Concept of Product Design



Mitsubishi Motor's model

An article by Nirjhar Chakravorti

(Mechanical Engineer, Jalpaiguri Govt. Engg. College, 2000 batch; PGDBM)

This essay contains:
What is product design?
Objectives of product design
Features of a good product design
Concepts of product design
Steps of product design

What is product design?

Product design is conceptualization of an idea about a product and transformation of the idea into a reality. To transform the idea into reality a specification about the product is prepared. This specification is prepared by considering different constraints such as production process, customer expectation, etc. In product design stage every aspects of the product are analyzed. Also final decision regarding the product is taken on the basis of the analysis. This decision can be any aspect related to the product, e.g. dimension and tolerances, type of material for every components, etc.

Product design is one of the most important and sensitive factor for an organization. Success or failure of the product decides company’s business, market share and reputation. So during design stage various factors related to the product needs to be addressed.

Objectives of product design:

* To ensure growth of the organization
* To utilize the surplus capacity of the organization, such as physical facility, man power, etc.
* To utilize the surplus fund of the organization
* To meet new requirement of the customers
* To increase company’s market share and to target new market segment
* To ensure complete product range in company’s portfolio

Features of a good product design:

Functionality: The product must function properly for intended purpose.
Reliability: The product must perform properly for the designated period of time.
Productivity: The product must be produced with a required quantity and quality at a defined and feasible cost.
Quality: The product must satisfy customer’s stated and unstated needs.
Standardization: The product should be designed in such a fashion so that most of the components are standardized and easily available in the market.
Maintainability: The product must perform for a designated period with a minimum and defined maintenance. Adequate provision for maintenance should be kept in the product.
Inspectionability: Sufficient option must be kept in the product so that critical and maintainable components can be checked and inspected (as required) with ease.
Cost effectiveness: The product must be cost effective. This must be manufactured in the most cost effective environment.


Wind power energy, new model

Concepts of product design:

Research & development:
Basic research is a search for new knowledge. It does not have any immediate application, but based on the basic research new product can be developed in future. Applied research has objective of developing commercial products.

Reverse engineering:
Reverse engineering is the process of carefully dismantling a product, understanding its design and developing a product which is better than the existing one.

CAD-CAM: By using 3D modeling software system, designers develop a computerized model of a new product and analyze its design parameters. After computer aided design (CAD), computer aided manufacturing (CAM) system produce the product by using CNC facility.

Concurrent engineering (CE): CE is different than conventional approach of design. In CE, different co-related teams are formed, which perform different activities for developing a product. For example, development of market concept, design of product, development of manufacturing process, selection and arrangement of material for new design is performed by different teams at the same time. It reduces considerable amount of time to develop a new product.

In practice different concepts are combined and applied together to design a new product.


Volvo's first model

Steps of product design:

Synthesis: Try to develop different alternatives
Sketching: Draw sketches in exact scale for different alternatives
Analysis: Analysis different alternatives with respect to operability, maintainability, inspection, assembling and dismantling issues, cost parameters, production methods, etc. Concept of Life Cycle Costing can also be adopted, in case of necessity.
Selection: Select the best alternative
Basic engineering: Prepare layout in exact scale, calculate strength of components, and select proper cost effective material.
Detail design: Prepare detail engineering drawing for each component
Prototype: If option is there, then prepare prototype and test it
Manufacturing: If prototype is not made, then follow manufacturing steps and solve manufacturing problems and assembly problems, if any.
Operation: collect feedback during actual operation of the new product. If any problem exists, try to provide design based solution. Also, implement lessons in the future design. Concept of TPM (i.e. Fuguai or "abnormalities", Kaizen or "improvements", etc) can be applied.
Product development: If any modification can be done, implement the same in the next generation product.


World's largest excavator, 45500 ton capacity, Krup make