Factors Influencing Process Design - Essay Example

Factors Influencing Process Design Number Word Count Factors Influencing Process Design Process design involves all features that an organization in order to satisfy customer needs. In operation management, it is concerned with inventory and production of products and their delivery. In the process of determining what products manufactures, designers have to consider various factors since this technology assist in the control of an organization’s resources. Consequentially, this control helps an organization to maximize on material use and realize positive returns. Choice of materials, ease of maintenance, durability, fitness for purpose and running costs among others, are some of the factors that influence process design of the product. Professional designers usually balance these factors in order to provide perfect products. Therefore, the paper will seek to discuss the main factors that affect the design process. Additionally, it will also look at the performance objectives that influence decision making in process design. The choice of materials is one factor that affects the process design of products. In the process of choosing the right material for products, there are a number of factors that are considered in relation to material choice (Cresswell, 2002). Quantity of products to be manufactured, market costs and product use are the factors associated with material choice. The material to be used should consider what environment and the product will be used. For example, when manufacturing cups for taking tea, the material used should be able to withstand hot or cold temperatures and washing. The quantity of products to be manufactured relates to the amount required to be sold to the target market. For example, a large amount of cups can be manufactured if many orders are required by the client. Moreover, marketing cost refers to the final product costs. The end costs of products should not exceed the cost that product will be sold in the market so long as it can perform the function it was manufactured for and reflects the quality (Kalakul et al, 2014). Product purpose fitness and durability are other factors that influence product design. This means that the product should do the function it was designed for (Drentea, 2010). For example, a cup is manufactured for the purposes of taking liquids such as tea. Other factors such as weight and size should be considered when designing products. The weight and size should be reasonable in order to perform its intended purpose. Therefore, when considering product fitness, designers should establish all the important elements of the product. Any additional desirable features that can be added to the product will give it an upper hand in the market place (Yan et al, 2008). Durability is another important factor that should be considered when manufacturing products. This refers to the ability of the chosen material last long during its usage period. This factor depends on: the type of material chosen, methods used when manufacturing the product and the manufacturing process used. The designer should define the market niche in relation to the intended product lifespan. These definitions of product properties directly define the choice material to be used in the manufacturing process. For example, the type of material chosen for manufacturing cups can be long lasting depending on the material quantity. Efficiency and the ease of maintenance also affect the process design of products. Product efficiency is the ability of the product to perform its designed function with reliability. Efficiency depends on two factors, namely: market niche and product quality. Products of high quality are usually efficient in their performance while low quality product tends to be inefficient (Xu & Nee, 2009). For example, a cup made from high quality material would most likely not break during usage. Furthermore, efficient products usually attract high costs in the market based on the fact that they are made of high quality. On the other hand, ease of maintenance is a factor that should be considered since it refers to the ability of the product re-used at limited or no cost. This factor also depends on the expected life duration of a product. Expensive products normally last long and require maintenance from time to time in order to perform its functions. Contrarily, cheap products may not require maintenance periodically because they normally have short life spans. Safety and running costs also constitute factors that should be considered when designing a product. Safety is a very important factor because it deals with the health issues of individuals. In the process of designing products, designers should ensure that the products satisfy the recommended regulations that a product or service must ascertain (Mannan, 2014). These recommended regulatory bodies include the International Standards Organization (ISO) and the British Standards Institution among others. These standards are normally set by the various governments globally. For example, when manufacturing cups, manufacturers should ensure that the cups meet the set international standards. Designers must ensure products are safe for use and should not cause harm to the user like manufactured cups should not split during usage. Products that are unsafe for usage and have hit the market place are normally redesigned to ensure they are safe for use. Moreover, designers must consider product running costs and balance it with other factors in order to determine market costs of the final product (Nee et al, 2004). People usually consider their primary concern, such as efficiency without considering secondary factors such as running costs. These costs include various expenses such as fuel used and electricity costs used during product manufacture. Therefore, running costs must be considered in order to realize positive returns of designed products. Environmental and social considerations must also be considered when designing products. Designers play an important role in determining the type of environment people live in. Therefore, they have the responsibility in ensuring final products designed to contribute in a positive way to the environment. Environmental pollution, aesthetics and social considerations are some of the impact products have in the society. Environmental aesthetics relate to the visual product impact and how it is associated with the surrounding area. It defines the ability of designers to manufacture products using various styles. This means it is possible to for designers to produce products that merge properly with the surrounding. For example, designers can create city bus stands that match with the surrounding architecture of the city. This can be acceptable in the contemporary society if residents are satisfied the design. Environmental pollution refers to product disposal once the life expectancy period is over. Designers should consider the pollution effect and level the product will have once it has been disposed. Pollution legislation can be determined by the product manufacturer. The pollution controls are usually different in various countries. Due to this effect, many people usually consider environmental issues when buying products in the market. All the processes during product development, disposal and manufacture ought to be placed into consideration and usually has effects on the final product price. For environmental pollution to be avoided or reduced, various conditions should be true. Firstly, the materials used in manufacturing products should not cause environmental pollution (Goepp et al, 2014). For example, materials used in manufacturing cups should not pollute the environment. Materials used in the manufacture of products should be recyclable and fixed resource usage should be avoided. Social product aspects generally refer to the social impacts of final products to the society and the user. The environment people live in has various effects on the general fitness and state of mind of an individual. An environment that changes motivates and stimulates an individual. Therefore, designers should be careful when creating products that socially impacts individuals in a positive manner. For example, computers have a general state of mind bearing in societies where people are busy running different errands (Rudnev, 2014). Products that do not function according to their expectations usually make people angry and frustrated thereby contributing to stress. Products designed in a proper manner should be reliable, easy to use and perform their intended design functions. Aesthetics such as colour and shape of products also contribute to the social well being of individuals. This means that products which are attractive make people feel good because they please the environment aesthetically. Designers therefore have to create products that provide a balance between products that are pleasing or could be irritating to the user. Furthermore, designers should individual user needs such as culture, physical ability and the age. These aspects have effects on the reaction concerning products used by the user. Products that use high technology usually make old people threatened and insecure they want to purchase products. Designers should come up with products that are very user friendly in terms of technology. Additionally, products should be designed that do not offend a particular culture or ethnic group. Many products usually do not consider issues affecting the old, disabled and the very young children. In the process of designing products, designers need to put into consideration the different types of users in order to promote the social well being of people in the society. Technological opportunity should also be considered when designing products by designers. Products that usually do well in the market are usually due to technological innovation when manufacturing them. It involves the process of coming up with new methods when designing products and looking for the best solutions of solution of solving problems (Ring &Troncale, 2014. Generally, technological opportunity involves the use of new technology to create products that are of quality and efficient. The impact of technological innovation is that it expands the market of manufactured products. Improved versions can be designed for already existing products though new products can result in creating new market costs. There exist various examples that are a consequence of technological opportunity (Cresswell, 2004). Microwave oven is one such example. This oven was designed after research work was done by physicists’ concerning wave energy. Moreover, ceramic engine parts were manufactured after engineers did research work concerning the durability of ceramic as a material. According to the engineers, ceramic could be able to withstand earth’s atmosphere impacts (Johnson & Gibson, 2014). Creation of the compact disk could also be considered another example of technological opportunity. This was advancement from the cassette tapes that were previously used. Compact disks contain higher capacities than the tapes. They are also easy to use when compared to cassette tapes. Therefore, technological opportunity gives designers a technological push to create products new product that can easily be used and durable. Consumer demand, which is sometimes called the market pull should be considered in the process of designing products. This factor relates to the demand patterns available in the market and identified by means of market research. Designers and product manufactures are usually searching for better and new markets where they can sell and design new consumer products (Palma-Mendoza et al, 2014). In this process, consulting agencies associated with market research are constantly collecting information on what is needed in the market arenas. Questionnaires are mostly used to collect such information. In other instances, research may involve collection of information for the purposes of sale to other companies involved with marketing. Its the duty of designers or manufactures to ensure that adequate research is done before a product is manufactured. This means they should ensure consumers get the kind of product they want after doing thorough research work. Additionally, products redesigned after enough research concerning the market have had great achievements. For example, the redesigning of Volkswagen to Golf had great success in the European countries since it satisfied economical utility of customers. Furthermore, consumer demands have been met as a result of the production of products that are environmentally sound and healthy. Biodegradable detergents and organic foods are examples of product deemed environmentally fit. Operational performance objectives include: speed, cost effectiveness, flexibility, dependability and quality (Collier &Evans, 2009). These objectives influence decision making in process design and concerned with five main groups, namely, suppliers, customers, employees, shareholders and the society. Customers are considered the group that is most affected with the operational performance objectives because they are concerned with the usage of products and services. Quality is the considered the most vital objective and can be defined as the ability of products and services to conform to the specified requirements. Therefore, quality products conform to their specifications. Customers usually do not or have less complaints about products and services with good or high quality. This means that when customers are contented with the products and services, there is a high possibility that they will reuse the product or service. Consequentially, companies would realize more returns when customer satisfaction is achieved. Additionally, when conformance quality is attained in all the processes during operations, few or no mistakes will be realized (Heizer &Render, 2010). Generally, this means, there would be an increase in speed, dependability and operational costs would be saved. Fig 1 showing Quality Speed refers to the response time for any customer who needs a product or service which can have either external or internal effects. In relation to external effects, speed is vital because in quick response to customers for the products and services required. Faster speeds usually attract higher prices. For example, faster delivery service and transportation in most countries are usually charged at very high rates. On the other hand, internal effects are concerned mostly with the reduction of costs. It involves the reduction of inventory costs and risks. In most instances, when the throughput of information or customers is faster, reduction of costs will be experienced (Kamauff, 2009). For example, when passengers are quickly processed through an airport, the aircraft turn around time will be reduced and this in turn increases its time utilization. On the other hand, slow throughput or speeds can be experienced when customers and materials stay in the system for long time period. This means there are more chances of losing customers. Fig 2 showing speed Dependability is the ability of customers to get their services and products in a timely manner. In the process of determining dependability, the expected time delivery should be clearly defined. It also has internal and external effects. In relation the external effects, customers regard dependability as a good factor. Customers can be irritated when products and services are delivered late. Dependability is effective mostly with business clients since it determines the ability of contracts to be renewed. Therefore, external affects enhances customer chances of bringing of expanding the business environment (Mahadevan, 2010). On the other hand, internal effects is concerned with the cost. Saving time, money and giving organization stability improves efficiency in an organization when providing products and services to customers. Therefore, a dependable organization provides customers with fast responses. Fig 3 showing dependability Flexibility is another operational objective that refers to the ability of organizations to change their modes of operation to suit customer needs. Mix, product/service and volume are the types of flexibilities that can be considered in an organization. Externally, service/product flexibilities allow the development of new services and products by including fresh ideas that may be attractive to customers. Internally, flexibility does various functions. It saves time and money, accelerates customer response and helps in the maintenance of dependability. Fig 4 showing Flexibility Cost effectiveness also constitutes operational objectives in the process design and layouts. Cost effectiveness is achieved when operational objectives discussed above are combined (Jones & Robison, 2012). This means that if there are high quality, high dependability, high speed and high flexibility, operational costs will be greatly reduced. Fig 5 showing cost In conclusion, designers should consider various factors that influence process design as discussed above. The choice of material, environmental considerations and durability among others are important factors that should be considered by designers in the process of designing products. Additionally, the operational objectives generally aim at reducing costs and realizing more returns. References Collier, D.A., and Evans, J. R., 2009. Operations Management. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Cresswell, L., 2002. Product Design Graphics with Materials Technology. New Hampshire: Heinemann. Cresswell, L., 2004. Advanced Design and Technology for Edexcel: Graphic Materials Technology. New Hampshire: Heinemann. Drentea, C. , 2010. Modern Communications Receiver Design and Technology. Boston: Artech House. Goepp, V., Zwolinski, P., and Caillaud, E., 2014. Design process and data models to support the design of sustainable remanufactured products. Computers in Industry, 65(3), p. 480-490. Heizer, J., and Render, B., 2010. Operations Management. New Jersey: Prentice Hall PTR. Johnson, A., and Gibson, A., 2014. The tools of the Design Process and Management of Design. Sustainability in Engineering Design, (2014), p. 113-180. Jones, P., and Robison, P., 2012. Operations Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kalakul, S., Malakul, P., Siemanond, K., and Gani, R., 2014. Integration of life cycle assessment software with tools for economic and sustainability analyses and process simulation for sustainable process design. Journal of Cleaner Production, 71(1), p. 98-109. Kamauff, J., 2009. Manager’s Guide to Operations Management. New York City: McGraw Hill Professional. Mahadevan, B., 2010. Operations Management: Theory and Practice. New Jersey: Person Education India. Mannan,S., 2014. Process Design. Lees’ Process Safety Essentials, (2014) p. 111-141. Nee, A. Y., Tao, Z.J., and Kumar, A.S., 2004. An advanced Treatise On Design and Planning. Singapore: World Scientific. Palma-Mendoza, J.A., Neailey, K., and Roy, R., 2014. Business process re-design methodology to support supply chain integration. International Journal of Information Management, 34(2), p 167-176. Ring, J., and Troncale, L., 2014. An Unambiguous Language for Systems Process Design and Engineering. Procedia Computer Science, 28(1), p. 635-642. Rudnev, V.I., 2014. Induction Hardening: Technology, Process Design and Computer Modeling. Comprehensive Materials Processing, 12(1), p. 489-580. Xu, X., and Nee, A.Y., 2009. Advanced Design and Manufacturing Based on STEP. New York City: Springer. Yan, X., Jiang, C., and Eynard B, 2008. Advanced Design and Manufacture to Gain Competitive Edge: New Manufacturing Techniques and their Role in Improving Enterprise Performance. New York City: Springer. Read More