Product Design

Typical Phases of Product Development

• Planning
• Concept Development
• System-Level design
• Design Detail
• Testing and Refinement
• Production Ramp-up

Economic Analysis of Project Development Costs

• Using measurable factors to help determine:

           -Operational design and development decisions

           -Go/no-go milestones

• Building a Base-Case Financial Model

          -A financial model consisting of major cash flows

          -Sensitivity Analysis for “what if” questions

Designing for the Customer 

Designing for the Customer: Quality Function Deployment

• Interfunctional teams from marketing, design engineering, and manufacturing
• Voice of the customer
• House of Quality 

Designing for the Customer: Value Analysis/Value Engineering 

• Achieve equivalent or better performance at a lower cost while maintaining all functional requirements defined by the customer

1. Does the item have any design features that are not necessary?
2. Can two or more parts be combined into one?
3. How can we cut down the weight?
4. Are there nonstandard parts that can be eliminated?

Design for Manufacturability

• Traditional Approach

      -“We design it, you build it” or “Over the wall”

• Concurrent Engineering

     -“Let’s work together simultaneously”

Design for Manufacturing and Assembly

• Greatest improvements related to DFMA arise from simplification of the product by reducing the number of separate parts:

1. During the operation of the product, does the part move relative to all other parts already assembled?
2. Must the part be of a different material or be isolated from other parts already assembled?
3. Must the part be separate from all other parts to allow the disassembly of the product for adjustment or maintenance?

Measuring Product Development Performance