14/6/2018. Problem Definition and Need Identification. 3.1 Introduction. Problem Definition. Definition of Customer. 3.2 Identifying Customer Needs

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1 Problem Definition and Need Identification Chapter Introduction What is problem definition step in PDP? 1 2 Problem Definition: Start of the Conceptual Design Process Problem Definition Product Development begins by determining what the needs are that a product must meet. Problem definition is the most important of these steps in the PDP. Understanding any problem thoroughly is crucial to reaching an outstanding solution. The problem definition process is mainly the need identification step. 3 4 Definition of Customer Webster Definition of Customer: One that purchases a product or service. End user 3.2 Identifying Customer Needs Total Quality Management Viewpoint of Customer: Anyone who receives or uses what an individual or organization provides. HomeDeopt and Lowes act as customers but they are not end users! Who are my customers? What does the customer want? 5 6 1

2 Preliminary Research on Customers Needs The Shot-Buddy Example In a large company, the research on customer needs for a particular product or for the development of a new product is done using a number of formal methods and by different business units. The initial work may be done by: Marketing department specialist Team made up of marketing and design professionals. Designers focus on need that are: Unmet in the marketplace Products that are similar to the proposed product Historical ways of meeting the need Technological approaches to engineering similar products of the type under consideration 7 8 Gathering Information from Customers Constructing a Survey Instrument Interviews with customers Customer complaints Customer surveys Focus groups Warranty data Determine the survey purpose. Identify what specific information is needed. Design the questions. Each question should be: Unbiased Unambiguous Clear Brief Three categories of questions: Attitude questions Knowledge questions Behavior questions 9 10 Example of Customer Survey for Shot-Buddy Evaluating Customer Surveys Evaluating a survey question depends on the type of question and the kind of information sought

3 Ethnographic Studies Ethnography is the process of investigation and documentation of the behavior of a specific group of people under particular conditions. Ethnography entails close observation, even to the point of immersion, in the group being studies while they are experiencing the conditions of interest. By this method, the observer can get a comprehensive and integrated understanding of the scenario under investigation. 3.3 Customer Requirements What are customer requirements? Customer Requirements Designers must compile a ranked listing of what customers need and want from the product being designed. This set of needs and wants is often called customer requirements. Hierarchy of human needs: Rank of 1: Physiological needs Rank of 2: Safety and security needs Rank of 3: Social needs Rank of 4: Psychological needs Rank of 5: Self-fulfillment needs Design Point of View of Customer Requirements Performance deals with what the design should do when it is completed and in operation. The time dimension includes all time aspects of the design. Cost pertains to all monetary aspects of the design. Quality is a complex characteristic with many aspects and definitions Garvin s Eight Dimensions of Quality Classifying Customer Requirements Kano recognized that there are four levels of cutomer requirements: Expecters: These are the basic attributes that one would expect to see in the product, i.e., standard features. Spokens: These are the specific features that customers say they want in the product. Unspokens: These are product attributes the customer does not generally talk about, but they remain important to him or her. Exciters: Often called delighters, these are product features that make the product unique and distinguish it from the competition

4 Kano Diagram 3.4 Gathering Information on Existing Products How can gathering information on existing products be done? Product Dissection Observing a product during its use is one of the most natural ways to gather information about it. The process of taking the object apart to see how it works is known as both product dissection and reverse engineering. Product Dissection (2) The product dissection process includes four activities: 1) Discover the operational requirements of the product. 2) Examine how the product performs its functions. 3) Determine the relationship between parts of the product. 4) Determine the manufacturing and assembly processes used to produce the product. Engineers do reverse engineering to discover information that they cannot access any other way! Product and Technical Literature US Patent 5,540,428 Consumer Product Literature: There are private nonprofit organization dedicated to informing consumers about products (e.g. Consumers Union). Internet Shopping Sites: Internet sites exist to compile information for specialty products. Technical Literature: In addition to information from special interest publications, there are scholarly journals that publish research quality information. Patent Literature: Not all products are patented, but patent literature does include inventions that have become successful products. Basketball retrieval and return device J. G. Joseph,, Basketball Retrieval and Return Apparatus, Patent , July 30,

5 US Patent 5,681,230 Physics of the Product or System Engineering Models of a problem: Basketball retrieval and return device 25 H. F. Krings, Automatic Basketball Return Apparatus, Patent , Oct 28, Model of Free Throw Free Body Diagrams C. M. Tran and L. M. Silverberg (2008), Optimal release conditions for the free throw in men s basketball, Journal of Sports Sciences, 26:11, Engineering Characteristics 3.5 Establishing the Engineering Characteristics How does establishing the engineering characteristics help to write the product design specifications? Establishing the engineering characteristics is a critical step toward writing the product design specification. The process of identifying the needs that a product must fill is a complicated undertaking. Just knowing what a customer or end user wants from a product is not sufficient for generating designs. Concept generation starts when a good description of the product is given. A good description of a product is comprised of solutionneutral specifications

6 Description of a Product Design Parameters: Parameters are a set of physical properties whose values determine the form and behavior of a design. Design Variable: A design variable is a parameter over which the design team has a choice. Constraints: A design parameter whose value has been fixed becomes a constraint during the design process. Genera and Competitive Performance Benchmarking Benchmarking is a process for measuring a company s operations against the best practices of companies both inside and outside of their industry. Benchmarking operates most effectively on a quid pro quo basis. A company can look for benchmarks in many different places Sources of Resistance to Benchmark Fear of being perceived as copiers. Fear of yielding competitive advantages if information is traded/shared. Arrogance: A company may feel that there is nothing useful to be learned by looking outside of the organization. Impatience: Companies that engage in an improvement program often want to begin making changes immediately. Two Initial Steps of Benchmarking Select the product, process, or functional area of the company that is to be benchmarked: That will influence the selection of key performance metrics that will be measured and used for comparison. Identify the best-in-class companies for each process to benchmarked: A best-in-class company is one that performs the process at the lowest cost with the highest degree of customer satisfaction, or has the largest market share Competitive-Performance Benchmarking Determine features, functions, and any other factors that are important to: End user satisfaction Technical success of the product Determine functions that are: Increase the costs of the product Have the greatest potential for improvement Determine the features and functions that differentiate the product from its competitors. Establish metrics by which the most important functions or features can be quantified and evaluated. Evaluate the product and its competing products using performance testing. Generate a benchmarking report summarizing all information learned about the product, data collected, and conclusions about competitors. 3.6 Quality Function Deployment What is Quality Function Deployment?

7 Quality Function Deployment Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a planning and team problem-solving tool that has been adopted by a wide variety of companies as the tool of choice for focusing a design team s attention on satisfying customer needs throughout the product development process. The term deployment is QFD refers to the fact that this method determines the important set of requirements for each phase of PDP planning and uses them to identify the set of technical characteristics of each phase that most contribute to the satisfying the requirements. QFD process is known as a methodology for infusing the voice of the customer into every aspect of the design process. House of Quality House of Quality translates customer requirements into quantifiable design variables, called engineering characteristics House of Quality Configuration Streamlined House of Quality Example: Streamlined House of Quality for Shot-Buddy Example: HOQ Rooms 2 and 3 for Shot- Buddy

8 Example: Streamlined Configuration of HOQ for Shot-Buddy Interpreting Results of HOQ The highest-ranking ECs from the HOQ are either constraints or design variables whose values can be used as decision-making criteria for evaluating candidate designs. If a high-ranking EC has only a few possible candidate values then it may be appropriate to treat that EC as a constraint. There are certain design parameters that can only take a few discreet values. The lowest-ranking ECs of the HOQ are not as critical to the success of the design. These ECs allow freedom during the design process because their values can be set according to priorities of the designer or approving authority Product Design Specification 3.7 Product Design Specification What is product design specification? In the product development process, the results of the design planning process that governs the engineering design tasks are compiled in the form of a set of product design specification (PDS). (example: Table 3.3) The PDS is the basic control and reference document for the design and manufacture of the product. The PDS is a document that contains all of the facts related to the outcome of the product development. Creating the PDS finalizes the process of establishing the customer needs and wants, prioritizing them, and beginning to cast them into a technical framework so that design concepts can be established