You have been tasked with designing a product of your choice and You want to communicate the initial idea to your management: Mechanical & Design Engineering Report, TUD, Ireland

Scenario:

You have been tasked with designing a product of your choice. You want to communicate the initial idea to your management so that they can decide whether to progress the idea further or scrap the idea. Your job is to present the idea in a professional and clear manner in report form. To do this you will use the tools developed in the design of the engineering systems module. The primary objective of the assignment is to communicate your design idea clearly and to document how you arrived at your design. The design maybe 1. The design of a new product or the enhancement of an existing product. 3. The design of an new process or the enhancement of an existing process. The enhancement must incorporate new design features and functionality. In my experience product design is easier than process design so if you are doing a process please run the idea by me to make sure it is appropriate. Before launching into this task please read this document in full.

Your initial design task may not suit the format of this report. For example, complex design projects such as designing a boat or car might be too complex. On the other end of the scale, designing a simple fixture where there is one very obvious design outcome might also be unsuitable. You are not being marked on the topic of the design, but on how you apply the tools you have learned to the design process. At a minimum, your report should contain a demands list, a wish list, a questionnaire, a design specification, an objective tree, a weighted decision matrix, a cost-benefit analysis, an FMEA, and a Gantt chart. This exercise is the first step in the design process and as such there are a lot of unknowns. You will have to make a lot of assumptions in order complete this report. During the process it is likely that you will identify unknowns and risks that could influence the success of the product. State these and discuss what work should be done to mitigate these risks. Your report is being marked on report writing as well as technical content. Ie formatting errors, poor spelling, not explaining images, poor layout, etc may result in lost marks. If you use figures it is a good idea to save them in PowerPoint and annotate them prior to putting them into word. All text in figures should be clear and all figures tables and graphs should be introduced and where applicable explained in the text. Spell check your work. Use short concise sentences and avoid repetition. The suggested word count is from 2000 to 4500 words. A suggested template and further information on the report are below. Please contact me if you are unclear about any of the instructions. ? Title: Design of an xxx Table of Contents Introduction 3 Design Specification 3 Conceptual design and design selection 3 Embodiment design 4 Summary 5 References 5 Appendices 5 List of Figures/Tables Table 1 Initial demand list 2 Table 2 Design specification 3 Table 3 FMEA template 4 ?

Introduction This section gives an introduction to the needs that you want to fulfill with your design and the background information relevant to the design. It should also identify why there is a need for a new design in this area. When describing products and processes, images should be used where possible. Design Specification This is step 1 in the design process: clarification of the task. Give an overview of the competition for this product. Include images of competing products and reference any images used. Try to find information on the cost of the competing products. If you are creating or updating a process outline the current process and estimate potential cost savings. Create a questionnaire for potential stakeholders and put it in the appendix. Based on the market research, your own experience and your questionnaire put together an initial demand list and a wish list. You must also address the time to market and the cost target in this list. These lists should be in table form. Table 1 shows an example of the initial demands list. Table 1 Initial demand list Requirement Type The product must cost less than… Demand Development must be less than… Demand State clearly why this product/process is needed. Create a design specification. This specification is a key document that drives the rest of the process. Your design has to meet all the demands and should also meet as many wishes as possible. Note: design is an iterative process so this is a living document, you can update it as you go and you can put old versions in the appendix if you feel this will add clarity to the report. A suggested template for the design specification is given in Table 2. Table 2 Design specification Project

Title: Rev A Compiled by: Date: Company: Originator Requirement Demand Wish Q Should be usable with one hand x C Should be long lasting x M Unit cost less than, x m Development cost less than x D Should have best in class strength to weight ratio x Q From Questionnaire, C From customer, M From Management, D From design team (you can add other originators to this list) Conceptual design This is step 2 in the design process; Conceptual design. Come up with different design solutions. Try to communicate each design clearly. You may use any of the following to communicate the design: Written verbal description, Diagrams, hand-drawn sketches, models, calculations, and images. It is desirable to have as many blue sky ideas as possible in this phase, even if some of them don’t work. If you have more than four designs you may use a selection chart to whittle down your ideas. Create an objective tree to prioritize different aspects of the design. Create a decision matrix and down select the preferred design option.

Embodiment design This is step 3 of the design process: Embodiment of design Describe your preferred option in as much detail as possible. Break the product down into each of its components and give details of each component(estimated materials, dimensions, manufacturing methods, cost, etc). Look at the design for the environment. Are the components recyclable? Is the product single-use or multiuse, is its use energy-efficient, etc. Carry out an FMEA on your preferred design. This FMEA should identify potential issues with your design and help identify changes that can be made to avoid these failures. A template for the FMEA is given below in Table 3 where O is the likelihood of occurrence, S is the severity if failure mode occurs, d is the likelihood of detection enabling avoidance of failure and RPN is the Risk Priority Number. The failure mode can be a failure of a function or an unintended occurrence. IE for a car failure could be a failure to drive (function) or car crashing (unintended occurrence). The important part of the FMEA is carrying out a critical analysis of your design, coming up with potential solutions, and communicating these clearly to the reader.