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3.4 Design For ‘X’

3.4.1 Basic Principles

As Einstein said, “The best design is the simplest one that works.” The simplest design; that is, the one with the fewest number of parts, the most straightforward arrange-ment, the fewest number of adjustments, the fewest number of interconnections and inter-dependencies, and the maximum use of modules is the one that is most reliable, least costly, easiest to service and usually the quickest one to market. (Bralla, p. 11)

James G. Bralla, in his book Design for Excellence, lists several basic principles that DFM (Design for Manufacturing)/DFX have in common. These are listed below:

Function and performance

Safety

Long-term quality

Manufacturability

Environmental friendliness

Serviceability

User friendliness

Appearance

Features

Short time to market

Thus, total design entails keeping all of the above principles in mind during all aspects of the product development process. Because it is impossible to choose a design that would involve the very best design for each of the above areas, DFX becomes a

com-plex optimization problem, where the factors are implicitly rated for importance and trade-offs take place.

This idea of optimization is one that should be considered carefully in the work we are undertaking. The ideas of trade-offs is important as we begin to consider not only cus-tomer needs and manufacturing requirements, but also enterprise needs and environmental constraints.

3.5 Conclusion

In short, much can be learned from exploring the literature above. While at first blush it appears that none of the subjects discussed above directly relate to environment in the design process, all have added in some way to the overall picture.

The section on Appropriate Technology outlines some challenges and needs of design and production, albeit usually perceived by the First World for the Third World.

Presenting it here makes two points: first, and probably most important, while the problem and most definitely the solution is still nebulous and ill-defined, the developmentalist and the design community have recognized that environment does indeed play a role in how a product is developed and manufactured; secondly, Appropriate Technology supplies us with the first actual examples of designers accounting for environment.

Sections discussing Product and Process design also add to the overall goal of this thesis. Many have written on the design process and how to best bring a product to the

market. Three were explored here. All three varied in details, but a well-establish and fairly generic product development process can be seen in all three works. Also, while most authors did not explicitly state the need to design for aspects or characteristics of the environment, they did provide parameters or considerations that dealt with environment, whether they be ergonomics or weather.

Discussion of Quality Function Deployment provided a look at a quite structured and well-accepted process for product development as well as techniques for organization of information. QFD also addressed correlation, or interaction between needs and techni-cal responses.

Finally, Design for ‘X’ was addressed to provide yet another look at a method for emphasizing certain needs in design and optimizing factors to create the best overall design for a specific X.

It is hoped that the exploration of these 4 areas will lead to a more robust process when accounting for environment within the design process.

CHAPTER 4

E NVIRONMENT AND THE D ESIGN P ROCESS

To this point, this thesis has discussed work that has been done by other research-ers in the area of design. The four areas discussed in Chapter 3 were to aid in setting the stage for what is a logical and necessary step in design for environment, especially when the environment is radically different than what has been designed for in the past.

The premise of this thesis is that different designs are better for different settings based on their characteristics. This is particularly important when considering certain lim-itations imposed by the environment where the design and manufacture of the product is taking place. If the needs of the company are clearly worded and take the environment into account, they can be used in conjunction with Customer Needs to determine a design that is much better suited for development in that particular environment than others consid-ered.

In the first portion of this chapter, environment will be discussed. The rest of this chapter will set the stage for taking the environment into account in the design selection

process. This will be done by, first, discussing what is meant by the word environment.

This will allow a a logical connection to be made between environment and the Product Development Process, the second step in the process; finally, Enterprise Needs will clearly be defined and their origin will be established.

4.1 Environment

Environments vary significantly across the globe, and it is difficult to even find common factors at times. Classifying and comparing those factors is even more challeng-ing. To classify them, all environments need to have similar factors affecting the product development atmosphere. To compare them, all of those factors would have to be quantifi-able (which they are not) and then one would have to judge what “good” is in relation to the factor. This would be no problem with respect to some factors, such as infrastructure, etc. but trying to determine if one culture contributes more to a healthy product develop-ment atmosphere than another is not only impossible but would also be highly biased and narrow-minded.