Design a product and prepare a design specification. You may be working in pairs to complete this assignment where each one in turn will take the role of the customer to identify customer requirements which will be used by the other to design the product. It is important that each customer come up with a set of needs that would result in a unique design.
The design specification must consider customer needs in terms of aesthetics, function, cost, performance, production parameters and lead to a design report. Each person requires coming up with a unique set of requirements in order for the designs to be different. Suggested products for the design are;
- Bottle to contain drinks
- Simple Light fitting
- Bottle opener
- Keyring torch
- Kettle
- Pizza cutter
- Electro mechanical door bell
- A suitable product agreed with the tutor
Care must be taken to consider the implications of specification resource and parameters requirements as well as the level of risk related when each significant parameters is established.
Task 1
Establish customer requirements
Using one or more of the market research methodologies, recognize a clear set of customer needs for your chosen product. Examples of market research methodologies are
- Questionnaires
- Interviews
- Focus group
Also describe why you have chosen the market research method you used instead of others.
Task 2
Present the major design parameters
Using your customer needs, produce a list of design parameters for your product. Then use a suitable method to recognize the major design parameters. Present these in a report with evidence of your work, with relative importance ranking. Also describe the interaction between them in the report.
Task 3
Obtain design information from appropriate sources and prepare a design specification
Considering your design parameters in task 2, draw up a design specification for your product.
a. Find appropriate information from three different sources on the subsequent topics.
- Performance
- Environment (during manufacture, storage and use)
- Target product cost
- Competition
- Quantity and manufacture
- Materials
- Quality
- Standards
- Patents
- Market and company constraints
- Packaging and shipping
- Aesthetics and ergonomics
b. Using the information you have found prepare a design specification to present to your customer.
Task 4
Demonstrate that the design specification meets requirements
Determine how your specification matches all aspects of the customer needs and design parameters, using a suitable method. Show your evaluation as a report.
Task 5
Produce an analysis of possible design solutions
Produce a range of possible design solutions which adequately cover the customer needs. There should be at least four distinct design solutions.Analyse thedesign solutions for their suitability. Design solutions could be shown as clear sketches with annotations. The analysis should be presented as a brief report.
Task 6
Produce and evaluate conceptual designs
Select two top ranking design solutions further produce and study conceptual designs for each one. Evaluate each of these designs against the customer needs. Give suitable evidence for the evaluation. Also include detailed sketches for the conceptual designs.
Task 7
Select the optimum design solution
Using your evaluation and any other consideration select the optimum design solution. Evaluation criteria should include but not limited to cost, value engineering concepts and future development potential.