OpMan

• An important cause of operations failures can be traced to faulty design
• Organizations with well-designed products or services are more likely to realize their goals than those with poorly designed products or services
• Objective of product design

  Create a good or service with excellent functional utility and sales appeal at an acceptable cost and within a reasonable time
• Service design

  Focuses on creating optimal service experiences
• Organizations have a strategic interest in product and service design
• Product production

  Using high-quality, low-cost materials and methods
• Product and service design involves or affects nearly every functional area of an organization, with major involvement from marketing and operations
• Driving forces for product and service design or redesign are market opportunities or threats
• Driving forces for product and service design or redesign

  • Economic
  • Social and demographic
  • Political, liability, or legal
  • Competitive
  • Cost or availability
  • Technological
• Essence of a business organization

  Products and services it offers, structured around those products and services
• Good design translates customer needs into the shape and form of the product or service, enhancing profitability
• Service design

  1. Sequencing by partitioning a complex service into separate processes

  2. Evidencing by visualizing service experiences and making them tangible

  3. Holistic by considering touchpoints in a network of interactions and users
• The introduction of new products or services, or changes to product or service designs


  Can have impacts throughout the organization and the entire supply chain
• Competitor Based Idea Generation

  1. Studying a competitor’s products or services and operations to gather ideas

  2. Purchasing a competitor’s product to dismantle and inspect it for ways to improve own product

  3. Reverse engineering: dismantling and inspecting a competitor’s product to discover product improvements
• Designers must consider legal and ethical considerations, especially product liability and environmental impact
• Technology affecting product and service design

  1. New technology can be used directly in a product or service (e.g., a faster, smaller microprocessor that spawns a new generation of personal digital assistants or cell phones)

  2. Advances in processing technology may require altering an existing design to make it compatible with the new processing technology
• Human factor issues, safety, and liability are critical considerations in the design of consumer products
• Concomitant costs of product liability

  • Litigation
  • Legal and insurance costs
  • Settlement costs
  • Costly product recalls
• Successful R&D can have tremendous benefits but costs can be high
• Product liability is the responsibility of a manufacturer for injuries or damages caused by a faulty product due to poor workmanship or design
• Idea Generation


  Ideas for new or redesigned products or services can come from customers, the supply chain, competitors, employees, and research
• Ethical issues often arise in product and service design, requiring managers and designers to adhere to ethical standards
• Manufacturers face implied warranties under the Uniform Commercial Code for merchantability and fitness of products
• Factors influencing idea generation

  • Competitive factors (e.g., new or changed products or services, new advertising/promotions)
  • Cost or availability factors (e.g., of raw materials, components, labor, water, energy)
  • Technological factors (e.g., in product components, processes)
• Sources of ideas in the supply chain

  • Customers
  • Suppliers
  • Distributors
  • Employees
  • Maintenance and repair personnel
• Research Based Idea Generation

  1. Research and Development (R&D) efforts directed towards increasing scientific knowledge and product or process innovation

  2. Basic research aims to advance knowledge without near-term commercial applications

  3. Applied research aims for commercial applications

  4. Development converts applied research results into useful commercial applications
• End-of-Life Programs

  1. Dealing with products at the end of their useful lives to reduce dumping in landfills or third-world countries

  2. Purpose is to reduce dumping of products, particularly electronic equipment, and prevent hazardous emissions
• Environmental Factors: Sustainability


  • Using resources in ways that do not harm ecological systems
  • Key aspects of designing for sustainability: Cradle-to-grave assessment, End-of-life programs, The 3-Rs
• Reuse: Remanufacturing


  • Refurbishing used products by replacing worn-out or defective components
  • Reasons to remanufacture: cost savings, easy process, legal requirements in some markets
• Strategies for Product or Service Life Stages

  1. Introduction phase: treated as a curiosity item, design improvements lead to growth in demand

  2. Growth phase: accurate projections of demand growth rate and capacity increases
• Human Factors


  • Human factor issues often arise in the design of consumer products
  • Safety and liability are critical issues
  • Adding new features to products or services
• Design for recycling (DFR)


  Product design that considers the ability to disassemble a used product to recover recyclable parts
• Other Design Considerations

  • Product or service life cycles, standardization, reliability, range of operating conditions
• Cradle-to-Grave Assessment

  • Assessment of the environmental impact of a product or service throughout its useful life
  • Focuses on factors like global warming, smog formation, oxygen depletion, solid waste generation
  • Considers energy consumption, pollution, waste, and transportation in all phases
  • Goal is to choose products with the least environmental impact while considering economic factors
  • Part of ISO 14000 environmental management procedures
• Recycling


  1. Recovering materials for future use

  2. Applies to manufactured parts and materials used during production

  3. Reasons for recycling: cost savings, environmental concerns, regulations
• Companies in the EU must show a specified proportion of their products are recyclable
• Reduce: Cost and Materials


  Value analysis examines parts and materials to reduce cost and improve performance
• Stages of Product Life Cycle

  • Introduction
  • Growth
  • Maturity
  • Decline
• Standardized service


  • Every customer or item processed receives essentially the same service
• Maturity phase


  Product or service reaches maturity, demand levels off, costs are low, productivity is high, new uses can extend product life and increase market size