Product Specifications

Teaching materials to accompany:

Product Design and Development
Chapter 6
Karl T. Ulrich and Steven D. Eppinger
5th Edition, Irwin McGraw-Hill, 2012.
 Product Design and Development
Karl T. Ulrich and Steven D. Eppinger
5th edition, Irwin McGraw-Hill, 2012.

Chapter Table of Contents:

1.Introduction
2.Development Processes and Organizations
3.Opportunity Identification
4.Product Planning
5.Identifying Customer Needs
6.Product Specifications
7.Concept Generation
8.Concept Selection
9.Concept Testing
10.Product Architecture
11.Industrial Design
12.Design for Environment
13.Design for Manufacturing
14.Prototyping
15.Robust Design
16.Patents and Intellectual Property
17.Product Development Economics
18.Managing Projects
 Concept Development Process
Mission Development
Statement Identify Establish Generate Select Test Set Plan Plan
Customer Target Product Product Product Final Downstream
Needs Specifications Concepts Concept(s) Concept(s) Specifications Development

Perform Economic Analysis

Benchmark Competitive Products

Build and Test Models and Prototypes

Target Specs Final Specs

Based on customer needs Based on selected concept,
and benchmarking feasibility, models, testing,
and trade-offs
 Outline
Nature of specifications
Spec vs. specs.
Target vs. final specs.
Process for setting target specs
Process for setting final specs

05/01/17 4
 Spec vs. Specs
A spec consists of a metric, a unit, and
a value
Specs has a set of specs.

05/01/17 5
 Target vs. Final Specs
Target specs: the hope and aspiration
of the design (ideal and marginal)
Refined specs: trade-offs among
different desired characteristics.
Intermediate specs
Final specs
It is in the projects contract book

05/01/17 6
 Nature of Specifications
The reference point for functionality
design and quality planning

A product assembly usually requires a

hierarchy of specs, for the final product
and each of its components

05/01/17 7
 The Product Specs Process
1. Set Target Specifications
Based on customer needs and benchmarks
Develop metrics for each need
Set ideal and acceptable values
2. Refine Specifications
Based on selected concept and feasibility testing
Technical and economic modeling
Trade-offs are critical
3. Reflect on the Results and the Process
Critical for ongoing improvement
 Procedure for establishing
target specifications
1. Identify a list of metrics and measurement
units that sufficiently address the needs
2. Collect the competitive benchmarking
information
3. Set ideal and marginally acceptable target
values for each metric (using at least, at
most, between, exactly, etc.)
4. Reflect on the results and the process

05/01/17 9
 Process for setting the final
specifications
1. Develop technical models to assess technical feasibility. The
input is design variable and the output is a measurement using
a metric.
2. Develop a cost model of the product.
3. Refine the specifications, making tradeoffs, where necessary to
form a competitive map.
4. Flow down the final overall specs to specs for each
subsystem (component and part).
5. Reflect on the results to see
Whether the product is a winner, and/or
How much uncertainty there is in the technical and cost model, or
Whether there is a need to develop a better technical model.

05/01/17 10
Product Specifications Example:
Mountain Bike Suspension Fork
Start with the Customer Needs
 Metrics Exercise:
Ball Point Pen
Customer Need:
The pen writes smoothly.
Establish Metrics and Units
Link Metrics to Needs
Benchmark on Customer Needs
Benchmark on Metrics
Assign Marginal and Ideal Values
 Concept Development Process
Mission Development
Statement Identify Establish Generate Select Test Set Plan Plan
Customer Target Product Product Product Final Downstream
Needs Specifications Concepts Concept(s) Concept(s) Specifications Development

Perform Economic Analysis

Benchmark Competitive Products

Build and Test Models and Prototypes

Target Specs Final Specs

Based on customer needs Based on selected concept,
and benchmarking feasibility, models, testing,
and trade-offs
Perceptual Mapping Exercise

Crunch KitKat
Opportunity?
Nestl
Crunch

Hersheys
w/ Almonds

Hersheys
Milk Chocolate

Chocolate
 Specification Trade-offs
120
Rox Tahx Ti 21
Estimated Manufacturing Cost ($)

110
Maniray 2 Trade-off Curves
Estimated Mfg. Cost ($)

100
Gunhill Head for Three Concepts
Shox

90
Rox Tahx Quadra
.

80 marginal values Tonka Pro

70
ST Tritrack
60 ideal values

50
3 3.2 3.4 3.6 3.8 4

Score
Score on
on Monster (Gs)
Monster (Gs)

05/01/17 24
Set Final Specifications
Quality Function Deployment
(House of Quality)
technical
correlations

relative engineering
importance metrics

customer benchmarking
needs on needs
relationships between
customer needs and
engineering metrics

target and final specs

 Profit margin

Where:
M: profit margin
P: price
C: cost

05/01/17 28
 Target Cost

Where:
C = target cost
P = price to the end user
Mi = the margin at the ith stage.

05/01/17 29
 Mark up
Markup = P/C - 1

Where:
P: price
C: cost

05/01/17 30
 Chapter 6 HW

Metric Exercise: Ball Point Pen

Identify five possible metrics and the unit of measure for a customer
need as stated below:

The pen writes smoothly.

05/01/17 32