Chapter 3 Jaime Mualim
Product design is the process of defining all of the product characteristics, such as its
appearance, the materials it is made of, its dimensions and tolerances, and its performance
standards. Service design is the process of establishing all the characteristics of the service,
including physical, sensual, and psychological benefits. There are four steps in product
design: 1.Idea Development, 2.Product Screening, 3. Preliminary Design and testing, and
4.Final Design. Break-even analysis is a technique used to compute the amount of goods
we would have to sell just to cover our cost. Production Processes can be divided into two
broad categories: intermittent and continuous operations. Intermittent operations are used
when products with different characteristics are being produced in smaller volumes.
Continuous operations are used when one or a few similar products are produced in high
volumes. Intermittent operations provide great flexibility but have a high material handling
costs and challenges scheduling resources. Continuous operations are highly efficient but
inflexible. Product design and process selection decisions are linked. The type of operation
a company has in place is defined by the product the company produces. The type of
operation then affects other organizational decisions. A process flowchart is used for
viewing the flow of the processes involved in producing the product. It is a very useful tool
for seeing to totality of the operation and for identifying potential problem areas. Different
types of technologies can significantly enhance product and process design. These include
automation, computer aided design, numerically controlled equipment etc. Designing
services has a few more complexities then manufacturing, because services produce an
intangible product and typically have a high degree of customer contact. Different service
designs include substituting technology for people, getting the customer involved, and the
high customer attention approach.