Assignment

1.What are the five types of process choices, including the project process? What types of products/ services would be produced by each process? On what characteristics do these processes differ from one another (i.e. customer involvement, resource flexibility, capital intensity, strategy)?

2. What are the differences between the various layout choices (i.e. product, process, fixed position layout)?

3. Why is it important to have a "good" product design? What are the current trends in product design? What factors influence, or improve, a product design?

4. What is meant by the phrase Design for Manufacturing (DFM)? What basic design rules can be used to 1) minimize system complexity and 2) maximize ease of fabrication and assembly? How has the video cassette industry incorporated these guidelines into the design of cassettes? What could they do to further implement DFM as the yellow tapes made by Global Zero do have done?

5. How does the increased complexity of a product increase costs to the firm?

5. What methods can be used to focus on sustainability through product design?

6. What is concurrent engineering and why is it important? What is reverse engineering?

7. What is mass customization? What techniques can be used to mass customize?

8. What can a firm do to decrease the product development and manufacturing time of a product? In other words, what methods can be used to minimize the time to get a product into the marketplace and what can be done to reduce production time?

9. How is service design different from product design? What are supporting goods/ facilities, explicit services, and implicit services? What elements are more important in designing a service than in designing a product?

10. What factors contribute to Benihana's successful restaurant design? How have they incorporated the important elements as specified in question 9?