Problem Definition and Need

Identification
Chapter 3

1References:
1. Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. ©2013.The McGraw-Hill Companies
Problem Definition: Start of the Conceptual
Design Process

2
Content
 Problem definition(Watch:Video)
 Definition of customer
 Total quality management(TQM)(Watch:Video)
 Preliminary research on customers needs
 Gathering information from customers
 Constructing a survey instrument
 Evaluating customer surveys
 The shot-buddy example

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyTEfLaRn98
3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owHF9iLyxic&list=PLhz12vamHOnZ4ZDC0dS6C9HRN5Qrm0jHO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwHngq4Bw0w
Content
 Customer requirements
 Classifying customer requirements
 Kano diagram
 Design point of view of customer requirements
 Garvin’s eight dimensions of quality
 Establishing the engineering characteristics
 What is engineering characteristics?
 What is benchmarking?
 Example: engineering characteristics for the shot-buddy
device
 Quality function deployment(QFD)
 Product planning
 House of quality (Watch:Video)
 Product Design Specification(PDS)

4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9bvzE5Qhjk
Problem Definition
 Product Development begins by determining what the
needs are that a product must meet.

 Problem definition is the most important of these steps in

the PDP(Product Development Process).

 Understanding any problem thoroughly is crucial to reaching an

outstanding solution.

 The problem definition process is mainly the need

identification step.

5
Definition of Customer

 Webster Definition of Customer:

 “One that purchases a product or service.”
 End user

 Total Quality Management Viewpoint of Customer:

 “Anyone who receives or uses what an individual or organization provides.”

6
Total Quality Management(TQM)
“Managing the entire organization considering all dimensions of
products and services that are important to the customer.”
Plan-Do-Check/Study-Act
(PDCA or PDSA)
Cycle PUKÖ DÖNGÜSÜ

ÖNLEM AL
PLANLA
Ö P
K U
KONTROL
ET
UYGULA

7
Preliminary Research on Customers Needs

 Designers focus on need that are:

 Unmet in the marketplace

 Products that are similar to the proposed product

 Historical ways of meeting the need

 Technological approaches to engineering similar products of

the type under consideration

8
Gathering Information from Customers

Interviews with
Focus groups
customers

Customer
surveys

Customer
complaints Warranty data

9
Constructing a Survey Instrument
 Determine the survey purpose.
 Identify what specific information is needed.
 Design the questions. Each question should be:
 Unbiased
 Unambiguous
 Clear
 Brief
 Three categories of questions:
 Attitude questions (how the customers feel or think about something)
 Knowledge questions(questions asked to determine whether the customer knows
the specifics about a product or service)
 Behavior questions(usually contain phrases like “how often,” “how much,” or
“when.”)

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 Constructing a Survey Instrument
Bad Question: Leading Good Question: Neutral
Do you think that the new cafeteria lunch How do you feel about the new cafeteria
menu offers a better variety of healthy foods lunch menu compared to the old one?
than the old one? ( ) The new menu offers a better variety of
( ) Yes healthy foods
( ) No ( ) The old menu offers a better variety of
( ) No Opinion healthy foods
( ) The selections are similar
( ) No opinion

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 Constructing a Survey Instrument
BIASED:
 WRONG: “Safety experts recommend using a travel agent instead of booking your travel online. Do you feel
safe using travel websites?”

 RIGHT:“Do you feel that booking travel online is more or less confidential than booking through a travel
agent?”

 WRONG: “Most of our users prefer the new look and feel of our site over the old one. How do you feel?”

 RIGHT “How do you feel about the visual appearance of this website?”

UNCLEAR:
 You want to know how many of your survey respondents own a smartphone, yet you ask them if they have an
iPhone. Just because you carry an iPhone doesn’t mean everyone else does. You might ask: Do you have a
smartphone (i.e., iPhone, Android, Windows, etc.).

UNAMBIGUOUS:
 ‘‘How often do you take a shower?’’you offered these choices: every day, 5-6 days, 4-5 days, 3-4 days and 1-3
days. By using the same numbers over again, you’ve made it quite difficult to get an accurate answer.

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The Shot-Buddy Example

13
Example of Customer Survey
for Shot-Buddy

14
Evaluating Customer Surveys
 Evaluating a survey question depends on the type of question and the kind of
information sought.

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 Customer Requirements

What are customer requirements?

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Customer Requirements
 Designers must compile a ranked listing of what customers
need and want from the product being designed.

 This set of needs and wants is often called customer

requirements.

 Hierarchy of human needs:

 Rank of 1: Physiological needs
 Rank of 2: Safety and security needs
 Rank of 3: Social needs
 Rank of 4: Psychological needs
 Rank of 5: Self-fulfillment needs

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Classifying Customer Requirements
Kano recognized that there are four levels of customer
requirements:
 Expecters: These are the basic attributes that one would expect
to see in the product, i.e., standard features.
 Spokens: These are the specific features that customers say
they want in the product.
 Unspokens: These are product attributes the customer does
not generally talk about, but they remain important to him or
her.
 Exciters: Often called delighters, these are product features that
make the product unique and distinguish it from the
competition.
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Kano Diagram

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Design Point of View of Customer
Requirements
 Performance deals with what the design should do when it is
completed and in operation.

 The time dimension includes all time aspects of the design.

 Cost pertains to all monetary aspects of the design.

 Quality is a complex characteristic with many aspects and

definitions.

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Garvin’s Eight Dimensions of Quality

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 Establishing the Engineering
Characteristics
How does establishing the engineering characteristics help to
write the product design specifications?

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Engineering Characteristics
 Establishing the engineering characteristics is a critical step
toward writing the product design specification(PDS).

 The process of identifying the needs that a product must fill

is a complicated undertaking.

 Just knowing what a customer or end user wants from a

product is not sufficient for generating designs.

 Concept generation starts when a good description of the

product is given.
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Engineering Characteristics
 A “good description” of a product is comprised of solution-
neutral specifications.

 Solution-neutral specifications mean that the specification at

this time should not be so complete as to suggest a single
concept or class of concepts.

 This description is a set of engineering characteristics that

are defined as design parameters(design variables and/or
constraints)

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Engineering Characteristics
 Design Parameters:
 Parameters are a set of physical properties whose values
determine the form and behavior of a design.
 Design Variables:
 A design variable is a parameter over which the design team has a
choice.
 Constraints:
 A design parameter whose value has been fixed becomes a
constraint during the design process.

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Benchmarking
 Benchmarking is a process for measuring a company’s
operations against the best practices of companies both
inside and outside of their industry.

26
US Patent 5,540,428

Basketball retrieval and

return device

J. G. Joseph, , “Basketball Retrieval and Return Apparatus,” Patent 5540428, July 30, 1996.
27
US Patent 5,681,230

Basketball retrieval and

return device

H. F. Krings, “Automatic Basketball Return Apparatus,” Patent 5681230, Oct 28, 1997.
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Model of Free Throw

C. M. Tran and L. M. Silverberg (2008), “Optimal release conditions for the free throw
in men’s basketball,” Journal of Sports Sciences, 26:11, 1147-1155.
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Engineering Characteristics for the Shot-
Buddy Device

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Engineering Characteristics for the Shot-
Buddy Device

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 Quality Function Deployment
(Kalite Fonksiyonu Yayılımı)
What is Quality Function Deployment?

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Quality Function Deployment
 Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a planning and team
problem-solving tool that has been adopted by a wide variety of
companies as the tool of choice for focusing a design team’s
attention on satisfying customer needs throughout the product
development process.

 Quality function deployment (QFD) provides a systematic

process for integrating TQM into new product development
activities

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Quality Function Deployment
 QFD consists of two components which are deployed into the
design process: quality and function.
 The " quality deployment" component brings the costumer’s
voice into the design process.
 The "function deployment" component links different
organizational functions and units into to the design-to-
manufacturing transition via the formation of design teams.

QFD process is known as a methodology for infusing the

voice of the customer into every aspect of the design process.

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 Four-Phase QFD Approach
• Identify critical parts and • Determine critical
assemblies part and process
• Flowdown critical product characteristics
characteristics • Establish process
• Translate into critical control
part/assembly methods&parameters
characteristics&target • Establish
values inspection&test
methods&parameters

• Define&prioritize
customer needs
• Determine critical
• Analyze competitive
processes&process
opportunities
flow
• Plan a product to respond
• Develop production
to needs &opportunities
equipment
• Establish critical
requirements
characteristics target
• Establish critical
values
process parameters
House of Quality
 House of Quality translates customer requirements into
quantifiable design variables, called engineering characteristics.

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House of Quality Configuration

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Streamlined House of Quality

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Example: Streamlined House of Quality for
Shot-Buddy

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Example: HOQ Rooms 2 and 3 for Shot-
Buddy

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Example: Streamlined Configuration of HOQ
for Shot-Buddy

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Interpreting Results of HOQ
 The highest-ranking ECs from the HOQ are either constraints or
design variables whose values can be used as decision-making criteria
for evaluating candidate designs.

 If a high-ranking EC has only a few possible candidate values then it

may be appropriate to treat that EC as a constraint.

 There are certain design parameters that can only take a few discreet
values.

 The lowest-ranking ECs of the HOQ are not as critical to the success
of the design. These ECs allow freedom during the design process
because their values can be set according to priorities of the designer
or approving authority.

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 Product Design Specification

What is product design specification?

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Product Design Specification
 In the product development process, the results of the design
planning process that governs the engineering design tasks are
compiled in the form of a set of product design specification (PDS).
(example: Table 3.3)

 The PDS is the basic control and reference document for the
design and manufacture of the product.

 The PDS is a document that contains all of the facts related to

the outcome of the product development.

 Creating the PDS finalizes the process of establishing the customer

needs and wants, prioritizing them, and beginning to cast them into a
technical framework so that design concepts can be established.
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Product Design Specification

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Product Design Specification

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Product Design Specification(continued)

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Product Design Specification(continued)

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PDS for Shot-Buddy Device after the Problem Description
and Need Identification Steps Are Complete

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PDS for Shot-Buddy Device after the Problem Description
and Need Identification Steps Are Complete(continued)

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