LESSON 7: Design for Quality and Product Excellence

o Companies today face incredible pressures to continually improve the quality of their products
while simultaneously reducing cost, to meet ever – increasing legal and environmental
requirements, and to launch new products faster to met changing consumer needs and remain
competitive.
 The ability to achieve these goals depends on a large extent on product design (by which
we also imply redesign).
 Better designs not only reduce costs, but improve quality.
 Effective design processes are vital to meeting customer requirements, achieving quality,
and innovation.

o Product Development
 Most companies have some type of structures product development process. The typical
product development process, consists of six phases:
1. Idea Generation – new or redesigned product ideas should incorporate customer
needs and expectation.
 However, true innovations often transcend customers’ expressed desires,
simply because customers may not know what they like until they have it.
 Idea generation often focuses on exciters and delighters as described in the
Kano model.
2. Preliminary Concept Development – in this phase, new ideas are studied for
feasibility.
3. Product / Process Development – if an idea survives the concept stage – and many do
not – the actual design process begins by evaluating design alternatives and
determining engineering specification for all materials, components, and parts.
 This phase is usually including prototype testing, in which a model (real or
simulated) is constructed to test the product’s physical properties or use under
actual operating conditions, as well as consumer reactions to the prototypes.
4. Full – scale Production – once the design is approved and the production process has
been set up, the company releases the product to manufacturing or service delivery
teams.
5. Market Introduction – the product is distributed to customers.
6. Market Evaluation – Deming and Juran both advocated an ongoing product
development process that relies on market evaluation and customer feedback to
initiate continuous improvements.

 Customer involvement enables them to integrate market evaluation throughout the

process and early supplier involvement facilitates higher – quality purchased materials
and components as well as improved supply chain management.
 Caterpillar implements its product development process using an approach called
DMEDI (define, measure, explore, design, design, implement):
 1. Define Opportunities – understand the purpose of the process to be developed
by goal statements, generation plans, and resource identification.
2. Measure Customer Needs – understand the outputs required of the new
process by examining customer needs and competitive analysis.
3. Explore Design Concepts – use creative techniques to develop alternative
concepts and evaluate those ideas by validating customer requirements.
4. Develop Detailed Design – turn the concept into reality by the use of process
and product designs, pilot programs, and testing.
5. Implement Detailed Design – fully deploy the new process and assess its value
against the desired outcome.

o Concurrent Engineering – is a process in which all major functions involved with bringing a
product to market are continuously involved with product development from conception through
sales.
 Such an approach not only helps achieve trouble – free introduction of products and
services, but also results in improved quality, lower costs, and shorter product
development cycles.
 Concurrent engineering involves multifunctional teams, usually consisting of 4 to 20
members and including every specialty in the company.
 The functions of such teams are to perform and coordinate the activities in the product
development process simultaneously, rather than sequentially.

o Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) – represents a structured approach to product development and a
set of tools and methodologies for ensuring that goods and services will meet customer needs
and achieve performance objectives, and that the process used to make and deliver them achieve
high levels of quality.
 DFSS helps designers and engineers better translate customer requirements into design
concepts, concepts into detailed designs, and detailed designs into well – manufactured
goods or efficient services.
 DFSS consists of four principal activities:
1. Concept Development – focuses on creating and developing a product idea
and determining its functionality based upon customer requirements,
technological capabilities and economic realities.
2. Detailed Design – focuses on developing specific requirements and design
parameters such as specifications and tolerances to ensure that the product
fulfills the functional requirements of the concept.
3. Design Optimization – seek to refine designs to identify and eliminate
potential failures, achieve high reliability, and ensure that it can be easily
manufactured, assembled, or delivered in an environmentally – responsible
manner.
4. Design Verification – ensures that the quality level and reliability
requirements of the product are achieved.
  These activities are often incorporated into a process known as DMADV which stands
for define, measure, analyze, design and verify.
1. Define – focuses on identifying and understanding the market need or
opportunity.
2. Measure – gathers the voice of the customer, identifies the vital characteristics
and that are most important to customers, and outlines the functional
requirements of the product that will meet customer needs.
3. Analyze – is focused on concept development from engineering and aesthetic
perspectives. This often includes the creation of drawings, virtual models, or
simulations to develop and understand the functional characteristic of the
product.
4. Design – focuses on developing detailed specifications, purchasing
requirements, and so on, so that the concept can be produced.
5. Verify – involves prototype development, testing, and implementation
planning for production.

o Concept Development and Innovation

 Concept development – is the process of applying scientific, engineering, and business
knowledge to produce a basic functional design that meets both customer needs and
manufacturing or service delivery requirements. Developing new concepts requires
innovation and creativity.
 Innovation – involves the adoption of an idea, process, technology, product or business
model that is either new or new to its proposed application.
 The outcome of innovation is a discontinuous or breakthrough change and
results in new and unique goods and services that delight customers and create
competitive advantage.
 The Small Business Administration classifies innovations into four categories:
1. An entirely new category of product
2. First of its type on the market in a product category already in
existence
3. A significant improvement in existing technology
4. A modest improvement to an existing product.
 Innovation is built upon strong research and development (R&D) process.
Many larger firms have dedicated R&D functions. Government agencies also
promote innovation.
 Creativity – is seeing things in new or novel ways.
 One creativity tool that extensive use in product design is TRIZ which
is a Russian acronym for the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving.
 TRIZ was developed by Russian patent clerk who studied thousands of
submissions and observed patterns of innovation common to the
evolution of scientific and technical advances.
 After potential ideas have been identified, they are evaluated using
cost/benefit analysis, risk analysis, and other techniques.
  Finally, the best concept is selected, often using some type of scoring
matrix to weight the selection criteria.

o Detailed Design
 Conceptual designs must be translated into measurable technical requirements and,
subsequently, into detailed design specification.
 Detailed design focuses in establishing technical requirements and specifications, which
represent the transition from a designer’s concept to a producible design, while also
ensuring that it can be produced economically, efficiently, and with high quality.
 Axiomatic design based on the premise that good design is governed by laws similar to
those in natural science. Two axioms (statement accepted as true without proof) govern
the design process:
1. Independence Axiom – good design occurs when the functional requirements
of the design are independent of one another.
2. Information Axiom – good design corresponds to minimum complexity.
 These axioms guide the design process with the goals of creating the best possible
product to achieve the desired functions.

o Quality Function Deployment

 A powerful tool for establishing technical design requirements that meet customer needs
and deploying them in subsequent production activities is quality function deployment
(QFD).
 The term, which is a translation of the Japanese Kanji characters used to describe
the process.
 QFD is simply a planning process to guide the design, manufacturing and
marketing of goods by integrating the voice of the customer throughout the
organization.
 Through QFD, every design, manufacturing, and control decision is made to meet
the expressed needs of customers.
 QFD benefits companies through improved communication and teamwork
between all constituencies in the value chain, such as marketing and design,
between design and manufacturing, and manufacturing and quality control.
 Under QFD, all operations of a company are driven by the voice of the customer,
rather than by edicts of top management or the opinions or desires of design
engineers.
 QFD departs from traditional product planning process in which product concepts
are originated by design teams or research and development groups, tested and
refined, produced and marketed.

o Design for Reliability

 Reliability – the ability of a product to perform as expected over time. It is one of the
principal dimensions of quality.
  As the overall quality of products continues to improve, consumers expect higher
reliability with each purchase; they simply are not satisfied with products that fail
unexpectedly.
 Reliability is an essential aspect of both product and process design.
 High reliability can also provide a competitive advantage for many consumer
goods.
 Formally, reliability is defined as the probability that a product, piece of
equipment, or system performs its intended function for a stated period of time
under specified operating conditions. This definition has four important elements:
1. Probability – a value between 0 and 1. It is a numerical measure with a
precise meaning.
2. Time – clearly a device having a reliability of 0.97 to 1,000 hours of
operation is inferior to one having the same reliability for 5,000 hours
of operation, assuming that the mission of the device is long life.
3. Performance – refers to the objective for which the product or system
is made.
 The term failure is used when expectations of performance of
the intended function are not met.
a. Functional failure – at the start of product life due to
manufacturing or material defects such as a missing
connection or a faulty component
b. Reliability failure – after some period of use
4. Operating conditions – involves the type and amount of usage and the
environment in which the product is used.

 By defining a product’s intended environment, performance characteristics, and

life time, a manufacturer can design and conduct tests to measure the probability
of product survival (or failure).
 Reliability engineers distinguish between inherent reliability which is the
predicted reliability determined by the design of the product or process, and the
achieved reliability, which is the actual reliability observed during use.

o Design for Optimization

 Designers of products and processes should make every effort to optimize their designs.
 Although variation will be a factor among individuals as well as with the opposing team’s
defense, the manager would like to set the lineup that best plays to their strengths and
overcomes their weaknesses.
 Robust design – refers to designing goods and services that are insensitive to variation in
manufacturing processes and when consumers use them.
 Robust design is facilitated by design of experiments to identify optimal levels for
nominal dimensions and other tools to minimize failures, reduce defects during
the manufacturing process, facilitate assembly and disassembly.
o Design Failure Mode and Effects Analysis
 All parties responsible for design, manufacture, sales, and service of a defective product
are now liable for damages.
 According to the theory of strict liability, anyone who sells a product that is defective or
unreasonably dangerous is subject to liability for any physical harm caused to the user,
the consumer, or the property of either.
 This law applies when the seller is in the business of selling the product, and the
product reaches the consumer without a substantial change in condition even if
the seller exercised all possible care in the preparation and sale of the product.
 The principal issue is whether a defect, direct or indirect, exists. If the existence
of a defect can be established, the manufacturer usually will be held liable. A
plaintiff need prove only that:
1. The product was defective;
2. The defect was present when the product changed ownership; and,
3. The defect resulted in injury.
 According to design quality can greatly reduce the possibility of product liability claims
as well as provide supporting evidence in defense arguments.
 Liability makes documentation of quality assurance procedures a necessity.
 A firm should record all evidence that shows the designer established test and
monitoring procedures of critical product characteristics.
 One tool for proactively addressing product risks is design failure mode and effects
analysis (DFMEA), often simply called failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA).
 A DFMEA usually consists of specifying the following information for each
design element or function:
a. Failure modes – ways in which each element or function can fail. This
information generally takes some research and imagination.
b. Effect of the failure on the customer – such as dissatisfaction, potential
injury or other safety issue, downtime, repair requirements, and so on.
Consideration should be given to failures on the failures on the
function of the end product, manufacturability in the next process,
what the customer sees or experiences, and product safety.
c. Severity, likelihood of occurrence and detection rating – these are
subjective ratings best done by a cross – functional team of experts.
The severity rating is based on how serious the impact would be if the
potential failure were to occur.

Rating Severity Occurrence Detection

10 Hazardous or potentially Very high or almost Cannot detect or
life – threatening certain probability of hidden defect
occurrence
7–9 Serious impact on High probability of Low chance of
 customer safety or occurrence detection
satisfaction
5–6 Major impact on Moderate probability of Moderate chance of
customer satisfaction occurrence detection
2–4 Minor defect or Low probability of High chance of
customer inconvenience occurrence detection
1 Little to no effect Unlikely to occur Will almost always be
able to detect

d. Potential cause of failure – design deficiencies can cause errors either

in the field or in manufacturing and assembly.
e. Corrective actions or controls – these controls might include design
changes, mistake proofing, better user instructions, management
responsibilities, and target completion dates.
 Using DFMEA will not only improve functionality and safety, but also reduce
failure costs – particularly warranty costs, as well as decrease manufacturing and
service delivery problems.
 It can also provide a defense against frivolous lawsuits.

o Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) sometimes called cause and effect tree analysis, is a method to
describe combinations or events that can lead to a failure.
 In effect, it is a way to drill down and identify causes associated with failures and is a
good complement to DFMEA.

o Design for Manufacturability

 Product design can significantly affect the cost of manufacturing (direct and indirect
labor, materials, and overhead), redesign, warranty, and field repair; the efficiency by
which the product can be manufactured, and the quality of the output.
 Design for Manufacturability – is the process of designing a product for efficient
production at the highest level of quality.
 DFM is typically integrated into standard design processes, but because of the
need for highly – creative solutions, it might be addressed in specialized “think –
tank” departments in a company.
 DFM is intended to prevent product designs that simplify assembly operations but
require more complex and expensive components, designs that simplify
component manufacture while complicating the assembly process, and designs
that are simple and inexpensive to produce but difficult or expensive to service or
support.

o Design for Excellence

 It is an emerging concept that includes many design – related initiatives such as
concurrent engineering, design for manufacturability, design for assembly, design for
environment, and other “design for” approaches.
 DFX objectives include higher functional performance, physical performance, user
friendliness, reliability and durability, maintainability and serviceability, safety,
comparability and upgradeability, environmental friendliness and psychological
characteristics.