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Int. J. Product Development, Vol. 5, Nos. 1/2, 2008

Design development through an integrated approach: a case study of battery-operated passenger cart Boppana V. Chowdary* and Anton Gittens
Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago E-mail: chowdary@eng.uwi.tt E-mail: anton_gittens@yahoo.com *Corresponding author
Abstract: Research trends in product development involve integrated approaches taking into account the design, manufacturing, assembly, maintenance and recycling aspects. Design for the Environment (DFE) in relation to eco-designs, recycling and remanufacturing is particularly important, and environmental regulations must be considered at all stages of design and manufacturing. This paper presents an integrated approach with an emphasis on recycling and maintenance. It includes the relevant product design tools employed in a case study involving the design of a battery-operated passenger cart. The design of the cart aims to reduce problems associated with carrying passengers luggage and reducing travel time between terminals. Engineering software tools such as AutoCAD and SolidWorks were used for both drafting and analysis. Strength and stability along with other features were analysed for compliance with the product design specifications. Matrix analysis and parametric plot were incorporated to ensure that customers needs are not sacrificed when applying the integrated approach to the passenger cart. Keywords: product design; integration; maintenance; recycling; Design for the Environment; DFE. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Chowdary, B.V. and Gittens, A. (2008) Design development through an integrated approach: a case study of battery-operated passenger cart, Int. J. Product Development, Vol. 5, Nos. 1/2, pp.188198. Biographical notes: Boppana V. Chowdary is a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. His research interests are in the areas of flexible manufacturing, product design and development and CAD/CAM. Anton Gittens is a graduate Research Assistant in the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of West Indies. He holds a BSc Degree in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, and is currently pursuing his MPhil Degree. His research interest is in the field of computer-aided design and manufacturing.

Copyright 2008 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

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Introduction

Most physical products wear, tear, and deteriorate with age and use. In general, owing to cost and technological considerations, it is almost impossible to design products that are maintenance-free. Thus the role of product maintenance can be perceived as the process that compensates for deficiencies in design (Markeset and Kumar, 2003). Current practices of product recycling and remanufacturing are the bases for future environmental-conscious engineering. In recent years, the need for new design approaches that offer more efficient and environmentally sound products has become a high-level issue for a successful design process (DeMendonca and Baxter, 2001). In traditional manufacturing engineering, the design engineer considers the cost and availability of materials without any relationship with the environmental impacts of the product and manufacturing process. However, it is clear that by adopting Design for the Environment (DFE) principles, companies can easily comply with the environmental standards and become competitive in todays global market (DeMendonca and Baxter, 2001). Application of DFE principles in the initial stages of product design can change a product life cycle by reducing not only the overall cost, but also the environmental impact of product disposal. It is apparent that the existing literature paid little attention to the influence of product design characteristics in dimensioning recycling and maintenance issues. In this paper, a battery-operated passenger cart design is proposed with maintenance-free and environmentally friendly materials to ensure that the criteria for DFE are met. Careful consideration was taken into the details of recycling, and the assembly and disassembly stages of the cart. Both stages are directly related to the end of the life of the cart and will be discussed throughout the paper.

Background

International airport facilities have grown in size as the prevalence of air transport has increased. This has led to an increased awareness of the needs of travellers. Consequently, small vehicles are now used to facilitate the travellers comfort when moving within the airport. The cost of maintaining a vehicle is a direct function of the maintenance frequency and a failure interval of major components, the time and labour required to complete maintenance routine, as well as the unscheduled tasks. According to Buchanan (2002), maintenance cost can be over 60% of product cost. Thus, the role of maintenance can be perceived as the process that compensates for deficiencies in design, i.e., in terms of unreliability and quality of the output generated by the product. Other factors such as human error, statutory requirements and accidents, also influence the product design and maintenance (Markeset and Kumar, 2003). The design engineers must ask and answer questions about the life cycle of the product and its production process. Their goal is reducing the overall production costs and environmental impact of waste production and disposal by optimising energy and material consumption, minimising waste generation, or by reusing process waste as input to other processes. Pollution prevention and sustainable technology are key factors to reducing the hazards, energy conservation and to achieving successful product design (DeMendonca and Baxter, 2001). To achieve this goal, environmental concerns are closely viewed in the literature (Dowie, 1994). The following are some of the factors

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that were used in the current study for the development of the integrated product design approach: If the product has no recyclable parts or materials, it will be dumped. If the product has some small amounts of recyclable materials, it can be shredded, sorted and the materials are recycled. If the product has parts that can be reused or recycled, it can be disassembled. This leads to one of three options: 1 2 3 Reusable parts from the product can be returned to a manufacturer for reconditioning and assembly of new products. Parts unsuitable for the above solutions can be directly recycled. Parts that contain small amount of recyclable material can be shredded. The resulting material would be sorted where some would be for recycling and the residue would be dumped.

This paper proposes a battery-operated cart design with recyclable and environmentally friendly materials to ensure that the criterion for DFE is met. It is better to reduce waste at the source, than to create waste (Chen, 1999). To meet this objective, the options of reuse, utilisation and dumping are discussed throughout the paper. The product research of the cart accessing the necessary standards to which the cart must adhere is included. These standards include operational standards and running conditions, safety norms and licensing agreements as well as any noise regulations that the cart must adhere to. Similar carts were also examined and a matrix analysis was used to determine the necessary features of the cart. This also gave particular insight to new features that could be added to the cart. Parametric plots were also used to correlate key features and to rate the importance of particular features. The paper proceeds as follows. The integrated approach for the design of a battery-operated passenger cart is briefed in Section 3. This is followed, in Section 4, by the development of design alternatives along with the presentation of a sample design. Section 5 deals with discussion and recommendation of final design. Finally, conclusions are given in Section 6.

Integrated approach for the design of a battery-operated passenger cart

Research trends in innovative product design involve integrated approaches taking into account the maintenance and recycling aspects. To address these, an integrated approach for the design of a battery-operated passenger cart using DFE principles and Quality Function Deployment (QFD) will be presented. Figure 1 depicts an integrated approach followed in the design of battery-operated passenger cart. It includes market, product and materials research; product design specifications; generation of alternatives; selection and analysis of final design. Note that this integrated approach is more concerned with the early phases of a new product design than the whole process. For a detailed product development process, see, for example, Urban and Hauser (1993) and Wilson et al. (1996).

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Figure 1 Integrated product design approach for battery-operated passenger cart

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The proposed integrated approach primarily deals with the issues of maintenance and recycling, in which appropriate product, materials and market researches were done before generating alternatives. This integrated approach was extended further to choose a design that best fits the customers needs. Special emphasis was placed on the eco-friendly attributes of the passenger cart. It was designed with materials suited for disassembly (Zussman, 1995). Upon the disassembly stage of the product, components would have the option of being separated into hazardous and reusable components.

Understanding the needs of the customers

Product research, including materials and market research, was done to identify the general needs of the customers. This information was useful in determining the specific functions of the cart and the range of users. Materials research gave proper insight into both the existing and the new materials that could be used in the designs. A matrix analysis was used to analyse the information gathered in the research done (refer to Table 1). This analysis allowed specific assemblies and components to be identified and are rated according to their importance. Here, a high-priority rating would imply that the component should be incorporated in all designs.

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Table 1

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Matrix analysis

EZ TXT*: Model of EZ-GO Golf Cart FREEDOM*: Model of Club Car Golf Cart

A parametric plot was drawn (see Figure 2) between load capacity and price to identify whether any relationship exists or not between the key features of the cart. These relationships could help to evaluate the limits of a design.
Figure 2 Parametric plot

The QFD tool was employed to determine the requirements of the cart with reference to the environment. Among the various stages of QFD, the House of Quality (HOQ) is the most commonly used stage that portrays the customer requirements and the design graphically. Ideally, a cross-functional team made up of members from various

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departments should develop the HOQ. It consists of several submatrices joined together in various ways, each containing information related to the others (Shen et al., 2000). Relationships were determined between different stages of the design and competitors ratings, and importance ratings were established through HOQ and are presented in Figure 3.
Figure 3 House of quality developed in the design of battery-operated cart

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A Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) was also done to determine the critical components of the cart. With this analysis, each part was given a Risk Priority Number (RPN). This number was determined by ranking the component according to the risk of failure rating, Probability Factor (PF), Effect of Failure Rating (EFR) and detection rating. With the FMEA, specific modes and effects of failure as well as control factors were distinguished. Check lists were also prepared to ensure that there was some degree of ease of maintenance.

Development of alternatives

The designs of several relevant assemblies, sub-assemblies and components were examined from related studies (e.g., see Raplee, 1999; Junvinal and Marshek, 2000) during the course of development of the design alternatives for the cart. Three alternative designs were considered before selecting the final design. This ensures that the selected design would be the best to meet the requirements of the product design specifications. The comparison also allows for morphing and combining of unique traits from each design, by using tools such as the morphological box. Finally, the comparative matrix (refer to Table 2) and weighted ratings matrix (refer to Table 3) are used in the selection of an appropriate design alternative.
Table 2 Comparative matrix for selection of design alternatives for battery-operated cart 1 2 ++ ++ S S S -S S S S S S 4 5 9 S: Same as Datum +: Fairly Greater than Datum ++: Much Greater than Datum +++: Extremely Greater than Datum 3 +++ ++ S S -S S S -++ S S S ++ 9 5 8 4 +++ +++ + -S S -S -++ ++ ++ ++ ++ 17 7 3

Design alternative Criterion Passenger capacity Ride comfort Ease of maintenance Output power Manufacturing cost Weight Size Minimal number of parts Service life Complexity Manoeuverability Luggage capacity Reusable parts Recyclable parts Aesthetic appeal + S

D A T U M

-: Fairly Lesser than Datum - -: Much Lesser than Datum - - -: Extremely Lesser than Datum

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Table 3

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Weighted ratings matrix for selection of design alternatives for battery-operated cart
Weight factor 5 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 4 4 5 5 5 5 4 Rating Alt. 1 1 3 4 3 4 4 3 5 4 4 3 4 2 2 3 Alt. 2 3 4 3 3 3 4 3 2 4 3 3 4 3 3 3 Alt. 3 4 4 4 3 2 4 5 3 4 3 5 4 3 3 5 Alt. 4 5 5 3 4 2 4 5 2 4 2 5 5 4 4 5 5 12 16 12 16 12 9 15 16 16 15 20 10 10 12 196 Weight factor * rating Alt. 1 Alt. 2 15 16 12 12 12 12 9 6 16 12 15 20 15 15 12 199 Alt. 3 20 16 16 12 8 12 15 9 16 12 25 20 15 15 20 231 Alt. 4 25 20 12 16 8 12 15 6 16 8 25 25 20 20 20 248

Objective Good passenger capacity Good ride comfort Ease of maintenance High output power Low manufacturing cost Light weight Small size Small number of parts Long service life Small degree of complexity Good manoeuverability Good luggage capacity Reusable parts Recyclable parts High aesthetic appeal Total

Alt. 1: Design Alternative 1 Alt. 2: Design Alternative 2 Alt. 3: Design Alternative 3 Alt. 4: Design Alternative 4

A sample design alternative

One of the design alternatives will be the ability to hold four persons including the driver of the passenger cart. Three passengers will be seated in a single long seat. Safety side rails will be found on either side of the seat and will be allowed to slide backwards to allow the passengers to initially access the seat. These rails will then be locked into a sturdy position when required. The passengers luggage can be placed at the back of the passengers seat, where individual sections for each piece of luggage are formed by utilising square sections placed horizontally along the depth of the luggage compartment of the cart. The belts will secure the luggage and ensure that they do not topple during motion of the cart. An overhead is incorporated within the design to protect the passengers from environmental elements. This canopy will be made of tarpaulin and can be removed if the users desire. One reason for not choosing this cart was the placement of the luggage. This design holds luggage at the back of the cart and may increase the bending stress and deflection of a simple frame. A more complex and expensive frame will therefore be required, increasing the starting cost of the cart. Another reason for not choosing this cart was the limited seating arrangements, as all three passengers will have to sit on the single, long seat.

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Discussion

Recommendation of the final design

The recommended design of the passenger cart can hold a maximum of five persons including the driver of the cart. The individual drivers seat is made of high-density foam while the two passengers seats are made of low-density polyethylene. High-density foam is used for the drivers seat to reduce the discomfort and shock associated with driving of small vehicles. Both seats are positioned in such a way as to allow the users to have an 18" clearance for legroom. They are ergonomically designed to allow the passengers to maintain the regular curved back in a relaxed position. This ensures that the passengers ride is comfortable at all times. The back passengers seat, however, is so designed that it can be used as a luggage carrier if so desired. Maintenance of both seats involves cleaning and oiling and is relatively easy. There are two possible places for the luggage. They can be placed at the back of the cart as well as on the sturdy canopy. This canopy is more like a tray and is made from 1" and 1" aluminium (i.e., Al 1060) tubing. This tray can hold a maximum of two large bags. A weight of 200 pounds was used in the analysis of the tray with a factor of safety of four. A high factor of safety is needed as passengers are directly below this tray. Any risk of the tray failing should be avoided to prevent injury to passengers. The frame of this design can be made of aluminium I-section beam (Al 1060). This will offer some torsional stability associated with bending stresses and strain. The frame and any other aluminium components (the flooring of the cart) should be coated with a zinc-rich paint for protection from corrosion. It must be maintained to ensure the maximum life of the components. The paint can be applied by high-performance air-spraying techniques, which is particularly designed to reduce corrosion attack. The body of the passenger cart would be made of fibreglass. Standard safety components are also incorporated into the design of the passenger cart. These include nylon fabric seat belts for all passengers, mirrors placed at the front-side of the cart and all necessary lights, including two headlamps and two taillamps. Other safety components include gauges found on the dashboard of the cart. A speedometer, odometer and a battery charger are available to allow the driver to be easily and constantly aware of the running conditions of the cart. A pricing meter is also included, as a standard usage cost will not be used. This meter will measure the distance travelled by the passengers. The motor will be between 30 hp to 40 hp, having 3000 rpm. This is used because of the slow speeds that are required for driving regulations. The speed of the cart will range from 15 mph to 25 mph. Figure 4 shows a drawing of the recommended design.

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Figure 4 Recommended final design of battery-operated passenger cart

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Conclusion

An integrated approach for the design of a battery-operated passenger cart was proposed by incorporating DFE principles and maintenance and recycling issues through the QFD technique. Matrix analysis and parametric plots were used to differentiate and prioritise key features of the market, product and materials research. The customary travelling habits are then used to determine the product design specifications of the cart in relation to the passengers safety and comfort. An attempt was made to generate a series of alternative designs incorporating each of these specifications. The design of the cart in relation to reuse and recycle are also considered along with the ease and cost of maintenance during its life. Tools such as FMEA and comparative analysis matrix are then used to arrive at the appropriate design. It should be noted that the ratings used to arrive at the design criteria are based on subjective assessment. For future work, research efforts should be directed to develop rational approaches to arrive at ratings in a more objective fashion.

Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Aneil Ramkhalawan, Hanif Ramdeen and Suzanne Seepersad for their cooperation in the successful completion of the product research.

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References
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