Product Design and Development

Prof. David Ellison
University of Pennsylvania ExMSE Program

GENERAL INFORMATION

Course Objectives: The focus of Product Design and Development is the integration of the marketing, design, and manufacturing functions of the firm in creating a new product. The course is intended to provide students with the following benefits:

  • Competence with a set of tools and methodologies for product design and development.
  • Confidence in own abilities to create a new product.
  • Awareness of the role of multiple functions in creating a new product (e.g. marketing, finance, industrial design, engineering, production).
  • Ability to coordinate multiple, interdisciplinary tasks in order to achieve a common objective.
  • Reinforcement of specific knowledge from other courses through practice and reflection in an action-oriented setting.
  • Academic Integrity: I encourage full group and class collaboration on all aspects of this course. It is almost impossible to share too much information in product development. I expect that all team members will contribute substantially to the project efforts, although some students will choose to devote themselves to the projects beyond what is required for the course.

    Reading Materials: The primary reading materials for the class are the book Product Design and Development, by Ulrich and Eppinger. Handouts of additional readings will be distributed in class.

    Grading: Your course grade will be determined as follows: 33% quality of your preparation for and participation in class discussions, including your project proposal. 33% quality of your team's work on project-related assignments. 34% quality of your team's final project presentation.

    Class Preparation and Participation: Reading assignments are given in the attached Class Schedule for each class session. I expect you to come to class prepared to discuss the readings and the suggested questions. Your individual class participation grade will be based upon your in-class remarks during discussions.

    Projects: Your challenge in the project portion of this course is to design a new product and to produce a prototype version of it. The goal of this exercise is to learn principles and methodologies of product development in a realistic context. Most product development professionals work under tremendous time pressure and do not have an opportunity to reflect on the development process. In this course, the project stress level will be low enough so that there will be time to experiment and learn. Ideas for projects are generated by the students in the class.

    Guidelines for Projects: While I will try to accommodate special cases, I strongly encourage you to choose a project satisfying all of the following constraints:

  • There should be a demonstrable market for the product. One good way to verify a market need is to identify existing products that meet the need. Your product need not be a variant of an existing product, but the market need addressed by your product should be clearly evident. The product does not have to have a tremendous economic potential, but should at least be an attractive opportunity for a small firm.
  • The product should be a material good and not a service. Although many of the ideas in the course apply to services (for example, customer needs and product architecture), many do not (for example, materials and process selection and design for manufacturing).
  • The product should have a high likelihood of containing fewer than 10 parts. Although you cannot anticipate the design details, it is easy to anticipate that an electric drill will have more than 10 parts and that a garlic press will probably have fewer than 10.
  • You should be confident of being able to prototype at reasonable cost. (You will be expected to produce a prototype.) For example, a razor like Gillette's Sensor may have about 10 parts, but would require tens of thousands of dollars to create a geometrically accurate prototype.
  • The product should require no basic technological breakthroughs. (Yes, a more compact airbag would be a nice, but can you do it without inventing a new chemical?) We do not have time to deal with large technological uncertainties.
  • You should have access to more than 5 potential lead users of the product (more than 20 would be nice). For example, you may have difficulty developing an agricultural water pump without leaving Philadelphia.
  • A few more hints:
  • Save any highly proprietary ideas for another context; we will be quite open in discussing the projects in class and do not wish to be constrained by proprietary information.
  • The most successful projects tend to have at least one team member with strong personal interest in the target market.
  • It is really nice to have a connection to a commercial venture that may be interested in the product (one group signed a licensing agreement with a major mail order company with which they had made contact during the first week of the course).
  • Most products are really not very well designed. We are continually amazed at the seemingly poor quality of common products (utility knives, garlic presses, and ice cream scoops, for example). Our experience is that if you pick almost any product satisfying our project guidelines, you will be able to develop a product that is superior to everything currently on the market.
  • Some Project Examples from Previous Years:
  • portable 35mm slide projector for use with just a few slides
  • beverage holder for sail boats
  • stripping basket for fly fishing
  • rowing foot stretcher for crew shells
  • book bag for college students
  • clamp for theatrical lighting
  • grocery bag carrier for urban shoppers
  • Project Teams: During the first class session, we will form project teams on the basis of expressed student preferences. Teams will consist of about four students.

    Intellectual Property Rights: The student team will be able to retain the rights to any inventions you develop in this course. If a team should decide to pursue a patent, they may do this on their own. All teams should spend some time during the first team meeting agreeing in advance on how to distribute any economic rewards arising from the intellectual property you will create. The faculty will not get involved in these issues, except as informal and non-binding advisors. Any potential conflicts with employee work agreements should be addressed by the individuals and their teams early in the term.

    Product Design and Development Class Schedule

    Date Project

    Topic

    Individual Assignment

    Project Assignment

    Fri. Dec. 6 Course Introduction
    Identifying Customer Needs
    Project presentations
    Team formation     		U&E Chapters 1 -4 Product Opportunity
    Fri. Dec. 20Product Specifications
    Concept Generation
    Concept Selection     		U&E Chapters 5 and 6 Mission statement
    Customer needs
    Fri. Jan. 3 PrototypingU&E Chapter 10
    Apple Powerbook Case
    BMW 7 Series Case     		Target specifications
    10-20 concepts
    Fri. Jan. 17Industrial Design
    Design for Manufacturing    		U&E Chapter 8 and 9
    Bring blank videotape    		Concept sketch
    Concept selection matrix
    Uncertainties/testing
    strategy
    Fri. Jan. 31Managing Development ProjectsU&E Chapters 12 and 2 (skim)
    Quantum Corporation Case    		none
    Fri. Feb. 14 Final Project Presentationsnone15 minute presentation
    Product flyer/brochure
    Working prototype

    ASSIGNMENT 1: PROJECT PROPOSALS

    DUE FRIDAY DECEMBER 6 IN CLASS

    Because we will need to form project teams during the first class session, you will need to come prepared to propose a product opportunity to the class. See the guidelines in the course description to help you think about this assignment.

    Prepare a 60-second presentation to be delivered in class. Your presentation should include:
    * Your name and company affiliation.
    * A verbal or visual demonstration of the product opportunity you would like to pursue.
    * Any special skills or assets you have (marketing expertise, access to a shop, a car, electronics wizardry, etc.)

    We will provide an overhead projector. Note that I will ruthlessly enforce the 60-second time constraint. (Think about how much can be presented in two 30-second television commercials.)

    The most effective presentations often involve a live demonstration of the need for the product or a demonstration of the deficiencies of existing products.

    At the end of the first class, we will vote as a group on the best project proposals. We will then form teams around these proposed projects.

    Product Design and Development

    Session #3 Case Questions

    Apple Powerbook:

    Why was the original Powerbook successful in the marketplace?

    What role did physical models/prototypes play in the development process?

    What advice would you give to Apple to improve their development process?

    BMW 7 Series:

    Why has BMW been successful historically in the luxury car market? How should BMW react to competition from Japanese auto makers?

    Compare the new approach to prototyping at BMW to the old (pre 7-Series) approach. What are the strengths and weaknesses of each?

    What should Carl-Peter Forster do about the 7-Series prototypes?

    What advice would you give to BMW to improve their development process?