality is more consistent.

Lack of standardization can at times lead to serious difficulties and competitive struggles.

Standardization also has disadvantages. A major one relates to the reduction in variety. This can limit

the range of customers to whom a product or service appeals. And that creates a risk that a competitor

will introduce a better product or greater variety and realize a competitive advantage. Another

disadvantage is that a manufacturer may freeze (standardize) a design prematurely and, once the design

is frozen, find compelling reasons to resist modification.

Designing for Mass Customization

A strategy of producing standardized goods or services, but incorporating some degree of customization

in the final product or service. Several tactics make this possible. Companies like standardization

because it enables them to produce high volumes of relatively low-cost products, albeit products with

little variety. Customers, on the other hand, typically prefer more variety, although they like the low

cost.

Advantages

1. Fewer parts to deal with in inventory and in manufacturing.

2. Reduced training costs and time.

3. More routine purchasing, handling, and inspection procedures.

4. Orders fillable from inventory.

5. Opportunities for long production runs and automation.


6. Need for fewer parts justifies increased expenditures on perfecting designs and improving quality

control procedures.

Disadvantages

1. Designs may be frozen with too many imperfections remaining.

2. High cost of design changes increases resistance to improvements.

3. Decreased variety results in less consumer appeal.

Tactics

1. Delayed differentiation – It is a postponement tactic: the process of producing, but not quite

completing, a product or service, postponing completion until customer preferences or

specifications are known. There are a number of variations of this. In the case of goods, almost

finished units might be held in inventory until customer orders are received, at which time

customized features are incorporated, according to customer requests. Once the choice is

made, the stain can be applied in a relatively short time, thus eliminating a long wait for

customers, giving the seller a competitive advantage. Similarly, various e-mail or Internet

services can be delivered to customers as standardized packages, which can then be modified

according to the customer’s preferences.

2. Modular design – Modules represent groupings of component parts into subassemblies, usually

to the point where the individual parts lose their separate identity. For mass customization,

modular design enables producers to quickly assemble products with modules to achieve a

customized configuration for an individual customer, avoiding the long customer wait that

would occur if individual parts had to be assembled.


One advantage of modular design of equipment compared with nonmodular design is that failures are

often easier to diagnose and remedy because there are fewer pieces to investigate. Similar advantages

are found in ease of repair and replacement; the faulty module is conveniently removed and replaced

with a good one.

The main disadvantages of modular design stem from the decrease in variety: The number of possible

configurations of modules is much less than the number of possible configurations based on individual

components. Another disadvantage that is sometimes encountered is the inability to disassemble a

module in order to replace a faulty part; the entire module must be scrapped—usually at a higher cost.

Reliability

It is a measure of the ability of a product, a part, a service, or an entire system to perform its intended

function under a prescribed set of conditions. The importance of reliability is underscored by its use by

prospective buyers in comparing alternatives and by sellers as one determinant of price. Reliability also

can have an impact on repeat sales, reflect on the product’s image, and, if it is too low, create legal

implications. Reliability is also a consideration for sustainability; the higher the reliability of a product,

the fewer the resources that will be needed to maintain it, and the less frequently it will involve the

three Rs.

Potential Ways to Improve Reliability

1. Improve component design.

2. Improve production and/or assembly techniques.

3. Improve testing.
4. Use backups.

5. Improve preventive maintenance procedures.

6. Improve user education.

7. Improve system design.

Robust Design

Design that results in products or services that can function over a broad range of conditions. The more

robust a product or service, the less likely it will fail due to a change in the environment in which it is

used or in which it is performed. Hence, the more designers can build robustness into the product or

service, the better it should hold up, resulting in a higher level of customer satisfaction. A similar

argument can be made for robust design as it pertains to the production process. Environmental factors

can have a negative effect on the quality of a product or service. The more resistant a design is to those

influences, the less likely is a negative effect. A robust-design approach would develop a product that is

unaffected by minor variations in temperature during processing.

Taguchi’s Approach

It is often easier to design a product that is insensitive to environmental factors, either in manufacturing

or in use, than to control the environmental factors. The central feature of Taguchi’s approach is

parameter design. This involves determining the specification settings for both the product and the

process that will result in robust design in terms of manufacturing variations, product deterioration, and

conditions during use. The Taguchi approach modifies the conventional statistical methods of

experimental design. Relying on experts to identify the variables that would be most likely to affect

important performance, the number of combinations would be dramatically reduced. Identifying the
best combination in the smaller sample might be a near-optimal combination instead of the optimal

combination. The value of this approach is its ability to achieve major advances in product or process

design fairly quickly, using a relatively small number of experiments.

Degree of Newness

The degree of change affects the newness to the organization and the newness to the market. For the

organization, a low level of newness can mean a fairly quick and easy transition to producing the new

product, while a high level of newness would likely mean a slower and more difficult, and therefore

costlier, transition. For the market, a low level of newness would mean little difficulty with market

acceptance, but possibly low profit potential. Even in instances of low profit potential, organizations

might use this strategy to maintain market share. A high level of newness, on the other hand, might

mean more difficulty with acceptance, or it might mean a rapid gain in market share with a high

potential for profits.

1. Modification of an existing product or service.

2. Expansion of an existing product line or service offering.

3. Clone of a competitor’s product or service.

4. New product or service.

Phases in Product Design and Development

Feasibility analysis – entails market analysis (demand), economic analysis (development cost and

production cost, profit potential), and technical analysis (capacity requirements and availability, and the
skills needed). Also, it is necessary to answer the question, Does it fit with the mission? It requires

collaboration among marketing, finance, accounting, engineering, and operations.

Product specifications – involves detailed descriptions of what is needed to meet (or exceed) customer

wants, and requires collaboration between legal, marketing, and operations.

Process specifications – once it has been set, attention turns to specifications for the process that will be

needed to produce the product. Alternatives must be weighed in terms of cost, availability of resources,

profit potential, and quality. This involves collaboration between accounting and operations.

Prototype development – with product and process specifications complete, one (or a few) units are

made to see if there are any problems with the product or process specifications.

Design review – any necessary changes are made or the project is abandoned. Marketing, finance,

engineering, design, and operations collaborate to determine whether to proceed or abandon. Market

test. A market test is used to determine the extent of consumer acceptance. If unsuccessful, the

product returns to the design review phase. This phase is handled by marketing.

Product introduction – the new product is promoted. This phase is handled by marketing.

Follow-up evaluation – based on user feedback, changes may be made or forecasts refined. This phase

is handled by marketing.

Designing for Production

Concurrent Engineering

It is bringing design and manufacturing engineering people together early in the design phase to

simultaneously develop the product and the processes for creating the product. More recently, this
concept has been enlarged to include manufacturing personnel (e.g., materials specialists) and

marketing and purchasing personnel in loosely integrated, cross-functional teams. This is used to

achieve a smoother transition from product design to production, and to decrease product development

time, many companies are using simultaneous development, or concurrent engineering.

Advantages

1. Manufacturing personnel are able to identify production capabilities and capacities. Very often, they

have some latitude in design in terms of selecting suitable materials and processes. Knowledge of

production capabilities can help in the selection process. In addition, cost and quality considerations can

be greatly influenced by design, and conflicts during production can be greatly reduced.

2. Design or procurement of critical tooling, some of which might have long lead times, can occur early

in the process. This can result in a major shortening of the product development process, which could be

a key competitive advantage.

3. The technical feasibility of a particular design or a portion of a design can be assessed early on. Again,

this can avoid serious problems during production.

4. The emphasis can be on problem resolution instead of conflict resolution.

Potential Difficulties

1. Long-standing boundaries between design and manufacturing can be difficult to overcome. Simply

bringing a group of people together and thinking that they will be able to work together effectively is

probably naive.

2. There must be extra communication and flexibility if the process is to work, and these can be difficult

to achieve.
Computer-Aided Design (CAD)

It uses computer graphics for product design. The designer can modify an existing design or create a

new one on a monitor by means of a light pen, a keyboard, a joystick, or a similar device. Once the

design is entered into the computer, the designer can maneuver it on the screen: It can be rotated to

provide the designer with different perspectives, it can be split apart to give the designer a view of the

inside, and a portion of it can be enlarged for closer examination. The designer can obtain a printed

version of the completed design and file it electronically, making it accessible to people in the firm who

need this information (e.g., marketing, operations).

A major benefit of CAD is the increased productivity of designers. No longer is it necessary to laboriously

prepare mechanical drawings of products or parts and revise them repeatedly to correct errors or

incorporate revisions. A rough estimate is that CAD increases the productivity of designers from 3 to 10

times. A second major benefit of CAD is the creation of a database for manufacturing that can supply

needed information on product geometry and dimensions, tolerances, material specifications, and so

on. It should be noted, however, that CAD needs this database to function and that this entails a

considerable amount of effort.

Production Requirements

Design needs to clearly understand the capabilities of production (e.g., equipment, skills, types of

materials, schedules, technologies, special abilities). This helps in choosing designs that match

capabilities. When opportunities and capabilities do not match, management must consider the

potential for expanding or changing capabilities to take advantage of those opportunities.


Design for Manufacturing - used to indicate the designing of products that are compatible with an

organization’s capabilities.

Design for Assembly - focuses on reducing the number of parts in an assembly, as well as on the

assembly methods and sequence that will be employed.

Manufacturability - sometimes used when referring to the ease with which products can be fabricated

and/or assembled.

Component Commonality

Companies often have multiple products or services to offer customers. Often, these products have a

high degree of similarity of features and components. This is particularly true of product families.

Companies can realize significant benefits when a part can be used in multiple products. In addition to

the savings in design time, companies reap benefits through standard training for assembly and

installation, increased opportunities for savings by buying in bulk from suppliers, and commonality of

parts for repair, which reduces the inventory dealers and auto parts stores must carry.

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