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MS 05 MANAGEMENT MACHINES & MATERIALS SEM II

QUESTION:

Explain Product Design. How does it influence the Process design? Explain Product Selection

and the stages involved therein. What is productibility and how does it affect Productselection?

MACHINE MANAGEMENT

1. PRODUCT DESIGN is defined as the process of devising and laying down the needed plans

for manufacturing a product.

2. Product Design involves the generation of ideas, concepts and prototypes for the next

generation of commercial products. It involves consideration of all the suspects of a product orprocess including shape, form, color, and customer and user perception, function, usability and

sustainability. Styling and function are crucial to the commercial success of a product.

3. At the design stage detailed specification are provided so that manufacturing can produce what

has been designed. This means providing dimensional specifications and also specifications

regarding capacity, horse power, speed, color, etc. are laid down. The task of manufacturing is to

convert the design into physical entities. The two priorities that can affect the design of a product

are- standardization and satisfaction of customers. Standardization leads to ease in production

and customer satisfaction can be achieved by providing more variety as customers have different

needs.

4. While designing a product, the Key elements to be considered are product function, cost,

reliability and quality. Also other elements are appearance, environmental impact, product

safety, productivity, maintainability, timing and accessibility.

5. During product designing one has to keep in mind that the product should be innovative and

should respond effectively to commercial, cultural, social, environmental, aesthetic, functional

and technological considerations. A creative approach should be developed to produce aesthetic

together with a thorough understanding of materials, technology and the latest manufacturing

processes.

The design of a product is closely linked with the design of the process required to produce it.

If there are product innovations then similar innovations take place in the process design as well.

In the first stage, product innovations are need stimulated and the emphasis is on maximization

of product performance here then the process is uncoordinated at this stage and process

innovations are primarily output rate stimulated. Product innovations gradually decrease while

process innovations pick up at this stage.

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In the second stage both product and process innovations are technology stimulated. The

productive system design emphasizes cost minimization as the competition in the market places

emphasis on price. Here process innovations become more important than the product

innovations because they yield to a greater reduction in cost.

In the third stage the product has achieved maturity and saturation and innovations are primarilycosts consideration stimulated. Here the productive processes become highly integrated. The

product focused operations try to achieve economies of scale by having integrated plants of large

capacities.

Thus product innovations and process innovations are closely linked to the life cycle of the

product.

Product selection- is a strategic decision for the organization and the top management as well as

functions like marketing, R and D and engineering have a role in making the product selection

decisions. It is an ongoing process. As the environment changes and new technology developsnew tastes are formed. So the product should benefit from these developments or else the added

value perceived today may not be perceived as such tomorrow. E.g. jute as a packing material

was in demand for a long time and now demand has reduced due to change in consumer taste and

technology.

There are various stages in Product Selection.

The first stage is Research and Generation of ideas. This can be carried out from

1. The field - through market research in form of consumer surveys, dealer surveys, opinion

polls, etc.

2. From research laboratories due to a break through achieved by pure research or applied

research in developing new knowledge.

3. From formal attempts- to generate new ideas for products by using techniques like brain

storming, panel discussions, scenario building, technology forecasting, etc...

The second stage is screening The new product idea is assessed to establish its market viability

and to find out if it is in larger corporate interest of the organization to add this new product to

the current outputs of the organization. Whether a product should have sufficient demand,

whether the new product capitalizes on the strengths and attempts to reduce the weakness of theorganization and what type of competition is there in the market for the product is all screened.

The output ideas generated are thus screened and their match with corporate objectives and

policies is studied and their market viability is established.

The third stage is economic analysis where a detailed economic analysis is performed to

determine the profitability of the product. The economic value of the returns must exceed the

economic value of the costs incurred to produce the output. For commercial organizations the

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measurement of returns and costs is synonymous with profitability analysis and for non- profit

organizations this takes the form of accost-benefit analysis.

Productibility of an output refers to the ease and speed with which the output can be produced.

Product function, cost, quality and reliability are some of the inputs to the decision of product

selection. The productibility of the product measures the ease and speed with which the outputcan be produced.

The specialized equipment, specialized skills and specialized toolings facilitate in switching

production from one product to another and are important factors to assess productibility. It is

important to look at the complete range of products produced because a new product may either

use the capacity of the process/sub process already established or may require the establishment

of capacity of some processes. A family of similar products is much simpler to produce than a

family of dissimilar products. This productibility has a major effect on product selection.