CHAPTER 4
PRODUCT AND SERVICE DESIGN
The main topics in this chapter are:
1.
The Design Process
2.
Sources of Ideas and Research and Development
3.
Standardization
4.
Mass Customization
5.
Concurrent Engineering
6.
Service Design
7.
Quality Function Deployment
There aren't many things more important to an organization than its products and/or services, and there is
a rather obvious connection between the design of those products and/or services and the organization's
success. Consequently, organizations are vitally concerned about achieving outstanding product and
service design so they can compete in today's global marketplace. I emphasize the design process and
quality function deployment which represents the entire design process and can be referred to later on in
process design and quality topics.
Reading: Design for Response
Design for Response is an approach to design which bypasses performing consumer research and
introduces new products without it, but at a fast rate. Depending on consumer response, a company will
change the product.
Reading: Knowledge Mining for New Product Successes
More examples: IBM introduced the slim-body Aptiva because home offices were usually cramped
spaces. Mazda understood the aspiration of the market for a sporty but inexpensive car by introducing the
Miata. Iams addressed the fussy pet owners by introducing its brand of good-quality pet foods. New
Apple Computer’s shape and bright colours astounded the consumers.
Answers to Discussion and Review Questions
1.
2.
3.
4.
Organizations redesign their products and services for a variety of reasons. Among them are
customer dissatisfaction, government regulation, competition, liability claims, technological
innovation (products and methods), and changes in costs and availability of such inputs as
materials, labour, and energy.
Markets and competitor analysis, product planning (objectives, etc.), design, and testing.
CAD refers to computer-aided design: computer graphics used for product design. A designer
can easily modify an existing design or create a new one. The designer can readily obtain a
variety of different perspectives as well as other pertinent information that speeds the process and
frees the designer to concentrate on creative aspects of design. CAD software may also perform
engineering testing on the image of product such as stress analysis.
The main advantages of standardization are:
Instructor’s Manual, Chapter 4
47
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
48
a. Less variety of parts to deal with.
b. Permits standardized training, purchasing, inspection, and material handling. It may also
permit automation.
c. Enables production to stock, which allows filling orders from inventory, and potentially long
production runs (cheaper unit cost due to economics of scale).
Among the main disadvantages of standardization are the following:
a. Designs may be "frozen" with too many imperfections remaining.
b. The high cost of design changes increases resistance to improvement.
c. Decreased variety may lessen consumer appeal.
Modular design refers to viewing a product (and sometimes a service) as being composed of a
number of "chunks" or sections instead of a collection of individual parts. In effect, it is one form
of standardization. Among the advantages of modular design are ease of diagnosis and repair of
failures, standardization of manufacturing, more routine purchasing, inventory control and
training. The disadvantages of modular design include a decrease in possible variety of the
product, the possibility of not being able to disassemble a module to replace a faulty part, and
possible resistance to design improvements, particularly minor ones, if they cannot be readily
incorporated into an existing configuration.
Design for manufacturing is taking into consideration manufacturing capabilities to produce a
particular product. Operations people should be involved early in the design process to ensure
that the design will be compatible with manufacturing capabilities. Production/Operations people
can provide the necessary input before problems arise in production.
Some of the competitive advantages of concurrent engineering are:
1. Manufacturing personnel are able to identify production capabilities and capacities. Very
often, they have some latitude in design in terms of selecting suitable materials and processes.
Knowledge of production capabilities can help in the selection process. In addition, cost and
quality considerations can be greatly influenced by design, and conflicts during production
can be greatly reduced.
2. Early opportunities for design or procurement of critical tooling, some of which might have a
long lead time. This can result in a major shortening of the product development process,
which could be a key competitive advantage.
Remanufacturing or refurnishing involves removing some of the parts and components of old
products and reusing them in new products. The advantages of remanufacturing include the
following:
a. Remanufactured products are cheaper to make than new products.
b. Remanufactured products require less skilled workers than new products.
c. There will be less depletion of natural resources and less pollution.
The term "life cycle" refers to a sequence of stages of demand which products or services go
through. A typical sequence consists of incubation, growth, maturity, saturation and decline.
Efforts to improve design may depend on the stage of the life cycle: In the early stages, there is a
greater potential for returns than in later stages. Moreover, many design changes can be
anticipated early during the life cycle as familiarity with the product or service increases.
Research and development is a key factor in productivity improvement because it creates
technological innovation. Some examples include new composite materials, transistors,
computers, microwave, cell phones, etc.
Mass customization is a strategy of producing standardized goods or services while incorporating
a certain degree of customization in the final product or service. Mass customization can be
Operations Management, 2/ce
12.
13.
14.
15.
achieved using a couple of different tactics. These tactics are delayed differentiation and modular
design.
Delayed differentiation involves postponing completion of the service or the product until
obtaining specific information about customer preferences and specifications. Once the company
has knowledge about specific customer preferences, the customized specifications are
incorporated on almost-completed units. This approach reduces product or service delivery lead
times while reducing costs and improving the efficiency due to standardization.
Mass customization can also be achieved through modular design. See answer to Question 5.
Differences between service design and product design:
a. Products are generally tangible; services are generally intangible. Consequently, service
design often focuses more on intangible factors (e.g., peace of mind, ambiance) than does
product design.
b. Services are often produced and received at the same time (e.g. a haircut, a car wash). Thus,
there is less latitude in finding and correcting errors before the customer has a chance to
discover them. Consequently, training, process design, and customer relations are
particularly important.
c. Services cannot be inventoried. This poses restrictions on flexibility and makes capacity
design very important.
d. Services are highly visible to consumers and must be designed with that in mind; this adds an
extra dimension to product design, the service delivery process.
e. Some services have low barriers to entry and exit. This places additional burden on service
design to be innovative and cost-effective.
f. Location is often important to services, with convenience as a major factor. Hence, design of
services and choice of location are often closely linked.
Robust design proposed by Taguchi is a design that results in products or services that can
function over a broad range of conditions. The more robust a product the less likely it will fail
due to a change in the environment in which it is used. The more designers can build robustness
into the product, the better it should hold up, resulting in a higher level of customer satisfaction.
It does not mean just making products heavier and bigger because these may not be attributes
customers desire in a product. They may want a robust design which is lighter and compact.
Quality function deployment (QFD) is a structured approach for integrating the "voice of the
consumer" into the product development process. The purpose is to ensure that customer
requirements are factored into every aspect of the process from product design to the production
floor.
Reverse engineering is disassembling a competitor’s product in order to find out what it is
composed of and how the components work. No, it is not unethical if it doesn’t involve stealing
patented processes or industrial espionage.
Memo Writing Exercise
Design for recycling involves keeping the end-of-life of a product in mind and making it economical to
disassemble and recycle the material. A good example is aluminum cans, which are totally recycled.
Other examples are newspapers and steel in car bodies. Examples of failures are computers and various
plastic products. Environmental impact will sooner or later force government regulations in favour of
recycling.
Instructor’s Manual, Chapter 4
49
Solutions
1.
Service variability and customer contact influence service design
High
Degree of
Contact with
Customer
e
Moderate
d
Low
b
a,c
Minimal
Highly
standardized
High
Medium
Low
Minimal
Variability in Service Requirements
2.
Service variability and customer contact influence service design
High
Degree of
Contact with
Customer
c
Moderate
b
Low
a
Minimal
High
Medium
Low
Minimal
Variability in Service Requirements
50
Operations Management, 2/ce
Solutions (continued)
3. a. Roll Roundness and Tensile Strength
b.
Technical
Requirements
Customer Requirements
Type of
Paper
Internal
Paper
Feed
Paper doesn’t wrinkle


Prints cleanly


Easy to use


Autofeed
of
Originals
Internal
Copy Paper
Feed
.
Technical
Requirements
Customer Requirements
Copy paper doesn’t jam

Cylinder
Print
Element
.
Prints cleanly
Easy to use
Print
element
.
4.
Technical
Requirements
Customer Requirements
Ingredients
Mixing &
Shaping
Baking
Tasty

Attractive appearance



Softness



Case: Open Wide and Say “Ultra”
Answers to Questions:
1.
Market Analysis
Harvey’s polled burger lovers across Canada, by telephone and later focus groups. Feedback: go
thicker, juicer, chewier, and tastier.
Concept Development
Chef Bonacini knew how to make burgers with above qualities (e.g., the 12 taste profiles he
made), but the challenge was to make them for mass market, kept frozen for weeks before
grilling. Packaging could be part of concept too.
Instructor’s Manual, Chapter 4
51
Quality Function Deployment
Was not used explicitly, but the essence of it (translating the voice of customer into a burger) was
done.
Prototype Development
Bonacini tried 12 taste profiles, and Harvey’s executives tasted each. Exotic flavours were
rejected, leaving three simply seasoned burgers. McCormick Canada was brought in to assist in
spice quantity. Several tests were done with burgers kept frozen for 1, 2, 3, and 4 weeks.
Production (service) Pilot
Ultra was tested in Harvey’s restaurants in Calgary, Sudbury, and Quebec.
2.
R&D (many tests), Product life cycle (replacing their old burger), Robust design (tests to
determine effect of spice on taste after freezing for various periods), and multifunctional teams.
3.
A possible solution:
Correlation:
X
Customer
Requirement
s
Engineering
Amo Type/ Mixing Shap Quali
Characteristics
unt of amou time of e
ty of
nt of batch
meat
meat
Impor
spices
tance
Thicker
close
Juicy
3
Chewy (softer bite)
4
Tasty
5
Not fall apart
Importance
weighting
4
27
105
¼
pound
52
5
4
3
2
1
X
A
B
12
1 gr
salt,
1 gr
pepper
XB
A
99
5 min
B
A
X
9
square
X:
A,B:
X
A
B
Competitive evaluation
X = old
A
Us= Comp.
B = Comp.
A
(5 is
B
best)
1 2 3 4
5
B
Relationships:
45
Grade
A
*
A X
B
AB
X
AB
X
A X
B
X
A
4
Target
values
Technical
evaluation
(5 is best)
Coo
king
temp
&
time
Strong positive
Positive
Negative
Strong negative
5 min
at 250
F
Strong = 9
Medium = 3
Small = 1
B
AX
Operations Management, 2/ce