Total Design Process & Product Development

• Project Management & Product Development is presented by Dr. Hesham Mahmoud

Learning Objectives

• State stages of the Total Design Process
• Recall key characteristics of the Total Design Process
• Identify what contributes to economic success in a business competitive environment
• Define Product and Product Development
• List the metrics/dimensions of a successful product development.
• Name who is responsible for a product development project.
• Recall what affects the product development cost.
• State the stages of the Product Development Lifecycle.

Total Design Process

• Engineering design is a systematic and intelligent process.
• Engineers generate, evaluate, and specify solutions for devices, systems, or processes.
• Solutions must achieve clients' objectives and users' needs.
• Solutions must satisfy a specified set of constraints, termed Product Design Specifications.
• Design is by nature a decision-making and iterative process.

Total Design Methodology (TDM)

• TDM is an integrated approach to design.
• TDM emphasizes a holistic and comprehensive understanding of a project
• TDM considers all elements, contexts, and stakeholders.
• TDM aims to unify various design disciplines and phases throughout the product development process.
• It ensures every aspect, from user requirements and functionality to aesthetic appeal and manufacturability, is addressed cohesively.

Product Development

• The economic success of most firms depends on:
• Identifying customer needs.
• Developing products quickly to meet those needs.
• Producing the products at a low cost.
• Responsibility for product development lies with collaborated, cross-functional teams using an interdisciplinary approach and teamwork.
• A product is something sold by an enterprise to its customers.
• Product development includes activities from when a market opportunity is perceived to the production, sale, and delivery of a product.
• The course focuses on engineered, discrete, and physical products.

Project Management

• Interdisciplinary, collaborative approach to understand the responsibility
• Marketing:
• Mediates the interactions between the firm and its customers
• Identifies product opportunities and Customer needs
• Defines market segments
• Sets target prices
• Oversees the launch and promotion of the product
• Design:
• Defines the physical form of the product to best meet customer needs
• Engineering design (mechanical, electrical, software, etc.)
• Industrial design (aesthetics, ergonomics, user interfaces)
• Manufacturing:
• Designs, operates, and/or coordinates the production system/ purchasing/ distribution/installation

Successful Product Development

• Results in products that can be produced and sold profitably
• Profitability is often difficult to assess quickly and directly
• Five dimensions are commonly used to assess the performance of a product development:
• Product Quality
• Product Cost
• Development Time
• Development Cost
• Development Capability

Duration & Cost Factors

• Very few products can be developed in less than 1 year
• Some may require 3 to 5 years or, in some cases, up to 10 years.
• Cost is roughly proportional to the number of people on the project team and the duration of the project.

Product Development Process

• It is intensely creative
• It satisfies some needs
• Successful development requires different skills and talents
• Product development teams are often highly motivated, cooperative groups
• Opportunity for a career

Process Definition

• The product development process is a sequence of steps that transforms inputs into outputs.
• It includes activities used to conceive, design, and commercialize a product (intellectual and organizational activities).

Generic Product Development - Six Phases

• Planning:
• Articulate market opportunity and define market segments.
• Concept Development:
• Collect customer needs, identify lead users, and competitive products.
• System-Level Design:
• Develop a plan for product options and extended product family.
• Detail Design:
• Develop a marketing plan; define part geometry and materials.
• Testing and Refinement:
• Develop promotion and launch materials, and facilitate field testing.
• Production Ramp-Up:
• Place early production with key customers.

Phases Continued

• Manufacturing
• Identify production constraints and set up the supply chain strategy
• Concept Development
• Assess production feasibility and estimate manufacturing cost
• System-Level Design
• Make-buy analysis and identify suppliers for key components
• Detail Design
• Define quality assurance processes and design tooling
• Testing and Refinement
• Refine fabrication and assembly processes, Supplier ramp-up, training workforce
• Production Ramp-Up
• Begin full operation of production systems

Planning Phase specifics

• It includes the mission statement.
• Examines product description, benefit proposition, key business goals, primary & secondary market, assumptions and stakeholders

Phases 2-6 Specifics

• Concept development
• Describes product's form, function, and features.
• System-level Design
• Defines product architecture, key components, and allocation of detail design to internal and external resources.
• Detail Design
• Specifies geometry, materials, and tolerances of all unique parts and standard parts to be purchased from suppliers.
• Testing and Refinement
• Evaluate preproduction versions of the product
• Production ramp-up
• Product is made using the intended production system.

Product Design Specifications (PDS)

• A detailed document outlines every aspect of a product's design, functionality, and performance. This is a reference for all parties involved.
• PDS specifications
• spells out exact details of what product must do
• includes key design variables of the product
• PDS consists of metric and a value, related to customer needs and requirements

Smart Goals

• Ensure product specifications are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).
• Helps maintain clarity and ensures the development team has a clear understanding of what needs to be achieved.
• Specific: Knowing What You Will Do and How
• Measurable: Having Precise Way To Measure
• Attainable: Being Able To Visualize Path
• Realistic: Being Able To Visualize Results
• Time bound: Having Timeline for Achievement

Primary Types of PDS

• Performance Specifications:
• Outline the anticipated product performance, including speed, accuracy, and durability.
• Design Specifications:
• Focus on the visual and aesthetic aspects of the product, size, shape, and materials.
• Functional Specifications:
• Detail the specific functions, features, and capabilities that the product should possess.

Product Function Deployment (QFD)

• QFD is a structured/systematic method of defining user requirements or needs and translates them into product designs/plans to meet those requests.

Stages of QFD

• Product Planning
• Design Deployment
• Process Planning
• Production Planning

Concept Generation Steps

• Clarify the problem, define objectives and constraints.
• Search externally for existing solutions (patents, literature, benchmarking).
• Search internally via brainstorming and creative thinking.
• Explore systematically by categorizing and combining solution fragments.
• Reflect on solutions and process to refine and improve concepts.

Step 1: Problem Decomposition

• Dividing a problem into simpler subproblems using functional decomposition

Step 2: Search Externally

• Gather information such as from
• competitive products
• technologies used in products with related subfunctions
• existing solutions to both the overall problem and the subproblems Implementing existing solutions faster & cheaper than developing a new solution.

Step 2A: Information Gathering

• Gather information from external sources via lead user interviews, expert consultations, patent searches, literature searches, and competitive benchmarking.

Step 2B: Search Internally through Brainstorming

• The use of personal and team knowledge and creativity to generate solution concepts
• The process can be carried out by individuals and/or groups
• Guidelines include: suspend judgment, generate a lot of ideas, welcome infeasible ideas, sketch, and build sketch models.

TRIZ

• TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving), identifies physical working principles to solve technical problems.
• The matrix includes 40 principles by 39 engineering features/parameters, with each cell addressing a conflict between two characteristics.
• Each cell suggests ways of resolving the corresponding conflict.

Step 4: Systematically Explore Combining Solutions

• Organize and synthesize solution fragments and concept classification trees.
• Divide possible solutions into independent categories

Concept Combination Table

• Systematically consider combinations of solution fragments