ME 185 Senior Project Project Planning

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ME 185 Senior Project-- Project Planning --

• Dr. I
• 231B Votey
• 656-2774
• james.iatridis_at_uvm.edu

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Overview

• Define the Problem
• Clarifying the needs and design objectives
• Writing need statements
• Objective Tree Method

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Product planning process

• Our goal is to maximize effectiveness of our
  product development efforts by
• considering the set of potential projects to
  pursue
• deciding which projects are most desirable
• launching the project development process with a
  focused mission

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Product development projects

• Four types of projects
• New product platforms
• a major new development effort to create a new
  family of products
• Derivatives of existing product platforms
• extend an existing product platform to better
  address familiar markets
• Incremental improvements to existing products
• Adding or modifying some features of existing
  product
• Fundamentally new products
• Radically different product or production
  technique
• Each project type must have unique goals and
  expectations

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Product Development Process

• Identify opportunities
• Evaluate and prioritize project ideas
• Allocate resources and plan timing
• Complete pre-project planning
• Reflect on the results and the process

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Identify opportunities, Clarify goals

• Gather information on the product/project through
• project advisors
• research and technology development organizations
• current product development teams
• literature
• manufacturing and professional organizations
• current or potential customers
• third parties (e.g., classmates, other colleagues
  friends)

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Evaluate and prioritize project ideas

• Select the most promising project ideas to pursue

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Allocate Resources and Plan Timing

• Which resources are required
• personnel and financial
• Project timing
• Must be completed by April 2003
• Incremental project deadlines throughout
• creating realistic incremental goals and
  achieving them are a critical step in the design
  process!!!

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Design process

• Define
• Problem
• Mission statement

• Gather
• Information
• Internet
• Patents
• Trade literature

• Concept Generation
• Brainstorming
• Needs statement
• Objective Tree
• Morphological chart

• Evaluate concepts
• Pugh chart
• Design/ decision matrix

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Design process

• Define
• Problem
• Mission statement

• Gather
• Information
• Internet
• Patents
• Trade literature

• Concept Generation
• Brainstorming
• Needs statement
• Objective Tree
• Morphological chart

• Evaluate concepts
• Pugh chart
• Design/ decision matrix

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Define Problem

• Mission statement
• Brief (one sentence) description of the product
• Key engineering/business goals
• timing of product completion
• desired product results
• minimum required results
• Assumptions and constraints that guide the
  development effort
• Assumptions and Constraints
• manufacturing, service, environmental
• Staffing and other pre-project activities
• what personnel and financial support is required

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Design process

• Define
• Problem
• Mission statement

• Gather
• Information
• Internet
• Patents
• Trade literature

• Concept Generation
• Brainstorming
• Needs statement
• Objective Tree
• Morphological chart

• Evaluate concepts
• Pugh chart
• Design/ decision matrix

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Gather raw data from the client

• interviews
• sponsor
• advisor
• other relevant people
• focus groups
• discuss with teamates and classmates ideas
• Literature Patent Searches
• Observing existing products in use

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Design process

• Define
• Problem
• Mission statement

• Gather
• Information
• Internet
• Patents
• Trade literature

• Concept Generation
• Brainstorming
• Needs statement
• Objective Tree
• Morphological chart

• Evaluate concepts
• Pugh chart
• Design/ decision matrix

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Writing Need Statements

• Gather raw data from client/sponsor
• Interpret raw data in terms of clients needs
• Organize needs into a hierarchy of primary and
  secondary needs Establish the relative importance
  of the needs
• Reflect on the results and the process

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Identifying Customer Needs

• Need Statements
• Objective Trees

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Interpret raw data in terms of customer needs

• express the need in terms of what the product has
  to do, not in terms of how it might do it
• Express the need as specifically as the raw data
• Use positive, not negative, phrasing
• Express the need as an attribute of the product
• Avoid words must and should
• See table 4-7, p. 70 Ulrich Eppinger

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Guidelines for writing needs statement, example
-- power screwdriver
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Organize needs into a hierarchy

• Print or write each need statement
• eliminate redundant statements
• group need statements according to the similarity
  of the needs they express
• for each group, choose a heading
• consider creating super-groups consisting of 2-5
  subgroups
• Review and edit the organized needs statements

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Establish the relative importance of the need

• Final product is to have an organized
  (hierarchical) list describing needs of the
  design.

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Clarifying the Design Objectives

• Objectives are
• Measurable quantities
• Related to overall goals
• Can be worked towards
• Success can be gauged in terms of how well
  product meets needs
• Procedure Objective Tree Method

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Objective Tree Method

• Purpose Clarifies design objectives,
  sub-objectives, and relationships between them
• Procedure
• Brainstorm and list goals and objectives
• Formalize into a hierarchical tree structure
• Draw interconnecting branches

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Example Stairclimbing Wheelchair
System to travel up flight of stairs
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Tips

• Avoid generalizing. Be specific!
• Define essential functions
• Look for goals without objectives and objectives
  without goals

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Reflect on the results and the process

• Repeat as necessary
• Designing something new requires iterations on
  concept generation
• Make sure it will achieve your goals
• Clearly write objectives
• Dont extend the process beyond a reasonable
  amount of time
• Do not iterate too long
• Keep expectations high but realistic.
• You will be forced to decide what is good
  enough to achieve your goals

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Design process

• Define
• Problem
• Mission statement

• Gather
• Information
• Internet
• Patents
• Trade literature

• Concept Generation
• Brainstorming
• Needs statement
• Objective Tree
• Morphological chart

• Evaluate concepts
• Pugh chart
• Design/ decision matrix

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Reflect on the results and the process

• Does the product support the goals/requirements
  of the project?
• Are resources allocated sufficient to pursue the
  project as designed?
• Have creative ways of leveraging finite resources
  been considered?
• Are there existing products that can be modified
  or used on different aspects of the project?
• How can the project planning be improved?

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Next week

• Tuesday 9/16
• Vermont Energy Alternatives
• Carpenter Auditorium Given Building
• Evaluate concepts using design matrix
• organizing needs into achievable goals
• Evaluate concepts using design matrix
• Presentations skills
• Obtain information for 5 minute presentations in
  2 weeks