innovation process and project management

The Innovation

Process and Project

Management 09MMP408

Product Design Analysis Nutcracker

David Coombes A911652

The Innovation Process and Project Management Product Design Analysis

David Coombes – A911652 09MMP408

Contents

Total Design ............................................................................................................................................ 3

Product consideration ......................................................................................................................... 3

6 Core Phases .......................................................................................................................................... 4

Investigation........................................................................................................................................ 4

Aims and Objectives ........................................................................................................................ 4

Market ............................................................................................................................................. 4

Users ............................................................................................................................................... 4

PDS ...................................................................................................................................................... 5

Quality Reliability ............................................................................................................................ 5

Size .................................................................................................................................................. 5

Product cost .................................................................................................................................... 5

Safety .............................................................................................................................................. 6

Conceptual Design .............................................................................................................................. 6

Concept Generation ........................................................................................................................ 6

Concept Evaluation ......................................................................................................................... 6

Concept Development .................................................................................................................... 7

Detailed Design (Technical Design) ..................................................................................................... 7

Manufacture ....................................................................................................................................... 8

Sales and Service ................................................................................................................................. 8

Appendices .............................................................................................................................................. 9

Bibliography .......................................................................................................................................... 15



This coursework will look in detail at the design process and in particular the “total design” approach,

and how it works. This approach could be applied to any project, in any field and at any scale. It can

also be used to analyse an existing product, and indicate the considerations the design team would

have considered during design and development. With this in mind, this approach will be analysed

whilst relating it to a simple, common household item, whilst still acknowledging the variety of

different items this approach could be used for.

Total Design

“Total Design is the systematic activity necessary, from the identification of the market/user need, to

the selling of the successful product to satisfy that need – an activity that encompasses product,

process, people and organization.” (Pugh, 1991)

This activity covers all aspect of design from initial research all the way through to service after sales,

the thoroughness of this process leads to better designs and ultimately more successful products.

This system was designed with the company’s products at it the forefront of the thoughts. Previous

to this, most “most major studies on the management of design have concentrated on complete

companies, their structure and performance” (Hollins & Pugh, 1990). By concentrating on the whole

product and not focusing on individual parts within the design process this approach becomes more

complete than anything previously and presents a visual structure which allows for the integration of

departments leading to a more efficient product development.

Figure 1 shows Pugh’s model, the total design activity. This activity model shows the stages that

need to be considered when designing a new product, or even re-designing an existing product. The

model consists primarily of 6 core stages. Alongside these are other inputs that need to be

considered whilst working through the model. Core stages can be extracted from the total design

activity model and analysed separately. Figure 2 shows the core phases of the total design model,

worded slightly differently to that in the total design activity model.

The six core phases model is not constrained to have time running vertically down the model,

dictating that the one phase is directly followed by the subsequent phase. The model is flexible and

relies on concurrent engineering. This is when multiple tasks are completed simultaneously, “to

reduce engineering design/introduction lead time and reduce or eliminate later changes and quality

problems by involving cross-functional teams at the outset.” (Bridgefield-Group, 2006). This shows

that concurrent engineering is needed to implement any design as successfully as possible, with this

in mind, the core phases do not necessarily follow on directly. Numerous phases will continue

throughout design process and others will be intermittent. This can be seen easier if time is seen to

be running horizontally, and each of the stages are given a period of time in which they would be

completed. This would lead to the development of a simple Gantt chart.

Product consideration

For the purpose of this activity, a nutcracker will be considered and all factors that would have been

considered in designing a nutcracker. A nutcracker is a simple product, but many considerations

would have been deliberated over before producing a final design, many of the issues can be related

to a different product and only specifics about the product need changing.



Before any analysis can take place, detailed knowledge of the product is needed. This

comprehensive knowledge is needed so that all potential problems and design considerations can be

identified and analysed.

A nutcracker is “an instrument used to crack nuts, typically consisting of two hinged metal levers

between which the nut is squeezed.” (Bedinghaus, 2009). Common nutcrackers are an example of

second class levers, where the resistance is located between the effort and fulcrum. There are many

variations in methods of squeezing nuts until they crack; some are shown in figures 3-8. There is also

more than one way to crack a nut, other methods include; dropping a heavy item on the nut,

propelling the nut into a solid surface, squeezing the nut using a screwing motion and many other

innovative and decorative methods to break the nut.

6 Core Phases

Investigation

“All design starts, or should start, with a need that, when satisfied, will fit into an existing market or

create a market of its own.” (Pugh, 1991). The knowledge of this information would not be known

from the beginning. Large amounts of investigation would be needed to be undertaken in order to

design a successful product.

There are numerous considerations that need attention when completing the investigation stage of

the total design model, and starting the design of a new product. These considerations can be

applied to any new product.

Aims and Objectives

For any product, new or old, aims and objectives are vital. This is the basis of all subsequent

specifications. For the case of the nutcracker, the main aim is; to enable the user to open a

previously impervious hard shelled seed with the expenditure of minimal effort. For the case of the

common nutcracker, the use of levers gives the user a mechanical advantage and increases the force

applied around the nut. Other different styles of nutcracker use different methods of breaking the

nut, such as; propel the nut into a solid surface, using a screw to imply to force, novelty characters

and many more.

Market

The investigation on market will highlight the areas of the market that can be exploited and will give

the product the best chance of succeeding when put into market. “Market research refers to any

effort to gather information about markets or customers” (McQuarrie, 2006). With there being

numerous products available within the market of nutcrackers, this research will give information to

market trends, gaps in the market that can be exploited and existing products and designs already in

production.

Users

Investigation into the users of the product will ensure that you can produce a more detailed and

fully tailored PDS. For the case of the nutcracker, there would be a large range of users; from



children to elderly people. Information regarding; hand size, grip strength, dexterity of user and

numerous items of other information. This data analysis will mean a significantly more

comprehensive PDS can be created.

Investigation will be an on-going process throughout the whole design process. For example if a new

design uses a different technique of cracking the nuts, or any sort of different method of grasping

the product, more research will need completing to validating the design.

Once the needs of the user are specified, in the project brief, it is possible to formulate a product

design specification.

PDS

The product design specification is “a statement of what a not-yet-designed product is intended to

do. Its aim is to ensure that the subsequent design and development of a product meets the needs of

the user.” (The Open University, 2001). These guidelines have been produced to achieve the product

brief, and aided by the information found within the investigation stage. This should be

comprehensive and unambiguous. “Once this is established, it acts as the mantle or cloak that

envelops all the subsequent stages in the design core. The PDS thus acts as the control for the design

activity, because it places the boundaries on the subsequent designs.” (Pugh, 1991). A design of any

product/process should be attempting to meet this specification.

Figure 9 gives an idea of numerous areas of consideration when compiling a PDS. All of the aspects in

this diagram are not going to be applicable to all products; it is a case of selecting the appropriate

elements that are most suited the product that is currently being designed.

Some of the most vital aspects when designing a nutcracker include;

Quality Reliability

The nutcracker is going to utilize a repetitive action, therefore will need to be strong enough to

complete this action thousands of times over its lifetime. The PDS will give details on the number of

times that the product will complete the desired action. This will affect the material selection and

the mechanism design.

Size

The main issue with size when considering a nutcracker relates the usability. The nutcracker needs

to be large enough to receive any size of nuts, but no so big that is heavy and bulky and ultimately

difficult to use.

Product cost

After market research and investigating what is available in the current market, a decision can be

made to whereabouts the newly designed product will fit. This will be related to performance and

quality. It should be no more expensive than anything with similar performance capabilities and

similar quality.



Safety

With any products that are not automated products and require human input for them to be used,

safety is a vital consideration. With the nutcracker exerting a large force around the nut,

considerations need to be made to try and reduce the risk of injury to the user whilst using the

product. With nutcrackers that propel the nut into a fixed surface, the resulting fracture of the nut

will expel fragments of the shell away from the point of impact and potentially towards the user. If

this design is to be used, a method of preventing this potentially injury to the user needs to be

utilized.

The PDS can be altered throughout the design process and updated if any new information comes to

light, or any designs indicate points of ambiguity within the specification.

Conceptual Design

Conceptual design comes under three sections; concept generation, concept evaluation and concept

generation. This stage is “primarily concerned with the generation of solution to meet the stated

need; in other words, it involves generating solutions to meet the PDS.” (Pugh, 1991).

Concept Generation

This stage should be about generating ideas; this is where all ideas should be considered. If all ideas

are considered, there should be no better idea for a competitor to come up with. A major issue is

that people and organisations find the “temptation to ‘cut and run’ and start engineering and

developing the ideas further, and taking firm decisions,” (Pugh, 1991) too tempting. This should not

be considered until all ideas have been recorded. If a design has been completed that is “brilliant”

but does not fulfil the criteria of the PDS, the design does not need to be rejected. The PDS could be

at fault and not the design.

Most research that has been completed states that “teams generally come up with fewer good

quality ideas than individuals.” (Mullen, 1991). With this in mind, the concept generation would be

more productive completed by a group of people working individually.

Once a number of ideas have been created they can developed slightly and improved before

evaluating the best. This task is better undertaken by a team of designers. “Concepts are often best

generated by individuals. Concept selection and enhancement is often best performed in groups.”

(Pugh, 1991).

In the case of a nutcracker, numerous ideas which achieve the design brief, whilst abiding by the PDS

will be generated.

Concept Evaluation

Once all designs have been recorded, the next step is to evaluate all designs, in a group. This will

include further improvements and enhancing any designs. The initial evaluation is completed by an

evaluation matrix. This is when designs are given scores relating to how well they fill each aspect of

the criteria. This will give indication to which designs are stronger than others.



Controlled convergence is a method of selecting the concepts with the greater certainty of success.

This can be completed as an alternative to the matrix method. This is where an initial set of designs

are reduced by filtering out the poorer designs (controlled convergence). Once this convergence has

been completed, concept generation is performed; here, designs are enhanced, thus providing more

designs. There should be less new designs added than poor designs removed. Providing this is the

case, a repetitive method will eventually bring you through to one design. This method “makes it

difficult for people to push their ideas for irrational reasons” (Pugh, 1991). This iterative method

expands and contracts the number of concepts until the best concepts emerges.

In the case of the nutcracker, all designs would have initially been considered, then, though the

iterative approach described above, designs would have been discarded, whilst better designs would

have been improved. This repetitive convergence and divergence approach leaves a smaller chance

of the organisation missing a potentially successful design, something which competitors may pick

up on.

Concept Development

Once a decision has been made on the strongest concepts, the next stage is to develop them. Some

development would have already taken place within the concept evaluation stage. This will increase

the understanding of the PDS and improve the best designs further.

With the nutcracker, the development of the designs will mean that all aspects within the PDS are

considered on a detailed level. Consideration would be made at this stage to the forced needed to

be applied by the user to breach the shell of the nut. If this force is unattainable by the target market

then the concept would be discarded. The maximum size of nut that can be received would also be

considered, the design potentially could be changed if the maximum size is too small, or even too big.

The cost to produce the product will be scrutinised also, for a simple nutcracker, the cost cannot be

too excessive. It is a simple household item that should not be very expensive. If the production cost

is very high, the retail cost would mirror this and also be very high. This potentially could lead to the

product pricing itself out of the market.

Detailed Design (Technical Design)

With the total design model not being rigid, certain aspects overlap. In this case, some of the

detailed design will have been completed in the concept development stage. Whilst ensuring that

the best designs abide by the PDS, some of the detailed design aspects will have been completed.

“Good, sounds detail design is as important in the overall design activity as conceptual design” (Pugh,

1991). Within the detailed design section there will be numerous items covered, including;

component design specification, manufacturing processes, maintainability, reliability, cost and

numerous others.

The detailed design of the nutcracker will produce a number of documents all relating to the

detailed design. Information regarding component parts will be produced; these will generally be

defined in the conceptual stage, but most only to form. Details regarding methods of manufacture,

material selection and others will need to be specified before manufacture takes place. If a simple,

pincher style, nutcracker is considered. There are two component parts, which are joined by a

pivoting pin at the top of the two arms. The manufacturing process will be defined in this section.



Also savings could potentially be made by having the two arms as identical parts and have them

working in opposite positions. A component design specification should be completed, which would

be similar to the PDS, just not in as much detail and the emphasis would be on information regarding

the individual components and not the product. All questions within the PDS will be answered fully

within the detailed design section.

Manufacture

Once a design has been finalised and all information regarding the details set out, the manufacture

can commence. Design and manufacture should go hand in hand and not as separate entities, if

manufacture was considered during the design phase the confusion and inefficiencies that can occur

during manufacture will be potentially avoided. By involving manufacturing personnel with the

design process, these problems can be evaded, or overcome easily.

The manufacture and production of a successful nutcracker will have considered design for

manufacture and for design for assembly and maybe disassembly. This will mean the components

will be designed with the assembly in mind, and making it as simple as possible. A simple nutcracker

consists of 2 parts and one point of assembly. This is as simple as a moving product could be, this

would reduce assembly and manufacture time, thus reduce production costs.

There would also need to be decisions made when it comes to designing the manufacturing process.

This will consist of a number of activities that need to be completed in order to produce one product.

“Simultaneous or concurrent engineering is the modern way of expressing the activity of parallel and

simultaneous design of the product and its manufacturing process” (Clausing, 1989). Complex

nutcrackers that have numerous components would have had to utilize concurrent engineering

within the manufacturing to reduce cost, and continue to be competitive.

For the nutcracker, as it is heavily user based, prototypes may have been used to ensure the

usability.

Sales and Service

Marketing is a complete separate entity to design and would not have been considered within the

design process, but sales and service would have been. When designing a new product, aspects such

as packaging would have been considered, also service within its life time.

Regarding a nutcracker, there would be no need for service once the product is sold, so this issue

can be disregarded from an early stage. With the product orientating heavily around the users

feelings towards the product, this would mean that feedback from the users could be used to further

enhance the product or produce new version of the existing product. If the nutcracker is quite

complex and more up market then this feedback could be vital to the success of the current or

future products.



Appendices

Figure 1



Figure 2

Investigation

PDS

Conceptual Design

Detailed Design

Manufacture

Sales and Service



Figure 3

Figure 4



Figure 5

Figure 6



Figure 7

Figure 8



Figure 9

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pugh_Elements_of_the_PDS.jpg



Bibliography

Bedinghaus, T. (2009). What is a Nutcracker? Retrieved October 12, 2009, from About.com:Dance:

http://dance.about.com/od/famousballets/f/Nutcracker.htm

Bridgefield-Group. (2006). ERP/Supply Chain Glossary. Retrieved October 12, 2009, from Bridgefield

Group: http://www.bridgefieldgroup.com/bridgefieldgroup/glos2.htm

Clausing, D. (1989). Concurrent Engineering. San Fransico: ASME.

Hollins, B., & Pugh, S. (1990). Successful Product Design. Butterworths.

McQuarrie, E. F. (2006). The market research toolbox: a concise guide for beginners. SAGE.

Mullen, B. J. (1991). Productivity loss in brainstorming groups: a meta-analytic integration. Basic and

Applied Social Psychology , 12 (1), 3-23.

Pugh, S. (1991). Total Design: Integrated Methods for Successful Product Engineering. Addison-

Wesley.

The Open University. (2001). T881 Manufacture Materials Design: Block 1: The design activity model.

Milton Keynes: The Open University.

innovation process and project management

Documents

conceptual design

product consideration

product cost

innovation process

concept generation

concept evaluation

concept development

core phases