Guidance for

Design for X individual report Issue No 1

Design for X individual report

Student Advice

Purpose of the report

There are three key purposes for this report and they are equally weighted for marking purposes:

 To assess an individual’s ability to express technical information in a clear and logical manner
 To assess the level of understanding a student has gained in an area of design: the
knowledge gained
 To assess how well the design area has been integrated into the final design: the application
of knowledge

Group work versus individual work and plagiarism

It is expected that the student team members will have worked collaboratively on the design and all
members will have had an influence on all the design for X aspects of the project. For the purposes
of this report it is perfectly acceptable to present the ideas of the group or other individuals; you are
not claiming it is your design, you are explaining it.

It is acceptable to use drawing or model excerpts created by other team members in order to
support your explanation, ensure these are attributed to the original author or the team.

The written aspects of this report are to be wholly the work of the individual student named as the
author.

Logbook semester 2
In order to write a good Design for X section you will need to have a full background history of how
the design evolved in the area of interest and why the final design is as it is. The best way to keep a
record of design evolution is to keep a semester 2 logbook. To encourage you to do this your
logbook must be submitted; this is set up as an additional submission. One submission rather than
the logbook being split into sections for submission.

The logbook itself will not be marked but note the following two points:

 If you do not submit a logbook, credit will be withheld for the individual report.
 If the logbook you submit does not meet the semester 1 requirements for a D3 grade or
above your grade for this report will be severely impacted.

Report topics
Each student is to pick a different Design for X area from the list below, no alternatives to the list are
allowed unless agreed in writing by the course coordinator. Each student in a group must select a
different topic.

 Design for maintenance

 Design for ECO

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 Guidance for
Design for X individual report Issue No 1

 Design for environment

 Design for failure prevention
 Design for operation
 Design for manufacture and assembly

Report presentation requirements

 There is no set structure; part of the challenge is to create your own structure that clearly
meets the content requirements.
 There is no page count or word limit for this report. You must take the space required to
fulfil the content requirements whilst also ensuring the report is detailed, unambiguous,
accurate but also concise. Overly long reports that do not convey pertinent information will
be penalised.
 Lay out on the page must not be off-putting to the reader, space out your work to allow for
readability, take care with your font size and choice.
 Sketches and drawings must be of a size that allows the detail of interest to be clearly seen.
 Use engineering language and writing style.

Report content requirements – This is a requirement for all sections

This report is where you get to explain what you have done and why you have done it. You need to
clearly demonstrate that you understand the principles of your design for X subject and that you
have actually incorporated them into the design.

 Explain how the design evolved to incorporate your design for X topic, you may choose to
incorporate earlier design sketches, tables or requirements lists.
 Describe what features have been incorporated into your design to satisfy the requirements
of your design for X topic.
 Explain why you incorporated these features.
 Explain and justify any compromises that you had to make with regard to your design for X
section.
 State and justify any assumptions that you had to make in applying your design for X topic.

Design for Maintenance

The remit for this section covers all of the report content requirements identified at the start of this
document, but the following is supplied as advice for the minimum to incorporate in this section:

 How has your water system been designed to allow maintenance to take place:
o What maintenance may be requried
o What features have been added to allow maintenance to be carried out.
 How has your pump been designed to allow maintenance
 How have you designed features to allow access for the maintainer
 How have you designed features to allow them to be removed for maintenance or repaired
in place.
 What design choices did you make to remove the need for maintenance.
 What items will require maintenance
o What type of maintenance have assigned to these items and why.

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 Guidance for
Design for X individual report Issue No 1

 Do not create a full maintenance schedule instead identify what type of

maintenance strategy will be taken for the park equipment and if condition
monitoring is being used what you will be monitoring.

Ensure you apply the lecture on maintenance and specifics for water systems.

Design for ECO

The remit for this section covers all of the report content requirements identified at the start of this
document, but the following is supplied as advice for the minimum to incorporate in this section:

Clearly state the ECO aspiration for the project and show how it was designed to meet this. Ensure
that you cover all of the following topic areas:

 Material choices:
o Energy efficiency, CO2 impact and water useage of production of materials chosen
o End of life options
o Life span
 Waste reduction in your design both of raw material, replacement parts and energy
 Impact on water resources through the operation of your park
 End of life considerations for the design

Design for Environment

This section is about designing your items to work within the environment that they will be placed
in, this section is not about environmental protection, that is the ECO section. Ensure you cover all of
the following topic areas:

 Justify the design life of the park

 What environmental degradation of the park has been considered in the design, what
extremes were considered and why
 Material choices for withstanding the environment or degrading gracefully
 Design changes or features to withstand the environment

Design for Failure Prevention

This topic was only briefly taught on this course but was taught in third year, ensure learning from
previous years is clearly shown in your report.

This section is about proving you have identified how the design might fail and then adjusted the
design to prevent failures. Ensure you include the following:

 Identify key potential weak points in the design, these must be justified, preferably from
research
 Carry out FMEA of key potential failure areas
 Show the evolution of the design to eradicate or reduce these weaknesses
 Clearly show how the FMEA informs the maintenance plan.

Design for Operation

Human factors are only briefly taught on this course but were taught in second year, ensure learning
from previous years is clearly shown in your report.

This section is about proving that your design can be operated by your target audience. Ensure you
include the following:

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 Guidance for
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 Show that the proposed operators are able to produce the power or energy required by the
design, you may refer to calculations in the main report for this part or carry out additional
calculations.
 Show how the ergonomics of the design features match your target participants.
 Show how the items have been designed to ensure a range of people can interact with the
park
 Ensure all disability requirements of your design are incorporated, explain the evolution of
these features
 Explain and justify any design compromises made

Design for Manufacture and Assembly

This topic was only briefly taught on this course but was taught in third year, ensure learning from
previous years is clearly shown in your report.

This section is about showing that the design is in fact possible to build and has been optimised for
low cost and efficient manufacture and assembly. Ensure you include the following:

 Consider manufacturing methods suitable for one off or limited run design
 Show how elements of the design have been adjusted to make manufacture and assembly
easier
 Show how the design will be safely installed, what precautions have been taken
 Show how the design has been optimised for the minimum number of unique parts
 Explain and justify any design compromises made
 Do not just state how to assemble it or how to manufacture it, explain why it has been
arranged this way.

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