LECTURE 13

We have covered certain important concepts like standardization and mass

customization, through which organizations as well as governments are able to address
the requirements of a broad customer population. It is important now to understand how
design strategies are applied and how to differentiate between product and service
design. There are certain common features to both. An effective operations manager
should know both about goods and services. It is also important to understand that a
good design should address the issues relating to cost, performance and quality.

DESIGN STRATEGIES

Design strategies have one common characteristic, which is to achieve customer

satisfaction, along with reasonable profit in a way which does not go beyond the
organizations manufacturing abilities. An exaggerated example being that if an
automobile car manufacturing organization’s design department decides to design a
truck. This would probably mean testing the organizations manufacturing capability, as
the organization would not be have the infrastructure to manufacture a truck.
Some of the common design strategies are

1. Design for Manufacturing (DFM): The designers’ consideration of the

organization’s manufacturing capabilities when designing a product. The more
general term design for operations encompasses services as well as
manufacturing. Manufacturability is the ease of fabrication and/or assembly
which is important for:
i. Cost
ii. Productivity
iii. Quality
2. Design for Assembly (DFA): Design focuses on reducing the number of parts in a
product and on assembly methods and sequence.
3. Design for Disassembly (DFD): Design focuses on facilitating the disassembly in
a logical and an exact reverse sequential manner to the assembly methods and
sequence.
4. Design for Recycling (DFR) : Design allows and facilitates the recovery of
material of materials and components from used products for reuse. The
designers’ consideration of the organization’s manufacturing capabilities when
designing a product. The more general term design for operations encompasses
services as well as manufacturing.
5. Design for Remanufacturing: Using some of the components of the old products
in the manufacture of new products. Remanufactured products are sold at 30 to
50% of the price of new product .e.g. Printers, copiers, cameras, PCs and
Cell/Telephones. This can be done by original equipment manufacturer or a
competitor or end user ( in the latter case its called cannibalization)

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It is important now to learn as an Operations Manager the concept of Recycling.
Recycling is in simple words recovering materials for future use. The common recycling
reasons are

Cost savings

Environment concerns

Environment regulations
Design for recycling is a design strategy that facilitates the recovery of materials and
components of old products in the manufacture/assembly of new products. The focus
here is to design components that would allow for disassembly and reuse or even
CANABALIZATION.

Robust Design

Robust Design: Design that results in products or services that can function over a broad
range of conditions. The idea is to have consistent, safe and reliable operations with no
excuse for environmental characteristics. E.g. Automobiles/Products produced for
European conditions may not perform well in Pakistan because of different
environmental conditions. Similarly if you happen to visit an industrial area, please make
sure that you have a proper OSHA standard safety boot available to you. In Pakistan
certain automobile manufacturers do not comply with the safety boot requirements for all
its workers working at the assembly plants. A non OSHA compliant safety boot can
probably cause more harm resulting in foot amputation etc.

Taguchi Approach To Robust Design

Genichi Taguchi, a Japanese Manufacturing Engineer pioneered and championed the

concept of reduction in the variability factor in manufacturing process. His approach
helped manufacturing organizations to isolate and eliminate waste. This approach
resulted in quality improvement and cost reduction.
With the aid of the Taguchi Approach we can determine the factors that are controllable
and those not controllable along with their optimal levels relative to major product
advances.
The defining characteristics for the Taguchi approach include:

Design a robust product

Insensitive to environmental factors either in manufacturing or in use.

Central feature is Parameter Design.
An added concept to Taguchi Approach is the Degree of Newness. Degree of newness is
an incremental enhancement of certain quality based performance features for the
product. The various ways in which degrees of newness can be achieve include

1. Modification of an existing product/service

2. Expansion of an existing product/service
3. Clone of a competitor’s product/service
4. New product/service
5. Degree of Design Change

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Phases in Product Development Process

A manufacturing organization when carrying out design of a product goes through the
following phases.

1. Idea generation
2. Feasibility analysis
3. Product specifications
4. Process specifications
5. Prototype development
6. Design review
7. Market test
8. Product introduction
9. Follow-up evaluation

Idea Generation often captures what we have already discussed as reverse engineering.
Reverse engineering is the dismantling and inspecting of a competitor’s product (or any
other manufacturers old or existing product) to discover product improvements.

Research & Development (R&D) is the organized efforts to increase scientific knowledge
or product innovation & may involve:

Basic Research advances knowledge about a subject without near-term
expectations of commercial applications.

Applied Research achieves commercial applications.

Development converts results of applied research into commercial applications.

Concurrent Engineering

Concurrent engineering is the bringing together of engineering design and manufacturing

personnel early in the design phase.

Concurrent Engineering Advantages

Manufacturing Personnel are able to identify production capabilities and capacities

.They have thus the opportunity to inform the design group about the suitability of
certain materials on the flipsides the designer would know the suitability of certain
designs in aiding in cost reduction and quality improvement in production/assembly
process.

Early opportunities for design or procurement of critical tooling, some of which
might have long lead times. This can result in a major shortening of the product
development process, which should be a key competitive advantage.

Early consideration of the Technical Feasibility of a particular design or a portion of a

design. Again this can avoid serious problems during production. The emphasis can
be on problem resolution instead of conflict resolution.

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Concurrent Engineering Disadvantages

Long standing existing boundaries between design and manufacturing can be

difficult to overcome. Simply bringing a group of people together and thinking
that they will be able to work together effectively is probably naïve.

There must be extra communication and flexibility if the process is to work, and
these can be difficult to achieve.

Computer-Aided Design

Computer-Aided Design (CAD) is product design using computer graphics.

increases productivity of designers, 3 to 10 times

creates a database for manufacturing information on product specifications

provides possibility of engineering and cost analysis on proposed designs

Modular Design
Modular design is a form of standardization in which component parts are subdivided
into modules that are easily replaced or interchanged. It allows:

Easier diagnosis and remedy of failures

Easier repair and replacement

Simplification of manufacturing and assembly

A concept idolized in the IT industry for software development

Service Design

Service is an act and service delivery system focuses on facilities, processes and skills.
Many services are bundled with products, like oil change would require you to pay for
the oil canister as well. A good service design involves

The physical resources needed which are somewhat Explicit Services

The goods that are purchased or consumed by the customer which are the
services that we call the implicit services

Operations Manager should be aware of the fact that service is something that is done to
or for a customer and service delivery system are the required facilities, processes, and
skills needed to provide a service, also the words used are product bundle and service
package. We should know that the product bundle is the combination of goods and
services provided to a customer and service package is the physical resources needed to
perform the service

Good Service Spectrum

Operations Managers often end up answering whether a certain activity falls under
product manufacturing or service development. The figure below tries to capture the
concept of the whole spectrum/band of Goods and Services. The spectrum or band has on
Y axis the control on goods and on X axis the control on services.

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This is to help understand how a purely manufacturing organization would handle a
services assignment as well as how the operations manager would effectively handle both
products as well as services.

Steel Production
Automobile Manufacturing

Auto/Appliance Repair

Manual Car Wash

Teaching

Increasing
Goods Control Increasing
Service Content

Difference between Product and Service Design

1. Products are Tangible and generally services are intangible. Services give peace
of mind which is again an intangible thing.
2. Services are created and delivered at the same time, haircut, car wash. Services
like these if not properly designed are instantly discovered by the customers.
3. Services highly visible to customers and should be designed with that in mind.
This adds an extra dimension to process design, one that is absent in product
design.
4. Services cannot be inventoried. This poses on restriction on flexibility and leads
to an increased importance in capacity design.

5. Location important to service design. In fact design of services and choice of

location are often closely linked.
6. Services have low barrier to entry. Some services (Non Information Technology
BASED) have lower barriers to entry and exit. This places an additional pressure
on service design to be innovative and cost effective.

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Phases in Service Design

Service Design process requires the thorough understanding of what the service should be
and how it should be delivered and that too with in certain standardized specifications or
requirements.

1. Conceptualize
2. Identify service package components
3. Determine performance specifications
4. Translate performance specifications into design specifications
5. Translate design specifications into delivery specifications

A good operations manager should be able to see the compatibility between design
requirements for a product or a service.

Service Blueprinting

Service blueprinting is a method used in service design to describe and analyze a

proposed service. It is a useful tool for conceptualizing a service delivery system

Major Steps in Service Blueprinting

1. Establish boundaries and decide on the level of detail that is needed.

2. Identify steps involved and describe them. If there is an existing process, get an
input from those who do it.
3. Prepare a flowchart of major process steps.
4. Identify potential failure points. Incorporate features that minimize the chances of
failures.
5. Establish a time frame for service execution and estimate of variability in
processing time requirements. Time is a fundamental determinant of cost, so
establishing a time standard for service is important.
6. Analyze profitability. Customer waiting time is important, leading to negative
profitability

Characteristics of Well Designed Service Systems

A well designed service system should be consistent with the organization’s vision as
well as mission. It should be user friendly, robust, easy to sustain, cost effective and
should bring value to customers.

A good and well design should create an effective linkage between back operations and
front operations. It should aim for a single unifying theme. It should ensure reliability and
high quality.

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An operations manager often faces challenge of a poor service design. The reasons of a
poor service design include variable requirements, difficult to describe requirements, high
volume of customer contact. These challenges can be overcome easily with the aid of
defining a standardized requirement that would be addressed by the service, make
simpler requirements and handle only limited number of customers at each service station
or outlet.

The House of Quality

It makes a lot more sense to introduce the concept of quality in product and service
design here. We already know a superior product enjoys a broader customer base because
of its superior quality.

Similarly a service is a customer encounter. A popular managerial view is that the

Quality Function should be deployed at the source or at the design stage. We also should
know what Quality Function Deployment is. Two common answers being that it is the
voice of the customer (which always sets a standard for the service organization to
follow) and the second one being that it should be in the form of a house of quality

Correlation
matrix

Design
requirements

Customer
require-
Relationshi Competitive
ments p assessment

Specification
s
or

Conclusion

How organization can improve their product or service design is based purely on how
much they are willing to invest in Research & Development(R &D). Organizations
should shift some emphasis away from short term performance to long term Performance.
They should work towards continual and gradual improvements instead of the big bang
approach. This is clearly an example of Japanese incremental modification approach to
the contrasting American philosophy of introducing a different model. Whatever may be
the approach, a good design should aim to provide a reduced product life cycle.

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