Product and service design Essay Example
Product and service design Essay Example

Product and service design Essay Example

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  • Pages: 7 (1807 words)
  • Published: January 25, 2018
  • Type: Article
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Product design Is the way for manufacturers to satisfy customers and gain a differential advantage through product design which refers to the arrangement of elements that collectively form a goods or services. It Is concerned with the form and function of a product. Form design Involves the determination of how a product would look like el the shape and appearance of the product, how it will be made of (product structure) and how it will be made (process design).

Functional design deals with what function the product will perform and how it performs. What does product design do? The activities and responsibilities of product design include the following:

  • Translating customer needs and wants into product and service requirements(marketing).
  • Refining existing products(marketing)
  • Developing new products(marketing, product design and production)
  • Formulating quality goals (quality assurance , production)
  • Formulat
    ...

    ing cost targets(accounting)

  • Constructing and testing proto type (marketing and production)
  • Documenting specification (product design)
  • Importance of product design Production or operation strategy is directly influenced by product design for the allowing reasons: 1 . As products are designed, all the detailed characteristic of each product are established. 2. Each product characteristic directly affects how the product can be made or produced (e process technology and process design). 3. How the product is made determines the design of the production system (production design) which is the heart of production and operations strategy.

    Further product design directly affects product quality, production costs and customer satisfaction Is crucial to success In today's global competition. A good product design can Improve he marketability of a product by making It easier to operate or use upgrading Its quality, Improving Its appearance and [o

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reducing manufacturing costs. Objective of product design

  1. The overall objective is profit generation in the long run.
  2. To achieve the desired product quality.
  3. To reduced the development time and cost to the minimum.
  4. To reduced the cost of the product.
  5. To ensure productivity or manipulability.

Factors influencing product design

  • Customer requirements: the designers must find out the exact requirements of the customers to ensure that the products suit the convenience of customers for use. The products must be designed to be used In all the conditions.
  • Convenience of the operator or user: the Industrial products such as machines and tools should be so designed that they are convenient and comfortable to operate
  • Trade off between function and form: the design should combine both performance and appearance with a proper balance between the two.
  • Types of materials used: discovery of new and better materials can improve the product design. Designers keep in touch with the latest development taking place in the field of materials and components and make use of improved materials and monuments in their product designs.
  • Work methods and equipments: designers must keep abreast of improvements in work methods, processes and equipments and design the products to make use of the latest technology and manufacturing processes to achieve reduction in costs.
  1. Cost 'price ration: in a competitive market there is lot of pressure on designers to design products which are cost effective because cost and quality are inbuilt in the design.
  2. Product quality: the product quality partly depends on quality of design and partly on quality of conformance(degree to which quality of design is achieved in manufacturing). The quality policy of the firm

provides the necessary guidelines for the designers regarding the extent to which quality should be built in the design stage itself by deciding the appropriate design specification and tolerances.

  • Process capability: the designers should have the knowledge of the capability of the manufacturing facilities and specific tolerances which can be achieved by the available machines and equipments.
  • Effect on existing products: new product designs while replacing existing product designs, must take into consideration the use of standard part and components, existing manufacturing and distribution strategies and blending of new manufacturing technology with the existing one so that the costs of implementing the changes are kept to the minimum.
  • Packaging: packaging is an essential part off product and packaging design and product design go hand in hand with equal importance. Packaging design must take into account the objectives of packaging such as protection and promotion of the product.
  • Characteristic of Good Product Design

    • Function or performance: the function or performance is what the customer expects the product to do to solve his/her problem or offer certain benefits leading to attestation. Example a customer for a motor bike expects the bike to start with a few kicks on the kick peddle. Human sense and adds value to the product. .
    • Reliability: this refers to the length of time a product can be used before it fails. In other words, reliability is the probability that a product will function for a specific time period without failure.
    • Maintainability: refers to the restoration of a product once it has failed. High degree of maintainability is desired so that the product can be restored (repaired) to be used within a short

    time after it breaks down. This is also known as serviceability.

  • Availability: this refers to the continuity of service to the customer. A product is available for use when it is in an operational state.
  • Availability is a combination of reliability and maintainability. High reliability and maintainability ensures high availability.
  • Productivity: this refers to the ease of manufacture with minimum cost. This is ensured in product design by proper specification of tolerances, use of materials that can be easily processed and also used of economical processes and equipments to produce the product quickly and at a cheaper cost.
  • Simplification: this refers to the elimination of the complex features so that the intended function is performed with reduced cost, higher quality or more customer satisfaction.
  • A simplified design has fewer parts which can be manufactured and assembled with less time and cost. 8. Standardization: refers to the design activity that reduces variety among a group of products or parts.
  • Specification: a specification is a detailed description of a material, part or product, including physical measures such as dimensions, volume, weight, surface finish etc. These specification indicates tolerances on physical measures which provide reduction department with precise information about the characteristics of products to be produced and the processes and production equipments to be used to achieve the specified tolerances.
  • Safety: the product must be safe to the user and should not cause any accident while using or should not cause any health hazard to the user. Safety in storage, handling and usage must be ensured by the designer and a proper package has to be provided to avoid damage during transportation and storage of the product.
  • align="justify">Introduction

    Service refers to an act, something that is done to or for a customer. Service design egging with the choice of a service strategy, which determines the nature and focus of the service, and the target market.

    This requires an assessment by top management of the potential market and profitability of a particular service and an assessment of the organization ability to provide the service. Once decisions on the focus of the service and the target market have been made, the customer requirements and expectations of the target market must be determined. Two key issues in service design are the degree of variation in service requirements and the degree of customer contact and customer involvement in the delivery yester. These have an impact on the degree to which service can be standardized or must be customized.

    The lower the degree of customer contact and service requirement variability, the more standardized the service can be. Service design with no contact and little or no processing variability is very much like product design. Conversely, high variability and high customer contact generally mean the service must be highly customized. A related consideration in service design is the opportunity for selling : the greater the degree of customer contact, the greater the opportunities for selling. Characteristics of well designed service system There are a number of characteristics of well-designed service system.

    They can serve as guidelines in developing a service system. They include the following:

    • Being consistent with the organization mission. (example when the focus is on speed of delivery, each step in the process should help foster speed)
    • Being user friendly(this means that the customer can interact

    with it easily - that is it has good signage, understandable forms, logical steps in the process and service workers available to answer questions)

  • Being robust if variability is a factor. It can cope effectively with variations in demand and resource availability)
  • Being Easy to Sustain

    • Being cost effective(there is minimum waste of time and resources in delivering the service)
    • Having value that is obvious to customers.
    • Having effective linkages between back of the house operations.
    • Having a single, unifying theme, such as convenience or speed.
    • Having design features and checks design Service design presents some special challenges that are less likely to be encountered in product design in part because service design also involves design of the delivery system.

    Among the challenges are the following: 

    There are variable requirements.

    This creates a need for a robust design that will accommodate a range of input and perhaps a range of output.

    Services can be difficult to describe. By their very nature, verbal descriptions can be somewhat imprecise.

    Customer contact is usually much higher in services.

    Service design must take into account the service-customer encounter. There can be a relatively large number of variables to deal with in the service-customer encounter.

    Guidelines for Successful Service Design

    1. Define the service package in detail. A service blueprint may be helpful for this
    2. Focus on the operation on from the customer perspective.
    3. Consider how customer expectations and perceptions are managed during and after the service.
    4. Consider the image that the service package will present both a customers and prospective customers.
    5. Recognize that designer familiarity with the system may give them a quite different perspective than that of the customer,

    and take steps to overcome this.

  • Make sure that managers are involved and will support the design once it is implemented.
  • Define quality for both tangibles and intangibles.
  • Intangible tankards are more difficult to define, but they must be addressed.
  • Make sure that recruitment, training and reward policies are consistent with service expectations.
  • Establish procedures to handle to handle both predictable and unpredictable events. 9. Establish systems to monitor, maintain and improve service. Phases in the service design process

    Conceptualize - (I) idea generation (it) assessment of customer wants/ needs (iii) assessment of demand potential

    • Identify service package components needed
    • Determine performance specifications
    • Translate performance specifications into design specifications
    • Translate design specification into delivery specifications
    • Difference between Product design and Service Design

    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.

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