Mechanical Engineering

CONTENT OF PROJECT PROPOSAL:

I. Introduction:
This section should be prepared last and consists of an overview of the entire report, beginning with the motivation for the project and ending with a brief description of the anticipated next steps. The introduction should be between 1 and 2 pages long.

II. Market analysis information:
o A. General need for product – Products are developed in response to needs of end users for improved interaction with their environment in order to perform a task. Products may exist that are deficient in some way. Use ethnographic investigation methods for this step. The team must observe and document the task performed by the end user under various use conditions. Photographs, sketches, videos, interviews and role playing (team member as end user) are appropriate at this step. Note that a detailed interview with a few end users is more useful than a survey of students acting as end users.
o B. Description and estimation of market size – This should be estimated in the context of a firm that would be starting up in the local area. The nature of the product will determine if the company would be local, regional, national, global, etc.
o C. Benchmarking on competitive products– Benchmark any competitive products and determine what performance criteria you will have to meet or exceed. This is primarily a research exercise unless the products are inexpensive, easy to obtain and use conditions can be set up for performance benchmarking.
o D. Opportunities for competitive advantage – State clearly the aspects in which your design will provide a competitive edge over the current competing products and those that you judge less important for this product. Provide reasons for all your choices.

III. Physics of the artifact:

This section must include fundamental engineering analysis of the forces, moments, accelerations, etc. supplied by the end user in the absence of your design. That may mean modeling the end-user’s direct interaction with his or her environment. Begin your analysis with a detailed and accurate free-body-diagram.

IV. Function structure:

Generate a solution-neutral function structure for your artifact. Discuss findings from the review of the function structure.

V. Design Parameters:

This section should include your process for arriving at the design parameters that are guiding your process. Each list must include a definition of the parameter. This is an initial listing that you will revise as the process continues.

• Customer Requirements: Information gathered from your ethnographic investigations and research on product from market literature will allow you to develop a listing of customer needs and wants. This comprehensive listing must be ordered by importance. From this list the team must identify a subset of Critical to Quality (CTQ) customer needs (these will be used as input for the house of quality). These are the needs that form the end user’s opinion about the quality of a product. If a feature has become standard on a product (e.g. a remote control on a TV) it is still a need but no longer excites the end-user.

• Engineering Characteristics: Your research and engineering experience allow you to create a working list of design parameters or physical properties that determine the form or behavior of the design.

• Constraints: Identify any constraints in the design of your product (recall that a constraint is a requirement that all concepts must satisfy. You must include the source of a constraint if it a requirement set by a federal agency or standards body. Also identify the type of constraint – is it a threshold constraint or an absolute value set on a design parameter? Will you have to do testing to assure that your design satisfies this constraint?

VI. House of quality:

Create a formal House of Quality (HOQ) to translate your previously identified customer requirements (CRs) into CTQ engineering characteristics (ECs).

o Review your HOQ to determine adequacy of your set of customer needs and Engineering Characteristics
o Use the HOQ to determine key Engineering Characteristics (i.e., the subset of engineering characteristics that are most critical in responding to the customer’s CTQ requirements). Comment on the results from your HOQ process and analysis.
o List your set of Decision Characteristics that will be used to select among your alternative concepts.

VII. Preliminary product design specification (PDS).

The PDS should follow the guidelines in Chapter 3 of course textbook.

VIII. Three feasible concepts (You may include more if you like)

o Provide hand sketches with labeled parts and a written description of how the product will function integrating the component parts as labeled in your sketch(es).
o Describe your reason for including this design as a feasible alternative, its anticipated strengths and weaknesses.

REPORT DUE DATE:

PROTOTYPE DEMONSTRATION DUE IN LAB PERIOD ON:

Early prototype should establish the technical feasibility of the most critical and non-obvious parts of the proposed concepts to help you obtain critical information that will affect your final design choice. Early prototype can be made out of any suitable material and can be scaled up or down considerably compared to the final prototype. The following information should be included in a one-page appendix; (1) Goal of the early prototype (i.e., questions that are answered by the early prototype); (2) Description of the prototype; (3) Demonstration of the function; and, (4) Implications of the demonstration on the detailed design. The function must be demonstrated again in front of the instructor.