This document provides information about product design, including ways that good product design can increase organizational efficiencies, the relationship between product design and customer service/internal efficiencies, reasons why Henry Ford's message about efficiencies may have been lost, merits and demerits of using plastic materials in products, how design for manufacturing (DFM) relates to value engineering (VE), and the importance of ease of disassembling in product design. It also includes sample questions about topics like concurrent engineering, design for reliability, life cycle costs, and incorporating customer requirements into design.

1. CHAPTER 12: PRODUCT DESIGN
Responses to Questions
1. A good product design increases organizational efficiencies in several
ways:
a. Design features of a product offer customer service – a vital
purpose of the organization
b. Design features can make the organization more competitive in the
market; this may increase its Return on Investments.
c. A product design could be made manufacturing-friendly, reducing
the production costs and efforts for the organization. These cost
savings could be passed on to the customer, making the product
and the organization price-competitive.
2. Yes. The product design is as much for enhancing customer service as for
improving internal efficiencies within the organisation. DFM is one such
measure improving efficiencies in manufacturing.
3. The possible reasons, for Henry Ford’s message having been lost for
several decades, could be as follows:
(i) Industries increased tremendously in size,
consequently reducing inter-departmental
communication. Firm size and complexity bred more of
the ‘over the wall’ syndrome, until globalization made
integration within an organization a necessity for
international competitiveness.
(ii) Technological breakthroughs and improvements made
product design a specialized function that had ‘loyalty’
to technological development much more than to the
rest of the organization. Superior designs did give firms
competitive advantage for several decades earlier until
enhanced international competition made it necessary
to look at aspects that were not purely technical.
Thus, perhaps the ‘threshold’ levels of firm size and technological
development have been crossed when organizational efficiencies and
integration issues have become important once again.
4. Value Engineering (VE) attempts to reduce the cost of an item while
maintaining the functions it performs. Alternatively, VE could enhance the
‘value’ (functions) while maintaining the same cost. DFM keeps the
functions (functional worth) of the item in tact while reducing the

2. 2
manufacturing related direct and indirect costs. DFM can, therefore, be
compared to VE.
5. Using plastic as a material for / in a product has its merits and demerits.
Merits:
(i) Very complex parts can be produced in one operation
- Parts can be combined easily.
- Moderate undercuts, intricate shapes are possible.
(ii) Rigid and flexible elements can be incorporated in one part; e.g.
integral hinges, snap-fit elements.
(iii) Colour and finish can be moulded in.
(iv) Several plastics have lubricity; hence, bearing surfaces can be
incorporated.
(v) Plastics are lighter in weight than most metals.
Demerits:
(i) Not as strong as metals (unless reinforced).
(ii) Have high coefficient of thermal expansion – typically 10 (ten) times
that of most metals. Hence, temperature variations may pose
problems.
(iii) Have limited service temperatures, especially thermoplastics.
(iv) Have less resistance to creep (i.e. flow under prolonged loads).
(v) Have high shrinkage when solidifying in the mould. Hence, setting
close tolerance dimensions may be more difficult.
6. DFM is not proposing to replace R&D or creative design efforts. After a
new product is created / developed, it could be modified suitably to make it
manufacturable and profitable for the firm. Unless the firm is profitable and
competitive, it cannot foster creative R&D and Design activities.
7. There is nothing difficult in having a function serve the firm’s strategic
interests. Earlier, this need for congruity of an organization’s different
functions was not felt with the same degree of urgency as it is felt today
with global competition.
8. Good product design should enhance the product’s reliability, user-
friendliness and other characteristics which contribute to its quality. A
good product design improves efficiencies within the organization with
accompanying positive effects on quality and on all-round performance of
the firm. Thus, it does things that a TQM effort would do.
9. There is a distinct possibility that the reliability considerations and the
manufacturability considerations in product design would clash. For

3. 3
instance, enhanced reliability would require duplication of some of the
components, whereas DFM considerations would require minimization of
the number of components.
However, reliability is more than mere redundancy. A component could be
so designed as to have improved reliability, instead of having the
component in two numbers.
Also, manufacturability is not always about reducing the number of
components. It could be about the shape, size, orientation and material of
the components. Increased number (duplication) of components does not
necessarily mean reduced manufacturability. The number could be more
but the shape and orientation may be such that the manufacturing ease is
enhanced.
10.DFX stands for “Design for Excellence.” Product design is all round
exercise. It is not limited to Design for Manufacturing alone. Designs have
to be appropriate for aesthetics, for reliability, for user-friendliness, for
maintainability, etc. Design should be for excellence in all such
endeavours. DFX would include any or all quality characteristics that can
be included in the design of the product. Excellence is to be designed.
11.Concurrent engineering and Cross-functional teams are some of the ways
of speeding up the product design / development project. Doing various
functions parallelly would demand much inter-functional coordination.
Communications within the organization, across different functions, have
to be rapid and effective. Much team-work, in the entire organization, is
called for.
12. Concurrent Engineering does away with a serialized approach to doing
things. It could speed up the project of product development. But,
sometimes it would be better to do tasks serially – waiting for the success
of one step in order to take the next step. This cautious approach saves
wastages in effort and cost.
13. Environmental concerns in the context of Product Design are:
a. Life of the product is short and, therefore, the product is repeatedly
dumped in the environment.
b. While operating the product, it releases hazardous or potentially
damaging substances into the environment.
c. Component parts may be made up of plastic and such other
material which is not allowed due to environmental considerations.
A product should be designed addressing these concerns. Therefore, in a
Design for Environment one should:

4. 4
a. Use recyclable / reusable parts.
b. Not use environmentally damaging non-degradable materials in the
making of parts.
c. Avoid toxic materials in the product and in the manufacturing
operations.
d. Minimize the number of parts.
e. Minimize the amount of packaging.
f. Use parts / design that are easily disassemblable.
g. Identify the material of construction on each part.
14.Yes. Ease of Disassembling is important in several maintenance functions
– something that could be easily disassembled, faulty component replaced
and the product assembled again.
Today’s modular design, for instance, is for the ease of disassembling
among other things.
Design for Disassembly, along with the ease of servicing, also
emphasizes recyclability of components. A good design should ensure
that the recyclable components can be easily separated from the rest of
the product.
High mortality components should be easily replaced without removing
other parts or disturbing their adjustment.
A design for disassembly would have snap fits, tapered ends, plug-ins,
etc. it would avoid as much as possible welding, soldering, riveting, press-
fits, adhesive-bonding etc of the parts that require replacement frequently.
Standard tools e.g. screw-driver should be able to dismantle the parts.

5. 5
CHAPTER 12: PRODUCT DESIGN
Objective Questions
1. Product development can be speeded up through:
a. DFM
b. Westinghouse Curve
√c. Concurrent Engineering
d. User-friendly design
2. Poka Yoke is:
a. Cross-functional team
b. Minimizing the number of parts
c. Concurrent Engineering
√d. Fool-proofing
3. Westinghouse Curve depicts:
√a. Life cycle costs
b. Product development cycle
c. Loss due to delays
d. None of the above
4. Boothroyd and Dewhurst conducted pioneering research on:
a. Life cycle costs
b. Cross-functional teams
√c. Design of components and techniques for assembly
d. Loss due to delays in product development.
5. Minimizing the number of parts results in:
a. reduced complexity and confusion
b. reduced costs of handling
√ c. a & b
d. none of the above.
6. One of the tools to include quality into product design is:
a. Concurrent engineering
√b. QFD
c. DFM
d. none of the above.
7. Design for reliability may conflict with design for manufacturing.
√a. Yes b. No.

6. 6
8. ‘Family of parts’ is a concept useful in:
a. Robust design
b. Design for manufacture
c. Group technology
√d. b &c
9. Which of the following is a product design tool?
a. Design of Experiments
b. Value Engineering
c. Robust design
√ d. All of the above
10. ‘Over the wall’ syndrome refers to:
√a. design people throwing their designs ‘over the wall’ for the
manufacturing persons to do the next job of producing it.
b. excess of tolerance levels in product specifications.
c. a product design that results in driving the costs very high.
d. none of the above.
11. A product design could influence:
a. manufacturing set-ups.
b. material handling.
√c. a & b
d. none of the above.
12. Design for Assembly may result in
a. reducing the number of components.
b. standardizing the components.
√c. a & b
d. none of the above.
13. Combining parts is feasible when:
a. they are not of the same material.
√b. their combination would not affect the assembly of other parts.
c. they move relative to other parts in the assembly.
d. none of the above.
14. The concept of Life Cycle Costs finds application in:
a. Taguchi’s ’Robust design’.
b. Westinghouse curve.
√ c. a & b
d. none of the above.

7. 7
15. Customers’ requirements are incorporated into Product Design through:
√a. Quality function deployment.
b. Control limits.
c. Six Sigma.
d. none of the above.
16. Design of a new product is helped by:
a. Weibull diagram.
b. Dodge-Romig tables.
c. PDCA cycle.
√d. none of the above.