Summary Product Design and Development

Karl T. Ulrich – Steven D. Eppinger

Chapter 2 – Development processes and organizations The generic product development process looks as follows. This is most like the process in “market-pull” situation.

Phase 0: Phase 1: Phase 2: Phase 3: Phase 4: Phase 5: Planning Concept

Development System-Level Design

Detail Design Testing and Refinement

Production Ramp-Up

One process of Concept Development is called the front-end process. This process looks as follows:

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Step 7 Identifying customer

needs

Establishing target

specifications

Generate product concepts

Select product concepts

Test product concepts

Set final specifications

Plan downstream development

Further there are three things that involve on the whole process:

1. Economic analysis 2. Benchmarking of competitive products 3. Modeling and prototyping

This process is further explained in chapters 4 till – 9.

The generic product development process can be adapted. Several variants are:

Process Type Examples Generic (Market-pull) products Sporting goods, furniture, tools Technology-Push Products Gore-Tex rainwear, Tyvek envelopes Platform Products Consumer electronics, computers, printers Process-Intensive Products Snack foods, breakfast cereals, chemicals, semiconductors Customized Products Switches, motors, batteries, containers High-Risk Products Pharmaceuticals, space systems Quick-Build Products Software, cellular phones Complex Systems Airplanes, jet engines, automobiles Organizations are formed by establishing links among individuals. There are three different kinds of links:

Reporting relationships Financial arrangements Physical layout Organizational links may be aligned with functions, projects or both. There are four types: 1. Functional organization 2. Project organization

3. Lightweight Project Matrix organization 4. Heavyweight Project Matrix organization

Chapter 3 – Product planning There are four types of product development projects

1. New product platforms 2. Derivatives of existing product platforms 3. Incremental improvements to existing products 4. Fundamentally new products

The product planning process consists of 5 steps:

Step 1: Identify Opportunities Step 2: Evaluate and Prioritize Projects - Competitive Strategy (Technology leadership, cost leadership, customer focus, imitative) -Market Segmentation -Technological Trajectories -Product Platform Planning [-Balancing the portfolio] Step 3: Allocate resources and plan timing -Allocate resources -Plan timing (Timing of product introductions, technology readiness, market readiness, competition) Step 4: Complete Pre-Project Planning -Mission statements (product description, benefit proposition, key business goals, primary market, secondary market, stakeholders) -Assumptions and constraints (Manufacturing, Service, Environment) -Staffing and Other Pre-Project Planning Activities Step 5: Reflect on the Results and the Process

Chapter 4 – Identifying Customer Needs Concept Development (phase 1) – Front-end process

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Step 7 Identifying customer

needs

Establishing target

specifications

Generate product concepts

Select product concepts

Test product concepts

Set final specifications

Plan downstream development

To determine customer needs five steps are discussed:

Step 1: Gather raw data from customer (interviews, focus group or observing the product in use) -Choosing customers (customer selection matrix with mark segment and different types of customers) -Documenting interactions with customers (audio, notes, video and still photography) Step 2: Interpret the raw data in terms of customer needs -Express the need in terms of what the product has to do, not how -Express the need as specifically as the raw data -Use positive, not negative, phrasing

-Express the need as an attribute of the product -Avoid the words must and should Step 3: Organize the needs into hierarchy of primary, secondary and tertiary needs -Print each need statement on a separate card -Eliminate redundant (same kind of needs) statements -Group the cards to the similarity of the needs -Choose a label for each group -Consider supergroups consisting of two to five groups -Review and edit the organized need statements Step 4: Establish the relative importance of the needs -Relying on the consensus of the team based on their experience -From customers surveys (enquetes) Step 5: Reflect on the results and the process

Chapter 5 – Product specifications Concept Development (phase 1) – Front-end process

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Step 7 Identifying customer

needs

Establishing target

specifications

Generate product concepts

Select product concepts

Test product concepts

Set final specifications

Plan downstream development

To make product specifications the customer needs are taken as input. These needs has to be converted into metrics. For this 4 steps are required:

Step 1: Prepare the list of metrics -Metrics should be complete -Metrics should be dependent variables (what, not how) -Metrics should be practical (not something which cost 1 million dollar) -Some needs cannot easily be translated into quantifiable metrics -The metrics should include the popular criteria for comparison in the marketplace (test criteria in magazines) Step 2: Collect competitive benchmarking information Step 3: Set ideal and marginally acceptable target values -At least X (lower bound) -At most X (higher bound) -Between X and Y -Exactly X -A set of discrete values (1.000 1.125 1.250) Step 4: Reflect on the results and the process

Now the final specifications are discussed. This is done in 5 steps.

Concept Development (phase 1) – Front-end process Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Step 7

Identifying customer

needs

Establishing target

specifications

Generate product concepts

Select product concepts

Test product concepts

Set final specifications

Plan downstream development

Step 1: Develop technical models of the product (example, technical model) Step 2: Develop a cost model of the product (bill of materials with high and low costs) Step 3: Refine the specifications, making trade-offs where necessary -Competitive map (3 of 4 from important needs) Step 4: Flow down the specifications as appropriate Step 5: Reflect on the results and process

Chapter 6 – Concept generation Concept Development (phase 1) – Front-end process

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Step 7 Identifying customer

needs

Establishing target

specifications

Generate product concepts

Select product concepts

Test product concepts

Set final specifications

Plan downstream development

The input for concept generation are the customer needs and target specifications. Another time a five step method is used.

Step 1: Clarify the problem -Decompose a complex problem into simpler sub problems (functional decomposition, decomposition by sequence of user actions and decomposition by key customer needs) -Focus initial efforts on the critical sub problems (first important problems, etc) Step 2: Search externally -Interview lead users -Consult experts -Search patents -Search published literature -Benchmark related products Step 3: Search internally -Suspend judgment -Generate a lot of ideas -Welcome ideas that seem infeasible -Use graphical and physical media Hints: make analogies, wish and wonder, use related stimuli, use unrelated stimuli, set quantitative goals, use the gallery method (show large number of concepts during discussion). Step 4: Explore systematically -Concept classification tree -Concept combination table -Managing the exploration process (more trees and tables) Step 5: Reflect on the results and the process

Chapter 7 – Concept Selection Concept Development (phase 1) – Front-end process

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Step 7 Identifying customer

needs

Establishing target

specifications

Generate product concepts

Select product concepts

Test product concepts

Set final specifications

Plan downstream development

There is a different between concept screening (better, same, worse) and concept scoring (scores).

For both manners a six step method is used.

Step 1: Prepare the selection matrix Step 2: Rate the concepts (for screening + - 0, for scoring numbers between 1-5) Step 3: Rank the concepts Step 4: Combine and improve the concepts -A good concept with 1 bad feature can be repaired such that the bad feature disappears. -Combination of two concepts can be better Step 5: Select one or more concepts (play with weight factors) Step 6: Reflect on the results and the process

Chapter 8 – Concept testing Concept Development (phase 1) – Front-end process

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Step 7 Identifying customer

needs

Establishing target

specifications

Generate product concepts

Select product concepts

Test product concepts

Set final specifications

Plan downstream development

Testing a concepts consists of 7 steps.

Step 1: Define the purpose of the concept test Step 2: Choose a survey population Step 3: Choose a survey format -Face-to-face interaction -Telephone -Postal mail -Electronic mail -Internet Step 4: Communicate the concept -Verbal description -Sketch -Photos and renderings -Storyboard -Video -Simulation -Interactive multimedia (video, audio and simulation) -Physical appearance models -Working prototypes Step 5: Measure customer response (definitely would buy, probably would buy, might (not) buy, etc.) Step 6: Interpret the results -Q=NxAxP Q = quantity to sell, N = potential customers, A = fraction of potential customers for which the product is available. P = Cdefinitely x Fdefinitely + Cprobably x Fprobably. Fdefinitely is the fraction of survey respondents who definitely buy the product. Cdefinitely and Cprobably are calibration con- stants. Often: Cdefinitely = 0.4 and Cprobably = 0.2. Step 7: Reflect on the results and the process

Chapter 9 – Product architecture Functional elements are the individual operations and transformations that contribute to the overall performance of the product. Physical elements are the parts, components and subassemblies that ultimately implement the product’s functions. Chunks are physical elements of a product which are organized into several major physical building blocks.

Modular architecture:

There are three types: Slot-modular architecture (car radios), Bus-modular architecture (shelving systems, roof racks for automobiles), Sectional-modular architecture (piping systems)

- Chunks implement one or a few functional elements in their entirety. - The interactions between chunks are well defined and are generally fundamental to the primary functions of the product.

Integral architecture

An product is architecture defined by the maturity of the basic product technology. Can be at concept development but also at system-level design.

- Functional elements of trhe product are implemented using more than one chunk. - A single chunk implements many functional elements. - The interactions between chunks are ill difined and may be incidental to the primary functions of the products.

Implications of the architecture: - Product change (Modular architecture parts can be changed easily) - Product variety (By modular architecture parts can be more easily varied) - Component standardization (With modular architecture a part can easily be used in other concepts) - Product performance (by integral architecture decreases the mass) - Manufacturability (With integral architecture manufacturability is harder) - Product development management (Integral architecture needs good coordination between groups which develop an function)

Establishing the architecture

Step 1: Create a schematic of the product Step 2: Cluster the element of the schematic -Geometric integration and precision -Function sharing -Capabilities of vendors -Similarity of design or production technology -Localization of change -Accommodating variety -Enabling standardization -Portability of the interfaces

Step 3: Create a rough geometric layout Step 4: Identify the fundamental and incidental interactions

Delayed differentiating may be good for reducing the costs. There are two principles for this postponement:

1. The differentiating elements of the product must be concentrated in one or a few chunks 2. The product and production process must be designed so that the differentiating chunk(s)

can be added to the product near the end of the supply chain

Platform planning is difficult because of the trade-off. People buy product more easy with different functions (so better income). But to produce a new platform product it is cheaper to use as much chunks as possible in the platform product. There are two information systems to manage this trade-off.

Differentiation plan – represents explicit the differentiating attributes in platform products Commonality plan

Further there are related system-level design issues: Defining secondary systems – Only the key elements have a architecture, there are many functional or physical elements not shown. Establishing the architecture of the chunks – Chunks are complex products (mostly), each of these chunks have its own architecture.

– represents explicit what chunks are the same in different platform products

Chapter 10 – Industrial design Assessing the need for industrial design -Ergonomic needs (how important is ease of use, how important is ease of maintenance, how many user interactions are required for the product’s functions, how novel are the user inter- action needs, what are the safety issues) -Aesthetic needs (Is visible product differentiating required, how important are pride, image and fashion, will an aesthetic product motivate the team)

Industrial design costs can be divided in three groups: direct costs (costs of ID services), manufacturing costs (costs through product shape manufacturing) and time cost (how much longer will the project take in time)

The industrial design process consists of 6 steps:

Step 1: Investigation of customer needs Step 2: Conceptualization (sketches) Step 3: Preliminary refinement (soft models) Step 4: Further refinement and final concept selection (renderings or hard models) Step 5: Control drawings or models (size, color, weight – models) Step 6: Coordination with engineering, manufacturing and external vendors

There are two types of products: - Technology-driven products (starts at concept testing) - User-driven products (starts at identification of customer needs)

Assessing the quality of industrial design:

1. Quality of the user interface 2. Emotional appeal 3. Ability to maintain and repair the product 4. Appropriate use of resources (material selection, over – under designed?) 5. Product differentiation

Chapter 11 – Design for manufacturing DFM (design for manufacturing) utilizes information of several types:

1. Sketches, drawings, product specifications and design alternatives 2. A detailed understanding of production and assembly processes 3. Estimates of manufacturing costs. Production volumes and ramp-up timing

DFM begins during the concept development phase.

Overview of the DFM process:

Step 1: Estimate the manufacturing costs -Fixed costs versus variable costs -The bill of materials -Estimate the cost of standard components -Estimate the cost of custom components -Estimate the cost of assembly -Estimate the overhead costs Step 2: Reduce the costs of components -Understand the process constraints and cost drivers (tight tolerances where no tolerances are necessary) -Redesign components to eliminate processing steps -Choose the appropriate economic scale for the part process Economies of scale occur for two reasons: 1) fixed costs are divided among more units 2) Variable cost become lower because the firm can justify better processes -Standardize component and processes -Adhere to “black box” component procurement ((a description what the product should do, not how) Step 3: Reduce the costs of assembly (Design for assembly (DFA)) -Keeping score

( ) ( )theoretical minimum number of parts x 3 secondsEstimated total assembly timeindexDFA =

-Integrate parts -Maximize ease of assembly Part is inserted from the top of the assembly Part is self-aligning Part does not need to be oriented Part requires only one hand for assembly Part requires no tools Part is assembled in a single, linear motion Part is secured immediately upon insertion -Consider customer assembly Step 4: Reduce the costs of supporting production (less personnel etc) -Minimize systemic complexity (The less subsystems, the less difficult to organize) -Error proofing (anticipate on possible failure modes -> no almost the same parts for assembly) Step 5: Consider the impact of DFM decisions on other forces -The impact of DFM on development time -The impact of DFM on development costs (close to development time) -The impact of DFM on product quality -The impact of DFM on external forces Component reuse – An action that’s more expensive for this project, but which is saving time or money for another project Life cycle costs

Chapter 12 – Prototyping Prototyping has two dimensions: 1. physical as opposed to analytical (physical approximations of the product - analytical approximations of the product) 2. Comprehensive as opposed to focused (full-scale and fully operational versions of the product – looks-like or works-like products)

– Some products may incur some company or societal costs which are not accounted for in the manufacturing cost. Example: products may contain toxic materials requiring special handling in disposal

Fully comprehensive and analytical prototypes are not generally feasible

Types of prototyping are: 1. Learning 2. Communication 3. Integration 4. Milestones

Principles of prototyping: 1. Analytical prototypes are generally more flexible than physical prototypes 2. Physical prototypes are required to detect unanticipated phenomena 3. A prototype may reduce the risk of costly iterations 4. A prototype may expedite other development steps 5. A prototype may restructure task dependencies

Prototyping technologies are:

Planning for prototypes Step 1: Define the purpose of the prototype Step 2: Establish the level of approximation of the prototype Step 3: Outline an experimental plan Step 4: Create a schedule for procurement, construction and testing Step 5: Planning milestone prototypes -Alpha prototypes (works the product as intended?) -Beta prototypes (Assess reliability and indentify remaining bugs in the product) -Preproduction prototypes (first products produced by the entire production process) (also called pilot-production prototypes)

3D CAD modeling and analysis Free-form fabrication (stereo lithography -> 3D printing)

Milestone prototypes are defined in the product development project plan. The number and timing of these prototypes are the key elements of the overall development plan.

Chapter 13 – Robust design A robust product is one that performs as intended even under nonideal conditions

Noise are uncontrolled variations that may affect performance.

A quality product should be robust to noise factors.

Robust design is applied in the detail design (phase 3). Also called parameter design.

Signan-to-noise (Taguchi) includes desired performance (signal) and the undesired effects (noise)

The Robust Design process: Step 1: Identify control factors, noise factors and performance metrics -Control factors (Design variables which can be varied) -Nose factors (Variables that cannot be explicitly controlled) -Performance metrics (Product specifications of interest) compounded noise – three particular noise factors are combined to best- and worst- combi- nations Step 2: Formulate an objective function -Maximizing (larger values are better) -Minimizing (lower values are better) -Target value (closest values are better) -Signal-to-noise ratio (measure robustness) Step 3: Develop the experimental plan -Experimental designs Full factorial Fractional factorial Orthogonal array

One factor a time -Testing noise factors (compounded noise) Step 4: Run the experiment Step 5: Conduct the analysis -Computing the objective function -Computing factor effect by analysis of means (control factors to average and control factors to range -> [A1B2 C2 E1 F1 G1]) Step 6: Select and confirm Factor setpoints (trade-off between range and average control factors) Step 7: Reflect and repeat

Because many nuances are involved in successful DOE (design of experiments), most teams applying these methods will benefit from assistance by a DOE expert.

Chapter 14 – Patents and intellectual property There are four types of intellectual properties 1. Patent 2. Trademark (companies names) 3. Trade secret (coca cola) 4. Copyright (not copy music, literature, art, software, etc)

There are design patents and utility patents. Design patents provide to exclude someone from producing and selling a product with the identical design described by the design patent (copyright). Utility patents allow patenting new inventions that relates to a new process (new technology). Utility patents have three things to fulfill to: is should be useful, novel and nonobvious.

A patent owner has two rights: Offensive right – Requires that the patent owner sue infringer Defensive right – Blocking a competitor from patenting the disclosed invention

Preparing a disclosure: Step 1: Formulate a strategy and plan -Timing of patent applications (wait longer for better understanding of your invention) -Type of application Regular patent application – (500 dollars – for twenty years) Provisional patent application 0 (100 dollars – gives the right to make a regular patent application within one year) Patent cooperation treaty application – (Filed in one country but foreign patents can be persued. Cost more than a regular one, but is allows a delay before appli- cation fees must be paid in the countries in which foreign patents are sought Step 2: Study prior inventions (learn, not be sued, background knowledge) -Existing and historical product literature -Patent searches -Technical and trade publications Step 3: Outline claims (certain characteristics of the invention) Step 4: Write the description of the invention -Title -List of inventors

-Field of the invention -Background of the invention -Summary of the invention -Brief description of the drawings -Detailed description of the invention

Make figures and write the detailed description (make embodiments -> numbers in figures which refer to parts) Step 5: Refine claims -Dependent and independent claims Make claims as general as possible, avoid absolute definitions and attempt to do not infringe on the draft claim. Step 6: Persue application -Provisional, regular, PCT or no application (as coca cola) the patent office will issue an office action -> the examiner will reject most claims Step 7: Reflect on the results and process

Chapter 15 – Product development economics Elements of economic analysis -Quantitative analysis -> Net present value -> future cash inflows -Qualitative analysis -> hard to measure When should economic analysis be performed -Go/no-go milestones -Operational design and development decisions (hire outside firm to save 2 months?)

Economic analysis process: Step 1: Build a base-case financial model 1. Estimate the timing and magnitude of future inflows and outflows -Development costs -Ramp-up costs -Marketing and support costs -Production costs -Sales revenues 2. Compute the net present value of the cash flows (profit) Step 2: Perform sensitivity analysis (compute NPV by playing with costs and time) Step 3: Use sensitivity analysis to understand project trade-offs -Six potential interactions (between development cost, product cost, product performance and development time) -Limitations of quantitative analysis (it focuses at measurable quantities, id depends on validity of assumptions and bureaucracy reduces productivity) Step 4: Consider the influence of the qualitative factors on project success -Projects interact with the firm (externalities and strategic fit), the market (competitors, customers and suppliers) and the macro environment (major economic shifts, government regulations and social trends) - Carrying out qualitative analysis

Chapter 16 – Managing projects There are three different types of tasks: -Sequential -Parallel -Coupled

The design structure matrix is a matrix which represents dependencies of tasks in order in which they are to be executed. It is sort of a diagonal matrix. Gantt charts gives tasks in order of timing. There can easily be seen if a tasks is beyond or in front of the schedule.

PERT charts explicitly represent both dependencies and timing. The critical path is the path which takes the longest time for each of the tasks.

Baseline project planning: The contract book (used to document the project plan and the results of of the concept development phase. Project task list (Task in the project with the timing for it in person-hours, person-days, person-weeks, etc.) Team staffing and organization (less than 10 team members, members serve the team from the time of concept development until project launch, key functions: marketing-design and manufacturing are on the team, members are located within conversational distance of each other) Project schedule (Use PERT chart of DSM, position milestones in Gantt charts, schedule the task, adjust the timing of the milestones to be consistent with the time required for the tasks. Project budget Project risk plan (risk level for the risks -> molding problems is high, feeding characteristics of cartridge design is low)

Guidelines for accelerating product development projects: Start the project early Manage the project scope (no overflowing features) Facilitate the exchange of essential information (employees need information) Guidelines for decreasing time required to complete tasks: Complete individual tasks on the critical path (for PERT charts) Aggregate safety times Eliminate some critical path tasks entirely (where possible) Eliminate waiting delays for critical path resources (no waiting time for information) Overlap selected critical tasks (task 2 can be started while task 1 is still in progress, even when task 2 needs information of task 1) Pipeline large tasks (break big tasks into more smaller tasks) Outsource some tasks (external firms can do some tasks)

Modifying baseline plan

Guidelines for completing coupled tasks for quickly: Perform more iterations quickly (give GOOD information to distinguish iterations)

Decouple tasks to avoid iterations (if on forehand good information about the task is given tasks can be uncoupled for faster development) Consider sets of solutions

Project execution -Coordination mechanism (informal communication, meetings, schedule display, weekly updated, incentives (members working good can get promotion -> functional performance reviews), process documents) -Assesing project status -Corrective actions (change the time or frequency if meetings, change the project staff, locating the team together physically, soliciting more time and effort from the team, focusing more effort on the critical tasks, engaging outside resources, changing the project scope (goal) or schedule)