Product Design Specifications

Chapter-2
 Various kinds of specifications:
• User’s description to a designer - also
knows as the Brief
• Designer’s description to a manufacturer –
product design specification
• Manufacturer’s technical description to a
purchaser – product specification
• Some / all of the above
PDS in Design Process
Recognition
of Need

Becoming
Informed
 Market analysis
 Background study

Problem
Definition

Product Design
Specifications

3
 PDS
• Proposed by Pugh
• It is NOT the final specifications/achievements
• It is a control document of what designers try to
achieve
• It acts like a design checklist and applicable to all
design applications
• It is dynamic rather than static – can be
improved, changed to suit design requirements
• It defines the constraints/boundary of the
design.

4
Elements of PDS

5
 PDS
• Performance – target, attainable values
• Environment – effects on product during manufacture  use,
effects on environment
• Life in service – 7 days/week, 24hrs/day, @ X years
• Maintenance – maintenance philosophy, need for special tools,
ease of maintenance
• Targeted production cost
• Competition – data from benchmarking, IP, info search
• Shipping – delivery method, lifting capability
• Packing – cost & method of packing
• Quantity – will affect other costs such as tooling, processes
• Manufacturing facility – in-house or vendor, support system,
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machinery
 PDS (cont’d)
• Size – affects user, cost, shipping & handling
• Weight - affects user, cost, shipping & handling
• Aesthetics – user perception or acceptence
• Materials
• Product Life Span – life in production line
• Standard and Regulations – government, ISO
• Ergonomics
• Customer – target customer
• Quality & Reliability – subjected to standards ( ISO, etc)
• Shelf Life – storage risks and problems
• Processes – processes involved, in-house facility/vendor
• Time-scales – period to complete the design
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 PDS (cont’d)
• Time-scales – time needed to complete the development
• Testing – methods, facility, requirements/standards
• Safety – safety requirements
• Company Constraints – house, facility, cost
• Market Constraints – local conditions, full market knowledge
• Patents, literature & Product data – clash & IP laws (Intellectual
property)
• Political & Social Implications – social unrest, rejection
• Legal – product liability legislation (product defects, defects of manufacture,
defects of design, etc)
• Installation – assembly consideration (stand alone, subsystem)
• Documentation – manual, user instructions, etc
• Disposal – environment.
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 Writing PDS Document
• It is a control document
• Should be clearly written
• Use sharp and definitive statements, NOT is
essay form
• Try to quantify parameters or estimate a figure
• Vary your starting point
• Date and put your issue number
• Clearly document amendments

9
 Product :___________________
Date: ________________ Issue: _________________________

Parameters

Competition Current This design World class

Performance: best Model (Intent) (Target)
(Ours)
Description

Safety:

Description

Format for a product design specification

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Understanding customer needs

11
 Nature of needs
• Needs in the “use” environment
• Products have to serve a real need and
affordable to the customer
• Focus on user’s needs, instead of “wants”

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 Why identify customer needs?
• Ensure that the product customer-focused and no
critical needs are missed or forgotten
• Identify latent (hidden) and explicit needs
• Fact base for justifying the product specifications.
• Archival record of the customer needs
• Develop a common understanding of customer needs
among members of the development team
Concept Development Plan
Subtle Distinction: Needs & Product
Specs.
• Needs are largely independent of any particular
product we might develop; a team should be able
to identify customer needs without knowing if or
how it will eventually address those needs.
• Specifications do depend on the concept we
select. The specifications for the product we
finally choose to develop will depend on what is
technically and economically feasible and on what
our competitors offer in the marketplace, as well
as on customer needs.
 Similar Terms
• Other terms used for Customer Needs in
industrial practice:

– Customer attributes
– Customer requirements
 Six-Step method to Identify Customer
Needs
1. Define the scope of the effort
2. Gather raw data from customers
3. Interpret the raw data in terms of customer needs
4. Organize the needs into a hierarchy of primary,
secondary, and (if necessary) tertiary needs
5. Establish the relative importance of needs
6. Reflect on the results and the process
 1: Define the scope of the effort
• Use the project’s mission statement
– Brief (one sentence) description of the product
– Key business goals
– Target market(s) for the product
– Secondary market
– Assumptions that constrain the development effort
(boundary, scope, limit)
– Stakeholders (end users, retailers, sales, service centers,
production, legal, etc.)

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Mission Statement:Example: Screwdriver Project
Product Description
•A hand-held, power-assisted device for installing threaded fasteners
Key Business Goals
•Product introduced in 4th Quarter of 2018
•50% gross margin
•10% share of cordless screwdriver market by 2020
Primary Market
•Do-it-yourself consumer
Secondary Markets
•Casual consumer
•Light-duty professional
Assumptions
•Hand-held
•Power assisted
•Nickel-metal-hydride rechargeable battery technology
Stakeholders
•User
•Retailer
•Sales force
•Service center
•Production
•Legal department
 Step 2: Gather Raw Data from
Customers
1. Interviews
2. Focus groups
3. Observing the product in use
 1.Interviews
• Development team members discuss needs
with a single customer.
• Interviews usually conducted in the
customer’s environment and typically last 1-2
hours.
 2. Focus Groups
• A moderator (a team member or a professional
market researcher) facilitates a two-hour
discussion with a group of 8 to 12 customers
• Typically conducted in a special room equipped
with 2-way mirror and videotaped
• Participants are usually paid a modest fee ($50 to
$100 each); total cost about $2500
• Firms that recruit participants, moderate focus
groups an/or rent facilities are listed in the
telephone book under “market research”
 3. Observing the Product in Use
• Reveals important details about customer behavior
• For example, a customer painting a house may use a
screwdriver to open paint cans in addition to driving
screws.
• Observation may be completely passive, without any
direct interaction with the customer, or may involve
working side by side with a customer, allowing
members of the team to develop firsthand
experience using the product
 3. Observing the Product in Use
• For some products such as do-it-yourself
tools, actually using the products is simple and
natural
• For others, such as surgical instruments, the
team may have to use the products on
surrogate tasks (e.g., cutting fruit instead of
human tissue when developing a new scalpel)
 Choosing Customers
• Griffin and Hauser estimated that 90 percent of the
customer needs for picnic coolers were revealed
after 30 interviews.
• In another case study , they estimated that 98
percent of the customer needs for a piece of office
equipment were revealed after 25 hours of data
collection in both focus groups and interviews.
• As a practical guideline for most products,
conducting fewer than 10 interviews is probably
inadequate and 50 interviews are probably too many.
 How Many Customers?
Percent of Needs Identified 100

80

60
One-on-One Interviews (1 hour)

Focus Groups (2 hours)

40

20

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Number of Respondents or Groups

From: Griffin, Abbie and John R. Hauser. “The Voice of the

Customer”, Marketing Science. vol. 12, no. 1, Winter 1993.
 Interview Logistics
• For example, if a 10-person team is divided
into five pairs and each pair conducts 6
interviews, the team conducts 30 interviews in
total
 Lead Users
• Needs can be identified more efficiently by
interviewing a class of customers called lead
users.
• Lead users are customers who experience
needs months or years ahead of the majority
of the market and stand to benefit
substantially from product innovations.
 Lead Users
• These customers are particularly useful
sources of data for two reasons:
1. They are often able to articulate their emerging
needs, because they have had to struggle with
the inadequacies of existing products.
2. They may have already invented solutions to
meet their needs.
 Which customer to select?
• The choice of which customers to interview is
complicated when several different groups of people
can be considered “ the customer.”
• For many products, one person (the buyer) makes
the buying decision and another person (the user)
actually uses the product.
• A good approach is to gather data from the end user
of the product in all situations, and in case where
other types of customers and stakeholders are
clearly important, to gather data from these people
as well.
Customer Selection Matrix
The Art of producing Customer Needs
Data
• Gathering needs data is very different from a
sales call: the goal is to produce an honest
expression of needs, not to convince a
customer of what he or she needs.
 Interview Questions
– When and why do you use this type of product?
– Walk us through a typical session using the product
– What do you like about the existing products?
– What do you dislike about the existing products?
– What issues do you consider when purchasing the
product?
– What improvements would you make to the product?
 General Hints for Effective Interaction
with Customers
• Go with the flow.
• Use visual motivations and legs.
• Suppress fixed assumptions about the product
technology.
• Have the customer demonstrate the product and/or
typical tasks related to the product.
• Be alert for surprises and the expression of latent
needs.
• Watch for nonverbal information.
 Documenting interactions with
Customers
1. Audio recording
2. Notes
3. Video recording
4. Still photography
 Audio Recording
• Making an audio recording of the interview is
very easy.
• Transcribing the recording into text is very
time consuming, and it can be expensive to
hire someone to do it.
• Could be intimidating to some customers
 Notes
• Most common method for documenting
• Designate one person as the primary note-taker
and have the other person concentrate on
effective questioning.
• Notetaker should strive to capture some of the
wording of every customer statement precise.
• Transcribe notes immediately after the interview
to create a description of the interview that is very
close to an actual transcript; sharing of insights
between the interviewers.
 Video Recording
• Almost always used to document a focus group
session.
• Useful for documenting observations of the
customer in the use equipment and/or using
existing products.
• Useful for bringing new team members “ up to
speed” and as raw material for presentations to
upper management.
• Multiple viewings of video recordings of
customers in action often facilitate the
identification of latent customer needs.
 Still Photography
• Taking photographs provides many of the
benefits of video recording.
• The primary advantages of still photography
are ease of display of the photos, excellent
imagine quality, and readily available
equipment.
 Final Result of Data Gathering Phase
• A set of raw data, usually in the form of
customer statements but frequently
supplemented by video recordings or
photographs.
• Please remember to: write thank-you notes to
the customers involved in the data gathering
process.
Customer Needs Example:
Cordless Screwdrivers
Visual Information Example: Book Bag Design
Step 3: Interpret Raw Data in terms of
Customer Needs
44
Customer Data Template
 Step 4: Organize the Needs into a
Hierarchy
• The result of step 1 and 2 should be a list of 50 to
300 need statements.
• The goal of step 3 is to organize these needs into a
hierarchical list:
• Primary needs
• Secondary needs
• Tertiary needs
• Organizing the needs into hierarchical list is
intuitive( in-built)
 Needs Organization Procedure
1. Print or write each need statement on a separate
card or self-stick note.
2. Eliminate redundant statements.
3. Group the cards according to the similarity of the
needs they express.
4. For each group, choose a label.
5. Consider creating super groups consisting of two to
five groups.
6. Review and edit the organized needs statements.
Hierarchical List
 Step 5: Establish the Relative
Importance of the Needs
• Useful in making trade-off decisions
• Assign numerical importance weights for
needs
• Two basic approaches to the task:
1.Consensus of the team members based on their
experience with customers
2.Importance assessment based on further
customer surveys
 Importance Weights: Agreement or
Customer Survey?
• Obvious trade-off between the two approaches is
cost and speed versus accuracy.
• Few customer will respond to a survey asking them
to evaluate the importance of 100 needs.
• Typically the team will work with only subset of the
needs. A practical limit on how many needs can be
addressed in a customer survey is about 50.
Example
Step 6 : Reflect on the Results and the
Process
• Some question to ask include:
– Have we interacted with all of the important types of
customers in our target market?
– Are we able to see beyond needs related only to existing
products in order to capture the latent needs of our target
customers?
– Are there areas of inquiry we should pursue in follow-up
interviews or surveys?
– Which of the customers we spoke would be good
participants in our on-going development efforts?
Step 6 : Reflect on the Results and the
Process
• Some question to ask include:
– What do we know now that we didn’t know when we
started? Are we surprised by any of the needs?
– Did we involve everyone within our organization who
needs to deeply understand customer needs?
– How might we improve the process in future efforts?
 QUALITY FUNCTION
DEPLOYMENT
• Quality Function Deployment
– Uses the voice of the customer to build a design
tool:
• House of quality
• The voice of the customer translated into the
voice of the engineer
QFD: An approach that integrates the “voice of the
customer” into the product and service
development process.
 QFD-A Brief History
• Originally developed in Japan in the late 1960s by
-Dr Shigeru Mizuno
-Yoji Akao

• Now widely used not only in Japan but in Europe

and the US

• This was in response to the growing success of the

Japanese industry during the 1970s

55
• To design a product well, a design teams needs to
know what it is they are designing, and what the end-
users will expect from it.
• Quality Function Deployment is a systematic approach
to design based on a close awareness of customer
desires, coupled with the integration of corporate
functional groups.
• It consists in translating customer desires (for example,
the ease of writing for a pen) into design characteristics
(pen ink viscosity, pressure on ball-point) for each stage
of the product development

56
 QFD-Definition

• A planning tool used to fulfill customer expectations

• A tool used to translate customer requirements to

engineering specifications

• It is a link between customers-design engineers-

competitors-manufacturing

57
 Definition-cont.
• A structured process for planning the design of a new
product or service or for redesigning an existing one. It
emphasizes thoroughly understanding what the customer
wants or needs. Then those customer wants are translated
into characteristics of the product or service. Finally, those
characteristics are translated into details about the
processes within the organization that will generate the
product or service.

58
– Source:Tague,N.R(2005).The Quality Toolbox.2nd Ed.
 Quality Function Deployment
• Identify customer wants
• Identify how the good/service will satisfy
customer wants
• Relate customer wants to product hows
• Identify relationships between the firm’s
hows
• Develop importance ratings
• Evaluate competing products
 QFD-PURPOSE
• Regarded as an important tool to:

-improve quality

-reduce manufacturing costs

-increase organization capabilities

-to make the organization more competitive

- develop products that better fulfills users’ needs

60
 Features of QFD
• Focuses on meeting market needs by using actual customer
statements (“Voice of the customer”)
- expectations
- requirements

• It requires Customer and top Management commitment

• Its effective application of multidisciplinary teamwork

-cross functional
-makes use of effective communication

• The use of a comprehensive matrix called (the “House of

Quality”) for
-documenting information 61
 Benefits of QFD
• Improves customer satisfaction
- defines requirements into basic needs
- fewer customer complaints
• Reduces implementation time
- reduction in design changes
- expensive corrections and redesigns are
eliminated

62
 Benefits of QFD
• Promotes teamwork
-inputs are required from all facets of an
organization
• Provides documentation
-database serves as a valuable source for
future designs
• Increases in market share

63
 QFD-Some Problems
• Misinterpretation
-mistaking product characteristics for customer
requirements
-often the answers given by customers are
difficult to classify as needs
• Time and resource
-often seen as additional workload
-costly, the planning stage may take longer

64
 QFD-Some Problems
• Constraints
-investment in training & market research and
use of key functional representatives
-makes high demands on already stretched
personnel resources
• Clash of culture
-based upon Japanese management practices
-symptoms of conflicts may include poor internal
communications between functions
-lack of management commitment to the process
65
 QFD-Sources of Information
An organization can collect data on customers via :

• Solicited- customer and market surveys

• Unsolicited- complaints or lawsuits
• Quantitative- use of statistical data
• Qualitative- interviews and observation
• Structured- interviews, surveys
• Random- vendors, suppliers
66
 QFD Process
• Phase I- Product Planning

• Phase II- Part Development

• Phase III- Process Planning

• Phase IV- Production Planning

67
67
68
69
 Phase I- Product Planning
(House of Quality)
• Translate customer requirement into product
technical requirements to meet their needs.
• Links user requirements to product attributes.

70
70
 Phase II- Part Development
• Translate technical requirements to key part
characteristics or systems.
• Subsystems broken down into critical part
characteristics

71
71
 Phase III- Process Planning
• Identify key process operations necessary to
achieve key part characteristics.
• Relates single subsystems with production
processes (critical step)

72
72
 Phase IV- Production Planning
(Process Control)

• Establish process control plans, maintenance

plans, training plans to control operations.

• Define quality control steps to follow.

73
73
 Positives of QFD Process (cont.)
• More time spent on early stages = less time
spent on later stages (re-designing).

– In turn shortens overall time of process in half

• Better products in long run

• Savings

74
 Negatives of QFD Process (cont.)
• Initially expensive

• Initially time consuming

75
 Idea Generation Stage

• Provides basis for entry into market

• Sources of ideas
– Market need (60-80%); engineering & operations
(20%); technology; competitors; inventions;
employees
• Follows from marketing strategy
– Identifies, defines, & selects best market
opportunities
 Customer Requirements Stage
• Identifies & positions key product benefits
– Stated in core benefits proposition (CBP)
– Example: Long lasting with more power
(Sears’ Die Hard Battery)

House of Quality
• Identifies detailed list of
product attributes desired by
Product
customer Characteristics
– Focus groups or Customer
1-on-1 interviews Requirements
 Functional Specification Stage
• Defines product in terms of how the
product would meet desired
attributes
• Identifies product’s engineering
characteristics
– Example: printer noise (dB)
• Prioritizes engineering
characteristics House of Quality
• May rate product compared
to competitors’ Product
Characteristics

Customer
Requirements
 Product Specification Stage

• Determines how product will be made

• Gives product’s physical specifications
– Example: Dimensions, material etc.
• Defined by engineering
drawing House of Quality
• Done often on computer
– Computer-Aided Component
Specifications
Design (CAD)
Product
Characteristics
 Quality Function Deployment
• Product design process using
cross-functional teams
– Marketing, engineering, manufacturing
• Translates customer preferences into specific
product characteristics
• Involves creating 4 tabular ‘Matrices’ or
‘Houses’
– Breakdown product design into increasing levels
of detail
 To Build House of Quality
• Identify customer wants
• Identify how the good/service will satisfy
customer wants.
• Relate the customer’s wants to the
product’s hows.
• Develop importance ratings
• Evaluate competing ideas and concepts
Ultimately you choose the design
Not the customer!
House Of Quality
Tradeoff
Matrix

Importance Product
characteristics

Customer Relationship Competitive

requirements matrix assessment

Technical assessment and

target values
 House of Quality Example
You’ve been assigned
temporarily to a QFD
team. The goal of the
team is to develop a new
camera design. Build a
House of Quality.

© 1984-1994 T/Maker Co.

 House of Quality Example

What the customer desires

(‘wall’)

Customer Customer
Requirements Importance
Light weight
Easy to use
Reliable
Target Values
 House of Quality Example

Average customer
importance rating

Customer Customer
Requirements Importance
Light weight 3
Easy to use 2
Reliable 1
Target Values
 House of Quality Example
Choose engineering
characteristics to satisfy the
customer requirements

Customer Customer Aluminum Steel Auto Auto

Requirements Importance Parts Parts Focus Exposure
Light weight 3
Easy to use 2
Reliable 1
Target Values
 House of Quality Example
Relationship between
customer attributes &
engineering characteristics
(‘rooms’)

Customer Customer Aluminum Steel Auto Auto

Requirements Importance Parts Parts Focus Exposure
Light weight 3 5 2
Easy to use 2 8 7
Reliable 1 4 8 5 3
Target Values 19 14 21 17
QFD Cascades
 ROBUST DESIGN
Design that results in products or
services that can function over a
broad range of conditions
What does Robust Design mean?
• Plan for variability
• Assess your capabilities
• Design for Manufacturing
• Reduce Costs
• Practice!
• Improve RAM-D
• (Reliability, Availability,
Maintainability, and Durability)
 Variability: The Taguchi Approach
to ROBUST DESIGN
 Design a robust product
− Insensitive to environmental factors either
in manufacturing or in use.
 Central feature is Parameter
Design
 Determines
− factors that are controllable and those not
controllable
− their optimal levels relative to major
product advances
 ASSESS CAPABILITIES

 Identify Core Strengths

 Match Products To
Processing Capabilities
– Design for Manufacturing
(DFM)