FILLED NOTES FOR CHAPTER 4: PRODUCT AND SERVICE DESIGN

Key Concepts:
In planning the production system, major decisions are made concerning the design of the product or
services as well as the design of the production processes. Entrepreneurs usually formulate new
businesses based on a unique product or a service idea. In existing firms, new products or services are
introduced when the competition for existing products increases or as existing products approach the end
of their product life cycle. Even after a few new products are launched, and even if these products are
successful, since they have limited life cycles, companies always seek and consider new product
possibilities. If a company continuously monitors new product possibilities, and if there is a product
failure among the current products, or if there is a significant change in the product market, then the
company can still be in position to release a new product to fill the void. The main topics in design of the
products and services include:
1.

The reasons, trends, and objectives of Product and Service Design.

2.

The Design Process (Designing for mass customization, reliability, robust design, etc.).

3.

Research and Development.

4.

Standardization.

5.

Product Design (concurrent engineering, computer aided design, remanufacturing).

6.

Service Design.

7.

QFD (Quality Function Development).

8.

Operations Strategy.

There arent many things more important to an organization than its products and/or services and there is
a rather obvious connection between the design of those products and/or services and the organizations
success. Consequently, organizations are vitally concerned about achieving outstanding product and
service design so they can compete in todays global marketplace.

Answers to Discussion and Review Questions

1. What are some of the factors that cause organizations to redesign their products or services?
Answer: Organizations redesign their products and services for a variety of reasons. Among
them are competition, customer dissatisfaction, liability claims, government regulation,
technological innovation (products and methods) and changes in costs and availability of such
inputs as labor, energy and materials.
3. What is CAD? Describe some of the ways a product designer can use it.
Answer: CAD refers to computer-aided design: computer graphics used for product design. A
designer can easily modify an existing design or create a new one. The designer can readily
obtain a variety of different perspectives as well as other pertinent information that speeds the
process and frees the designer to concentrate on creative aspects of design.
4. Name some of the main advantages and disadvantages of standardization.

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Answer: The main advantages of standardization are:

a. Less variety of parts to deal with.
b. Permits standardized purchasing, training, inspection and material handling. It may also
permit automation.
c. Enables PTS (production to stock), which allows filling orders from inventory, and
potentially long production runs.
Among the main disadvantages of standardization are the following:
a. Designs may be frozen with too many imperfections remaining.
b. The high cost of design changes increases resistance to improvement.
c. Decreased variety may lessen consumer appeal.
5. What is modular design? What are its main advantages and disadvantages?
Answer: Modular design refers a product or service being viewed as several chunks or
sections instead of many individual parts. In effect, it is one form of standardization. Among
the advantages of modular design are ease of diagnosis and repair of failures, standardization of
manufacturing, more routine purchasing, inventory control and training. The disadvantages of
modular design include a decrease in possible variety of the product, the possibility of not being
able to disassemble a module to replace a faulty part, and possible resistance to design
improvements, particularly minor ones, if they cannot be readily incorporated into an existing
configuration.
6. Explain the term design for manufacturing and briefly explain why it is important?
Answer: Product designers must take into consideration the organizations manufacturing
capabilities to produce a particular product. Operations people should be involved (early) in the
design process to ensure that the design will be compatible with the organizations capabilities.
Production/ Operations people can provide the necessary input that make things apparent before
problems arise in production. Marketing people should also be involved to ensure that customer
requirements will be given proper consideration.
7. What are some of the competitive advantages of concurrent engineering?
Answer: Some of the competitive advantages of concurrent engineering are:
a. Manufacturing personnel are able to identify production capabilities and capacities. Very
often, they have some latitude in design in terms of selecting suitable materials and
processes. Knowledge of production capabilities can help in the selection process. In
addition, quality and cost considerations can be greatly influenced by design, and conflicts
during production can be greatly reduced.
b. Early opportunities for design or procurement of critical tooling, some of which might have a
long lead time. This can result in a major shortening of the product development process,
which could be a key competitive advantage.
c. Early consideration of the technical feasibility of a particular design or a portion of a design.
Again, this can avoid serious problems during production.
d. More effective resource allocation.
e. The emphasis can be on problem resolution instead of conflict resolution.
11.

What is Mass Customization?

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Answer: Mass customization is a strategy of producing standardized goods or services while

incorporating a certain degree of customization in the final product or service. Mass
customization can be achieved using a couple of different tactics. These tactics are delayed
differentiation and modular design.
Delayed differentiation involves postponing completion of the service or the product until
obtaining specific information about customer preferences and specifications. Once the company
has knowledge about specific customer preferences, the customized specifications are
incorporated on almost-completed units. This approach reduces product or service delivery lead
times while reducing costs and improving the efficiency due to standardization.
Mass customization can also be achieved through modular design. Modular design is a form of
product standardization in which components are classified into modules that are easily replaced,
interchanged, assembled or disassembled. Advantages and disadvantages of modular design are
discussed in the answer to discussion question five.
12.

Name two factors that could make service design much different from product design.
Answer: Differences between service design and product design:
a. Products are generally (tangible); services are generally (intangible).
b. Services are often produced and received at the same time (e.g. a haircut, a car wash). Thus,
there is less latitude in finding and correcting errors before the customer has a chance to
discover them. Consequently training, process design, and customer relations are
particularly important.
c. (Services) cannot be inventoried. This poses restrictions on flexibility and makes capacity
design very important.
d. (Services) are highly visible to consumers and must be designed with that in mind; this adds
an extra dimension to process design, one that usually is not present in product design.
e. Some (services) have low barriers to entry and exit. This places additional burden on service
design to be innovative and cost-effective.
f.

Location is often important to (service) design, with convenience as a major factor. Hence,
design of services and choice of location are often closely linked.

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14.

Explain what QFD is and how it can be useful.

Answer: Quality function deployment (QFD) is a structures approach for integrating the voice of
the consumer into the product development process. The purpose is to ensure that customer
requirements are factored into every aspect of the process from product planning to the
production floor. Listening to and understanding the customer is the central feature of QFD.

18.

Explain the term three Rs and how the three Rs related to sustainability.
Answer: The 3 Rs are reduce, reuse, and recycle. They relate to sustainability by avoiding or
reducing the impact on the environment that would accompany new production or, in the case of
recycling, a reduction in the waste stream.

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