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EE 3394- Mechanical Engineering
Design
Lecture 1

Problem Definition and Needs
Identification
Product Development Process
1. Problem Identification and Needs
2. Gather Information
3. Concept Generation
4. Evaluation of Concepts
5. Product Architecture
6. Configuration Design
7. Parametric Design
8. Detail Design
9. Communicate Results
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A. Problem Identification and Needs
Design problems normally originate as
some form of problem statement provided
to the designer by someone else, the client
or the company management.
These problem statements, normally called
a design brief, can vary widely in their form
and content.
Example: The statement made by President
Kennedy in 1961, setting a goal for the USA,
'before the end of the decade, to land a man
on the moon and bring him back safely'.
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Problem Identification
Problem definition is the most important of
the steps:
Problem statement
Benchmarking
Product dissection
House of Quality
Product Design Specification (PDS)

In product development, the problem definition
process is mainly the need identification step.
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Preliminary Research on Customers Needs
One way to understand needs of the
targeted customers is for the development
team to use their own experience and
research to date.

Brainstorming is a natural idea generation
tool that can be used in the process.

As a first step, the team brainstormed to
develop ideas for possible improvements
to the product.

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Example: CD Case Design Improvements
A student design team selected the familiar jewel case that
protects compact discs (CD) in storage as a product needing
improvement.
The following ideas were generated in response to the
question: What improvements to the current CD case would
customers want?
1. Case more resistant to cracking
2. Easier to open
3. Add color
4. Better waterproofing
5. Make it lighter
6. More scratch-resistant
7. Easier extraction of CD from the circular fastener
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8. Streamlined look
9. Case should fit the hand better
10. Easier to take out leaflet describing the CD
11. Use recyclable plastic
12. Make interlocking cases so they stack on top of each other
without slipping
13. Better locking case
14. Hinge that doesnt come apart
Next, the ideas for improvement were grouped into
common areas by using an affinity diagram

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Gathering Information from Customers
1. Interviews with customers
2. Web-based research
3. Mail surveys
4. Online respondents
5. Questionnaire
6. Customer complaints


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Steps for creating an effective survey
1. Determine the survey purpose
2. Determine the type of data-collection
method to be used
3. Identify what specific information is
needed
4. Design the questions
5. Arrange the order of questions
6. Pretest the survey
7. Administer the survey
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1. Determine the survey purpose
Write short paragraph stating the purpose
of the survey
What will be done with the results
Be clear about who will use the result
Be clear whether customer want hard
statistics from surveys
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A group of students in PI 2 is attempting to
improve the design and usefulness of the
standard storage case for compact discs (CD).
2. Determine the type of data-collection
method to be used
Interviews with customers
Web-based research
Mail surveys
Online respondents
Questionnaire
Customer complaints
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3. Identify what specific information is
needed
Each question should have a clear goal
The following ideas were generated in the
response to the question: What functions of
attributes of a CD case need improvement?
Case more resistant to cracking
Easier to open
Add color
Better waterproofing
Make it lighter
More scratch resistant
Case should fit the hand
Use recycle plastic
Better locking case etc.
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4. Design the questions
Each question should be unbiased,
unambiguous, clear and brief
There are three (3) categories of question:
1. Attitude questions: how the customers
feel or think about something
2. Knowledge questions: questions asked
to determine whether the customer
knows the specific about the product or
service
3. Behavior questions: usually contain
phrases like how often, how much,
when
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5. Arrange the order of questions
Arrange the order of questions so that they
provide context to what are trying to learn
from customer
Group the questions by topic and start with
easy ones.
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6. Pretest the survey
Before distributing the survey to the customer,
always pretest it on a smaller sample
Avoid poorly wording that may lead
misunderstanding or questionnaire too long
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7. Administer the survey
Whether the people surveyed constitute a
representative sample for fulfilling the purpose
of survey
What size sample must be used to achieve
statistically significant result
Requires special expertise and experience
Example: questionnaire
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Evaluating Customer Surveys
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Only questions
with more than
40% response
rate are shown
Conclusions from Customer Survey
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Ranking of questions customers are concerned

crack resistant case (question 1)


Convenience features of being able to stack the case in a
stable, interlocking easy (question 14)


Making it easier to extract the leaflet (question 10)


Making it easier to extract the CD from the case (question 9)


Information gathered from customer survey contributes to
creating a ranked list of customer needs.