Product Specifications

Teaching materials to accompany:

Product Design and Development
Chapter 6
Karl T. Ulrich and Steven D. Eppinger
5th Edition, Irwin McGraw-Hill, 2012.

Product Design and Development

Karl T. Ulrich and Steven D. Eppinger
5th edition, Irwin McGraw-Hill, 2012.
Chapter Table of Contents:
1.Introduction
2.Development Processes and Organizations
3.Opportunity Identification
4.Product Planning
5.Identifying Customer Needs
6.Product Specifications
7.Concept Generation
8.Concept Selection
9.Concept Testing
10.Product Architecture
11.Industrial Design
12.Design for Environment
13.Design for Manufacturing
14.Prototyping
15.Robust Design
16.Patents and Intellectual Property
17.Product Development Economics
18.Managing Projects

Concept Development Process

Mission
Statement

Identify
Customer
Needs

Establish
Target
Specifications

Generate
Product
Concepts

Select
Product
Concept(s)

Test
Product
Concept(s)

Set
Final
Specifications

Plan
Downstream
Development

Perform Economic Analysis

Benchmark Competitive Products
Build and Test Models and Prototypes

Target Specs

Final Specs

Based on customer needs

and benchmarking

Based on selected concept,

feasibility, models, testing,
and trade-offs

Development
Plan

The Product Specs Process

Set Target Specifications
Based on customer needs and benchmarks
Develop metrics for each need
Set ideal and acceptable values

Refine Specifications
Based on selected concept and feasibility testing
Technical modeling
Trade-offs are critical

Reflect on the Results and the Process

Critical for ongoing improvement

Product Specifications Example:

Mountain Bike Suspension Fork

Start with the Customer Needs

Establish Metrics and Units

Metrics Exercise:
Ball Point Pen
Customer Need:
The pen writes smoothly.

Link Metrics to Needs

Benchmark on Customer Needs

Benchmark on Metrics

Assign Marginal and Ideal Values

Concept Development Process

Mission
Statement

Identify
Customer
Needs

Establish
Target
Specifications

Generate
Product
Concepts

Select
Product
Concept(s)

Test
Product
Concept(s)

Set
Final
Specifications

Plan
Downstream
Development

Perform Economic Analysis

Benchmark Competitive Products
Build and Test Models and Prototypes

Target Specs

Final Specs

Based on customer needs

and benchmarking

Based on selected concept,

feasibility, models, testing,
and trade-offs

Development
Plan

Crunch

Perceptual Mapping Exercise

KitKat
Nestl
Crunch

Opportunity?

Hersheys
w/ Almonds

Hersheys
Milk Chocolate

Chocolate

Specification Trade-offs
Estimated
EstimaManufacturing
tedMfg. Cost($)Cost ($)

120
Rox Tahx Ti 21
110
Maniray 2
100

Trade-off Curves
for Three Concepts

Gunhill Head
Shox

90
Rox Tahx Quadra

80

Tonka Pro

marginal values

70
ST Tritrack
60

ideal values

50
3

3.2

3.4

3.6

Scoreon
onMonster
Monster ((Gs)
Gs)
Score

3.8

Set Final Specifications

Quality Function Deployment

(House of Quality)
technical
correlations
relative
importance

customer
needs

engineering
metrics

relationships between
customer needs and
engineering metrics

target and final specs

benchmarking
on needs

Other Images