Preparation for the ISE386 Test

For preparation of the test to be held in Week 5 during your lecture time, you need
to know how to use different techniques you have learnt in the classes for analysis
and improvement of a product that is selected by yourself but needs to be different
to the product of your group assignment. As I said, they are open-end questions so
you need to be very clear about the use of different techniques and also the process
flow of these techniques for a close-book test. I would like you to present your
results in flow chart, block diagram, table, point form, and in drawing so I can get a
well-organized solution to pick up your idea quickly. Since the testing time is only
about 2 hours, you need to have yourself well-prepared so you can deliver the results
within this time frame in organized manner and also complete the questions.
There will be questions related to three parts of the lectures including Robust Design,
Value Engineering, and Design for Recycling and Disassembly. I will only give a
single grade to your test, which can depend on the completeness of your answer,
correctness of your process, organization of your answer, quality of your results,
and also innovation of your ideas. You should not just put a general answer that can
fit to all products but need to be more specific to your selected product. You can
discuss with your classmates BEFORE the test but should not generate a sample
solution and let me see similar answers from different people, or I will down grade
your test result, which means you still need to prepare by yourself and also should
not give your preparation to other people. No discussion is allowed in the test.
You can bring two A4 papers (4 sides) for the product information and your
preliminary work for the test, which can include the product and disassembly
component pictures, bill of materials (BOM), FAST diagram, flow chart, tables,
drawings, etc. You should avoid selecting a product similar to your group assignment
and also should not pick one the same as your classmates on purpose although it is
allowed to be similar in coincidence. You grade also depends on the difficulty of the
product you pick, more part number and different parts can mean it is more difficult.
In the test, you will be asked to first use Value Engineering by making a functional
description table and a FAST diagram to get primarily and secondary functions of
your product and then find alternatives using creativity and then find feasible ones
for improvement. Since the time is short, you do not need to use the decision matrix
for evaluation but just choose based on your justification. It is encouraged to sketch
your new ideas so I can understand your concept clearly.

And then you will need to use Robust Design to design experiments to further
enhance the performance by identifying performance outputs with physical units
(e.g. distance in meter, time in second, speed in m/sec, force in Newton, weight in kg,
etc), choosing suitable control factors in your product design that have effects in
either mean shift, variation, both, or no effect to the performance output, and
finding noise factors in the product environment or users that can cause variation to
the performance output to optimize for the design parameter settings for different
levels. You also need to plan your experiment and elaborate the process using a flow
chart, which means you should have decision loops for possible trade-offs when
picking the optimal settings for larger the better, nominal the best, or smaller the
better cases.
I will also ask questions about your understanding of the control and noise factors
you choose for their correlation in physical behavior to the performance output,
including which control factor probably has more effect to the mean shift of the
performance output to become a suitable scaling factor, which one has more effect
to the variation of the performance output for reducing the variance (or increasing
S/N ratio), which one has both effects, and which one has no effect for both, etc. And
you also need to justify your answers by explaining the reasons.
For example, the power of the heating element in a coffee maker has more effect to
the mean shift of the coffee temperature as a performance output. The dimensions
and material of the coffee pot has more effect to the variation of the temperature
that is sensitive to the noise factors, including the room temperature, humidity, user
operation, etc. So you need to justify your answer by explaining why they have this
behavior in a physical reasoning, like temperature rise is proportional to the power
input to generate heat, but heat needs to be transmitted to the coffee through the
wall of a coffee pot, which has thermal resistance to cause the temperature drop.
The bottom area of a coffee pot can also affect the thermal resistance when larger
area can give lower thermal resistance. However, a thicker wall can provide better
warming to prevent the heat loss from the coffee pot. Thats why we need to carry
out a set of experiment to understand their behavior to optimize the parameter
designs to make the coffee maker to become less sensitive to the environmental and
user noises and also increase the performance output to have higher S/N ratio.
At last, you will evaluate the Design for Disassembly and Recycling part for the
product and also suggest possible improvement. You are also encouraged to present

your new design and design improvement using hand sketches, creative ideas will be
given a higher grade but should also be feasible. The two A4 papers of the product
information and your preliminary work will also be included into your test when
submission. The test is an individual work so you should work by your own although
discussion is allowed before the test during preparation. Again, no discussion is
allowed in the test.
Please do not bring your preliminary work to ask for my comments to be fair to other
classmates. Since it is a close-book test, the two A4 papers can help you gather
information that you cannot memorize so you should make the best use of it. If the
information is for the test, the font size should be equal or more than 12pt for the
ease of my reading. I will provide you a test paper to list all questions, which is similar
to what I asked you to prepare but in a point form to be clear. So you will only need
to bring your two A4 papers with your preliminary work and I will provide you white
A4 papers for adding more content in the Week 5 test during the lecture time. You
can find much product information on the internet by using keyword search. When
you are working for the group assignment for Value Engineering that is also due in
Week 5, please also find another product for your individual test to prepare for the
preliminary part in two A4 papers. Thanks a lot.