Chapter 03 – Product Design
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Chapter 3
Product Design
Teaching Notes
The purpose of this chapter is to show how product design relates to the operations
function along with collaboration with customers and suppliers in the supply chain. The chapter
stresses the steps in product design and the interaction between product design and process
design. The chapter also discusses cross-functional design, quality function deployment, and
reduction of product variety through the use of modular design.
In teaching this chapter, we stress the notion of product-process interaction, the role of
technology in product and process design, QFD and the modular design ideas. Examples are
particularly helpful to students in presenting these concepts. Good examples can be taken from
everyday products and services or from recent newspaper or magazine articles.
Answers to Questions
1. Inter-functional cooperation is important in selecting the “right” new product that can be
produced and sold at a profit.
2. A market-pull approach might be appropriate in situations where the process is simple
and fairly well standardized, but competition is extremely strong (consumer foods, for
3. This is probably best handled by treating the script for the play as the product
specification and the presentation of the play as the product.
Chapter 03 – Product Design
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The play is generated by the author as an idea (idea generation) and selected by the
4. There are two primary reasons for the increase in product variety. The first is the
marketing concept of meeting consumer needs. Since people have a wide variety of
5. By using the modular approach to product design, the production variety will be
decreased since only the modules need to be produced. Product variety will be greatly
6. Operations should be involved in all stages of product design. Since the operations
7. A travel agency. For prepackaged tours, the product specification would be the travel
brochure put out by the tour’s organizers. For individual trips, the product specification
8. Students’ answers will vary. Some examples follow: A great variety of baseball type
10. The potential benefits of using a QFD approach include: meeting or exceeding customer
requirements; better communications across departments in design, production, and sales
Chapter 03 – Product Design
11.
Engineering Characteristics
Customer Attributes
Relative
importance
Size of cloth
(cm2)
Weight of the
backpack (kg)
Number of
pockets
Comfortable Backpack
30
X
Durable
20
Enough room
25
Not too heavy to carry
25
X
X
Total
100
12.
Engineering Characteristics
Customer
Attributes
Relative
importance
Distance from
school (m)
Size of lot (m2)
Size of building
without lot (m2)
Number of seats
inside (#)
Number of seats
outside (#)
Number of
cashiers (#)
Close to school
location
25
Parking lot for
customers
10
Enough tables
inside (during
winter)
15
Enough tables
outside (during
summer)
15
Minimum waiting
time in line
15
Low Prices
20
X
X
X
X
X
Total
100
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13. The total number of possible combinations is 5 x 3 x 3 x 2 x 10 x 2 x 4 = 7200. To limit
the number of combinations, we can combine all the characteristics into two different
groups (design modules) that will reduce costs and keep enough variety at the same time.
The type of engine, type of battery, and type of transmission are core characteristics of