XE 324 Product Innovation and Management : Evaluation and Sustainability

Aims:

This session should enable students to develop their designs. They will learn formal approaches to design generation and be able to write an effective design specification.

Objectives:

After these sessions, students should be able to:

· Determine the sustainability of a design;

· Order criteria to give priority and rational compromise;

· Follow a regime of controlled expansion and contraction;

Sustainability in design

Definitions

“Sustainability is an attempt to provide the best outcomes for the human and natural environments both now and into the indefinite future.” [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainability 05.11.09]. Or, “Sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” [Brundtland Report. UN 1987].

There are a number of complementary strategies, which include:

· Retain: keeping things longer

· Reuse: in another way

· Recycle: make into other source material

· Renew: only use resource that is naturally renewed in a feasible timescale.

[http://www.commercial.hsbc.com.hk/1/2/commercial/livingbusiness/natural_resource/waste/4R)

Life Cycle Analysis

i) Resource use.

Almost all materials are manufactured from (in strict terms) non-renewable materials, so this is an issue in most cases. However, there maybe considerable reserves of some materials.

ii) Embodied energy.

There is a large range of embodied energy values across different materials. The value includes energy used in manufacture, transport and construction.

iii) Embodied pollution.

Pollution caused during manufacture is a controversial area. Where pollution is a major issue emissions are controlled by legislation and by bodies like the Environmental Agency and HMIP (environmental groups often argue that these limits are not stringent enough or not enforced). In general we recommend use of the precautionary principal – in that materials should be selected to perform the task set while minimising all impacts including pollution.

iv) Recycling / Recyclability.

Recycling may be an environmental advantage in terms of prolonging the life of depleting resources as well as avoiding or reducing the energy and pollution caused by manufacture from virgin materials.

v) Material efficiency.

Stronger and lighter material will achieve the same task with less use of materials as well as putting less burden on the supporting structure.

vi) Product life.

One of the most crucial issues is product life and maintenance. Clearly, the longer a product lasts before replacement the better it is in environmental terms. There are typically three phases of life: the manufacturer’s guarantee period, the remaining life of the building and a possible extended life due to reclamation.

[www.ecostruct.co.uk/life_cycle_analysis.htm Dec 06]

[http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/std/lca/lca.html May 06]

[http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11367-012-0426-7#page-1 April 12]

Choice and commitment

Sustainable design requires you to make decisions as a designer before you commit the earth’s resources needlessly. Consider what your responsibility is when making unsustainable choices. If you are suggesting the use of a thermosetting plastic, for a 250g item, and they will expect to manufacture 300,000 off, then you are committing over 300 tonnes of oil (including energy and material costs). Can you make it thinner walled? Can you use recycled / recyclables / renewable sources? What are the costs down line?

Activity 1:

1. Discuss the difference between a “bag for life” and disposable plastic bags;

2. Make estimates of the LCA proportions as defined above, for your comparison;

3. Which is best, ecologically, and why?

4. Report back to the class.

Design Evaluation

Once a number of design concepts have been generated (expansion), these need to be sorted and rated (convergence) to obtain the optimum design, if possible. In a second iteration you may find that a combination process is of use for further expansion (and then converge again).

Also, once you have been through this once, you may find that you wish to alter the criteria, their balance or inclusion.

Criteria

Specifications must have an indication of where a “good one” would lie: these are the criteria. They must be relevant for the need, and PDS. Criteria should be mapped against each of the design perspectives in the PDS. If you find that some of the more obvious criteria you have come across do not match, then there may be missing design specifications. List the criteria and try to order them as to importance and hence weighting (see below). There may well be multiple criteria for each Design Specification item. E.g. “handheld” may have a number of dimensions…

Weighting

You can apply arbitrary weightings, as decided by the team or group, but there will be endless argument unless you can agree on some of the principles. A criteria comparison table will help in deciding (and agreeing) on what the weightings should be.

Activity 2

1. Look at the car horn example: (Pugh, 1991 p 83).

2. Note that the matrix adds negatives, similarities and positives separately, and has no concept of which criteria are more important.

3. Quickly decide on some weightings for 5 of the criteria that your group think are more important, then re-evaluate. What difference has it made?

4. Apply this matrix with some care to a number of your generated designs, on the evaluation matrix sheet provided.

Poster Deliverables

The poster display will be in Huxley lobby (downstairs), 7th November 2013. Ensure you have your work in a suitable format for exhibition, so that others may see it and give effective feedback. Each group has a poster space of one of the boards. I suggest that A1 would probably be big enough or a series of pinned up smaller sheets: you will be talking to small groups around each poster. Remember that you can bring in lots of support material if you wish.

Content

The poster should cover:

· The market analysis (in some detail), and rationale for your need. (Get estimates of quantities);

· A PDS and some criteria that you think are most important;

· A wide range of up to 3 conceptual ideas, matched to the need / PDS and across the design space;

· A clear evaluation of which you think are best, and why;

· Estimates of market, costs and prices that can lead to some embryonic business models.

Criteria

To get feedback, you need to know what you are looking for: criteria for a good product development. These are on the sheet “Poster Evaluation” in the Assignment section. Deeply investigate and interview all the other groups then help them by filling out the feedback sheet: they should not be surprised by what they read, as you will have already discussed it! Focus on the groups with the same number as you. Remember: this is an opportunity to get as much feedback from others as possible. Do not try to hide anything: people cannot help if they do not get to see it.

Reflective Journal

Context

After a number of enquiries as to what this entails and what “should be in it”, we will make a few suggestions and point to a set of criteria that it will be assessed against. You may alter what you put into it by, say, reflecting on a series of critical incidents, but you need to satisfy the assessment criteria.

Content

Generally, each week, you need to review:

· What you have learned and changed since last time;

· What was easy or hard, and why;

· What actions you propose to take in light of your reflection.

Obviously, the next week’s entry will start by reviewing these actions, reflecting on how effective they were, or whether they would represent permanent changes to your approach.

Criteria

We are looking for critically analysed experiences and actions, and how they have affected you. We will be looking for:

1. An honest description of the situations and learning;

2. An opinion about aspects of it, connected to relevant evidence by good argument;

3. Clear insight and analysis of the situation / aspects;

4. Depth of reflection and range of actions;

5. Evidence of changes applied and their value to you and your future.

Submission

The journal should be available on-line from within your group Studentcentral page. Build on it weekly, at a page a submission at most, but it will be locked on Monday 16 December, 2013 at 16:00. The assessment team will have a look at it and supply you with a little feedback. It is worth 30% of the module.

Tim Katz 3rd November 13

Evaluation Matrix: Blank

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