TAM302 - SPRING 2015, Homework #1

Due Date: Friday Feb 13th hard copy or email by end of day
1.

Design Project Idea Creation:

Individually do some brainstorming (i.e. per person not as a team) prepare a list of 3
different potential ideas or concepts. I do not need design solutions at this point but
just describe by narrative or bullet points the problem your idea is going to solve. It
could be something totally new or an improvement to something that already exists.
Make sure you make it clear what your idea is!
The product should have commercial and competitive viability and as such be
designed for lowest cost manufacture and assembly. It should be small, perhaps
operated by batteries, and ideally hand-held or of comparable size and weight (main
constraint here is the rapid prototyping costs that need to be keep under control).
2. Individual Grade: Each develop a single-page sketch marked up to help explain
concisely and clearly what the basic idea is and how it might be physically
designed/structured. This is just a preliminary design idea for the concept evaluation
and selection process that will be used to converge on a refined single team solution.
3. Group Grade: Review your individual project ideas as a team and choose a concept
that you think best fits the class requirement; i.e. is small size (e.g. hand held), and
has mechanical mechanism/actuation of some form.
4. Group Grade: Create a QFD1 chart with the following content:
I. Key Customer Requirements (subjective words or abbreviated short
statements to capture key customer wants multilevel or one level is fine)
II. Customer importance ratings for each of these (next column)
III. Translate these to a set of Design Requirements (across the top of the
matrix). These must be measurable; include units of measure and a target
value (you can make up something sensible). It usually requires between 1-3
design requirements to sufficiently capture and translate a customer
requirement into suitable metrics
IV. Add the Direction for Improvement
V. Fill in the matrix of relationships using symbols or numbers
VI. Include your assessment of Technical Difficulty / Newness
VII. Complete the absolute and relative importance analysis
VIII. Identify the top three design requirements and comment on their validity.
No need to do the Customer rating and technical benchmarking sections for now