PRODUCT DESIGN & ERGONOMICS - 21ME744

Module 1:
Introduction to Product Design: Asimows Model: Definition of product design,
Design by Evaluation, Design by Innovation, Essential Factors of Product Design, Flow
and Value Addition in the Production-Consumption Cycle. The Morphology of Design
(The seven Phase), Primary Design phase and flowcharting, role of Allowance,
Process Capability.

Definition of Product Design

 Product Design is the process of imagining, creating, and iterating products that solve
users' problems or address specific needs. It involves a blend of art and engineering to
ensure that a product is both functional and aesthetically pleasing.

What is the definition of a product?

In order to understand product design, it’s useful to define what we mean by a product.

Products can be physical things you can find on a shelf in a store, like a lightbulb or a bicycle, or
they can be intangibles like software, services, experiences and even information, as with a
training course or workshop.

The product is the end result of a product designer’s work – it’s what is offered to the customer
at the delivery stage of the product design process.

Product design is a term that covers products, services and experiences of all kinds, whereas the
more traditional term, industrial design, usually refers only to physical goods.

The product design process is shaped by user and business goals. A product’s success depends
on how closely it lines up with user needs and how effectively it solves a user’s problems in the
context of their life and work, since these factors will influence how well it sells and how
profitable it is. It’s also influenced by the constraints of business, such as the budget available to
develop it and the amount of time that can be dedicated to the design process.

• Product Design deals with form and function of a product.

1. Form Design – is associated with product’s shape.
2. Functional design – is associated with product’s working.

For this reason, product design involves working closely both with people from within your
business and from those in its target market, so you can make sure your product is on the right
track all the way through its design journey.

Principles of Good Product Design

 From customer prospective
• It should function correctly
• It should have required standard of reliability
• Easy to operate
• It should have easy accessibility for servicing
• It should obtain good space utilization
• Should have pleasant appearance
• Should be reasonably priced

From Manufacturer prospective (making adequate profit)

• Easy to manufacture
• Use of standard components
• Well designed with minimum numberof parts
• Minimum number of operations
•
Easy to pack and distribute
Asimow's Model of Design

The seven phases of design proposed by Asimow are: Feasibility study phase, preliminary design
phase, and detailed design phase, as indicated in figure. Of the seven phases, the first three
phases belong to design, and the remaining four phases belong to production, distribution,
consumption and retirement.

1. The Seven Phases

 Recognition of Need: Identifying the need for a new product or improvement in an

existing product.
 Problem Definition: Clearly defining the problem that the product aims to solve.
 Conceptualization: Generating ideas and concepts to address the problem.
 Preliminary Design: Developing initial design sketches and models.
 Detailed Design: Creating detailed specifications, drawings, and prototypes.
 Prototyping and Testing: Building and testing prototypes to refine the design.
 Final Design and Production: Finalizing the design and preparing for mass production.

2. Primary Design Phase and Flowcharting

 The primary design phase includes problem definition, conceptualization, and

preliminary design. Flowcharting helps in visualizing the design process, identifying
potential issues, and streamlining workflows.

3. Role of Allowance
  Allowance refers to the intentional inclusion of additional material or space in a product
design to accommodate manufacturing variations, ensure proper fit, or allow for
adjustments. It is essential for maintaining product quality and functionality.

4. Process Capability

 Process capability measures the ability of a manufacturing process to produce products

within specified limits consistently. It involves assessing the process's accuracy,
precision, and reliability, ensuring that the final products meet quality standards.

 Design by Evaluation: This approach involves generating several design alternatives and
then evaluating them against specific criteria. The best design is selected based on its
performance against these criteria.
 Design by Innovation: This approach focuses on creativity and new ideas, encouraging
designers to explore unconventional solutions and innovative concepts that push the
boundaries of existing knowledge and technology.

3. Essential Factors of Product Design

 Functionality: Ensuring the product meets the intended use and performs its functions
efficiently.
 Aesthetics: The visual appeal and style of the product, which can influence consumer
preferences.
 Usability: The ease with which users can interact with the product, encompassing aspects
like ergonomics and user interface.
 Cost: The product's affordability and the economic feasibility of its production.
 Durability and Reliability: The product's ability to perform under various conditions
and its lifespan.
 Safety: Ensuring the product does not pose any hazards to users.

4. Flow and Value Addition in the Production-Consumption Cycle

 The production-consumption cycle involves various stages from raw material acquisition
to the delivery of the final product to consumers. Value addition occurs at each stage
through processes like manufacturing, packaging, distribution, and marketing, enhancing
the product's utility and appeal.

Design by Evolution:
• In the past, designs used to evolve over long spans of time.
• Change reduced the risk of making major errors.
• The circumstances rarely demanded analytical capabilities of the designer.
• This was design by evolution.
• Development of the bicycle from its crank operated version to its
present day chain and sprocket version over a period of about a
 century is a typical example of design by evolution.

The disadvantages of evolutionary design are:

Unsuitability for mass production:
• An evolved design is rather crude and is more oriented towards design by masses for
Production by masses (Gandhian philosophy) rather than mass production.
• It is acceptable at village level but unacceptable at urban level.
Difficulty in modification:
• A design by evolution is shaped by demands of time.
• On the other hand, design by invention and creative process uses sophisticated tools
and techniques such as CAD (Computer-Aided Design) workstation.
• The CAD workstation helps generate a large number of design alternatives within
minutes.
Inability to tap new technologies:
• A new technology can result in a totally new design based on a different working
principle as compared with evolutionary design which relies heavily on small
modifications in an existing design.
• It is well known that the new technology has made artisans and craftsmen of certain
categories redundant.

Design by Innovation
• Following a scientific discovery, a new body of technical knowledge develops rapidly;
the proper use of this discovery may result in an almost complete deviation from past
practice.
• Every skill, which the designer or the design team can muster in analysis and
synthesis, is instrumental in a totally novel design.
Examples of design by innovation are:
1. Invention of laser beam which has brought about a revolution in medical and
engineering fields. Laser based tools have made surgical knife in medicine and gas cutting
in engineering obsolete.
2. Invention of solid state electronic devices resulting in miniaturization of electronic
products, which has made vacuum tubes obsolete.
Essential Factors of Product Design

(i) Need.
A design must be in response to individual or social needs, which can be satisfied by the
technological status of the times when the design is to be prepared.

In mathematical logic, realizability is a collection of methods in proof theory used to study

constructive proofs and extract additional information from them.

(ii) Physical realizability. A design should be convertible into material goods or services,
i.e., it must be physically realizable. The technique for determining the physical realizability
is termed, design tree approach. In this approach (Fig. 1.1(a))., the success of a design
concept depends on the success of its subproblems, say Q1 and Q2. Let D11, Dl2, ... represent
alternative solutions of Q1 and D21, D22 represent alternative solutions of Q2, and so forth.
The probability equations are:
P (D) = P(Q1) P(Q2) (1.1)
P(Q1) = P(D11 or D12) = P(D11) + P(D12) – P(D11)P(D12) (1.2)
P(Q2) = P(D21 or D22) = P(D21) + P(D22) – P(D21)P(P22) (1.3)

• The probability values of D11, D12, D2l, and D22 should be estimated from practical
considerations.

• An example of development of device for combating automobile head-on crash is also

illustrated in Fig. 1.1(b).
(a) Design tree for a design concept D Fig. 1.1 Contd.
(b) Design tree for protection device in automobile head on crash Fig. 1.1 Determination
of physical realizability through use of design tree.
(iii) Economic worthwhileness.
• The goods or services, described by a design, must have a utility to the consumer
which equals or exceeds the sum of the total costs of making it available to him.
• For example, a bulb with luminous intensity 3 and life 4 on a ten-point scale has a
lower utility than a bulb with luminous intensity 2.5 and life 5.

(iv) Financial feasibility.

• The operations of designing, producing and distributing the goods must be financially
supportable, i.e., a design project should be capable for being funded by suitable agencies or
people.
• The method for assessment of financial feasibility could be ‘Net present value’ which
states that the present worth of cash flows in the project when added up during the useful life
of the product should be greater than the initial investment for the project.

(v) Optimality.
• The choice of a design concept must be optimal amongst the available alternatives; the
selection of the chosen design concept must be optimal among all possible design proposals.
• Optimal design, in theory, strives to achieve the best or singular point derived by
calculus methods.
• In the context of optimization under constraints for mechanical strength, minimum
weight and minimum cost are usually taken up as criteria for optimization.
(vi) Design criterion.
• Optimality must be established relative to a design criterion which represents the
designer’s compromise among possibly conflicting value judgements which include those of
the consumer, the producer, the distributor, and his own.
(vii) Morphology.
• Design is progression from the abstract to the concrete.
• This gives a chronologically horizontal structure to a design project.
• The three phases of design are:
1. Feasibility study phase
2. Preliminary design phase
3. Detailed design phase as indicated in Fig. 1.2.

(viii) Design process.

• Design is an iterative problem-solving process.
• This gives a vertical structure to each design phase.
• The iterative nature of design is owing to feedback from existing design and
improvement with further information in the form of technological, financial and
creativity inputs. This is indicated in Fig. 1.3.

(ix) Subproblems.
• During the process of solution of a design problem, a sublayer of subproblems appears;
the solution of the original problem is dependent on the solution of the subproblems.
• The “Design Tree” of Fig 1.1 reveals the concept of subproblems.
(x) Reduction of uncertainty.
• Design is derived after processing of information that results in a transition from
uncertainty, about the success or failure of a design towards certainty.
• Each step in design morphology from step (i) to step (x) enhances the level of
confidence of the designer.
(xi) Economic worth of evidence.
• Information gathering and processing have a cost that must be balanced by the worth of
the evidence, which affects the success or failure of the design.
• Authentic information should be gathered to make the design project a success.
• Today, information is regarded as a resource which is as valuable as money, manpower
and material.
(xii) Bases for decision.
• A design project is terminated when it is obvious that its failure calls for its
abandonment.
• It is continued when confidence in an available design solution is high enough to
indicate the commitment of resources necessary for the next phase.
(xiii) Minimum commitment.
• In the solution of a design problem at any stage of the process, commitments which
will fix future design decisions must not be made beyond what is necessary to execute the
immediate solution.
• This will allow maximum freedom in finding solutions to subproblems at the lower
levels of design.
• A model of design problem, subproblems etc. is developed through a design tree (see
Fig. 1.1).
(xiv) Communication.
• A design is a description of an object and prescription for its production; it will exist to
the extent it is expressed in the available modes of communication.
• The best way to communicate a design is through drawings, which is the universal
language of designers.
• Three dimensional renderings or cut-away views help explain the design to the sponsor
or user of the design.
• The present day impact of computer aided modelling and drafting has resulted in very
effective communication between the designer and the sponsor.

Primary Design phase and flowchart:

It play essential roles in transforming initial concepts into detailed, actionable plans for
development. Here's how they fit into the broader product design process:

1. Primary Design Phase:

The Primary Design phase is an early stage in product development where the main features,
functions, and overall aesthetics of the product are established. This phase includes:

 Conceptualization: Initial ideas are brainstormed, considering user needs, market trends,
and technological possibilities.
 Requirements Gathering: Key requirements from stakeholders, including users,
engineers, and business teams, are documented.
  Sketching and Wireframing: Basic sketches and wireframes are created to visualize the
product's structure, layout, and key elements.
 Prototyping: Early prototypes may be developed to test the feasibility of the design and
gather initial feedback.
 Design Iteration: Based on feedback, the design is iterated upon to refine the product's
look, feel, and functionality.

2. Flowcharting in Product Design:

Flowcharting is a tool used within the Primary Design phase to map out the process, logic, or
flow of a system, particularly in digital or software products. It provides a visual representation
of the sequence of operations or steps involved in using the product. Key aspects include:

 Process Mapping: Flowcharts outline the steps a user or system takes to complete a task,
helping to identify potential bottlenecks or areas for improvement.
 User Flow: In UX/UI design, flowcharts are used to depict the user journey through
different screens or interactions, ensuring the design is intuitive and logical.
 Decision Trees: Flowcharts can illustrate decision-making processes, showing how
different inputs lead to various outcomes, which is crucial for designing interactive
systems.
 System Architecture: For complex products, flowcharts help in visualizing how
different components or modules of a system interact with each other.

Relationship Between Primary Design Phase and Flowcharting:

 Complementary Roles: Flowcharting is often used during the Primary Design phase to
translate conceptual ideas into structured processes. This ensures that all elements of the
product design are logically connected and that the user experience is smooth.
 Iteration and Refinement: Flowcharts can reveal flaws or inefficiencies in the initial
design, leading to multiple iterations in the Primary Design phase. This iterative process
helps in refining both the product's functionality and user experience.
 Collaboration: Flowcharts serve as a communication tool among designers, developers,
and stakeholders, ensuring everyone has a clear understanding of the design logic and
flow.

Overall, the Primary Design phase sets the foundation for the product, and flowcharting is a
critical tool within this phase that helps in visualizing, refining, and communicating the product's
design logic.

Flow and Value Addition in the Production-Consumption Cycle

Traditional PDM Cycle In the traditional PDM approaches, the decision is either to correct
the problem completely or to take no action. However, CBM decisions can include a wide
range of actions, such as: 1. Adjustments to the equipment. An adjustment can be a simple
fine-tuning of a cam on a limit switch or involve the tuning of a boiler combustion control
system to maximize fuel efficiency. 2. Replacement of damaged or warn components. 3.
Replacement of disposable components such as air, oil, or fuel filters. 4. Performance of an
overhaul that aims to restore the equipment to as-good-as-new condition. Some advantages of
CBM are: 1. Reduction in the total maintenance program cost. 2. Avoidance of very
disruptive equipment outages. 3. Reduction of costly PM activities when condition
assessment shows no need of the scheduled maintenance.

The product life cycle material flows and potentially useful information flows.
ALLOWANCE:

In product design, the concept of allowance plays a crucial role in ensuring that parts fit together
correctly, function as intended, and can be manufactured efficiently. Allowance refers to the
intentional dimensional difference between mating parts to account for manufacturing tolerances,
wear, and other variables.

Here’s how allowance is significant in product design:

1. Fit and Functionality

 Clearance Allowance: This is used when parts need to fit together with some space
between them to allow for movement, like in a sliding fit. The allowance ensures that
parts don't interfere with each other during operation.
 Interference Allowance: This is the opposite, where parts are designed to fit tightly
together, like a press fit. The allowance ensures that parts stay together under stress, such
as in bearings or shafts.

2. Manufacturing Feasibility

 Tolerances: During manufacturing, it's impossible to make parts to exact dimensions.

Allowance provides a buffer that ensures parts can still be assembled even with minor
variations.
 Cost Efficiency: Specifying the right allowance can reduce manufacturing costs. Tight
tolerances are more expensive to achieve, so allowances are designed to balance
precision with cost.

3. Longevity and Wear

 Compensating for Wear: Allowances are often designed with the product’s lifecycle in
mind. For example, a larger clearance allowance might be given in a component expected
to wear down over time, ensuring it remains functional over a longer period.

4. Assembly and Maintenance

 Ease of Assembly: Proper allowance can make assembly easier, reducing the time and
labor required. It ensures that parts fit together without excessive force or adjustment.
 Maintenance: In designs where parts will be disassembled for maintenance, allowance
ensures that parts can be easily removed and replaced without damage.

5. Safety

 Preventing Failure: By accounting for worst-case scenarios in material strength, thermal

expansion, or environmental conditions, allowance helps in designing safer products that
are less likely to fail unexpectedly.
In summary, allowance in product design is about striking the right balance between fit, function,
manufacturing capability, and cost. It is a key factor in creating products that are reliable,
durable, and efficient to produce.

Process Capability:

In product design, "process capability" refers to the ability of a manufacturing process to produce
products that meet design specifications consistently. It assesses how well the process can
produce products within the desired tolerance limits or specifications set during the design phase.
This concept is critical because it directly impacts the quality, reliability, and performance of the
final product.

Key Aspects of Process Capability in Product Design:

1. Design for Manufacturability (DFM):

o During the design phase, engineers and designers consider the capabilities of the
manufacturing processes. They ensure that the product design is compatible with
existing manufacturing capabilities to avoid costly modifications or redesigns.
2. Process Capability Index (Cpk):
o The process capability index (Cpk) is a statistical measure used to evaluate how
well a process can produce output within specified limits. A higher Cpk indicates
a more capable process. Designers aim for a high Cpk to ensure that the product
meets quality standards consistently.
3. Tolerance Analysis:
o Tolerance analysis is performed to determine the acceptable variation in the
dimensions and features of a product. The process capability must align with
these tolerances to ensure that the product functions as intended.
4. Process Control and Monitoring:
o Once a product is in production, continuous monitoring and control are essential
to maintain process capability. Statistical process control (SPC) tools are used to
track performance and make adjustments as needed to stay within the desired
capability range.
5. Continuous Improvement:
o Process capability is not static; it can be improved over time through process
optimization, equipment upgrades, and better training for operators. Continuous
improvement efforts help enhance the overall quality and efficiency of the
product design and manufacturing process.
6. Impact on Quality and Costs:
o A process with high capability reduces the likelihood of defects and rework,
leading to better product quality and lower production costs. Conversely, poor
process capability can result in increased waste, higher costs, and potential
product failures.
7. Communication Between Design and Manufacturing Teams:
o Effective communication between product designers and manufacturing engineers
is crucial. Designers need to understand the limitations and strengths of
 manufacturing processes, while engineers should provide feedback on how design
decisions impact process capability.

In summary, process capability is a vital consideration in product design as it ensures that the
manufacturing process can consistently produce products that meet the desired specifications. It
is a collaborative effort between design and manufacturing teams to achieve the best possible
outcome in terms of quality, cost, and performance.