CHAPTER FIVE

( Managing for Product Quality )

OVERVIEW

Quality must be designed into products or they will become too costly for customers to
purchase and use throughout their design life. The design process must also be completed
reasonably quickly or competitors will gain market advantage. This chapter is about managing
the design process and the operations function’s role in that process. At all times the best designs
will be generated by teams that include all interested parties and have the problem solving and
technical skills needed for the task.

It is not only the design process that has changed; the requirements of products and the
processes by which they are made have become increasingly complex. We will look at some of
the new requirements and discuss their impact on the operations function and its management.
We will look at two other trends- advanced technology and the globalization of firms- and
analyze their impact on design and the management of design.

GENERATING AND SELECTING NEW PRODUCT CONCEPTS

Firms are now expected to design more products more frequently and to redesign even
successful products before the end of products’ lives. This requires a change in the design
process.

SOURCES OF NEW PRODUCT IDEAS include internal R & D departments, customers, shop
floor operators, suppliers, warranty claims, competitors, research institutes, and technical
literature. Product concepts can be evaluated using many factors, including the following:

 How familiar are we with the target market? Is it new to us? Will we be able to work
closely with customers to ensure the product really does meet their needs?

 If this is a substitute product, how satisfied are customers with existing products? How
willing will they be to switch to a new product and/or a new supplier? How will it
affect the sales of our current products?

 How well will the product fit in with our current product line? With other products
currently being developed? What are its strategic implications? How will this product
help the firm meet its goals?

 Does the product exploit our internal competencies? Do we have the necessary
technical expertise? What resources do we have to acquire to develop the product?
To produce the product? To distribute the product?

 How will our competitors react?

  How large is the target market? What is the product’s expected life span? What is the
expected cost of the product over its entire life cycle? Its initial investment? Its break-
even quantity? Its expected return on investment?

To choose the best alternative, assign a weight to each criterion according to its
importance and then score each alternative against each criterion. The design alternative with
the highest total score is the preferred alternative.

DESIGNING PRODUCTS THAT MEET THE CUSTOMERS’ NEEDS

The product development cycle, assuming a sequential approach to product design is
taken, is shown below. Whenever a problem is found, work done during previous stages must
be revised. This creates a looping effect which rapidly increases the length of the product
development cycle.

The high probability of engineering change orders makes it difficult to estimate when the
product will be ready for market. Engineering change orders can cause delays that can lead to
missed customer due dates and missed competitive opportunities. Delays on one project will
delay subsequent projects. Engineering changes also increase product design costs; the late in
the process the design change, the greater the cost impact. Cost to manufacture may also be
higher, design affects about 70 percent of a product’s costs even though design accounts for only
about 20 percent of costs.

CONCURRENT ENGINEERING ( CE ): CE brings together representatives from various

functional areas to simultaneously design a product and the process by which it should be made.
CE integrates functions, suppliers, and customers in the design process. The impact of suppliers
depends in part of the level of design responsibility assigned to them.

WHITE BOX DESIGN. The firm completely designs the part and knows exactly how the
part should work. It has an arm’s-length relationship with the supplier, who will be judged solely
on technical and financial performance.

GRAY BOX DESIGN. The firm writes specification for the part and may provide a
prototype or sample. The supplier will be judged on its design capability as well as its
manufacturing capabilities. Gray box design tends to be used for complex components or
subassemblies rather than for simple parts.

BLACK BOX DESIGN. The firm provides broad specification but delegates complete design
responsibility and liability to the supplier. Typical black box design are seen in military hardware
systems ( e.g. , aircraft ) the firm has a close relationship with the supplier and judges the supplier
on a broad set of criteria, including the supplier’s managerial strength and responsiveness. The
supplier may have suppliers of its own that provide it with gray or white box design capability.

The functional areas of the firm can all make a significant contribution to the design by providing
the following information.

 Marketing: customer needs, competitive intelligence, desirability of specific product

features.
 Process engineering: production feasibility
 Operations: resource flexibility, product serviceability, process capabilities
 Finance: available investment funds, financial feasibility, projected in-house
production costs
  Purchasing: availability and cost of materials and subcomponents, suppliers with
design capabilities.
 Legal: legal environments, patents
 Product engineering: product design, product safety,, prototypes.
 R & D: technological advances

CE’s greatest contribution is probably time reduction through minimizing the looping effect and
encouraging overlapping design activities. With improved quality and further time compression,
the break-even time ( measured from the day work begins on the product design until the day
cumulative profits for the product equal its total development investment ) will be much shorter
than for traditional development.

Moving from traditional design processes to CE will mean major changes within the organization.
This involves the following:

 Functional managers must delegate decision-making authority to their

representatives on the team so that the team can review, modify, and approve
designs quickly. Lines of authority and reporting relationships must be reviewed and
realigned. Increased efficiency will reduce the need for much of the firm’s entrenched
bureaucracy; many individuals may feel threatened and reluctant to yield power.

 Any adversarial relationships that currently exist between functional areas must be
overcome, and the status of each area must be equalized.

 The career paths of functional specialists will no longer be well defined.

 Changes in the reward structure will be needed to encourage team work rather than
individual efforts as well as to minimize the possibility of inconsistent functional goals.

 Functional specialists will have to learn to communicate effectively with specialists

from other areas. This will be easier if people are assigned to the team on a full-time
basis.

Product Design Concepts and Techniques

Quality Function Deployment ( QFD ) : A method by which cross-functional teams translate

customer requirement into appropriate design requirements at each stage of the product
development process.

Design for Manufacture ( DFM )

a. Design for manufacture process. The design for manufacture process provides a
framework for designers to work together as they develop product and process designs
concurrently.

b. Design for manufacture methodologies. Design for manufacture methodologies and

guidelines embody the wealth of product design approaches, techniques, and heuristics
that have been developed over time.
The general guidelines for DFM include: 1.) design for a minimum number of parts, 2.) develop a
modular design, 3.) minimize part variations (“commonization”), and 4.) design parts for ease of
fabrication.

Design for assembly (DFA). This methodology enables a designer to evaluate the
manufacturability of a product design quantitatively and helps ensure that the DFM guidelines
are being correctly applied.

Taguchi methods. The intent is to design a robust product that will be of high quality despite
fluctuations in materials, manufacturing, and environmental factors. This approach also leads to
low production cost and relatively short design cycles.

Failure mode effects and critically analysis (FMECA). This is a procedure in which the causes of
potential failure are identified, their effects are assessed, and corrective measures are
recommended.

Value engineering. During value engineering the product’s attributes are assessed, the cost of
providing the specific attributes are calculated, and lower-cost alternatives are identified. Value
engineering is for new products; for existing products, the same process is called value analysis.

Design for recycling. This process focuses on designing products in such a way that raw materials
such as plastics can be economically retrieved once the product has finished its useful life.

Human factors engineering (ergonomics). Human factors engineering applies knowledge of

human capabilities and limitations to the design of products and processes. Comfort, safety, and
ease of use are becoming important dimension of product quality.

Virtual design. A virtual design is a high-level functional representation that is common to a

product family. It is used to link and share the work done by each time. This allows several teams
to work on a product family at the same time. The team assigned to each version of the product
must specify its product requirements before the process design for the previous version has
been completed.

The design envelope. This refers to the present limitations on product characteristics that can
be accommodated by the firm’s production process. The assumption is that production
processes are very flexible within certain specified limits and can quickly and easily accommodate
any changes to the design of the product that fall within the envelope.

Using Advanced Technology for Batter Design: Computer-Aided Design (CAD) tools help
designers quickly create and test high-quality products. Libraries of components can be built up,
allowing easier modular design. Design decisions can be reviewed more quickly and completely
by peers.

CAD is now integrated with Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM), allowing accurate and rapid
information transfer. Quality will therefore be improved, and unnecessary duplication of effort
is eliminated.

This assumes that the requisites skills are present in the firm. The most important will be
the managerial ability to manage the technology both operationally and strategically.

Designing Products in Global Organizations: Global products concepts can be adapted to local
conditions; local products can be taken to the global marketplace. The focus should be on
developing a strategy that best fits both situations.
 When local needs and expectations should be reflected in basic design, the principal
design should be locally managed. When local needs can be accommodated through superficial
modifications, designs does not need to be carried out locally. The customer must always be part
of the design loop, and the design center must always be strategically responsive to the
customer.

Product Testing

Computer-aided engineering (CAE) capabilities are included in many computer-aided

design tools. CAE can test design without creating a physical model first. This saves time and
money.

Computer simulation is another means of inexpensive and quick design testing. Both
methods may precede prototyping, in which further test of the product ( and the previous
computer testing ) are undertaken. Prototypes can also be used for detailed customer feedback.

PREPARED BY: Mr. Romano D. Flores – CBA Instructor, BPSU BC