PRODUCT AND SERVICE DESIGN

What Does Product and Service Design Do?

The various activities and responsibilities of product and service design include the following:
1. Translate customer wants and needs into product and service requirements.
2. Refine existing products and services.
3. Develop new products and/or services.
4. Formulate quality goals.
5. Formulate cost targets.
6. Construct and test prototypes.
7. Document specifications.
8. Translate product and service specifications into process specifications

Key Questions
1. Is there demand for it?
- Market size
- Demand profile
2. Can we do it?
- Manufacturability The capability of an organization to produce an item at an acceptable
profit.
- Serviceability The capability of an organization to provide a service at an acceptable cost
or profit.
3. What level of quality is appropriate?
- Customer expectations
- Competitor quality
- Fit with current offering
4. Does it make sense from an economic standpoint?
- liability issues, ethical considerations, sustainability issues, costs, and profits

Reason for Product and Service Design or Redesign

The main forces that initiate design or redesign are market opportunities and threats:
• Economic
• Social and demographic
• Political, liability, or legal
• Competitive
• Cost or availability
• Technological

Idea Generation
Ideas for new or redesigned products or services can come from a variety of sources:
- Customer
- Supply chain
 - Competitors
- Employees
- Research
Competitor-Based Ideas

 By studying how a competitor operates and its products services, many useful ideas can
be generated.
 Reverse engineering
- Dismantling and inspecting a competitor’s product to discover product
improvements.
Research Based Ideas

 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 Consideration
 Product Liability
- The responsibility of a manufacturer has for any injuries or damages caused by a
faulty product.
 Unifor Commercial Code
- Products carry an implication of merchantability and fitness
 Organization generally wants designers to adhere to guidelines such as the following:
- Produce designs that are consistent with the goals of the organizations.
- Give the customer the value they expect.
- Make health and safety primary concern.
Human factors
 Safety and liability
Cultural Factors
 Colors, preferred food, product labels
Global product and service design
 Design teams can be in different countries
Environmental factors: Sustainability
Sustainability
- Using resources in ways that do not harm ecological systems that support human
existence.
 Key aspect of designing for sustainability
- Cradle-to-Grave Assessment
- Also known as life cycle analysis
- End-of-Life Programs
- Deal with products that have reached the end of their useful lives.
- The 3-Rs
- Reduce: Value Analysis
o Examination of the function of parts and materials in an effort to
reduce cost and/or improve product performance.
- Reuse: Remanufacturing
o Refurbishing used products by replacing worn-out or defective
components.
o Design for disassembly (DFD) Design so that used products can be
easily taken apart.
- Recycle
o Recovering materials for future use.
Companies recycle for a variety of reason, including:
1. Cost savings.
2. Environment concerns.
3. Environmental Regulation.
o Design for recycling (DFR) Design that facilitates the recovery of
materials and components in used products for reuse.