Design is the process by which the needs of the customer or the marketplace are transformed into a product satisfying these needs. It is usually carried out a designer or engineer but requires help from other people in the company.
Design essentially is an exercise in problem solving. Typically, the design of a new product consists of the following stages:
The development of a new product may also require the development of a prototype to prove that new technologies work before committing resources to full-scale manufacture.
The traditional view of the design to manufacture process is that it is a sequential process, the outcome of one stage is passed on to the next stage. This tends to lead to iteration in the design. I.e. having to go back to an earlier stage to correct mistakes. This can make products more expensive and delivered to the marketplace late. A better approach is for the designer to consider the stages following design to try and eliminate any potential problems. This means that the designer requires help from the other experts in the company for example the manufacturing expert to help ensure that any designs the designer comes up with can be made.
So what factors might a designer have to consider in order to eliminate iteration?
* Manufacture - Can the product be made with our facilities?
* Sales - Are we producing a product that the customer wants?
* Purchasing - Are the parts specified in stock, or do why have to order them?
* Cost - Is the design going to cost too much to make?
* Transport - Is the product the right size for the method of transporting?
* Disposal - How will the product be disposed at the end of its life?
Design Brief
The design brief is typically a statement of intent. I.e. "We will design and make a Formula One racing car". Although it states the problem, it isn't enough information with which to start designing.
Product Design Specification (PDS)
This is possibly the most important stage of the design process and yet one of the least understood stage. It is important that before you produce a 'solution' there is a true understanding of the actual problem. The PDS is a document listing the problem in detail. It is important to work with the customer and analyse the marketplace to produce a list of requirements necessary to produce a successful product. The designer should constantly refer back to this document to ensure designs are appropriate.
To produce the PDS it is likely that you will have to research the problem and analyse competing products and all important points and discoveries should be included in your PDS.
Concept Design
Using the PDS as the basis, the designer attempts to produce an outline of a solution. A conceptual design is a usually an outline of key components and their arrangement with the details of the design left for a later stage. For example, a concept design for a car might consist of a sketch showing a car with four wheels and the engine mounted at the front of the car. The exact details of the components such as the diameter of the wheels or the size of the engine are determined at the detail design stage. However, the degree of detail generated at the conceptual design stage will vary depending on the product being designed.
It is important when designing a product that you not only consider the product design specification but you also consider the activities downstream of the design stage. Downstream activities typically are manufacture, sales, transportation etc. By considering these stages early, you can eliminate problems that may occur at these stages.
This stage of the design involves drawing up a number of different viable concept designs which satisfy the requirements of the product outlined in the PDS and then evaluating them to decide on the most suitable to develop further. Hence, concept design can be seen as a two-stage process of concept generation and concept evaluation
http://drawsketch.about.com...//www.ider.herts.ac.uk/school/courseware/graphics/engineering_drawing/
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