Transcript Engineering 2503 Winter 2004

Shad Valley MUN
Introduction to Product Design and Development
Bonus Lecture
Product Specifications
Dr. Leonard M. Lye, PEng, FCSCE
Professor of Engineering
Program Director, MUN Shad
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What is a specification?
• Has a metric and a value
– E.g. Total weight of hairdryer - < 2 lbs
• Translation of need expressed in language of
customers to a measurable attribute
– E.g. I like the hairdryer to be lightweight
• Setting specifications provides concrete goals
that are meaningful technically and will result in
customer satisfaction.
• Allows team to “keep score”.
• Forces resolution of trade-offs. Setting specs is
hard!
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Basic Steps
• Prepare list of metrics from customer
needs
• Collect competitive information
• Set ideal and marginally acceptable values
• Reflect on the results and process
• Generally, specs have to be done twice
because we don’t know in advance what
will be possible.
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Important
• Marketing and technical perspectives must
be present to ensure that customer needs
are met, product can be distinguished
competitively, reasonable manufacturing
cost can be achieved, and concept is
technically feasible.
• Some needs may require several metrics to
define them, and some needs are very
subjective. E.g. looks cool, feels
comfortable, etc.
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