Unit 8 – 1

Task 1
Describe the operation of the design process in an engineering company.
• Show in the form of a flow chart – using correct methods
• Show areas that feedback into each other (feedback loops)

Start
Task 2
Explain the possible impact of a poor design process on
• Customer relationships
• Customer requirements
When a customer asks a company to design and manufacture something from them, it is the
companies’ responsibility to communicate with the client so they know what is being requested,
provide their input and create a successful product to be released into the market. The design
process has a huge impact on the outcome, and hence plays an important role in whether the
product is a success on the market or not. It is therefore vital, to increase the chances of success, to
take into account the requirements of the target audience. A Poor customer design process can
impact the customer relationship negatively.

A Bad customer relationship damages the company’s reputation, can kill conversations with future
prospects or opportunities, can push current customers away, and can push you into a profit sucking
circle.

"It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do
things differently." --Warren Buffett

A brands reputation is incredibly valuable and not something you want to lose control of. However,
especially with the internet, your reputation is the first thing to take a hit when you have bad
customer relationships. When a company has a poor customer design process, the faith the
customer had in the company takes a hit. 95% of respondents said they usually tell at least one other
person about a bad customer experiences with a company, while 54% said they share it with at least
5 other people. This may not seem like a big deal however, 88% of respondents have been
influenced by an online review when making a buying decision. What this adds up to is a decrease in
overall sales, but more importantly, a major decrease in word of mouth marketing. A bad customer
relationship heavily impacts the customer lifetime drops. It is easier to keep your existing customers
then to get new ones. So a poor customer design process will ruin existing customer relationships
putting more strain on your marketing budget to attract more customers. Also decreasing overall
sales due to loss of overall customer base.

A customer requirement is a specification requested by the customers opposed to the

manufacturers found through conducting surveys, focus
groups, engaging the lead users (like asking a professional
long boarder about ideas for a design or from collecting
requirements from intermediaries. However if the design
process is poor the problem occurs that customers do not
give their time to a company who sold them a bad product.
This then turns into a troubled loop of the company
needing the customer requirements for the product to
improve but people won’t freely give their time to a
company giving bad companies. The lead users tend to find a new company as they don’t want to be
associated with a company with a bad reputation (for example when Samsung’s S7 Edge blew up the
company lost £4 billion in profit) same with intermediaries. So then for the company to gather
people for focus groups and to take surveys they have to entice them with some kind of payment.
Any customer requirements will then cost the company. Throwing them into a profit sucking circle.
 To conclude a poor customer design process will heavily affect the company’s reputation, then
stopping customers interacting with them freely. New customers won’t get business from the
company and new requirements will have to be paid for. This just creates a complete profit sucking
circle.

Task 3
Introduce a specification of at least 15 points based on a design brief. Ensuring each
specification point meets the criteria below.

A Compact Multipurpose kitchen appliance

Point
Must be smaller than 650 x
650 x 950
Must be able to be
disassembled in under a
hour at end of life.
If the appliance contains a
washing machine in can
hold up to 8kg
Must have a efficiency
rating of at least A
Must have a 15 year life
cycle
Must be able to smoothly
transition into other
worktables or kitchen
appliances
The appliance must have at
least two purposes from:
Sink / Food Preparation
Dishwasher
Laundry
Oven
Hob
Refrigeration
The Appliance should be
sleek without small gaps
that it’ll be hard to get food
stuck in
The Appliance should be
relatively easy to pull out
from the wall
The appliance should be
attached to the power using
a common single-phase AC
power plugs
If the Kitchen appliance
contains a workplace or
counter the worktop should
be 850 to 950mm off the
ground
The surface of the appliance
should be made out of
Qualification
This is because this is the common size of most kitchen appliances meaning
kitchens are more than likely to fit the appliance
This will make it easier to recycle as each individual part is accessible and not in
one piece meaning the product is better for the environment as more parts
would be able to be recycled
This will be a useful addition as it makes the product more appealing to those
families who need bigger loads of washing meaning less loads of washing will
have to be done.
This makes the product cheaper to run and better for the environment.
This makes the appliances life cycle the same as or longer than most other
products making it more appealing to most customers
This will stop the kitchen from seeming clunky and messy when the appliance is
meant to look compact and innovative and shouldn’t stand out from the other
appliances
The design brief specifies that it must be multipurpose for a ‘compact kitchen’
This will mean there is no areas in the design which dirt or muck can get stuck in
making the product easier to keep hygienic and clean, which is ideal as it is part
of a kitchen.
This will make the product easier to clean under and behind stopping growth of
mould in the kitchen and cleaning food debris off the floor that could cause bad
smells, keeping the kitchen hygienic.
This is the common UK plug. This will make the appliance applicable in almost
every UK kitchen.
This is the average counter height. This is necessary for when using the counter
for extended periods it will not cause back problems from bending over to use it.
With a water source in the kitchen a lot of things are likely to get wet. Having a
waterproof surface will stop the application getting damp as this can cause
water resistance material.
Edges and Corners of the
appliances should all be
filleted
The appliance should fit in
around other appliances
without looking out of place
There should be no exposed
wires outside of the
appliance
smells and can damage the product
This will stop sharp edges on the appliance which can cut the user making the
project safer
This will make it more appealing to the customers as most high end kitchens
follow a theme or colour scheme where everything looks in place
This is to stop the wires getting possible broken or wet either could ruin the
product

Task 4
Describe the appropriate legislation and standards which apply to:
Onshore Wind Turbine
I searched for Onshore Wind turbine, There
were no results so I searched for wind turbine
and just didn’t acknowledge the Offshore wind
turbines. There were many legislations but I
feel ISO 81400 which establishes the design
and specification of gearboxes for wind
turbines with power capacities ranging from 40
kW to 2MW, ISO 19392 which specifies test
methods for the determination of resistance of
coating systems or tape for wind-turbine rotor
blades to rain erosion by using the water jet
test. And 10816 which specifies the
measurement and evaluation of mechanical
vibration of wind turbines and their
components by taking measurements on non-
rotating parts. I feel these are the most appropriate legislations

Snowboard strap bindings for soft boots

I went onto the BSI website and searched snowboard strap bindings for soft boots. I found one
legislations: ISO 14573:2002
Task 5
For each of the above designs describe the following constraints, which will influence the
design of a given product:
Onshore Wind Turbine
• Environmental
A possible environmental constraint for onshore wind turbine is that there must be Available
technology to build it in the location. It should be built fairly close to where its going to be put else
the transportation cost will be hefty and could exceed the companies cost. The Materials should also
be sourced locally and in high quantities to stop high cost of transporting the materials. The turbine
can be all over the globe potentially at high heats so the turbine should withstand heat without
changing function. In a similar manner they will be placed in the windiest areas so it will have to
withstand high amounts of wind without losing function. Another constraint is that it will have to be
built in a area with wind which limits the area of placements

• Sustainability
A sustainability constraint is that the wind turbine should give enough power that it is worth the
money spent built. If the wind turbine is in a windless area there is no point in building it as it will
not give out enough power that the money spent on it is reciprocated. The turbine needs to be built
from materials that there are a lot of in the local area to stop large amount of money spent to
import them to the location. Similar to this the wind turbine needs to be made out of materials in
abundance as if a piece breaks there must still be materials around to make a new part. For example
it shouldn’t be made out of copper in Cornwall as we have a dwindling supply.

• Manufacturing
The Manufacturing constrains involve having to have materials close to the building area to stop
high prices of delivering. It also has to pay attention to the way it is built as if the wind turbine is
made and assembled in different pieces: putting the pieces together will be a very expensive
process. If all the pieces have to be lifted onto a finished wind turbine and attached mid-air it will
cost way more than building it all at once

Snowboard strap bindings for soft boots

• Environmental,
The snowboard are expected to perform well in snow. The strap bindings need to not freeze up in
the cold and can still be moved and gripped in the wet snow still being able to be strapped to the
bindings, so it must still provide its purpose in the snow.

• Sustainability
The Strap bindings are under immense pressure while going down mountains and hills so another
constraint is that the strap bindings need to be able to endure high forces of the snowboarder going
down hill

• Manufacturing
The materials used for the manufacturing of the strap bindings would need to be accessible from
near by areas to stop high costs of importing it in.
Task 8
Evaluate the impact of legislation and standards:
• On the design process (cost, time, reputation, etc)
• On the profitability of the business (value of the company, profit per item, etc)

Without legislations and standards products would be a lot cheaper to make but much more
dangerous. Standards are voluntary documents that set out specifications, procedures and
guidelines that aim to ensure products, services, and systems are safe, consistent, and
reliable. While a Legislation is law, which has, been enacted by a governing body.
If products follow legislation and regulations, they are given the CE. This stamp shows the
products has been authorised by certification Europa. This shows the product follows all
standards and is a safe product. This makes the product more enticing to customers as its
more trusted. However as this is more trusted it does make the product more expensive
with all the corrections needed before and after the certification. This leads to the price of
the product rising, whereas a product without the CE will be cheaper but not as trusted. This
is a positive unless the CE costs a fair sum more than the non-certified, then a customer may
be more enticed to get the cheaper product. This can impact the profitability of the business
as the price of the manufacturing will increase which means the price will increase to keep
the same amount of profit, then compared to this product there may be cheaper products
which the original product can be substituted for. This loses sales for the company affecting
the profitability overall due to less sales.
Legislations and standards can also affect the time of manufacturing. If a product is finished
it can be sent to the shelves without the CE, but if a product wants to submit its product for
certification Europe it then has to be inspected, if it doesn’t meet the criteria it will then
have to be changed to fit the certification. This will become a loop until the certification is
happy with the product. The price of the CE can cost anywhere from 1785000 to 260 British
sterling which is already a lot, then the price of paying all the extra hours for the
manufacturing engineers, workshop assistants and end of line workers that check the
project is all working. As well as the profit lost with the amount of time that the product
could be on the shelves but is being remanufactured this will total as a large sum. This will
take a heavy chunk out of the value of the company.
Legislations and standards also impact the design process a lot. To look at legislations you
have to buy them (around 30-60 a legislation) and most products need multiple legislations.
So just to design a simple product you would have to read multiple legislations then analyse
them and then design the product around these legislation. That will take a lot of time as
there are a lot of legislation, this will take time and take money out of the design process as
for at a minimum two employees researching and redesigning this design which on average
is 17 pounds a hour so even if it only took a day it would still cost £250.