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    Chapter 5

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    ptgoel
    The document summarizes the process of establishing product specifications from identifying customer needs through setting final specifications. It involves 4 main steps: 1. Translating customer needs into measurable metrics and setting target values for each through competitive benchmarking. 2. Developing technical models to predict how design decisions impact metrics and a cost model to ensure the product can be produced at target cost. 3. Refining specifications through trade-offs shown on competitive maps between critical metrics to select a final concept. 4. Flowing down specifications to subsystems and reflecting on uncertainties and potential to improve models for future products.

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    Chapter 5

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    ptgoel
    83 views44 pages
    The document summarizes the process of establishing product specifications from identifying customer needs through setting final specifications. It involves 4 main steps: 1. Translating customer needs into measurable metrics and setting target values for each through competitive benchmarking. 2. Developing technical models to predict how design decisions impact metrics and a cost model to ensure the product can be produced at target cost. 3. Refining specifications through trade-offs shown on competitive maps between critical metrics to select a final concept. 4. Flowing down specifications to subsystems and reflecting on uncertainties and potential to improve models for future products.

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    Product Design & Development Ulrich

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    The document summarizes the process of establishing product specifications from identifying customer needs through setting final specifications. It involves 4 main steps: 1. Translating customer needs into measurable metrics and setting target values for each through competitive benchmarking. 2. Developing technical models to predict how design decisions impact metrics and a cost model to ensure the product can be produced at target cost. 3. Refining specifications through trade-offs shown on competitive maps between critical metrics to select a final concept. 4. Flowing down specifications to subsystems and reflecting on uncertainties and potential to improve models for future products.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    83 views44 pages

    Chapter 5

    Uploaded by

    ptgoel
    The document summarizes the process of establishing product specifications from identifying customer needs through setting final specifications. It involves 4 main steps: 1. Translating customer needs into measurable metrics and setting target values for each through competitive benchmarking. 2. Developing technical models to predict how design decisions impact metrics and a cost model to ensure the product can be produced at target cost. 3. Refining specifications through trade-offs shown on competitive maps between critical metrics to select a final concept. 4. Flowing down specifications to subsystems and reflecting on uncertainties and potential to improve models for future products.

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    Chapter 5

    Product Specifications

    Learning Objectives
    How to translate subjective customer needs into precise target specs? How could the team resolve the inevitable trade-offs among product characteristics such as cost and weight?

    What Are Specifications?


    Product specs spell out in precise, measurable detail what the product has to do. Product specifications do not tell the team how to address the customer needs. For example:
    customer need: the suspension is easy to install corresponding specification might be: the average time to assemble the fork to the frame is less than 75 seconds.

    Customer Needs for the Suspension Fork

    Similar terms: Specifications


    Product requirements Engineering characteristics Technical specifications: to refer to key design variables of the product such as the oil viscosity or spring constant of the suspension system. A specification (singular) consists of a metric and a value.

    What Are Specifications?


    For example, average time to assemble is a metric, while less than 75 seconds is the value of this metric. The product specifications (plural) are simply the set of the individual specifications.

    When Are Specifications Established?


    Immediately after identifying the customer needs, the team sets target specifications. Target specifications represent the hopes and aspirations of the team, but they are established before the team knows what constraints the product technology will place on what can be achieved.

    When Are Specifications Established?


    The teams efforts may fail to meet some of these specifications and may exceed others, depending on the product concept the team eventually select.
    For this reason, the target specifications must be refined after a product concept has been selected.

    When Are Specifications Established?


    Team revisits specs. while assessing actual technological constraints & expected production costs. To set the final specifications, the team makes trade-offs among different desirable characteristics of the product.

    The Concept Development Process

    Four Steps of the Process of Establishing The Target Specifications


    1. Prepare the list of metrics, using the needs-metrics matrix, if necessary. 2. Collect the competitive benchmarking information. 3. Set ideal and marginally acceptable target values for each metric. 4. Reflect on the results and the process.

    Step 1. Prepare the List of Metrics


    Most useful metrics are those that reflect as directly as possible the degree to which the product satisfies the customer needs Ideally, there is one and only one metric for each need. In practice, this is frequently not possible.

    Step 1. Prepare the List of Metrics


    A simple needs-metrics matrix represents the relationship between needs and metrics. The rows of the matrix correspond to the customer needs, and the columns of the matrix correspond to the metrics. This matrix is a key element of the House of Quality, a graphical technique used in Quality Function Deployment, or QFD

    Guidelines of Metrics
    Metrics should be complete. Ideally each customer need would correspond to a single metric,and the value of that metric would correlate perfectly with satisfaction of that need. Metrics should include the popular criteria for comparisons in the marketplace. For example, popular science, customer reports or Bicycling and mountain Bike magazines.

    Guidelines of Metrics
    Metrics should be dependent, not independent, variables.
    Variant of the what-not-how principle Specifications indicate what the product must do, but not how the specifications will be achieved. Designers use many types of variables in product development; some are dependent, such as the mass of the fork, and some are independent, such as the material used for the fork.

    Use Dependent Metrics


    Example:
    Designers cannot control mass directly because it arises from other independent decisions the designers will make, such as, dimensions and materials choices. Metrics specify the overall performance of a product and should therefore be the dependent variables ( i.e., the performance measures or output variables)

    Guideline of Metrics
    Metrics should be practical. Metrics will be directly observable or analyzable properties of the product that can be easily evaluated by the team.
    Some needs cannot easily be translated into quantifiable metrics. Team notes that the metric is subjective and would be evaluated by a panel of customers. ( Subj. )

    List of Metrics for the Suspension

    The Needs-Metrics Matrix

    Competitive Benchmarking Chart Based on Metrics

    Competitive Benchmarking Chart Based on Metrics

    Step2: Collect the Competitive Benchmarking Information


    Information on competing products must be gathered to support product positioning decisions. Warning: Sometimes the data contained in competitors catalogs and supporting literature are not accurate. If possible, verify by independent testing or observation.

    Step3: Set Ideal and Marginally Acceptable Target Values for Each Metric
    Two types of target values are useful: an ideal value and a marginally acceptable value. The ideal value is the best result the team could hope for. The marginally acceptable value is the value of the metric that would just barely make the product commercially viable.

    Five ways to express the values of the metrics


    At least X At most X Between X and Y Exactly X A set of discrete values

    At least X
    Establish targets for the lower bound on a metric, but higher is still better.

    At most X
    Establish targets for the upper bound on a metric, with smaller values being better.

    Between X and Y
    Establish both upper and lower bounds for the value of a metric.

    Exactly X
    Establish a target of a particular value of a metric, with any deviation degrading performance.

    A set of discrete values


    Some metrics will have values corresponding to several discrete choices.
    For example, the headset diameters are 1.000, 1.125, or 1.250 inches.

    Competitive Benchmarking Chart

    Step 4: Reflect on the Results and the Process


    The team may require some iteration to agree on the targets.
    Are members of the team gaming? For example, is the key marketing representative insisting that an aggressive value is required for a particular metric in the hopes that by setting a high goal.

    Step 4: reflect on the Results and the Process


    Should the team consider offering multiple products or at least multiple options for the product in order to best match the particular needs of more than one market segment, or will one average product suffice? Are any specifications missing? Do the specifications reflect the characteristics that will dictate commercial success?

    The target Specifications

    Setting the Final Specifications


    As the team finalizes the choice of a concept and prepares for subsequent design and development, the specifications are revisited. Finalizing the specifications is difficult How to resolve trade-offs

    Setting Final Specs: A FiveStep Process


    1. Develop technical models of the product 2. Develop a cost model of the product 3. Refine the specifications , making trade-offs where necessary 4. Flow down the specifications as appropriate 5. Reflect on the results and the process

    Step 1: Develop Technical Models of the Product


    A technical model of the product is a tool for predicting the values of the metrics for a particular set of design decisions. Models both analytical and physical approximations of the product. When physical models must be constructed, it is often useful to use DOE techniques to minimize the number of experiments required to explore the design space

    Step 2: Develop a Cost Model of the Product


    Goal: to make sure that the product can be produced at the target cost. For most products, the first estimates of manufacturing costs are completed by drafting a bill of materials (BOM) and estimating a purchase price or fabrication cost for each part.

    A Bill of Materials with Cost Estimates

    A Competitive Map

    Step 3: Refine the Specifications, making Trade-Offs where necessary


    One important tool for supporting this decision-making process is the competitive map. This map is a scatter plot of the competitive products along two dimensions selected from the set of metrics. Generally the team will prepare three or four such maps corresponding to a handful of critical metrics.

    The Final Specifications

    Step 4: Flow Down the Specifications as Appropriate


    For highly complex product consisting of multiple subsystems:
    to ensure that the subsystem specifications in fact reflect the overall product specifications. to ensure that certain specifications for different subsystems are equally difficult to meet (e.g. mass of engine & engine body)

    Step 5: Reflect on the Results and the Process


    Is the product a winner? How much uncertainty is there in the technical and cost models? Is the concept chosen by the team best suited to the target market, or could it be best applied in another market? Should the firm initiate a formal effort to develop better technical models of some aspect of the products performance for future use?

    Appendix: Target Costing


    Text Book Page 104

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