Chapter 4 - Product Design

1. What are some factors/reasons that cause the organization to redesign their products or
services?
-Organizations needs to be competitive with their products and services. Redesigning
their products and services can offer new features that can competitively compete with
competitors. This can make the business grow and increase more profits.

2. Name some advantages and disadvantages of Standardization.

-Advantages:
a. Fewer parts to deal with in inventory and in manufacturing.
b. Reduced training costs and time.
c. More routine purchasing, handling, and inspection procedures.
d. Opportunities for long production runs and automation.
e. Order fillable from inventory.
-Disadvantages
a. Designs may be frozen with too many imperfections remaining.
b. High cost of design changes increases resistance to improvements.
c. Decreased variety results in less consumer appeal.

3. Explain the term robust design.

-Robust design designs the results in products or services that can function over a broad
range of conditions. These designs will perform as over much broader range of conditions. Using
robust design can result to less failure and can result in a higher level of customer satisfaction.

4. What are the advantages of computer-aided design?

-Using computer-aided design can give products an exact measure and detail. Also using
computer-aided design is very efficient and effective as it is very easy to use for designers. This
increases the productivity of the designers. Using CAD also serves as database.

5. Is reverse engineering synonymous with benchmarking? Explain.

-Yes, reverse engineering is synonymous with benchmarking in a way of understanding
the industry better. But the both of them is different with each other and only has similarities.
Reverse engineering dismantles and inspects a competitor’s product to discover product
improvements and search for ways to improve their product while benchmarking measures the
competitor’s performance to identify learnings on how to improve their own.

6. Cite specific example of an environmentally friendly design employed by many

manufacturing companies.
-Cotton shopping bags/ ECO BAGS
-Paper Bags instead of plastics
-Reusable water bottles
-Reusable Bamboo utensils
-Silicon straws
7. Enumerate and discuss the three (3) Basic Categories to the degree of certainty of Decision
Environments.
a. Low – if the demand will be low, we would elect to build the small facility and realize
payoffs.
b. Moderate – if the demand will be moderate, a medium factory will be needed.
c. High – if the demand will be high, a large facility is needed to provide the highest
payoff.

8. Enumerate and discuss factors to consider in make or buy decisions.

a. Available Capacity – If an organization has available the equipment, necessary
skills, and time, producing products or performing services will only cost less
expensive than allocating budget to those needed tools and equipment you don’t have.
It is right to consider your available capacity before making decisions.
b. Expertise – One should have an expert in the field to efficiently do the job
satisfactorily so buying can be an alternative.
c. Quality Considerations – Offering high quality products in a low cost is what most
firms wants. A unique quality requirements and monitoring quality can cause an
organization to perform better.
d. The nature of demand - The company is typically in a better position to complete
the work itself when demand for a product is high and consistent. However,
specialists who are able to combine orders from multiple sources, which results in
higher volume and tends to offset individual buyer fluctuations, are typically better
suited to handle large fluctuations in demand or small orders.
e. Cost – Any cost savings achieved from buying or making must be weighed against
the preceding factors.
Chapter 6 - Process Selection
9. Explain the importance of process selection in system design.

- Process selection has major implications for capacity planning, layout facilities,
equipment, and design of work systems. Process selection occurs as a matter of
course when new products or services are being planned. Under process selection are
capacity planning, facilities and equipment, layout, work design, forecasting, product
and service design, and technological change.

10. Briefly discuss the advantages and disadvantages of automation.

-Advantages
a. Human Labor – While it is difficult for a human to carry out a task exactly the
same way, in the same amount of time, and on a consistent basis, human labor
exhibits low variability.
b. Production Setting - Machines are continuously moving as long as they are
well maintained. It is efficient in a way of producing quality products while meeting the
schedules.
c. Reduction of variable costs – Using automation can decrease the liabilities an
organization has to pay. It can lessen the expenses of the firm.
-Disadvantages
a. Costly – Upgrading to automation is very costly as it requires technology. It
requires high volumes of output to offset high costs.
b. Less flexible than human labor - Since machines are automated, they can
only do what they are assigned to do. Unlike human labor, machines are not flexible to be an all
arounder in the production setting.
c. Limitations – Automation has limitations. It cannot exceed what is
programmed to a machine and can only do what is the programmed task.