Electronics Made Easy - a Complete Introduction to Electronics - Martin Denny [15]
If a new product is to be launched a careful appraisal of the market must be undertaken to determine the financial viability of the project.
The measure of a good designer must be that, in the words of the old adage, he can produce for £1 what anybody else can produce for £2.
The Initial Design Process
In most cases a customer or your superior in the company will propose the initial design project. It is most important that as much information as possible is collated at this time. The following questions should be answered at the first meeting:
a) What does the customer intend to achieve with this device.
b) Where is the device to be used, and by whom? Is it to be portable (robust and light) or fixed, and what are the environmental conditions? What is the level of competence of the operator?
c) What is the probable financial return in the use of this device? This can be in terms of time and/or money.
d) What expenditure will the customer accept, and how quickly must the project be completed. These questions are the most difficult to answer, as understandably the customer will be reluctant to give this information especially if more than one company is quoting for the project. The customer may specify an unrealistic time scale, so do not commit yourself at this stage.
Apart from the discipline required in formulating a quotation, it is desirable at this stage to produce a full specification for the proposed device. This will require a certain amount of development work as the specification produced must be binding on both sides.
The specification should be included in the quotation, but in the event of an internal design it should be approved in writing before work is carried out. This is of great importance as in reality the customer is likely to change the specification as the project progresses. Any additional work resulting from a change in specification should be quoted for separately.
Before any quotation can be produced the design concept must be finalised. In the case of an inexperienced designer it may be helpful to hold a meeting to discuss ways of proceeding with the design. This is often called a Brainstorming session.
The Brainstorming Session
In this meeting the designer should present the information obtained in the initial meeting with the customer including if possible an outline specification of the device, ie input, output, operating conditions, size and weight if applicable.
The other persons present at the meeting should be then requested to suggest design solutions, which the designer should note and evaluate after the meeting.
It should be noted that the brainstorming session will be only as good as the people attending the meeting so care should be taken to invite the appropriate experts.
Design Evaluation
An outline design and costing should be produced for each solution so the cheapest solution can be adopted.
At this stage the designer must determine whether the design is feasible within the time scale:-
a) Are you confident that the design construction and testing of the device can be completed within the time scale.
b) Are all the components available, if not what is the delivery time and can the production of the device be planned to take any delays into account.
c) Are the skills available to produce the device or will it be necessary to sub-contract parts of the development or manufacture.
d) If a Declaration of Conformity is required determine the additional testing requirements for the design. This can add a significant cost to the design project.
e) At this stage based on your initial evaluation is it desirable to proceed with the project. You must be convinced that the project can be produced on time and at a profit. To default on the project at a later stage would prove costly and damaging to your reputation.
Once a design has been selected a full specification should be produced.
The Specification
The specification should contain the