Product Design

DE ZG541
BITS Pilani Lecture - 5
Samata Mujumdar
Mechanical Engineering
Pilani Campus
 BITS Pilani
Pilani Campus

DE ZG541, Product Design

Lecture No. 5
  Product Planning (Cont.)

 Product Specification Development

What are specifications?
When are specifications established?
Establishing target specifications
Setting the final specifications

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The Product Planning Process

Org. vision
Org.
mission Project
charter
Short and long
term goal 4
Mission
statement
New Product
Goals

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Translate to need statements

Primary need
Aesthetic
Ergonomic
Function/Multi purpose
utility
Weight

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Translate to need statements
“See how the leather on the bottom of the bag is all scratched; it’s
ugly.”
“When I’m standing in line at the cashier trying to find my cheque
book while balancing my bag on my knee, I feel like a stork.”
“This bag is my life; if I lose it I’m in big trouble.”
“There’s nothing worse than a banana that’s been squished by the
edge of a textbook.”
“I never use both straps on my knapsack; I just sling it over one
shoulder.”

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KANO model of needs satisfaction

Kano can help teams determine which

features will satisfy and even delight
customers

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 Target Specifications
 Specifications spell out in precise, measurable detail what
the product has to do.
 Product specifications do not tell the team how to address
the customer needs, but they do represent an
unambiguous agreement on what the team will attempt to
achieve in order to satisfy the customer needs.

Identify Establish Generate Select Test Set Plan

Customer Target Product Product Product Final Downstream
Needs Specifications Concepts Concepts Concepts Specifications Development

Perform Economic Analysis

Benchmark Competitive Products

Build and Test Models and Prototypes

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Customer Needs Statement Suspension fork for
bike

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9 “ ibilities” in product development
1. Traceability
2. Affordability
3. Feasibility
4. Usability
5. Reducibility
6. Maintainability
7. Simplicity
8. Operability
9. Sustainability --(10 .Predictability)
In many cases, a particular solution will involve a
trade-off of one or more of these attributes based on
time, quality, functionality, or ,cost constraints
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The Error Avalanche

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What are Specifications

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 When Are Specifications Established?
 For technology-intensive products, specifications are established at
least twice.
 Immediately after identifying the customer needs, the team sets target
specifications.
 These specifications represent the hopes and aspirations of the team,
but they are established before the team knows what constraints the
product technology will place on what can be achieved
 The team revisits the specifications while assessing the actual
technological constraints and the expected production costs.
 To set the final specifications, the team must frequently make hard
trade-offs among different desirable characteristics of the product.
 Set Target Specifications
 Based on customer needs and benchmarks
 Develop metrics for each need
 Set ideal and acceptable values
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Product Specification Development

Each need is classified according to the Kano Model of customer

satisfaction as “Basic” (B), “Performance” (P), or “Exciting” (E).
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 Target Specifications
The process of establishing the target specifications entails
four steps:
1. Prepare the list of metrics.
2. Collect competitive benchmarking information.
3. Set ideal and marginally acceptable target values.
4. Reflect on the results and the process.

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Mission Statement to Product
specification

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 1. Prepare the list of metrics.
Should
• match with needs of customer
• Be dependent not independent
• Be practical
• Reflect popular criteria in the market place

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Prepare the list of metrics
“Basic” (B), “Performance” (P), or “Exciting” (E).

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Prepare the list of metrics

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Need vs Metrics

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Step 2: Collect Competitive Benchmarking
Information
Competitive benchmarking info
– Collect data against the customer requirements
listed
– Identify differences
Set acceptable target values
– At least X, At most X, Between X and Y, Exactly
X
Reflect on the results

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Step 2: Collect Competitive
Benchmarking Information

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Step 3: Set Ideal and Marginally
Acceptable Target Values

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 Voice of customer

• Words used by the customers to describe their expectations are

often referred to as the voice of the customer.

• Sources for determining customer expectations are focus groups,

surveys, complaints, consultants, standards, and federal
regulations.

• Frequently, customer expectations are vague and general in

nature.

• Easy to open the car door – 20N , 40 N ?????

• Noise should not be there -- Decibels (dB) - < 40 ? < 70 ??

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 Voice of customer
Customer expectation – Customer Requirement – Org. official language – Technical spec.

• It is the job of the QFD team to break down these customer expectations
into more specific customer requirements.

• Customer requirements must be taken literally and not incorrectly

translated into what organization officials desire.

What does the customer really want?

What are the customer’s expectations?

Are the customer’s expectations used to drive the design process?

What can the design team do to achieve customer satisfaction?

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 Quality Function Deployment
There are many techniques used to generate engineering
specifications.

• One of the best and currently most popular is called Quality

Function Deployment (QFD).

• What is good about the QFD method is that it is organized to

develop the major pieces of information necessary to
understanding the problem:

 Hearing the voice of the customers

 Developing the specifications or goals for the product
 Finding out how the specifications measure the customers’ desires
 Determining how well the competition meets the goals
 Developing numerical targets to work toward

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 Quality Function Deployment
 The QFD method was developed in Japan in the mid-1970s and
introduced in the United States in the late 1980s.

 Using this method, Toyota was able to reduce the costs of

bringing a new car model to market by over 60% and to
decrease the time required for its development by one-third.

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 Importance of QFD
 No matter how well the design team thinks it understands a
problem, it should employ the QFD method for all original design
or redesign projects.
 In the process, the team will learn what it does not know about
the problem.
 The customers’ requirements must be translated into
measurable design targets for identified critical parameters. You
cannot design a car door that is “easy to open” when you do not
know the meaning of “easy.”
 Is easiness measured by force, time, or what? If force is a
critical parameter, then is “easy” 20 N or 40 N? The answer must
be known before much time and resources are invested in the
design effort.

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 Importance of QFD
 The QFD method can be applied to the entire problem and
any sub-problem.
 It is important to first worry about what needs to be designed
and, only after that is understood, to worry about how the
design will look and work.
 Our cognitive capabilities generally lead us to try to
assimilate the customers’ functional requirements (what is to
be designed) in terms of form (how it will look); these images
then become our favored designs and we get locked onto
them.
 The QFD procedure helps overcome this cognitive limitation.

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 Importance of QFD
 This method takes time to complete. In some design
projects, about one-third of the total project time is spent on
this activity.
 Ford spends 3–12 months developing the QFD for a new
feature.
 Experimental evidence has shown that designers who spend
time here end up with better products and do not use any
more total time when compared to others who do a
superficial job here.
 Time spent here saves time later. Not only does the
technique help in understanding the problem, it also helps
set the foundation for concept generation.

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QFD Goals

• The basic goals of QFD are

– increase customer satisfaction
– reduce the cycle time of product development
– increase competitiveness

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QFD Benefits

C reates focus on custom er requirem ents

U ses com petitive info rm ation effectively
CUSTO M ER
P rioritizes resources
D R IV E N
Identifies item s that can be acted upon
S tructures resident experience/inform ation

D ecreases m idstream design change

REDUCES L im its post introduction problem s
IM PL E M E N T A T IO N A voids future developm ent redundancies
T IM E Identifies future application opportunities
Surfaces m issing assum ptions

B ased on concensus
PR O M O T E S C reates com m unication at interfaces
TEAM W ORK Identifies actions at interfaces
C reates global view out of details

D ocum ents rationale for design

Is easy to assim ilate
P R O V ID E S
A dds structure to the inform ation
D O C U M E N T A T IO N
A dapts to changes (a living docum ent)
P rovides fram ew ork for sensitivity analysis

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QFD House of Quality

Interrelationships
Customer
importance
How to satisfy
ratings
customer wants

Competitive
assessment
What the Relationship
customer matrix
wants

Target values Weighted

rating
Technical
evaluation

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 House of Quality Example

Your team has been charged with designing

a new camera for Great Cameras, Inc.
The first action is
to construct a
House of Quality

See slide 44 for overall example

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 House of Quality Example Interrelationships

How to Satisfy
Customer Wants

Competitors
Analysis of
What the
Relationship
Customer
Matrix
Wants

What the Technical

Attributes and

customer wants Evaluation

Customer
importance
rating
(5 = highest)
Lightweight 3
Easy to use 4
Reliable 5
Easy to hold steady 2
Color correction 1

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 House of Quality Example Interrelationships

How to Satisfy
Customer Wants

Competitors
Analysis of
What the
Relationship
Customer
Matrix
Wants

Technical
Attributes and
Evaluation
Low electricity requirements

Aluminum components

How to Satisfy
Ergonomic design Customer Wants
i.e product specifications /
Auto exposure

characteristics / functional features

Paint pallet
Auto focus

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 House of Quality Example Interrelationships

See next slide How to Satisfy

Customer Wants

Competitors
Analysis of
What the
Relationship
Customer
Matrix
Wants

High relationship -5 Technical

Attributes and
Evaluation

Medium relationship – 3
Low relationship - 1
Blank: no relationship

Lightweight 3
Easy to use 4
Reliable 5
Easy to hold steady 2
Color corrections 1

Relationship matrix
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 House of Quality Example

Low electricity requirement

Aluminium components

Ergonomic Design
High relationship -5

Auto exposure
Medium relationship – 3

Paint Pallet
Auto focus
Low relationship - 1
Blank: no relationship

Lightweight 3
Easy to use 4
Reliable 5
Easy to hold steady 2
Color corrections 1

Relationship matrix
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 House of Quality Example Interrelationships

How to Satisfy
Customer Wants

Competitors
Analysis of
What the
Relationship
Customer
Matrix
Wants

Technical
Attributes and
Evaluation

Relationships between the

things we can do

Low electricity requirements High correlation

Aluminum components Low correlation

Ergonomic design
Auto exposure

Paint pallet
Auto focus

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House of Quality Example
Interrelationships

How to Satisfy
Customer Wants

Competitors
Analysis of
What the

High relationship -5
Relationship
Customer
Matrix
Wants

Medium relationship – 3 Technical

Attributes and
Evaluation
Low relationship - 1
Lightweight 3
Easy to use 4
Reliable 5
Easy to hold steady 2
Color corrections 1
Our importance ratings 22 9 27 27 32 25

22 = (3 x 1) +( 4 x 1) + (5 x 3)
Weighted rating
Weighted rating is for each feature. it indicates
which features are more impt.
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 Interrelationships

How to Satisfy
Customer Wants
House of Quality Example
G: Good
F: Fair

Competitors
Analysis of
What the
Relationship
Customer
Wants
Matrix
P: Poor
Technical
Attributes and
Evaluation

Company A

Company B
How well do competing products
meet customer wants

Lightweight 3 G P
Easy to use 4 G P
Reliable 5 F G
Easy to hold steady 2 G P
Color corrections 1 P P
Our importance ratings 22 5 - We can also add our
product / reference
2/13/2023 product as a column.
- Ratings can also be in
terms of numbers.
 Interrelationships

House of Quality Example

How to Satisfy
Customer Wants

Competitors
Analysis of
What the
Relationship
Customer
Wants
Matrix Each metric and spec value is for 1 product
feature each. Ex: 0.5 A is for low power
Technical
Attributes and consumption.
Evaluation

Failure 1 per 10,000

Panel ranking
Target values
(Technical

2 circuits
attributes)

2’ to ∞
0.5 A

75%
Company A 0.7 60% yes 1 ok G
Technical
evaluation Company B 0.6 50% yes 2 ok F
Us 0.5 75% yes 2 ok G
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House of Quality Example

Low electricity requirements

Aluminum components

Ergonomic design
Auto exposure

Company A

Company B
Paint pallet
Auto focus
Completed
House of Lightweight
Easy to use
3
4
G
G
P
P

Quality Reliable
Easy to hold steady
5
2
F
G
G
P
Color correction 1 P P
Our importance ratings 22 9 27 27 32 25

Failure 1 per 10,000

Target values
(Technical

Panel ranking
attributes)

2 circuits
2’ to ∞
0.5 A
75%
Company A 0.7 60% yes 1 ok G
Technical
Company B 0.6 50% yes 2 ok F
evaluation
Us 0.5 75% yes 2 ok G
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Another example

• Chocolate Chip Cookie QFD

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Four houses of QFD

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QFD – House of Quality

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QFD House of Quality

Interrelationships
Customer
importance
How to satisfy
ratings
customer needs

Competitive
assessment
What the Relationship
customer matrix
needs

Target values Weighted

rating
Technical
evaluation

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Setting the final specs

• Develop technical models of the product

• Develop a cost model of the product
• Target costing
• Refine the specs, Making Trade offs where
necessary
• Drill down the specifications as appropriate
– Subsystem specification..
• Reflect on results and the process

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• EVOCHEF LLP | Smart Dosa Maker | Fully
Automatic Dosa Making

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 Thank you

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