Chapter 5 – Project Definition

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 Mechanical Design Process
Project Definition (Discovery and
Planning) – Chapter 5
Product Definition – Chapter 6
Conceptual Design – Chapters 7, 8
Product Development – Chapters
9 – 11
Product Support – Chapter 12

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 Project Discovery
Prior to designing, a need must be established:

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 Project Discovery
Goal - Select the most promising projects

Consider the following perspectives:

§ Competitive strategy
§ Market segmentation
§ Technological trajectories

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 Competitive Strategy
An organization’s competitive strategy defines their
fundamental approach to markets and products.

Typical competitive strategies:

§ Technology/Innovation leadership
§ Low Cost leadership
§ Customer focus
§ Imitative

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 Competitive Strategy
Technology/Innovation leadership
◦ Focus on developing pioneering and innovative products
§ Apple, Google, Tesla

Low Cost leadership

◦ Focus on cost and production efficiency (economies of scale,
manufacturing methods, low-cost labor)
§ Southwest Airlines, Walmart

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 Competitive Strategy
Customer focus
◦ Closely follows customers’ needs and preferences
◦ May result in a broad product line with high product variety
§ Amazon, IBM

Imitative
◦ Allows competitors to explore the market
◦ If their products are successful, the firm quickly launches its imitations
§ Samsung/Apple, Pepsi/Coke, Excel/Lotus 123, Mr. Pibb/Dr. Pepper

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 Competitive Strategy

First generation touch screen iPhone 2007 First generation touch screen Samsung 2008

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 Technology Trajectory

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 Technology Trajectory
In technology intensive firms, a key decision is when to adopt
new technology.
Copier Performance

Digital
Technology

Light-Lens
Technology

Time

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 Product Life Cycle

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 Product Life Cycle

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 Product Life Cycle

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 Project Planning

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 Project Planning
Planning is used to develop scheduling and committing the
resources of:
§ time
§ money
§ people

Planning results in a diagram showing when design activities

are scheduled

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 Planning for Deliverables
Design is "the evolution of information punctuated by
decisions." Progress in a design is measured by deliverables
such as results, reports, drawings, prototypes, etc.

What is a prototype?
- physical model of a product

What is the purpose of a prototype?

-proof-of-concept (learning tool)
-proof-of-product (refine components/assemblies)
-proof-of-process (verify geometry and manufacturing process)
-proof-of-production (preproduction run)

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 Building a Plan
1. Identify the tasks: The tasks (activities to be performed) should be as
specific as possible

2. State the objective for each task. Each objective must be:
§ Easily understood
§ Specific in terms of what is to be developed
§ Feasible, given the available personnel, equipment, and time

3. Estimate the personnel, time, and other resources needed to meet the
objectives

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 Building a Plan
4. Develop a sequence for the tasks
§ For each task, identify the precessors (the tasks that must be done
before it), and the successors (the tasks that can be done only after it).
§ The Critical Path Method (CPM) helps determine the most efficient
sequence of tasks
§ For a simple project, a schedule can be developed by using Gantt/Bar
Charts.

5. Estimate the product development costs

§ Calculate the hourly burdened salary of each employee. Multiply this
number by the amount of time allocated to the project.
§ Need to consider overhead including use of facilities, equipment,
supplies, etc.

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 Step 3: Estimating Project Time
One approach is to estimate time based on the product
complexity according to the equation, time (in hours) =
A*PC*D0.85
A: constant based on past experience;
is dependent on size and communication level of company (ie., small company with good
communication, A = 30; large company with average communication, A = 150)

PC: product complexity

D: project difficulty
D = 1: not too difficult (using well-known technologies); D = 2: difficult (some new
technologies); D = 3: extremely difficult (many new technologies)

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 Step 3: Estimating Project Time
time = A*PC*D0.85
PC = S j*Fj
j: the level in the function diagram
Fj: the number of functions at that level

For the above example PC=(1*1)+(2*4)+(3*3)=1+8+9=18

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 Step 3: Estimating Project Time
General distribution of time across the phases of design:
project planning 3 to 5 percent
product definition 10 to 15 percent
conceptual design 15 to 35 percent
product development 50 to 70 percent
product support 5 to 10 percent

Strongly dependent on the type of product, amount of original

design work, and the design process.

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ect schedules:
Step
antt Chart4: Developing a Sequence
Bar/Gantt Charts:
• Tasks are shown as a horizontal bar chart

in visualizing CPM
• Tasks are listed on the vertical axis; time horizontally
• Duration of tasks are indicated by the length of ‘time-spanning’ bars

bar chart.
tically, time tasks
ing Technologies
time

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 Step 4: Developing a Sequence

Although the chart shows the time-activity relationship, it does

not show the dependence of one activity upon other activities.
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 Step 4: Developing a Sequence
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
Gantt Chart Options:
• Use Excel
•
Gantt Chart Options
Use Microsoft Project
• • MS
Use Project
Smartsheet
• Use
• InGanttProject
excel
• http://www.ganttproject.biz/
– Use a stacked bar graph and
• Others remove the fill on the left
hand portionSolid
of the barProcessing Technologies
Fuels
– Try
http://davidseah.com/blog/20
07/08/manual-gantt-charting-
in-excel/
• Try GanttProject
– http://www.ganttproject.biz/

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 Step 4: Developing a Sequence
MS Project Gantt Chart
Microsoft Project Gantt Chart

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 Network Logical Diagram

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 Critical Path Method (CPM)
§ Developed by DuPont, the Critical Path Method (CPM) is the
most widely used scheduling technique.
§ CPM is used to calculate the minimum completion time along
with possible start and finish times for project activities.
§ The critical path represents the sequence of activities that take
the longest time to complete.

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 Critical Path Method (CPM)
Critical Path Method (CPM)
• The basic CPM tool is an arrow network with:
CPM is an arrow network diagram with:
– tasks are shown as arrows in the direction of
• tasks are shown as arrows in the direction of progress
progress
• events are shown
Solidas circles
Fuels (nodes).
Processing An event is a
Technologies
– events
point are shown as or
of accomplishment circles (nodes). An event is a
decision.
point of accomplishment or decision.
TASK A: TASK B: Further define
Write the customer and
proposal stakeholder needs
…

ME395: Introduction to Mechanical Design

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 ICAL ENGINEERING
Critical
CriticalPath
PathMethod
Method (CPM)
Critical Path Method (CPM)
Logical restrictions:
• AnLogic restrictions
activity cannot be started unless its prior event is completed.
Thus task B cannot begin until A is complete.
– A task can’t start until its tail event is rea
estrictions
Thus, if
k can’t start untilSolid
A
its tail
B
event taskisBreached.
can’t begin un
Fuels Processing Technologies
complete.
An Aevent cannot occur
, if complete. Therefore
task until all activities leading up to it are
task B can’tbegin begin
until F until A is
B
H cannot and G are
– An
Solid Fuels
plete.complete. Processing
event can’tTechnologies
occur until all tasks leadin
F H
are complete. Thus,
vent can’t occur until all tasks leading to it if G tasks F
precede
omplete. Thus, if H. F H
tasks F and G
G

ede H.
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 MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
Critical Path Method
AThe
predecessor
critical path relationship implies
is the longest path that
(time) one the
through activity
network.
must come before another in the schedule.
Earliest starting time (ES): the earliest time an activity can begin
Input informa on

Latest starting time (LS): the latest time an activity can begin
Duration
(hours)
Preceded
by Formulate
problem
Planning A Gather information 4

EarliestB finish time (EF): EF 3= ES +A D, where D is the duration of

Formulate problem Generate
alterna ves Analysis

each activity
Concept development C Generate product-level alternatives
D Generate subassembly alternatives
4
5
A,B
A,B Evaluate
Func onality
DFM
Cost
alterna ves
12 C,D,E Reliability
E Evaluate alternatives
Not Robustness
Prototype F Build prototype 10 F acceptable Other DFX

Documentation G Develop documentation 6 A,B,C,D,E,F Guided

redesign Acceptable

C
A B E F G The durations are only estimates and
D can be specified in units of minutes,
hours, days and weeks….

Notice  that  “concept  development”  is  not  estimated  to  take  21  hours  
(not 4+5+12)
University because you can generate
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4733 in parallel. 30
 MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
Critical Path Method
Latest finishConstruction
time (LF): LF = LS +Project
D Tasks
• Construction
Total float (TF): TF = LS - ES, the •slack between earliest and
Finance
latest
– start times
Grade & Clear • Sell Space
– Dig footers
– Pour footers • Plan Open House
An activity on the critical path has zero float!!
– Build Fence
– Remove Forms
CPM STEPS
– Lay Blocks
•Create a task list
– Framing •Determine task durations
– Electrical •Determine task dependencies
– Heating and Air Conditioning •Define the critical path/ milestones
– Apply Wallboard •Estimate the project duration
– Painting

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E395: Introduction to Mechanical Design
 Critical Path Method
Determining the latest start time (LS):

§ End nodes
§ project duration (time to complete critical path) minus
duration of end task

§ Middle nodes
§ project duration minus duration of each task

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Activity Description D ES LS EF LF TF
A Remove
internals
B Install external
wiring
C Install internal
wiring
D Construct
supports
E Install
thermocouples
F Install heaters

G Install new
tubes
H Leak test

I Check
thermocouples
J Insulate

K Test

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Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
Developed for the U.S. Navy
Uses a probabilistic estimate of time for completion
§ Designer makes an optimistic time estimate o, a pessimistic time
estimate p, and a most-likely time estimate m
§ Calculate expected time according to: te = (o+4m+p)/6)
§ Standard deviation is used to describe scatter in expected time for each
activity: s=(p-o)/6
§ Standard deviation along a path is the square root of the sum of the
individual variances, sp=SQRT(Ss2)

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 Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
Uses a probabilistic estimate of time for completion
§ probability that an event will begin at its scheduled start time (SS) is given by z =
(SS-ES)/sp, where ES is the mean expected start time, and z is the normal z-score.

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 References
§ The Mechanical Design Process, David Ullman, 5th Edition,
McGraw Hill, NY.
§ Engineering Design: A Materials and Processing Approach, G.E.
Dieter, 3rd Edition, McGraw Hill, NY.

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