Product Design and development

ME5202
Assignment 1
EoD – 05/03/2021

Aditya chaudhary
ME20M001

Submitted to
Dr. Suresh Varadarajan
 Question 1
Innovative opportunities which I would like to consider in powered two wheelers (e-bikes/e-
cycle) for exploration and development are as follows: -
I. Convertible Solar panel seat.
There should be solar panel attached to e-bikes to charge when they are parked (not in use).
It will be great for office working people whose vehicles are parked entire day and are
generally used in morning and evening. Panel can be attached at inner part of seat and at
frame supporting seat (Location: - at seat of present mechanically driven scooty) seat can
be open and kept against handle this increase surface of solar panel to effectively charge
battery of vehicle.
II. Digital dashboard at handle.
There should be a digital dashboard having ability to sync with cellphone. This will help
people to navigate using maps, check vehicle essentials (like battery, odometer, etc.), open
health monitoring apps, without touching cellphone again and again which require
unnecessary handling and distract the driver.
III. Paddles in addition to electric drive propulsion.
Paddles are required for two reasons. First, in case of electric drive failure (like battery
discharge or circuit failure) it can be used as emergency tool for propulsion. Second, today
lots of people have health issues, they want to do exercise so they can use it cycling by
switching off the electric system and run on paddle drive.
IV. Dynamo controlled led light.
Dynamo controlled mini led lights at tyre rims can be added. They light up while tyres are
rotating powered by dynamo connected to tyre. They will not soak battery power and give
attractive look to vehicles in dark. It will let others know presence some vehicle ahead them
in dark.
V. USB connection port with holding pouch.
There should be a USB charging port (unlike in metro trains) for charging light devices
like cellphone, etc. The devices can be put to charging and kept in holding pouch.
VI. Carbon fiber composite body parts.
The body of the vehicle should be made up of carbon composite fiber (outer covering of
vehicle not chassis) to reduce weight of the vehicle. On weight reduction its acceleration
will increase as well as battery requirement will reduce. It provides great surface finish to
vehicle body enhancing its aesthetics.
VII. Rugged tubeless tyre with anti-lock braking system
Rugged tubeless tyre will help to operate in hash, tough road condition and cope up with
puncture at place with no immediate service center. Tubeless tyre can be serviced in less
time. Anti-lock braking system prevents locking of break in emergency situation and help
stear the vehicle with brakes operating on it. This prevents skidding of vehicle in panic or
emergency situation.
 Question 2
Gathering information prior to start designing is important steps. It helps designer to know what
actually customer wants or what is requirement of the customer. Involving customer in the
requirement process helps a lot as they will be the end user of the designed product. Sometimes, it
can lead designers in wrong direction and designed product may not be appreciated in market.
Below are some advantages and disadvantages of customer involvement in the requirement
process: -

Advantages of customer in requirements process are: -

I. Designing team get what is actual need or requirement of customer.

II. It provides early survey of products before final item is ready.
III. Minimizes defects in final products.
IV. Unnecessary features can be removed for cost reduction.
V. Real time feedback of product with each stage of designing.
VI. Fast delivery of product and less miscommunication regarding product requirement.
VII. Higher satisfaction level to users and developers.

Disadvantages of customer in requirements process are: -

I. People may have varying thoughts regarding needs. In such large groups people can have
conflicting requirements.
II. Customer and designer may not agree on economical aspect despite they can agree on good
Quality.
III. Unfamiliar with the designing process customer may loose interest in product if it takes
too much time.
IV. Not all group of customer will be happy about product and may mislead the surveys or
requirement needs.
V. Customer with varying thought /needs or customer who don’t know their requirement may
affect products a lot and disturb the delivery time.
 Question 3
Yes, there is possibility that great opportunity process may result in product that fails in market.
The success of any product depends on how much customer like and buy that product. If any
product which don’t exist till now and need in society, chances of its success increases. There are
many reasons of product failing in market.

Product may fail due to misinterpreting requirement needs of the customer. If product launched
in market doesn’t justify needs of the customer, then they will loose interest in product and will
subsequently its market value will decrease. If focus of product is on wrong market group then,
product can fail.

Affordability of product or price of product is also a key feature for product’s success. Before
2009, Bata-shoe maker company only focuses on high standard, limited choice, expensive boots.
But later on surveying market they focused on middle class people and started making affordable
items with wide range of choices. After that their products gained more market success.

Poor execution or delayed launch and bad advertisement may also result in product failure. As of
Tata Nano market failure. The mission of Tata group during designing of Tata Nano was that every
middle class family have affordable four wheelers. This car was advertised as “lakhtakiya car”
meaning “car of one lakh rupee worth”. Some fire incidents were reported in initial days. Launch
was delayed by few years and next five-year plan was launched in between that period. Now people
who were saving money for Tata Nano started loosing interest in this car. Moreover, now people
started taking advertisement slogan in wrong way they started thinking it’s a cheap car with small
size and they will feel insulted if they use this car in society. Price of car was also increased little
after modifications. But by now image of Tata Nano was damaged in market and customers had
shifted to other brands. This lead to failure of Tata Nano.

So, many times great opportunity process may result in product failure in market.
 Question 4
House of quality is a great way transform customer requirement needs to product specifications. It
uses relationship among different rooms to design the product specifications.

Figure 1: Schematic diagram of House of quality

First room is customer requirement in house of quality. It gathers information about needs of customer
as we can see in the example given below for “Rock climbing harness”. Needs like easy to use, safety,
aesthetics, etc. are listed here. Then, these needs are given customer importance rating between (1-5), 5
being most important.

Next room is engineering characteristics or technical requirements. These are measure to satisfy customer
requirements. They have a column having direction of improvement. Example- safety is directly related
to webbing strength and direction of improvement is upward ie. Increasing.

At the roof comes correlation matrix, it describes relation between different technical characteristics.
Changing one technical character will affect other character upto what extent. Example meeting European
standards is strongly related to no. of buckles.
At the center is relationship matrix, it relates customer requirements and technical requirements one by
one at intersection of rows and column. It relates how much technical characteristics contributes to
customer needs. It is given in range of 1-9 and left blank for no relation. 9 being strong relation and 1
being week. Example- lightweight is strongly related to weight of harness and weekly related to no. of
buckles.

Then comes importance rating based on relationship matrix. Overall rating of technical requirements is
calculated either by adding column entries or adding multiplication of each element with their customer
requirement values. Example- padding thickness has maximum weightage of 31% while no. of color has
4% weightage.

Next room belong to competitive assessment. Here customer needs are compared with other competitors
and are ranked according to relative marking. They done through benchmarking methods of surveys,
customer interviews etc.

Then we come to technical attributes or technical benchmarking. Here product specifications are
compared and relative chances of success is compared. It let designer know which attribute of our product
is better than competitor and which is not. Example- competitor A’s product is good in webbing strength
and ours is in between two.

Then at the end comes target value. After doing all these things we finally decide our target value and
important engineering parameters for designing our product. Example- we target weight to 160g for rock
climbing harness.

Hence, from the given discussion and example it is clear that different rooms of house of quality are linked
to develop product specifications.
Figure 2: House of quality for rock climbing harness.
 Question 5-6
Gathering voice of customer and translating them to precise customer needs statement is a key step
to conceptualize any design. With the help of Kano model diagram, we can prioritize requirements
which will affect more and need immediate attention to increase success rate of product.

Figure 3: Multipurpose School Bag

Figure 4: Kano diagram

(Source: Dr. Suresh Varadarajan, Product design and development, Lecture 4)

S. No. Requirement category Short form

1 Basic Needs B
2 Performance/Satisfier P
3 Delighter D
4 Indifferent I
5 Reversal R

Voice of customer and customer needs statement with priority according to Kano model for
multipurpose bag is given below: -
Table 1: Voice of customer and customer needs statement with priority according to Kano model for multipurpose bag.

S. Customer Statement Need Statement Priority based

No. on Kano Model
1 I have to carry different items like The bag has multiple pockets. B
books, pencils, pens, etc.
2 I have to carry different size of books at The bag has size adjustable strap. P
different time.
3 I like blue color bag. Bag comes in multicolor. D
4 My class don’t have enough desks. The bag has foldable table attached P
to it.
5 I have to carry water bottle to school. Bag has bottle pocket. B
6 I have to carry heavy loads while The bag has wheels attached to it. D
walking to school.
7 I have to go school in rainy seasons Bag comes with plastic cover kept P
also. inside it.
8 I need to bend a lot for writing. Bag’s table has adjustable legs. P
9 I always loose my pens while writing. Bag’s table has pen stand attached D
to it.
10 My family can buy only one bag for The bag is made of rugged material B
entire session. with strong stitches and zips.
11 I have to walk through dirty roads. The bag is made of easily washable P
material.
12 My family can buy bag below 800Rs. The bag is economical and is in B
affordable range.
13 I can’t differentiate my bag among all The bag have transparent pocket I
other bags. for personal details.
14 I accidently drop my bag here and All components of bag are rugged P
there. and strong.