Product Design

Product Design in Different industries

1. Product Design and developement process at MARS (Food Industry). https://
www.foodprocessing.com/articles/2008/016

2. The case of Tata Nano

3. Boeing’s innovative product design increases competitiveness

Product Design in Different industries
4. Redesigning the Overhead Baggage Bin – Boeing
Boeing has designed the new Space Bin, which is a taller holding area for carry-on baggage.
Approximately 50% more bags can be stored, and these bins can be retrofitted onto most 737
aircraft. – The Wall Street Journal, Oct 15, 2015. Overhead Bins That Actually Fit Bags - WSJ

5. “Honda finally gets its wings”

Honda has developed an ultrafast business jet that carries its engines above its wings – The Wall
Street Journal, May 18, 2015.- With Jet, Honda Enters New Realm - WSJ
Other side of the story….
Volkswagen recalled 2,81,000 vehicles due to problem in the fuel pump. https://
auto.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/passenger-vehicle/cars/vw-recalling-281000-vehicles-due-to-defe
ct/60289497

Boeing hid design flaws in 737 Max from pilots, regulators. https://
www.business-standard.com/article/international/boeing-hid-design-flaws-in-737-max-from-pilots-regulator
s-us-panel-120091602119_1.html

Honda Cars to recall 77,954 vehicles to fix faulty fuel pump. https://
www.thehindu.com/business/honda-cars-to-recall-77954-vehicles-to-fix-faulty-fuel pump/article34339115.e
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Product Design and Development: The Key to
Competitive Advantage
The goal of any successful business organization is to create value for shareholders as
well as the customers.

Operations Management address the issue by enabling the organizations to bring some
sort of distinctiveness.

Distinctiveness- product/service offers, the technology and channel it employs, the

process. Ex – Dell direct selling model had a high degree of differentiation.

 Witnessed a rise in customer requirements with respect to the products and services
offered
Product Design and Development: The Key to
Competitive Advantage
Organizations can take the advantage either by offering highly differentiated
products/services or by offering the cost effective products.
Organization can also have the advantage of bringing these products and services much
faster than its competitors and gain from the early-mover advantages.

◦ While Japanese manufacturers such as Honda and Toyota introduced as much as 85 models between
1982 and 1989, the American counterparts were able to introduce only 49 models.
◦ By introducing products six months ahead of the competitors, a firm can gain as much as three times of
the cumulative profit over the life of the product, compared to introducing the product along with the
competitors

 A product design and development process addresses these issues and provides a set of
tools, techniques and concepts that an organization needs to bring products into the market
more quickly and cheaply, in order to realize the associated gains.
Design
Mostly widely held image of a designer is of someone who is concerned with the looks
of a product
Design is a critical Process

Matches the services and product characteristics with customer needs.

Defines the appearance of the product, components to be used, set standard for performance,
determines dimension and tolerance.

Capitalizes on firm’s core competencies

 Reason for Product Design
 Organizations may involved in product design or redesign for varieties of reasons:

a. Economic (low demand, excessive warranty claims, and the need to reduce cost)
b. Sociological and Demographic Change (Population Shift)
c. Political, Liability or Legal (government changes, safety issues, new regulations)
d. Competitive (new product or services, new advertising or promotion)
e. Cost or availability (raw material, components, labour, energy)
f. Technological (in product components and process)
Key Questions
Is there a demand for it?
• Market size
• Demand profile

Can we do it?
• Manufacturability - the capability of an organization to produce an item at an acceptable
profit

What level of quality is appropriate?

• Customer expectations
• Competitor quality
• Fit with current offering

Does it make sense from an economic standpoint?

• Liability issues, ethical considerations, sustainability issues, costs and profits
 Steps Involved in Product Design
Begins with corporate strategy and assessment of
Phase 0 Planning technology developments and market objectives.
Mission Statement
One or more product concepts
Phase 1 Concept Development Concept: a description of the form, function and
feature of the product
Geometric definition of the product, functional
Phase 2 System-Level Design specifications of each subsystem, process flow

Drawings describing the geometry of each part

Phase 3 Design Detail and its tooling, specification of purchased parts

Prototype tested to determine if the product will

Phase 4 Testing and Refinement work as designed

Phase 5 Production Ramp-up

 Concept Generation

Analysis of Customer
needs Marketing Department Market Surveys

Suggestion from Suggestion from

customer contact staff customer

Actions from
Ideas from R & D
Competitors

Concept Generation
Concepts Screening
 Organization For Product Development
Product design and development is an interdisciplinary effort.
Marketing, Design, Finance, Production Planning functions also play a major role in
translating the concept to meaningful products that can be manufactured at an attractive cost.
 An organizational structure is vital for a good product development process.
 In the traditional approach, each functional area addressed its part in the product
development process in isolation.
Traditional approach is a time consuming approach.

Marketing Design Planning Procurement Production Finance

Concurrent Design
 Organization For Product Development
 Benefits of Concurrent Design:
a. Low Lead time
b. Increase productivity
c. Suppliers are involved in the product development process. Suppliers can able to
cut lead time for capacity augmentation.
d. Promotes consensus-based decision making and increase the propensity for
collective risk-taking.
 Quality Function Deployment (QFD)

 Designing for the customers:

◦ QFD (Quality Function Deployment)- approach to getting the Voice of Customer (VoC) into the
design specification of a product.
◦ Interfunctional teams from marketing, design engineering, and manufacturing.
◦ Begins with listening to the customer
Market Research or Focus Group
◦ Converts the expectations and demands of customers into clear objectives and then transform to
product specifications.
◦ Customer requirements forms the basis for the house of quality.
◦ QFD uses a series of matrix diagrams that resemble connected houses.
 House of Quality (HoQ)
A: Determine the Voice of Customer (VoC).
B: Determine the various technical requirements with
D respect to VoC
C: Determine the relationship between the VoC and
B technical requirements.
D: Determine the correlation between the technical
requirements
A C E F E: Survey the customers to determine the importance
rating of various VoC
F: Survey the customers to determine the importance
rating of the company and its main competitors with
G respect to various VoC
G: Determine the rating of the company and its main
competitors with respect to various technical
requirements.
Illustrative example
Building a house of quality for a steam iron.
As per the customers’ requirements, the iron presses quickly, removes wrinkles, doesn’t
stick to fabric, provides enough steam, doesn’t spot fabric, doesn’t scorch fabric.
We enter those attributes into the customer requirements section of the house.
We ask our customers to rate the list of requirements on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10
being the most important.
Next, we conduct a competitive assessment on a scale of 1 to 5. Customers evaluate our
iron (call it as ‘X’) against the competitor irons, A and B.
We observe that our iron excels on the customer attributes of presses quickly, removes
wrinkles, provides enough steam, automatic shutoff, doesn’t break when dropped.
 Competitive Assessment

Customer Requirements 1 2 3 4 5
Presses quickly 9 B A X
Removes wrinkles 8 AB X
Doesn’t stick to fabric 6 X BA
Irons
well

Provides enough steam 8 AB X

Doesn’t spot fabric 6 X AB
Doesn’t scorch fabric 9 A XB
Heats quickly 6 X B A
Automatic shut-off 3 ABX
safe to use
Easy and

Quick cool-down 3 X A B
Doesn’t break when dropped 5 AB X
Doesn’t burn when touched 5 AB X
Not too heavy 8 X A B
We need to improve on doesn’t stick, doesn’t spot, heats quickly, quick cool-down, and
not too heavy. (order qualifiers)
None of the irons perform well on doesn’t scorch fabric or doesn’t burn when touched
(Order winners).
In order to change the product design to better satisfy the customer requirements, we
need to translate those requirements to measurable design characteristics.
We list such characteristics (energy needed to press, weight of the iron, size of soleplate
etc.) across the top of the matrix.
Next, we identify how the design characteristics relate to customer requirements.
Relationships can be positive (+) or minus (-), strong relationships are designated as
 Time to go from 450º to 100º
Time required to reach 450º F

Protective cover for soleplate

Material used in soleplate

Flow of water from holes

Energy needed to press

Thickness of soleplate

Automatic shutoff
Number of holes
Size of soleplate
Weight of iron

Size of holes
Customer Requirements
Presses quickly - - + + + -
Removes wrinkles + + + + +
Doesn’t stick to fabric - + + + +
Irons
well

Provides enough steam + + + +

Doesn’t spot fabric + - - -
Doesn’t scorch fabric + + + - +
Heats quickly - - + -
Easy and safe

Automatic shut-off +
Quick cool-down - - + +
Doesn’t break when dropped + + + +
to use

Doesn’t burn when touched + + + +

Not too heavy + - - - + -
Product design characteristics are also interrelated, shown in the roof of the house.
 For example, increasing the thickness of the soleplate would increase the weight of the
iron but decrease the energy need to press. Also, a thicker soleplate would decrease the
flow of water through the holes, and increase the time it takes for the iron to heat up or
cool.
Designers must take all these factors into consideration when determining a final
design.
Energy needed to press
Weight of iron
-
+

Size of soleplate
Thickness of soleplate
Material used in soleplate
-

Number of holes
+
+

Size of holes
Flow of water from holes
Time required to reach 450º
Time to go from 450º to 100º
Protective cover for soleplate
Automatic shutoff
 The last section of the house adds the quantitative measures to our design
characteristics.
Measuring our iron X against the competitors A and B, we find that our iron is heavier,
larger and has a thicker soleplate. Also, it takes longer to heat up and cool down, but
requires less energy to press and provides more steam than other irons.
To decide which design characteristics to change, we compare the estimated impact of
the change with the estimated cost.
We rate these factors on a common scale from 1 to 5, with 5 being the most.
As long as the estimated impact exceeds the estimated cost, we should make a change.
 Objective
measures

Target values
Estimated cost

Design changes
Iron B
Iron A

Estimated impact
Our Iron (X)
Units of measure

3
3
2
4
3

Energy needed to press

ft-lb

*
3
4
lb

1.7
1.2
1.4

1.2

Weight of iron
*
3
4
in.

8x5
9x5
8x4
8x4

Size of soleplate
*
3
3
4
4
1
2
cm

Thickness of soleplate
*
4
5
T
ty

SS
SS
MG

Material used in soleplate

*
3
4
ea

30
35
27
27

Number of holes
3
3
15
15
15

Size of holes
3
2
0.7
0.3
0.5
mm oz/s

Flow of water from holes

*
4
5

30
50
35
45
sec

Time required to reach 450º

*
4
5

500
sec

600
350
500

Time to go from 450º to 100º

5
3
N
N
N

Protective cover for soleplate

2
0
Y
Y
Y
Y/N Y/N

Automatic shutoff
 A Series of Connected QFD Houses

Product
characteristics
requirement
Customer

Part
A-1 characteristics

characteristic
s

Process
House of A-2
Product
characteristics
quality

characteristic
s
Parts A-3 Operations
deployment

Part

characteristic
s
Process A-4

Process
planning

s
Operating
requirements
 Value Engineering (VE) / Value Analysis (VA)

Value Engineering (VE) is a set of activities undertaken to investigate the design of the
components in a product development process strictly from a cost-value perspective.

Objective is to achieve better performance at a lower cost while maintaining all functional
requirements defined by the customer.
Involves brainstorming such questions as:
◦ Does the item have any design features that are not necessary?
◦ Can two or more parts be combined into one?
◦ How can we cut down the weight?
◦ Are there nonstandard parts that can be eliminated?
◦ Are there opportunities for cost cutting by development of import substitution method?
 Value Engineering (VE) / Value Analysis (VA)
Value Analysis: Cost-Reduction Method
Value Engineering: Cost-Avoidance Method

Example:
TATA Nano project had ambitious cost targets to bring to the market an Rs.
1,00,000 car. Expectedly, the supplier had to make the use of Value
Engineering efforts.
 Design for X (DfX)
Design for Excellence
Excellence in terms of manufacturing, in terms of assembly, in terms of cost.
Systematic design approach that entails wide range of guidelines and standards targeting
different phases of product life cycle.
Design for
manufacturing

Design for Design for

Recycling Assembly

Design for
Reliability DfX Design for
Costing

Deign for Design for

Disassembly Service

Design for
Environment
 Design for Manufacturing (DfM)
Structured approach to ensure that manufacturing requirements and preferences are
considered fairly early in the design process.
Design guidelines are intended to be used by the designers during the design phase.
DfM guidelines address three set of generic requirements:
a. Reducing cost
b. Considering Operational Convenience Product
c. Reducing Cost. Design Design Product
Problem Process Design
Reducing the variety:
◦ Minimize the sub-assemblies
◦ Avoid separate fasteners
◦ Use standard parts when possible
◦ Develop Modular Design Design
Guidelines
◦ Use repeatable & understood processes.
 Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA)
Design for Manufacturing (DfM)
Design for Assembly (DfA)
Both these concepts have some similarities in terms cost reduction (material, overhead and labour
cost), shorten the product development cycle time.
Differences between DfA and DfM:
◦ DfA focuses on reduction of product assembly cost by minimizing the number of assembly
operations and individual parts
◦ DfM focuses on reduction of overall production cost by minimizing the complexities of
manufacturing operations
 Tools for Mass Customization
One of the fallouts of increased competition is the need to be more customer
focused.
Increase the complexity of production planning and investment in inventory.
Mass customization provides a structured set of ideas and tools to provide a
high level of customization without increasing the operational and production
complexity.
Facilitating Techniques:
◦ Delayed Differentiation
◦ Modular Design
 Delayed Differentiation and Modular Design
 Delayed Differentiation:
The process of producing a product or service but not quite completing production until
customer preferences are known.
◦ It is a postponement tactic
◦ Produce a piece of furniture, but do not stain it; the customer chooses the stain.
 Modular Design:
A form of standardization in which component parts are grouped into modules that are easily
replaced or interchanged
◦ Advantages
◦ Easier diagnosis and remedy of failures
◦ Easier repair and replacement
◦ Simplification of manufacturing and assembly
◦ Training costs are relatively low
Performance Measures For The
Product Development Process

Cost Based Measure

Design Effectiveness

Strategic Measure

Market Impact
Economic Analysis of Product Development Project
 Evaluate the economic impact of a new product on a company.
 For Example, CI-700’s (New photograph printer) development, the team faces several
decisions that it knows could have a significant impact on the product’s profitability:
• Should the team take more time for development in order to make the product available on
multiple computer “platforms,” or would a delay in bringing the CI-700 to market be too
costly?
Economic analysis is useful in at least two different circumstances
1. Go/no-go milestones
2. Operational design and development decisions
Building a base-case financial model
◦ Compute net present value
◦ Good estimates of cash flows
Economic Analysis of Product Development Project

The most basic categories of cash flow for a typical new product development project
are:
a. Development cost (all remaining design, testing, and refinement costs up to production
ramp-up)
b. Ramp-up cost
c. Marketing and support cost
d. Production cost
e. Sales revenue
Thank You