Graduate Apprenticeship - Engineering Design and Manufacture PDF

Graduate Apprenticeship - Engineering Design and Manufacture Class: EO403 - Design for X Methodologies, Methods and Tools In today's session, we will be looking at methodologies, methods, and tools. These terms are used interchangeably in literature. Within this session, we'll propose standard defin...

Graduate Apprenticeship - Engineering Design and Manufacture Class: EO403 - Design for X Methodologies, Methods and Tools In today's session, we will be looking at methodologies, methods, and tools. These terms are used interchangeably in literature. Within this session, we'll propose standard definitions to each of these for the purposes of standardisation and to facilitate communication between students and lecturers. Let's start with design methodologies. What is a design methodology? Well, a design methodology is a structured approach to the design process often presented in the form of a design model. For example, Stuart Pugh's Total Design methodology. A good way to think of a methodology is that it is the process you will go through from idea to market. There are lots of different methodologies in existence. For example, the BS 7000 Guide to Managing Product Development, The Institute of Design at Stanford, the UK Design Council's Double Diamond methodology. There are lots of different options you can choose when you're developing a product from idea to market. Methodologies can be either descriptive or prescriptive. For example, Stuart Pugh's Total Design, this is an example of a prescriptive methodology. The UK Design Council's Double Diamond methodology, this is an example of a descriptive methodology. We'll now discuss the differences. As a new designer, we may find it beneficial to follow a prescriptive approach. A prescriptive approach will follow a more analytical and systematic approach with clearly identified steps that the designer can follow in the execution of their design project. All the way from coming up with your idea right through to market, you're guided by a series of steps. As we develop as designers, we may begin to use a more descriptive methodology. A descriptive approach will allow us to be more heuristic, utilising our prior knowledge and experience. This approach encourages us to discover and learn for ourselves, so for example, the UK Design Council's Double Diamond methodology. These are just some of the many methodologies in existence, and we encourage you to do further research into the others. Each has very different strengths and weaknesses, and each can be more applicable at different design projects. A good designer will understand the various methodologies available to them and be able to apply the most relevant approach to the given project at that time. In summary, a good methodology should be useful to the designer. It should establish why and when there is a need for support. It should help designers to communicate and cope with uncertainty as they develop their products. And it should help to plan strategically and manage cash-flow in the business to cope with demands of product development. This is particularly useful in small businesses. A good methodology should also help organisations to be more effective and efficient through improving Page 1/3 efficiency, minimising error, and improving the overall product quality. It will also minimise lead times by formalising the design procedure so there's clearly identified stages and steps that the designer will move through from product idea all the way through to market. This can optimise the lead time involved with developing a product. A good methodology should also contribute to producing enhanced design outputs, increased probability of safe product operation, meeting quality standards, and avoiding any product liability issues. One important point to always remember, regardless of what methodology you choose to adopt, is that it's important to know when to stop and move on to the next stage. Sometimes designers can get trapped in the same stage much longer than necessary and can often find themselves going around in circles. Part of the skill of being a good designer is knowing, when is the right time to stop and move onto the next stage? Now let's look at design methods. A design method is an identifiable, systematic way of working which improves the design solution from a specific perspective. For example, from the perspective of safety, from the perspective of manufacturability, from the perspective of quantity, etc. There is a long list of different perspectives that you can adopt when you're looking at design. Examples of design methods are failure modes and effect analysis, also called FMEA. Quality function deployment, also called QFD, is another example of a method. There is a variety of methods that you can choose to adopt at various different stages throughout the design process. A good way to think of a design method is that it's the how in design. So for example, we need to develop a range of concepts. How are we going to do that? We might brainstorm. We might use 6-3-5. We might use a morphological chart. The 'hows' are examples of design methods, so always try to think of it as the 'how' you're going to do something. Any structured approach within the context of designing could be considered to be a design method. There are many different design methods which can be deployed at various stages throughout the design process, starting with our initial stage of requirements definition onto concept design, then moving onto detailed design, onto manufacture, and finally onto sale and support. There's a variety of different methods that you can adopt throughout this entire process. We'll look at some of these in greater detail in other videos. Many of these methods are utilised repetitively at various stages in the design process. And that's OK because we have to choose the design method that is most applicable to what we're trying to achieve, and that can vary throughout the design process. The skill as a designer is to identify which methods are applicable and what will aid your product development in relation to your aim at that particular stage. The third term that we're going to look at is a design tool. A design tool is a device or aid which supports the application of a design method. So for example, CAD/CAM software or House of Quality, these are examples of design tools. CAD/CAM, computer aided design and computer aided manufacture, would be the design method. However, the specific tool used to implement the method would be the software which we choose to use. That's how you differentiate between the method and the tool. The method is the way in which you're going to do something, and the tool supports the method. So for example, quality function deployment. This is a method by which we translate customer requirements into engineering requirements. QFD is our overall method. The House of Quality is then a specific tool that we use in the application of this method for defining the relationships between customer needs and product service capabilities. It's important to note the difference between a design method and a design tool. The method is the how and the process we're following. The tool is then used to support the implementation of that method. Both are Page 2/3 different things but work simultaneously together. So why do we use design methods and tools? Well, design methods are an integral part of the overall design process. They allow design tasks to be performed more effectively. They improve the overall quality of the design solution as they allow us to focus on a particular aspect of the design at a particular given time. And they support the team and external stakeholder communication. Design methods are the how. When we face a challenge in product design-i.e. a how do I generate concepts, how do I develop or improve my design for manufacture, how do I reduce cost and maintain value-we rely on design methods to guide us and help us to derive a solution, ultimately improving our design and presenting a better solution. So to summarise, part of the skill of being a good designer is identifying appropriate methodologies, methods, and tools and creating the right conditions for their use throughout the entire product development process. Page 3/3 Graduate Apprenticeship - Engineering Design and Manufacture Class: EO403 - Design for X Product Development Today In this video, we will be looking at product development today. We will be discussing the nature of design, what is product development, and what are the characteristics of successful products. So let's start with the nature of design. And let's think about the question, why do we design things? There's a variety of reasons that we might design something. Examples including to make life easier, to make things look good, to make things the way we want them to be. The truth is we do it to modify our environments to suit our own purposes. If we don't like something, we do something to develop a solution to solve our problem. As far as history can tell, people have always designed things. Everything around us, except untouched pieces of nature, has been designed by someone. However, even when we've got all this design effort going on around about us, we still end up with situations where we have products and solutions that aren't fit for purpose. We have oversized packaging and wasted materials. We have products that have safety hazards and safety issues. So why does all this still happen? A key reason in many cases is lack of customer understanding. Designers often fail to understand, what is the problem to be addressed? What does a customer need the product to do? What does the customer care about and prioritise, for example, finances, health, environment, safety, social aspects, politics, etc? Often designers forget about that third point-what does a customer care about and prioritise? Ensuring you understand your customer and can confidently answer these three questions is key to developing a successful product solution. This leads us onto the topic of product development. Design is defined as an activity the principle goal of which is to give shape to an artefact. In product development to design is to transform a set of criteria or requirements into a solution, physical or theoretical. To effectively perform design, many different methodologies, methods, and tools are employed and at various different stages in the overall design process. In the world in which we live, products are becoming even more complex. Customer expectations are higher than they've ever been before. The increased functionality of products is more than it's ever been before. Supply chains now operate across multiple borders more than ever before. As a result, modern product development requires experienced multidisciplinary and collaborative project working. And industry requires better prepared professionals in the sectors of business, engineering, and design who can think holistically and are able to understand design process and apply integrated solutions. Page 1/2 Today, characteristics of successful products are products which meet the customer requirements and aspirations. The manufacturer's reputation for quality, reliability, and service also needs to be embedded into the product but also embedded into the business at every level, for example, customer service and after care. It's not enough to just focus on the product. You have to think about the overall business that surrounds that product too. And the product has to be available at the right time and at the right place. Ensuring we design products which address these characteristics will increase our probability of success. Page 2/2 Graduate Apprenticeship - Engineering Design and Manufacture Class: EO403 - Design for X What is DfX In this video, we're going to look at DFX. The term DFX stands for Design For X where the variable x can have one of many possible values depending on the particular design emphasis or objectives of the product development process. DFX's are a family of methods adopted to improve the development of a product for a determined objective-for example, safety, reliability, protection of the environment, and so on. Aspects which DFX address include things like cost, delivery, service, the environment, and quality, whether a product is fit for purpose, will it last, is it safe, and so on. DFX approaches are often supported by specific guidelines to help in the design development process. For example, a design for manufacture and assembly approach can involve the use of a set of guidelines which helps engineers to identify, measure, and reduce waste or even inefficiency, and therefore reduce costs. The need for design for x methods was identified by engineers because they became increasingly aware of a lack of appropriate, detailed knowledge in important product lifecycle processes. And the DFX's take place throughout the product development process-for example, in product through detailed design substitutes for DFM, design for the early stages, definition of the requirements for the concept generation and evaluation, through embodiment and to manufacturing and selling. Some of the most common x include design for assembly, DFA, design for manufacture, the environment, DFE, or design for cost. Design for assembly is a process by which products are designed with a particular emphasis on how the product is assembled and on the reduction of its parts. As a result, costs are reduced. Design for manufacture is a process of designing a product in order to make it easy to manufacture. It also helps to ensure products can actually be manufactured. Design for the environment as a general concept and/or approach to sustainable design. It aims to reduce the overall human, health, and environmental impact of a product, its process, or its service across the whole product's life cycle. And design for cost is an engineering-driven process. It requires designing both the product and the product delivery process for simplicity, and therefore a reduction in cost. When particular DFX approaches are taken, they often benefit factors or characteristics of the product development process. And generally speaking, taking a design for manufacture and assembly approach can produce a simpler product with fewer parts, and therefore less cost and often in a much shorter time. Why is DFX important? Taking a DFX approach tends to do a number of things in product development. It aims to optimise the product and the product Page 1/2 development process itself. It aims to improve quality not only of the product, but of its production. A DFX approach reduces risks-for example, by reducing the number of parts or the components in a product and/or production process. It also reduces cost. It brings particular issues that might occur in the development of new products out with the design process back into the design phase-for example, using a design for sustainability or a design for re-use approach very early on in the definition stage in terms of the selection of materials can have a very positive impact on the depletion of particular materials in our environment. DFX can also help shift downstream processes upstream to make the early stages of the design process as integrated as possible. And at this stage too, specialist or new knowledge can be brought into the design process to improve any issues. Page 2/2 Graduate Apprenticeship - Engineering Design and Manufacture Class: EO403 - Design for X Defining The Market In this video, we're going to look at defining the market. It is crucial to define the market that you will design a product for. First of all, we need to understand the customer needs. Understanding customer needs is crucial for the development of a product. We need to understand the customer's point of view-what they want in the product, what they require in terms of the product to do, how it's to function, how it's to look, and so on. And what does the customer care about? Do they care about the cost of the product, the health, the environment, the social aspects that surround the use of the product, politics, et cetera, the use of the product in terms of the social aspects and the politics, and so on? We have to define what the voice of the customer is, and that helps us develop a series of requirements for the product, which in turn will become design requirements and will start the path of the product development. Customer validation is important. Always seek customer validation. There are some pitfalls that we can fall into-believing that you are the customer rather than speaking to the actual customer or the customer group themselves, believing that your friends and family might be the customer when, in fact, they aren't, believing that your customers will never change, that they won't want different things, and believing that all customers are the same when, in fact, different target groups will be completely different. So very important to seek customer validation and to speak to the customer in terms of defining and understanding what the user requires. There are three things that we are going to look at in terms of defining the market. The first one is the target market, and then the competitor analysis, and the third one is a technology review. So the target market, the first one we're going to look at-in order to design a product that appeals to the majority of potential customers, we have to break down the overall market into a number of groups which have common characteristics. And the group that is most likely to purchase your product is called the target market for your product. The target market can depend on a number of things. And usually, we look into these with detail and precision. Demographics, for example-looking at the measurable aspects that are involved with a particular group of people. It could be age. It could be income. It could be a number of things. Geography plays a part in the target market depending on where the consumer lives or where the consumer is going to use the product. Page 1/2 Lifestyles impact the target market. We can have those with completely different lifestyles using products in different ways. Benefits and loyalty are also important. There will be particular target markets that show brand loyalty for a particular product, and that will help impact when carrying out any new product development. The second aspect of defining the market that we're going to look at is competitor analysis. Competitor analysis identifies and evaluates existing competitor products, highlighting the strengths and the weaknesses. And typically when carrying out a particular new piece of product development, we would look at other competitors in the market. We would look to those products and look for the positive aspects, the negative aspects, where we can improve that particular product. We would look at things like the cost and the scale, the size, and the functionality of that particular product. And again, we would talk to customers in relation to this to try and get feedback on those competitors that are already out there in the market. And finally, we'd look at a technology review. A technology review investigates and evaluates a whole range of technologies that already exist in particular products and also those that might be suitable for the development of any new products that would serve particular functions. We can look at the possibility of how to power the product. We can look at what exists in terms of the technology used in terms of sensors, electronics, and mechatronics. We can look at other examples of the product that we might be wanting to improve and look at the existing technology in order to improve on that. We can also look at other technologies that haven't been applied to this particular area that we're developing within and see if those technologies, perhaps very new technologies, might be applied in some way. So that is a brief overview of defining the market. It's important in terms of new product development because this is the context within which you will be designing. Page 2/2 Graduate Apprenticeship - Engineering Design and Manufacture Class: EO403 - Design for X Human Factors-Qualitative Methods 2 In this video, we're going to look at two qualitative methods of understanding the user, empathic modelling and ethnography. Empathic modelling was first pioneered by Patricia Moore. She was a designer who worked in New York. Around the late '70s to '80s, Patricia, aged about 20ish, travelled across North America dressed as an 85-year-old woman to experience the designed world from an elderly person's perspective. During her travels, she would interact with people, she would interact with the public transport, with buildings and products, and her diaries and her findings express what it's like to be an elderly person at that time. Patricia restricted her joints, her hearing, and her vision in order to empathise with elderly users, so from a sensory and a physical perspective, she was an elderly person. Empathic modelling itself is about observing and simulation. It's about putting yourself in the shoes of that particular user. We can record and we can analyse the information that we collect. We can also reflect on our own experience when we are empathising others. Empathic modelling is a very good way to come up with creative solutions purely because we're able to understand the user better. Whilst we are simulating other users, we can develop prototypes of possible solutions. We can interact with those solutions. We might be limiting particular abilities, like hands, hearing, eyesight, and so on. Empathic modelling involves the designer spending a lot of time with users in everyday situations, in real-life situations, and taking notes and recording opinions, interactions, and so on. Things like audio can be recorded, notes can be taken, photography can be used, sketching and video can also be used to capture the real-world interactions that a user might have with the particular product areas that we're investigating. Empathic modelling is very useful for a designer to understand how others feel. This is a case study in empathic modelling. It is known as the Third Age Suit. When Ford were designing their cars, they used what they called the third age suit. The third age suit is a suit worn by a designer or a person in order to understand a user of a different ability, of a different age. It was used in the design and the development of the Ford Focus in order to improve cabin access and visibility. This suit could be worn, and it would simulate the loss of physical mobility. It would reduce strength and limb flexibility by about 20%, thereby allowing the designer or the researcher an opportunity to find out how difficult or how easy it was to step in or out of the car and to move about the cabin. It also was used in a qualitative capacity to empathise with the experience of the elderly or those with impaired abilities. So research was carried out, focus groups were held in order for people to give their feedback on what it was like to be impaired within the car. Page 1/2 It was also used in a quantitative capacity, where in a lab-based situation, numerical measurements of several of the interactions within the cabin could be taken and then fed back to the designers. So here in the case study of the use of the third age suit in the redesign and the development of the Ford Focus in terms of the cabin access and visibility, we see that empathic modelling has been very useful. It has helped the designers understand how particular age groups would be able to use the car, it has also given very in-depth qualitative research in terms of feedback from the users, which allows the designers to develop the product further. And finally, the quantitative data can help numerically improve those interactions. You, too, can carry out some basic empathic modelling. It usually involves restricting particular aspects of the human body, for example, taping joints on hands or knees or arms in order to simulate arthritis or elderly joints. You might wear gloves in order to simulate poor touch. You might use earplugs in order to simulate loss of hearing, and you might use particular visual lenses that simulate visual impairment. Several of these lenses that simulate visual impairment can be downloaded from the Royal National Institute for the Blind's website. Another set of qualitative methods to understand the user are design ethnography methods, and these include non participant observation and participant observation. To understand the user, notes can be taken, observations can be undertaken, and the designer will be able to understand better particular functions or operations as the user interacts with particular products. You can be a non-participant observer. You can stand back, you can take notes, you can video, and so on, or you can be a participant observer, actually taking part in the particular activity. Further methods include semi-structured interviews and unstructured interviews or video capture. All of these methods help us to understand the user much better. They help us to understand the user, they give us quality feedback, they give us an insight into user's thoughts and feelings about particular products and interactions with those. We have looked at a few qualitative methods to understand the user, and there are many more, but they are invaluable to the designer and the researcher in understanding the user and how they interact with the product or how they carry out a particular activity. They certainly help us to design as part of the product development process. They certainly give us a better understanding and help us to kick start the product development process. Page 2/2 Graduate Apprenticeship - Engineering Design and Manufacture Class: EO403 - Design for X What is Inclusive Design In this video, we're going to talk about inclusive design. So what is inclusive design? It is comprehensive, integrated design which encompasses all aspects of a product used by consumers of diverse age and capability and a wide range of contexts, throughout the whole product's lifecycle, from its conception to its final disposal. Its ultimate goal is to meet the needs of all such consumers, and it is based on the principle that appropriate access to information, products, and facilities is a fundamental human right. In other, words inclusive design is about designing products to suit all consumers. Inclusive design can be referred to a number of other terms. It is also known as design for all, trans-generational design covering all generations of consumers, barrier-free design, design for disability, universal access, and universal design. So who do designers exclude when designing? Well, quite often, a product can be developed for a particular target market and exclude others, for example, technology-related articles and items. A smartwatch might not be suitable for the elderly who might not be familiar with technology. Also, they may not be able to read the numbers or the digits or the hands on a particular small watch. So again, when designers are designing for a particular target market, they often exclude other people. Who do designers stereotype when designing? Often, when designing a particular item will be developed and designed for a particular group. Aids for disability often fall into this category where implements for eating, for forks, knives, and so on look very much like a tool for those who have limited ability rather than a tool which all can use. So can designers include a broader range of people's needs in the design of everyday things? We're now going to look at the contexts for inclusive design. There are three-the social and biological, the commercial, and the legal. There are three categories within social and biological-social attitudes, understanding of disabilities, and changing demographics. These contexts are also the drivers for inclusive design. So first of all, looking at social attitudes, attitudes and perceptions are changing. They are changing now in relation to aging and disability. We are all living longer, and elderly people are not considered to be frail and helpless. Many are taking up activities. Many are carrying on with work much longer than previously. So first of all, we need to understand the disabilities. We need to get to know more about them. With age, people change physically, mentally, and psychologically, and people are living much longer. For most people, these changes involve multiple, minor impairments in things such as eyesight, Page 1/2 hearing, dexterity, mobility, and in memory. Changing demographics is also an important area, for example, age. The population in Great Britain is living longer. The percentage of older people in Great Britain has been rising since the mid-20th century until today. And it's expected to rise further. The number of people aged 65 and over since the mid-century until today has risen by about 8%. 75 and over has risen by 5%. And those living 85 and over has risen by 2%. So people are living longer, much longer. And this also has an impact on the commercial aspect. Changing age and demographics is relevant to commerce. Now we have a greater number over 65. And this means we have greater disposable income in the over 65 group. These people have money to spend. Their expendable income is higher, and they also have free time as the majority of them will have retired. Companies that restrict their consumer offering to a younger market will be obliged to trade in a contracting marketplace. There are less young people, and there are now more older people-a big market. There is, therefore, a strong business case to respond to the demographic change, which we are seeing, with proactive, market-driven entrepreneurship. Looking at the final aspect-the legal aspect. We now live in a day and age of progress in terms of international human rights law. Everyone, regardless of age, ability, gender, and race, has the right to equal opportunity. And this is the key thing that underpins inclusive design. Various countries are at different stages in terms of their disability legislation. The USA is possibly the most progressive. And this relates back to the civil rights movement, in the US Constitution, and the actions that were taken following the Vietnam War. Japan is also a very early adopter of disability legislation. And the UK is positioned fairly highly in terms of being progressive in terms of their disability legislation within Europe. For further information on the UK's disability legislation, you can refer to the link on my place. So to sum up, inclusive design is to design products, equipment, and services that meet the needs of most people where possible without the need for specialised adaptations. And this is one of the key aspects-without the need for specialised adaptations. I'd like to finish this particular video with a key text that's available in the university library. The text is called Inclusive Design: Design for the Whole Population. This book contains a wealth of information on contexts, approaches, inclusive design methods and might be a very good source of further information for you. Page 2/2 Graduate Apprenticeship - Engineering Design and Manufacture Class: EO403 - Design for X Universal Design In this video, we are going to look at universal design. It is one of the methods of understanding the user. A definition for universal design is "universal design is the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent, without the need for adaptation of specialised design." It is a form of inclusive design. There are several principles of universal design. And we can apply them as we are developing products. The first one is equitable use. The product has to be useful and marketable to people of all abilities. The second is flexibility in use. The product should accommodate a wide range of individual preferences and abilities, very similar to the first point. The third point is simple and intuitive to use. Applying the principles of universal design, a product should be easy to understand, regardless of the user's skill, and experience, and knowledge, or language skills, or even educational level. It should be easy to understand and intuitive to use. The fourth point is perceptible information. The product should communicate necessary information to the user, regardless of the conditions or of the user's sensory abilities. Tolerance for error is another principle of universal design. The product should minimise hazards and any adverse consequences of accidental or unintended use of the particular product, for example, in the design of a piece of DIY equipment. Low physical effort is another aspect. The product should be designed to be used efficiently and comfortably with the least amount of effort. And this is particularly important for those with limited abilities or the elderly. And finally, size and space for approach and use are important. Approximate size and space is provided for approach, reach, manipulation, and use, regardless of the user's body size, posture, or mobility. In order to implement universal design, there are a number of aspects that we should address. We should avoid segregating or stigmatising any user group. We should make the design of the product appealing to all users. And we should provide safety, security, and privacy for all users of the newly developed product. We should be consistent with the expectations and the intuition of users based on all of the feedback that we have determined will be useful for the development of the product. We should provide effective prompting and feedback during and after task completion for any product developed. We should arrange the elements within the development of the product to minimise any hazards or errors of use with new products being developed. And we should eliminate any unnecessary complexity. We should also ensure that the product allows for a reasonable operating force and doesn't require maximising force to operate. We want to minimise any repetitive actions and reduce these. And we also want to minimise any sustained physical effort in the use of the product that we're developing. Page 1/2 So that is an overview of universal design. And I have a key text here that you might want to refer to further. It is the Universal Design Handbook, Second Edition. And it gives an overview of universal design premises, perspectives in terms of buildings, products, and other artefacts. It includes performance-based design criteria and guidelines, and will give further information to that included in the video. Page 2/2 Graduate Apprenticeship - Engineering Design and Manufacture Class: EO403 - Design for X Human Factors-Qualitative Methods 1 In this video, we will look at qualitative methods for understanding the user. The first one we will look at is a persona. So what are qualitative methods and tools? They are concerned with the real world and with culturally-situated conditions. We're not concerned with numbers and measurement when we're trying to understand the user. We're concerned with their opinion and their experience in the real world. Things like text and visual data output are important to us. Statistical numbers are not. How people interact, how they find things, how they feel-these are the important aspects when we think about qualitative methods and tools. The data is usually analysed through qualitative categorization. So it is a subjective inquiry. And it's about perceptions, counts, and so on. And it's very open-ended. Qualitative research is concerned with rich and in-depth data, so we can find out exactly how the user interacts with particular products. And we can understand them better. So qualitative methods and tools, it's real data, real world conditions that we're looking at. One such tool is the persona. And a persona is a fictional person who represents a major user group for products or services. And very often we'll advise students to create a persona when they're starting on a product development journey. Creating a persona can help give a user for a particular product at the beginning of the development of that product. Make up a person's name, be relevant. humour is not really appropriate in this case. Who are you going to design this particular product for? Include the right demographic information for the target market that you're designing for-so the age, the education, so on, the job title that person might have, and the responsibilities they might have. So who is this product going to be designed for? Include the goals and the tasks that this person is going to try to complete. And finally, include a quote that sums up what matters to that person. So a persona is a very useful tool to understand the user and to help direct the design development. Here are a few examples. It can be anybody that fits within your particular target market. By having an individual, a persona, we can always refer back to this person. Would this person like this feature? Why would this person want this feature? How would this person use this feature? Is this particular aspect of the design required for this person? We can always refer back to that persona to help guide us with the design development. Using a persona can help a designer to focus on user's needs and goals. What Page 1/2 is the age group of the persona? What are their desires? What are their hobbies? What is their income? All of these aspects can impact on the development and design of a product. Page 2/2 QFD Vicky Hamilton e: [email protected] This session… So we identify a problem area, then what do we do? Must look good Must not be heavier than a bag of sugar Needs to be multifunctional Etc. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) What is QFD? Continuous Improvement method Provides focus to the development cycle Strong customer focus ↓ overall time to market Supports the implementation of Concurrent Engineering Could be used throughout the whole design process. In this lecture we will look at QFD from a Product Specification perspective only QFD a brief history Pioneered by Dr. Yoji Akao (Japan) 1966 First large application in Kobe Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in 1972 Introduced in the Western hemisphere in 1980’s Early adopters include Xerox, Ford, Procter & Gamble, 3M Who uses/has used QFD? 3M, AT&T, Boeing, Chevron, Continental Rehabilitation Hospital, DaimlerChrysler, EDS, Ford Motor Co., General Motors, General Dynamics, Gillette, Hayes Brake, Hewlett-Packard, Hughes Aircraft, Hyundai Motor Company, IBM, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Kawasaki Heavy Industry, Kodak, Lockheed-Martin, Motorola, NASA, NATO, NEC, Nissan Motors, Nokia, Pratt & Whitney, Poland Ministry of Finance, Proctor & Gamble, Raytheon, Samsung, Seagate Technology, Sun Microsystems, Texas Instruments, Toshiba, U.S. Department of Defense, Visteon, Volvo, Xerox Attributes & benefits Customer driven Reduces implementation time Promotes teamwork Provides documentation Improved products & services Introduces ‘Voice of the Customer’ to product design Requirements prioritised in line with customer opinion “Increased competitiveness” Voice of the Customer (VoC) Input of the customer in their terms good quality Nice looking cool educational modern fun geeky Quality of customers feedback Solicited/unsolicited, quantitative/qualitative, structured/random How it works? Translates VoC into quantifiable design/engineering requirements. VoC Translation Mouse trap that is good at luring mice Mouse trap has a lure radius of 20 feet Quantify the relationships between different customer requirements Focuses the development process by setting a direction for the design. Helps to identify design trade offs. E.g. customer wants more springiness, but doesn’t want extra height QFD & the House of Quality (HoQ) Graphic tool used in QFD for defining the relationship between customer needs and product/service capabilities Matrix based tool – Paper based (e.g. wall chart) – Computer based (e.g. MS Excel, QFD Capture) Uses indicators to define the interactions – Strong (positive) Value 9 – Medium (neutral) Value 3 – Weak (negative) Value 1 House of Quality (HoQ) 7 1. Customer requirements (what) 3 2. Ranked requirements by customer 3. Design requirements (how) 4. Relationships between customer and design requirements 1 2 4 6 5. Technical competitive comparison/target values 6. Competitor assessments 5 7. Relationships between design requirements Example What is important to you in the design of a phone? Connects to the car Won’t smash easily Lots of memory Fits in my pocket easily Charges quickly Good camera Good storage 1 7 3 1 2 4 5 6 2 7 3 1 2 4 5 6 3 Direction of improvement 7 x Weight 3 1 2 4 Has to have a good camera Needs to connect to my car Have to be able to video call 5 6 Relationships Moderate ○ Weak ▽ 9pts 4 3pts 7 1pt 3 x Weight Strong 1 2 4 5 6 Relationships Moderate ○ Weak ▽ 9pts 5 3pts 1pt 7 Weight Strong 3 1 2 4 5 51 31 70 39 27 23% 14% 32% 18% 12% (4x9)+(5x3) =51 6 Advanced Workshop 16GB Camera 16MP Camera 5 7 3 51 31 70 39 27 23% 14% 32% 18% 12% 1 2 4 5 6 6 7 3 1 2 4 5 6 7 7 3 - 1 2 4 5 6 The design process and QFD Design Activities Market PDS Concept Detail Design Methods Benchmarking Parametric Analysis Creative methods QFD 1 QFD 2 Controlled Convergence FMEA Manufacture QFD Cascade QFD 3 DFMA Taguchi Sell etc… QFD 4 The translation process Requirements Matrix Design Requirements Design Matrix Engineering Design Customer Requirements Product Characteristics matrix Product Characteristics Manufacturing Purchasing Matrix Manufacturing Purchasing Operations Design Requirements Control verification Matrix Production quality control Engineering Design Product Characteristics Manufacturing Purchasing Operation Translation process e.g. Requirement for body work to last a long time Customer requirements Design requirements Engineering requirements Parts characteristics Process planning Dip part in tank three times Operation requirements Time: 2min, Acid level:5-8 Years of durability for body part No visible exterior rust in 3 years Paint weight 2 - 2.2g/sq. QFD & Industry QFD implementation issues CE implementation issues Perception of being overly complex What the customer really wants? Victims of their own success Lose contact with customers Push to shorten commercial cycle Lack of documented Case Studies Confidentiality issues Strategic competitive advantage Graduate Apprenticeship - Engineering Design and Manufacture Class: EO403 - Design for X Product Specification methods - Kano model In this video, we will be covering the Kano model. Kano was developed in 1984 by Noriaki Kano from Japan. And it was developed for analysing customer needs and determining new product requirements. It was developed to categorise and prioritise these customer needs and requirements, guide the overall product development, and overall enhance customer satisfaction with products which we produce. The Kano model classifies customer requirements into five different categories. The first of these categories is basic needs. These are the must haves. These are things that the product must have. The second category was performance needs. These are things where more is often better. The third category was excitement needs. These are the wow factors. These are the delighters of the product. Our fourth category was indifferent needs. So these were things that customers didn't really care about, they weren't really that bothered about. And the fifth is reverse performance needs. These are things where more is not often better. Let's look at the first of these categories of needs, the basic, the must have needs. If you look at the diagram, the yellow arrow down here is the basic must have needs. These are things that when they're not present or not executed well, we're dissatisfied. We're not happy. However, even if they're presented and they're executed very well, our satisfaction level still remains quite neutral. An example of this would be luggage arriving off of an airline. If it doesn't arrive with the plane, you're not going to be very happy. You're going to be very dissatisfied. If it does arrive with the plane and on time, you remain neutral. It's a basic expectation. The second group of needs, which are the performance needs, where more is often better. Again, if you look at the diagram, this is the orange arrow on our diagram. These are things that when they're not present or they're not executed well, our satisfaction level is low. However, the better represented they are, the more our satisfaction level increases. Let's look at an example. Following on from the airline example, these are things like movie choice, food choice, comfort of seats. The more well executed these things are, the more satisfied we are as customers. The third group of needs are the excitement needs. These are the delighters. These are really the wow factors of our product design. When these are not present, our satisfaction level is still neutral. However, if they are present, our satisfaction level is extremely high. This is shown by the red arrow on this graph. These are the excitement needs. An example would be a free upgrade on a flight. These are things customers aren't expecting, or don't even know that they want. But if you offer it to them, the customer is truly delighted. Our Page 1/3 fourth category is indifferent needs. These are things that the customer doesn't care about. So regardless of whether they are present or they aren't present, our satisfaction level doesn't change. Indifferent needs sit right along this horizontal line on the diagram. So, for example, the colour of seats on an aeroplane. These are things that the customer doesn't really care about. Regardless of whether they are there, or they're not present, the customer's satisfaction level will remain unchanged. Our fifth group of needs is reverse performance needs. These are things that when they're not present, our satisfaction level is up here. This is shown as the grey line on the diagram. As these features become more present and are more executed, our satisfaction level begins to drop, until down here where we are unsatisfied. For example, a busy restaurant that is so busy it generates queues and long waiting times. These are things that decrease customer satisfaction when they are present, and increase customer satisfaction when they are not present. Time has shown that products that were once wow factors and excitement factors, over time these become basic needs. If we think of an example as a smartphone, when smartphones first launched to the market, a lot of their features and functionality were truly wow factors. They were things that had never been seen in phone technology before. They were things that the customer wasn't really expecting. And when they found out the phone could do that, they were really, really satisfied. It was a real wow factor. As time has moved on and more smartphones have been launched to the market, a lot of these features that were once wow factors have now become basic needs. For example, a camera. A camera on a phone at one point in time was once a wow factor. It was an excitement factor. However, as time has progressed, and the feature has become more and more common, this is now a basic need. It's a basic expectation. Kano is used to classify needs, product functions, features, to facilitate prioritisation of requirements. The process that we adopt when we're employing Kano is, firstly, to start by identifying and defining our customers. We then determine the product functions and features that we want to evaluate. We then develop a questionnaire which contains one functional and one non-functional question per feature identified. We then test and administer this questionnaire to our identified customers. We would then analyse the results and classify requirements using the Kano model. The last step is then to decide how to act on these results. Looking into this process in more detail, let's focus on the Kano questionnaire. Once we've identified the features of interest, we'll then work to develop the Kano questionnaire. The questionnaire aims to understand how potential customers would feel if a feature was either present or not present. This is achieved by asking two questions for each feature, a functional question, i.e. The feature is present, and a dysfunctional question, i.e. the feature is not present. As with any interview methods, we have to gather sufficient responses. An average response should then be calculated for each question asked. Based upon the responses, the type of feature can then be determined from a simple lookup table, into basic needs, performance needs, excitement needs, indifferent needs, and reverse needs. So looking at the actual questionnaire structure, for each feature or function we have two questions. The first question is the functional question. And the second question is the dysfunctional question. If we look at our functional question, if a product provides or does x, how do you feel? If we look at our dysfunctional question, if a product doesn't provide or do x, how do you feel? The options that the customer then has to answer are, I like it that way. It must be that way. I am neutral. I can live with it that way. Or I dislike it that way. These responses are standardised across the entire questionnaire. From the Page 2/3 questionnaire, we can then classify what type of needs that feature is. Let's look at an example. If we look at the smartphone again, in the Kano process we begin by listing all the different key features of a smartphone. If we look at our first feature, a camera, the question that we would develop in our questionnaire for the feature of a camera might look something like this. If a phone provides a camera, how do you feel? That would be our functional question. If a phone doesn't provide a camera, how do you feel? That would be our dysfunctional question. We would then administer that questionnaire to our audience and receive a variety of responses. Let's just say in this example our customer has told us that if a phone provides a camera, how do they feel? Let's just say they have said, it must be that way. If we look at the second question, if a phone doesn't provide a camera, how do you feel? Let's just say our customer has said, I dislike it that way. The responses we get from this questionnaire, we then take forwards into the classification table. So looking at the first question, which was our functional question, we go to the part of the chart for the functional question, which is just here. We've then got our responses in the rows here. We look for the response that the customer has given us. So in this case, the customer said, it must be that way. We then look at the second question, which is our dysfunctional question, and go to that part of the chart. As you'll see, the responses or the possible responses the customer could have given, are then listed across here in the various columns. In this case, the customer said for the functional question, it must be that way. And for the dysfunctional question, they said, I dislike it that way. Where these two points meet is an M. So that tells us that this is a must have. This is a basic need of a smartphone. By conducting a Kano questionnaire, we'll then be able to separate functions and features into each of their five categories. As designers, this aids us in prioritising, what are the most important functions and features to include in our overall design? The last step of the method is then to decide how to act on the results. And this is where we have an opportunity. Often we find that things are basic needs we can actually turn into excitement factors and wow factors. If we think about a camera, which we've already identified as down as a basic need, as designers we think to ourself, is there's something that we could do, something we could add to that camera that the customer wouldn't be expecting so that it suddenly becomes an excitement factor, and really gives the product a clear, unique selling point? An example could be to include a 360 camera. So this concludes the Kano model, and demonstrates how we can categorise and prioritise customer needs when developing new products. Page 3/3 Graduate Apprenticeship - Engineering Design and Manufacture Class: EO403 - Design for X Product Specification methods - the PDS In this video, we will be looking at the product design specification. So we've identified a problem area. What's the next step? Then what do we do? Well, we look for information. We consult books. We speak to people. We conduct questionnaires. Essentially, what we do is market research. We go out there. We immerse ourselves in the market and truly try to understand the problem in which we're going to address. As we gather more information, we begin to develop a list of requirements. These are what the customer sees as being the must have's, the could have's, the must avoids, things that doesn't really matter. Basically, what we're doing is defining the specification for a future product development. Often, people are inclined to go straight into concept generation upon completion of market research. However, it's important to stop. The stage, which we are going to look at, is the product design specification, which sits in between your market research and your concept generation. The product design specification is an exact statement of what the product has to do and what the customer design requirements are. It's the foundation upon which the rest of the design process is built. It clearly defines the overall product requirements and what you're trying to achieve. It contains all the facts relating to the product outcome. So if you've identified from a customer that the product has to cost no more than 50 pounds, you would include things like that in the product design specification. It has to include all the facts that you've identified in market research. Importantly, the PDS should also reflect the outputs of the market and customer research. As said, if a customer has told you they want to pay 50 pounds for the product, then don't put into the PDS that they're willing to be 100 pounds. It has to be based on fact and truth that you've uncovered during the market research phase. The product design specification should also contain realistic design constraints and targets. And it shouldn't unnecessarily constrain the design team. Let's stop for a second and look at what we mean by clearly-defined product requirements. The product requirements should be well-defined, clear, and specific. So, for example, in a product design specification, you might see the statement, the design must be lightweight, which is OK. But what do we actually mean by lightweight? Is it 1 kilogramme? Is it 5 kilogrammes? Is it 50 kilogrammes? Try to avoid words that involve a level of ambiguity and be specific. Many people will interpret the term lightweight in a different way, so you want to make sure that anything you've got in your PDS is really specific. An example of how we can improve that might be to say, the design must not weigh more than 10 kilogrammes. Let's also take a greater look at what we mean by realistic design constraints and targets. The product requirements should be realistic and achievable Page 1/2 targets. So, for example, the product should be made from 1 kilogramme of 24 karat gold and cost less than 100 pounds to manufacture. We have to stop and ask ourselves, is that really achievable? In the PDS, we want to set goals that are realistic and achievable. Ensure your specification is realistic. In terms of the product design specification content, you see on screen a list of 30 different potential headings which you can use when developing a product design specification. These headings are a guide. Some are more applicable than others to specific products. It's important as a designer that you look through the list and identify what is important to the overall product which you are designing at that point in time. You've got things like performance, environment, product life cycle, installation and maintenance. You should look through this list and identify the headings which are relevant to what you're trying to develop at that moment in time. In summary, key product specification questions that need to be answered from your PDS are, what's the purpose of the product? What are you trying to achieve? What are the product functions? What does the product need to be able to do? What are the unique selling points? What's going to make your product different from others already on the market? Who are your direct and indirect competitors? Who would buy this product? So who is your customer? And importantly, how much is the customer willing to pay? A well-constructed and strong PDS will put you in the best position for developing a successful solution. Page 2/2 Graduate Apprenticeship - Engineering Design and Manufacture Class: EO403 - Design for X Product Specification methods - the PDS In this video, we will be looking at the product design specification. So we've identified a problem area. What's the next step? Then what do we do? Well, we look for information. We consult books. We speak to people. We conduct questionnaires. Essentially, what we do is market research. We go out there. We immerse ourselves in the market and truly try to understand the problem in which we're going to address. As we gather more information, we begin to develop a list of requirements. These are what the customer sees as being the must have's, the could have's, the must avoids, things that doesn't really matter. Basically, what we're doing is defining the specification for a future product development. Often, people are inclined to go straight into concept generation upon completion of market research. However, it's important to stop. The stage, which we are going to look at, is the product design specification, which sits in between your market research and your concept generation. The product design specification is an exact statement of what the product has to do and what the customer design requirements are. It's the foundation upon which the rest of the design process is built. It clearly defines the overall product requirements and what you're trying to achieve. It contains all the facts relating to the product outcome. So if you've identified from a customer that the product has to cost no more than 50 pounds, you would include things like that in the product design specification. It has to include all the facts that you've identified in market research. Importantly, the PDS should also reflect the outputs of the market and customer research. As said, if a customer has told you they want to pay 50 pounds for the product, then don't put into the PDS that they're willing to be 100 pounds. It has to be based on fact and truth that you've uncovered during the market research phase. The product design specification should also contain realistic design constraints and targets. And it shouldn't unnecessarily constrain the design team. Let's stop for a second and look at what we mean by clearly-defined product requirements. The product requirements should be well-defined, clear, and specific. So, for example, in a product design specification, you might see the statement, the design must be lightweight, which is OK. But what do we actually mean by lightweight? Is it 1 kilogramme? Is it 5 kilogrammes? Is it 50 kilogrammes? Try to avoid words that involve a level of ambiguity and be specific. Many people will interpret the term lightweight in a different way, so you want to make sure that anything you've got in your PDS is really specific. An example of how we can improve that might be to say, the design must not weigh more than 10 kilogrammes. Let's also take a greater look at what we mean by realistic design constraints and targets. The product requirements should be realistic and achievable Page 1/2 targets. So, for example, the product should be made from 1 kilogramme of 24 karat gold and cost less than 100 pounds to manufacture. We have to stop and ask ourselves, is that really achievable? In the PDS, we want to set goals that are realistic and achievable. Ensure your specification is realistic. In terms of the product design specification content, you see on screen a list of 30 different potential headings which you can use when developing a product design specification. These headings are a guide. Some are more applicable than others to specific products. It's important as a designer that you look through the list and identify what is important to the overall product which you are designing at that point in time. You've got things like performance, environment, product life cycle, installation and maintenance. You should look through this list and identify the headings which are relevant to what you're trying to develop at that moment in time. In summary, key product specification questions that need to be answered from your PDS are, what's the purpose of the product? What are you trying to achieve? What are the product functions? What does the product need to be able to do? What are the unique selling points? What's going to make your product different from others already on the market? Who are your direct and indirect competitors? Who would buy this product? So who is your customer? And importantly, how much is the customer willing to pay? A well-constructed and strong PDS will put you in the best position for developing a successful solution. Page 2/2 Graduate Apprenticeship - Engineering Design and Manufacture Class: EO403 - Design for X What is Creativity In this video, we're going to look at creativity. So what is creativity? Well, very often when we use this word we think of the phrase thinking outside the box. We think about different things about the creation of new ideas, the generation of new concepts for products or services and so on. And what are the definitions of creativity and innovation? Innovation is something we often get muddled up with the word creativity. Creativity is the generation of new ideas, and innovation is successful exploitation of these new ideas. The bringing to market of these new ideas in a business like manner. Design is what links creativity and innovation. It shapes all those ideas that we have into functional, practical, and attractive solutions for customers and users. Design as a process is the method that we use for turning new ideas into these propositions for our customers and for users. And in the design development process, there are many, many methods that we can use. So what is creativity? Well, to sum it up, creativity is the bringing into being of something which didn't exist before either as a product or a process or a thought. It is something which most importantly adds value to the product, the service, or the process that we happen to be designing. I'd like to look at two case studies which express creativity very well. The first case study is the development of a new fish product. The Saucy Fish Company wanted to give the diner at home the same kind of experience they could expect in a restaurant. They wanted to sell fish to the dining market at home. They wanted to combine responsibly sourced fish with beautiful sauces, unusual sauces, something that you wouldn't cook up at home but would certainly order in a restaurant. So they looked at the market for fish, selected those responsibly sourced fishers, and then put adequate and appropriate good-tasting fish sauce with those fish. But not only that, they wanted to change the user experience. They wanted to make a fish that looks good, cooks good, and tastes great. But not only that, they wanted to make their products stand out in an already crowded market within the chiller cabinets in the supermarkets and stores. So they generated a whole campaign looking at colours of packaging, looking at imaging on the packaging, and so on making it attractive to the buyer. Then they also wanted to change the user experience by adding a blog so that people could go online. They could find out additions to add to the sauce and the fish for the complete meal. So they gave the user more of an experience and looked at this product not only as a new product to the market but a whole complete package of marketing and branding as well. In the second case study, I'd like to look at another food product, coffee. The Little Coffee Company wanted to look at an alternative way of providing high quality cafeteria style coffee to the customer in hotels and restaurants. They wanted to reduce the mess that comes Page 1/2 along often with a cafetiere experience and the large coffee machines. The little coffee bag company looked to another product. They looked to the tea bag, and they determined that there was a market out there for coffee in a tea bag style delivery. Such was invented the Little Coffee Bag company. This is a product that was supported by Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden on The Dragons Den. And Peter Jones said the secret was to take an existing product, service, or concept and to take it up a level by applying a new vision and lots of creativity. So to sum up what is creativity, creativity is the ability to look at the world in new and different ways. It's to look at the world and to find connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena. It's also looking to find hidden patterns in things, and from all of this to generate solutions for problems that we may have. Why don't you think of ways that you can use creativity to solve problems from this point on. Page 2/2 Graduate Apprenticeship - Engineering Design and Manufacture Class: EO403 - Design for X Creativity Methods - Osbourne checklist In this video, we're going to look at a creative method called Osborn's checklist. So what is Osborn's checklist? It is a simple tool for increasing the number of ideas that we might have to solve a problem. It consists of a very simple but comprehensive list of questions that we might have about problems or ideas that we've come up with, which can be used either individually to solve the problems or in group scenarios. This particular method was developed by Alex Osborn back in the '50s. He was the author of a book called Applied Imagination. And the checklist that he formulated was a way of getting ideas to be generated from other ideas. The key concept behind the checklist was building on ideas that had already been suggested. It is a flexible trial-and-error type of approach. You may know of another creative method called SCAMPER. This is simply a derivation of Osborn's checklist. And the questions asked in this checklist are very similar. The aim of Osborn's checklist is to encourage creativity and divergence when we're coming up with ideas or when we're trying to solve problems. The checklist adds order and structure to what could otherwise be quite a chaotic brainstorming process. Osborn's checklist works on the principle of addressing a particular focus. It might be an existing solution. It might be proposed concepts to a new design problem. And the questions are taken one at a time, looking at lots of new ways and approaches to solve that particular problem. So let us look at the different categories that are included in Osborn's checklist. Firstly, there is Adapt, then Modify, Magnify, Minify or make smaller, Substituting or eliminating, Rearranging, Reversing, and finally, Combining. By applying these to the particular problem, we can come up with many more new, creative ideas. So let's look at these factors in turn. Adapt. When we start designing, we have ideas and concepts. We want to generate as many as we can initially. Early on, we might look at the ideas that we've got and create new ideas by adapting them. We might maybe get inspiration from nature, from other products. We might make things brighter. We might change the look or the material. We might emulate or simulate other products that are out there on the market. So we're wanting to adapt the original ideas to come up with new ideas. We could modify. We could take original ideas, and we could look at something more complicated, something maybe of a different shape. We could look at something that we change to make it more reusable or give it a second life. We can make it stretchy. We can change the features of it and its properties. Two factors which we can apply to new ideas could be magnify, making them bigger, or minify, making them smaller. We can make a product longer. We can Page 1/2 make it inflatable so that perhaps it's small, and then it can become bigger. We can fold it. We can make it thicker and wider and taller and so on, thus producing many different ideas and concepts. We can also do the opposite. We can make things smaller. We can make them more economical. We can make them use less energy or power. We can use less material. We can change their size through different stages of use. We can make them narrower. We can make them thinner and so on. So we can create many more ideas simply by looking at size and scale of our original ideas. We can substitute or eliminate aspects of a product or a service or process. We can look elsewhere. We can change parts of it for different materials, which would give it different functioning properties. We could look at a different approach. We could take parts out, and we can remove aspects of the product as we develop in order to get more ideas. We can also rearrange things within our original idea. Is there something in the product that can be put together or taken apart to give us a different idea? Can we do something by hand or make it semi-automatic? Can we change parts to produce a different product? Can we have other layouts? Could we turn things upside down? Could we sort them? Could we turn them backwards? What could we do to rearrange our original product ideas to produce more concepts? And the last two items on Osborn's checklist are Reverse and Combine. So we could take some of the ideas that we've had early on, and we could turn them around. We could reverse them. We could take one look at the negative of what we've already come up with. We could look at the opposite of things. We could turn things backwards, inside out. And finally, looking at Combine. We can combine parts. We can blend aspects of a product together. And we can combine aspects of the product from different categories. So using any of these factors within Osborn's checklist, we can take some of our early ideas and develop many, many more concepts and ideas for products, for processes, and for services. When you're trying to come up with solutions to problems, why don't you try Osborn's checklist to come up with lots more ideas or concepts? Page 2/2 Graduate Apprenticeship - Engineering Design and Manufacture Class: EO403 - Design for X Creativity Methods - Lotus Methods In this video, we're going to look at the Lotus method, a method for producing concepts and ideas. So what is the Lotus method? It's another creative thinking technique, but it's structured. It's a structured brainstorming exercise used to expand on a central idea or on a problem. This method was invented in Japan by Yasuo Matsumura. It adds focus and power to the classic brainstorming, but most importantly, it adds an element of structure and order to what, again, might be a very chaotic process, brainstorming. The technique helps create more and more quality ideas for products and services. It also helps discover innovative ways of improving businesses, and it helps us to solve and unpick a variety of problems in a very easy and systematic way. The Lotus method is based around a grid. It starts with a 3 by 3 grid in the center, and then is surrounded by eight 3 by 3 grids. The idea is to put the problem in the center and then work out solutions from that point. I will now take you through the process. The original problem statement that you're trying to address or the theme that you might want to unpick is placed in the center box in the centre of the 3 by 3 matrix. Around this box, within the central box, any related solution or themes are brainstormed and entered into those eight boxes around the central core problem. After filling out the whole of the central box, there are eight new grids around this box, and what we do is we take each of those different ideas or solutions from the central box and fill them into the centre of the surrounding grids. This process then repeats itself, with the group, or even an individual, yourself, adding eight more ideas or eight solutions for each of the eight initial aspects that you had for your first central grid. On completion, assuming that you've filled in all the boxes, you will have at least 65 new ideas or solutions to the problem that you initially had. Here's an example of the Lotus methods. We're using the 3 by 3 grid in the center, and surrounding that, we have eight more 3 by 3 grids, thus creating a large 3 by 3 matrix of 3 by 3 matrices. I'm going to put the problem of how to improve poor quality air in city centres into the middle of the grid. I am now going to think of eight ways to solve this. So I'm going to brainstorm these either in a group or by myself. So I first of all think about the problem, and I start to unpick it and I come up with, well, what if we got rid of cars, vehicles, buses, and so on? That becomes my first solution. What if we adapted vehicles that we already have? Or what if we came up with new ideas for new vehicles which don't contribute as much air pollution? What if we started to think about filtering the air or taking the toxins out of the air? What if we looked at more green spaces, because we know that green spaces give out oxygen, which can help purify the air. It also takes away carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide gases. What if we Page 1/2 look at the people? What if we look at how we could protect them from the poor quality air? What about looking at the locations? Where are the bad spots? Where are the spots with good quality air? And what can we do about that? So now I have eight different areas that I want to focus on as potential solutions to the problem with the air quality in the city center, and I can go through each of those in turn and break those down even further. So for example, people. We could look at the possibility of them wearing masks. We could look at their clothing and incorporate something into that. We could look at pram covers, because we know that a large majority of children are affected by poor quality air in city centres, and so on. What you're trying to do is to produce the most number of concepts and ideas. And should you fill in all those boxes, you should end up with 64 ideas to the problem initially suggested. So try this method, this Lotus method for problems that you may have to come up with new, but structured and organised solutions to the problem. Page 2/2 Selection and Evaluation Methods Concept Selection and Evaluation Timings for today 1pm-1.30pm: Hilary Week 4 1.30pm-2.15pm: Lecture (with dot sticking activity) Break 2.30pm-3pm: De Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats 3pm-4pm: Group project work Where we are in the product development methodology Empathize Define Ideate Prototype Test Institute of Design at Stanford Discover Define Develop UK Design Council ‘s Double Diamond (2005) Deliver Pugh Methodology BS7000 Guide to managing product design Develop Evaluate Select What is concept selection? “…an iterative process closely related to concept generation and testing,… helps the team refine and improve the concepts, leading to one for further testing.” Concept selection methods Controlled convergence matrix Weighting and rating matrices Multi-voting Prototype and test De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats Pros and cons External decision Product champion Design matrices Screening and scoring Ulrich and Eppinger have a two-stage approach to concept selection: Rough initial concepts are evaluated to a common reference concept using a screening matrix (aka controlled convergence matrix) After certain concepts eliminated, a more detailed analysis is done using a scoring matrix Screening When you have rough concepts (say 10-15 at sketch level), concept screening is appropriate. Screening process Prepare the selection matrix Identify medium for session, ensure concepts at same level of detail, more than 15 consider multi voting, only important criteria used (no weighting!) Rate the concepts Rank the concepts Combine and improve the concepts Any good concept degraded by one bad feature? Combine best qualities of different concepts? Select one or more concepts Reflect on the results and the process Concept screening Prepare the selection matrix Identify medium for session, ensure concepts at same level of detail, more than 15 consider multi voting, only important criteria used (no weighting!) Concept screening Rate the concepts (+, 0, -) Concept screening Rank the concepts Concept screening Combine and improve the concepts Any good concept degraded by one bad feature? Combine best qualities of different concepts? Concept screening Select one or more concepts Reflect on the results and the process Concept scoring Concept scoring should be used to help choose between the 3-5 best ideas Concept scoring process Prepare the selection matrix More detailed selection criteria (ease of use = ease of injection, ease of cleaning, etc.). Criteria weighted by percentage Rate the concepts 1-5 scale (1= much worse than reference, 2=worse, 3=same, 4=better, 5=much better), not always a single reference concept Rank the concepts Weighted scores calculated by multiplying the raw scores by criteria weights Combine and improve the concepts Select one or more concepts Spread sheet can be used to vary weights and ratings (“sensitivity analysis‟) Reflect on the results and the process In what way did the method facilitate team decision making?, how can the method be modified to improve team performance? Concept evaluation Prepare the selection matrix More detailed selection criteria (ease of use = ease of injection, ease of cleaning, etc.). Criteria weighted by percentage Concept evaluation Rate the concepts 1-5 scale (1= much worse than reference, 2=worse, 3=same, 4=better, 5=much better), not always a single reference concept Concept evaluation Rank the concepts Weighted scores calculated by multiplying the raw scores by criteria weights Concept evaluation Combine and improve the concepts Concept selection methods Controlled convergence matrix Weighting and rating matrices Multi-voting Prototype and test De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats Pros and cons External decision Product champion Multi voting/dot sticking Multi voting / dot sticking Each number of the team votes for several concepts. The concept with the most votes is selected. Ideal for a short project or large number of ideas o A good way to engage a wide number of stakeholders in concept selection. o Useful when there a wide array of potential or competing ideas. o Simple and easy to administer, but does not necessarily provide rich feedback. o By allocating each stakeholder with a number of sticky 'dots', they can allocate one, some or all of them to their preferred choice. 3 Criteria: - Comfort - Practicalities - Protection Multi voting / dot sticking APPROACH 1: Stakeholders: Each person take on a different role: -2 x client -2 x product designer -2 x end user Allocate ‘dots’ : Different coloured dot used for a different stakeholder e.g. client = 5 x red dots, product designer = 5 x blue dots, end user = 5 x green dots Vote & filter - Following the initial voting, filter out results and have a second pass. Capture likes and dislikes: note likes and dislikes to capture rationale. Filter down to top 3 concepts. Multi voting / dot sticking APPROACH 2 - All of you are design consultants Decide on evaluation criteria (pick 4 criteria) red dot = ‘e.g. easy to manufacture‘ blue dot = ‘e.g. innovativeness’ green dot = ‘e.g. low cost solution’ Black dot = e.g. most aesthetically pleasing Allocate ‘dots’ - Different coloured dot used for a different strength. Each person receives 3 of each dot i.e. 3 green, 3 blue, 3 red, 3 black Vote & filter - Following the initial voting, filter out results and have a second pass. Capture likes and dislikes: note likes and dislikes to capture rationale. Filter down to top 3 concepts. Multi voting / dot sticking Activity APPROACH 2 - All of you are design consultants Decide on evaluation criteria (pick at least 4 criteria) but can have more if you wish red dot = ‘e.g. easy to manufacture‘ blue dot = ‘e.g. innovativeness’ green dot = ‘e.g. low cost solution’ Black dot = e.g. most aesthetically pleasing Allocate ‘dots’ - Different coloured dot used for a different strength. Decide how many votes of each colour each person gets e.g. 3 green, 3 blue, 3 red, 3 black Vote & filter - Following the initial voting, filter out results and have a second pass. Capture likes and dislikes: note likes and dislikes to capture rationale. Filter down to top 3 concepts. Prototyping and Testing Prototype and test Success will depend on the selection of the prototyping approach that will fill the development needs best… e.g. Testing Manufacture-ability Dimensional constraints Prototypes types…. Proof of concept (function), rough mock-up (feel), aesthetic (look) Aim: 3D visualisation for shape and form Aim: Secure Funding Aim: Functionality Aim: Aesthetics and Ergonomics Nothing wrong with a cardboard model Useful for allowing users to provide quick feedback A communication tool A Validation tool Can be physical or virtual External Decisions & Product Champions External Decision Concepts are turned over to the customer, client, or some other external entity for selection. External Decision External decision makers are people outside the company; investors, stockholders, who need information to make educated decisions. Product Champion An influential member of the product development team who chooses a concept based on personal preference. James Dyson Product Champion A product champion is someone who sees value in a product, and creates and develops the product in a systematic fashion. The product champion entices decision makers to invest, sell or promote the product. The product champion also keeps the product in consumer's minds. What selection and evaluation methods would you use at…… Early conceptual development stage? Embodiment design stage? Detail design stage? de Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats Activity de Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats Aim: to force the use of multiple perspectives to aid the selection/ development of optimal solutions. Process: i. Uses 6 imaginary hats to change the mode of people’s thoughts. ii. Requires a facilitator to lead and control the creative sessions. iii. A small group of around 4 people is most suitable, but this design method can also be used by individuals, giving focus to the selection of a final solution. iv. All thinking hats can be used during a session or a chosen selection. de Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats Summary Each ‘hat’ takes on a different focus or perspective to help with the selection/development of an optimal solution, as follows: TUTORIAL Thinking Hats tutorial – activity brief Millions of coat hangers are produced and used every day for their intended purpose but as more and more people become environmentally aware people are finding new uses for coat hangers. You are to come up with an updated and innovative version/new use for the coat hanger, using 5 of De Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats Method to reach a final solution. 5 Thinking Hats tutorial - task Use 5 of de Bono’s 6 thinking hats to do the task 1. Use the ‘White Hat’ to think about and list the market for coat hangers, what different types do you get, what are they used for, what different sizes are available. Use your own knowledge of the product. (10 mins) 2. Then use the ‘Green Hat’ to come up with ideas for a new uses for coat hangers. 3 or 4 ideas per person. Sketch these. (15 mins) 3. Think about these ideas using the ‘Yellow and Black Hats’. Take each idea in turn and note positives and negatives of each. Narrow down to three favourite ideas. (30 mins) 4. Use the ‘Red Hat’ to select a final solution & draw a visual of your solution on the flipchart paper you can hold up to show the class. (15 mins) Possible Solutions Complete the task before advancing to the next slide for some innovative solutions to use of coat hangers……… Coat hangers used in innovative ways Graduate Apprenticeship - Engineering Design and Manufacture Class: EO403 - Design for X What are Selection Evaluation Methods In this video, we are going to look at what selection and evaluation methods are. So what is concept selection? Well, it's an iterative process very closely related to the concept generation stage and to the testing stage. It helps a team or a designer refine and improve the ideas that he or she has. And it leads to the choice of a final one for further testing. Concept selection takes place after a number of concepts have been generated. It is looking at an appropriate method that will help us narrow down the number of concepts that we have, which meet the needs of the customer and meet the requirements of the design. In a design methodology, concept selection normally comes after we have generated a large number of concepts and before we test a few of those. Concept selection is about using an appropriate method in order to get a solution to the problem that we had. So looking at all the needs of the customer or the user, looking at the requirements for the product, and then looking at the concepts that are based on those, we would use a concept selection method in order to reduce down to converge the number of concepts that we might take through to the next stage. We might look at them from the point of view of cost, in terms of functionality, and for that, we might build products. We might build prototypes to test them. We might also look at other competitors in order to see how our particular product solution can actually compare to them. There are lots of different types of concept selection methods. There are the decision matrices, the control convergence matrix, and weighting and rating matrices. There is multi-voting and prototype and testing of functionality of a product, for example. We can go to people outside the company, and we can get views and feedback from them in terms of an external decision. We can talk to product champions or look to product champions for advice and guidance, people who know and who value the qualities and functionality within particular products. We can use the very straightforward and simple pros and cons method, a list of what's positive and what's negative. And we can use de Bono's six thinking hats taking on a particular stance, a theme, emotion, benefits, and so on, and looking at a product, solution, a concept from that perspective. These are just a few of those concepts selection methods. So how do you know if the ideas that you come up with are good ideas? Well, we need to evaluate ideas. It's at this stage that we look at the evaluation of ideas. There are a number of things we have to look for. We have to look for the fact that all harmful features will no longer be in the concept that we're thinking of taking forward, that all the useful features that we have been working with are retained, and that any new benefits that we have designed appear and are incorporated into the versions that we're going to move forward Page 1/3 with. That as we're designing, we're not going to introduce any harmful features. And quite often, design can be a compromise. And as we design something, we might make the product less safe. We have to ensure that no harmful features appear within the design process. The system that we're designing doesn't get more complex, and that's something we need to look at. We should be designing and simplifying as we're refining and developing. Any of the primary trade offs and the contradictions that we've designed have been removed and are no longer there in the concept we're taking forward. That we have also looked at the possibility of any resources that are available to us, and how they might be used in the development of concepts. And we've also looked at other requirements related to the developed system and that they are also fulfiled. So there are seven different ways of checking and evaluating, if the ideas that we are coming up with are good. I'm now going to show you an example of this. I'm taking the traditional vacuum cleaner and comparing it with a new central vacuuming system often found in homes in North America. So looking at the evaluation of all the ideas, all the harmful features have vanished in terms of improving this product design. Yes, there is less user effort required. No longer do we have to carry the vacuum cleaner around or to drag it around whilst cleaning. And there is limited to no blowback of dust with this particular new product, the central cleaning vacuum system. All the useful features are retained, and that is the case. We can get increased suction, because we can have a bigger vacuum in the basement, which powers this particular new product. And the cable is no longer in our way when we're vacuuming. We just simply use the hose. New harmful features are not appearing. We've not designed anything in that has any risk or safety hazard. And the system isn't more complex than it was previously. It is the same vacuum principle that we're using. Let's look at the last three elements. The primary trade offs and the contradictions are removed. Yes, there is less human involvement in terms of the use of the vacuum, and there's also more health related benefits. Again, this is particularly beneficial in terms of allergies and so on. Have we used other resources that are around about? And the response to that is, yes, we've used the dead wall space, the cavity of the building or the house. We've used the basement, our loft spaces, which quite often are under utilised. We put a system that powers the new central vacum into the basement of a loft space. And finally, other requirements related to the development of the system that we're creating, the central vacuuming system, have they been introduced? And the answer is, yes, we have reduced the noise. The noise is taken away from source from inside the house and no longer becomes an issue, which comes along with traditional vacuum cleaners. So what selection and evaluation methods would you use at the very early concept development stage, at the embodiment stage when you're refining your concepts, or at the detailed design stage when you're actually down to one concept? And you're making it functional and workable. Try to justify your thoughts as to why you've chosen those particular methods. Page 2/3 Page 3/3 Graduate Apprenticeship - Engineering Design and Manufacture Class: EO403 - Design for X Selection Evaluation Methods - Pros Cons In this video, we're going to look at the very popular pros and cons selection and evaluation method often used in industry to solve problems. So pros and cons usually consist of a list. It is a list which allows quick and easy decision-making. The pros are arguments for a particular solution or concept, and the cons are arguments against taking it in a particular direction. Using a pros and cons list can help us get a more sensible, informed decision, detailing both sides of the argument, looking at the positive and the negatives, looking at the good aspects, looking at the bad aspects of particular products, looking at how they function, do they function well, do they have faults, and so on. Decisions can be approached objectively without letting the gut feeling impact influence choice. So we're actually taking time to analyse and to look at the positives and the negatives. This method is particularly useful in a group when teams have to make a decision on the viability of a particular product. All the pros and the cons can be listed, and we're not basing anything on one point of view or one idea. I am sure you will have used this particular method, pros and cons, when you have had to select and evaluate any problem or concept development previously. Page 1/1 Graduate Apprenticeship - Engineering Design and Manufacture Class: EO403 - Design for X Selection Evaluation Methods - External decision in industry In this video, we're going to look at selection and evaluation methods that are often used in industry, the external decision and product champion. The external decision is a method that's often used when concepts are passed over to the customer, or the client, or some external person for selection. As the designer, we can sit with them and give them information and advise them and go through the concepts that have been generated, until finally, they have some input into which can be selected. External decision makers are people outside of the company. They are investors, they're stockholders, they are the client, and so on, and they often need information from the designers to make educated decisions in terms of which concept to select. Another method of concept selection and evaluation can be from a product champion. Product champion is an influential member of a product development team who chooses a concept based on personal preference. One such example would be James Dyson, a product champion for the vacuum cleaner. He has developed the vacuum system over many, many years, and produced numerous products as a result of this. A product champion is someone who sees the value in a product, and they research and develop and create until they produce a product in a systematic fashion which meets and addresses the original problem. Product champion also makes decision-makers invest, sell, or promote the product. Nowadays, on television, in adverts, we often see the product champion or the inventor of a product pushing and promoting their product to an audience and to customers. The product champion also keeps the product in the consumer's minds. So where you work or where you study, who would be your external decision? Who would be your product champion? Page 1/1 Graduate Apprenticeship - Engineering Design and Manufacture Class: EO403 - Design for X Sustainable Development Categorisation In this video, we're going to look at sustainable development categorization. In this area, it is often hard to categorise the concepts and the methods used for sustainable product development, however, there are two main categories. These categories are concerned with life-cycle thinking, which is fundamental to any sort of design for the environment and sustainability. So with these two approaches, it's either about the product itself, or it's about the service and the product. So the first categorization is concepts and methods framed by the idea of the product to meet the user needs or commercial needs, and the second categorization is about concepts and methods which go beyond the product, for example, a service, in order to meet the user and the commercial needs. These approaches very much focused on the life-cycle of the existing product, and they don't change or question the fundamental design of the product or the functionality, but what they focus on mainly are the product supply and the processes that are involved in the production of the product, from everything to the materials, to the distribution, to the packaging it is delivered in, and so on. So looking at the first category of sustainable product development concepts and methods, these are the ones that are directly involved with the product itself, for example, design for the environment, life cycle analysis, looking at the full life of the product, cradle to cradle, looking at the very beginning to the very end and how that might feed into a closed-loop circle, cleaner production, and for design for X's, design for recycling, design for reuse, design for disassembly, and design for durability, all designed for X's that focus on particular aspects to reduce environmental impact. There are several criticisms of category 1 methods. One of these is that more radical thinking is necessary with the redesign of an existing problem because sustainability is complex and systematic. It is often argued that an eco-product is good, but what exactly does this mean? And quite often, companies are developing eco-products which aren't necessarily reducing environmental impact. The key thing related to category 1 methods is the questioning of an actual need for the product, and is there a possibility of using a service or a utility instead. This leads us to category 2 approaches, which focus not on the product, but on the life-cycle of the utility. These approaches question whether we need a product, and they often question the fundamental design of the existing product. The solution is, more often than not, a conceptualization of a utility as a service and/or a system, and these category 2 approaches often extend to focus on product consumption. Here are some examples of category 2 concepts and methods, Product Service Systems, commonly known as PSS. These are business models, and they provide a cohesive delivery of products and services. Page 1/2 Sustainable consumption, and this is the study of the resource and energy use of a product. There is also the concept of factor x, or as we commonly know it, factor 4. It visualises a quadruple increase in resource efficiency using existing methodologies whilst avoiding any negative impact on the overall quality of life. Dematerialisation, this is one you may have heard of before. And it literally means the use of less materials to create products. Another category 2 concept is service design, and this is a process in which the designer focuses on creating optimal service experiences. Service design can often include the use of customer journey maps, it can include a story about different customer's intention of use with a particular product, and so on. These are just a few of the concepts and methods that have been developed over recent years in order to address sustainable development. So the options are open for a sustainable approach for product developers, looking at a category 1 or a category 2 approach, developing an existing product, or looking at providing a service or a system. Page 2/2 Graduate Apprenticeship - Engineering Design and Manufacture Class: EO403 - Design for X What is Sustainable Development In this video, we will look at what is sustainable development. A common definition for sustainable development comes from the Brundtland Report. It is development that meets the needs of the present population without compromising any ability of future generations to meet the needs that they would have. Today's sustainable development movement is much broader and far reaching than this. It considers aspects such as the social, the economical, and the environmental implications of products. It goes further than this. And it is the idea that any development should be a balance of all these three areas. These three issues-social, economical, and environmental issues-are not isolated. Rather, they are interdependent on one another. So environmental issues are highly dependent on social and economic issues. And these are three key drivers for sustainability. So what are the controversies that surround sustainable development? Is it about saving the earth and saving our planet? Or are environmental impacts a recent phenomenon? For example, c