Product Specifications

Specification for new product are

quantitative ,measurable criteria that
the product should be designed to
satisfy .
The specification should be
established early at the development
stage.
• Development teams usually establisha set of
specifications ,which spell out in precise
measurable detail what the product has to do.
• Need : The suspension is easy to install.
• The average time to establish the fork to the
frame is less that 100 secs.
• A specification consists of a metric and a
value.
• Average time to assemble --- is a metric
• Less than 100 secs ---- is value of the metric
• Values can take on several forms –a number ,
a range or an iquality .
• Values are always assigned appropriate units
• Together the metric and the value form the
specification .
• The product specification are simply the set of
the individual specifications .
 When are specifications established ?

For technology intensive products the

specifications are established twice .
Immediately after identifying customer needs
The team sets target specifications which
represents hopes of the team but the they are
established before the team knows what the
constraints the product will place on what can
be achieved.
Some target specifications may not be
achieved and may exceed others depending
on product concept selected.
The product specifications must be revised
and refined after a product concept has been
has been selected .
Take into account the technological
constraints and expected production costs.
For final specifications the team must make
trade off among desirable characterstics of
product
 Steps for establishing Target
Specifications
1. Prepare the list of metrics
2. Collect the competitive benchmarking
information.
3. Select ideal and marginally acceptable values
4. Reflect on the results and processes.
 Step 1: Prepare the list of Metrics
• Metrics reflect directly as possible the degree to
which the product satisfies the customer needs.
• The relationship between needs and metrics is
central to the entire concept of specifications
• The assumption is that a translation from
customer needs to a set of precise,measurable
specifications is possible
• In an ideal case ,there is one and only one metric
for each need ,but in practice not possible .
• Need : Reduce vibration to user’s hand
• Metric : difficult to translate into single metric
because there are many different conditions
under which vibration can be transmitted
• A simple needs metric matrix represents the
relationship between needs and metrics.
• Metric should be complete – Each customer need
would correspond to a single metric and value of
that metric would correlate perfectly with
satisfaction of that need .Several metrics may be
necessary to completely reflect customer needs .
• Metrics should dependent ,not independent
variables.
• Specifications also indicate what the product
must do ,but not how the specifications will be
achieved.
• Dependent Variables – mass of a component
• Independent Variables– material of component
• Metrics specify the overall performance of a
product and therefore should be the
dependent variable
• Metric should be practical and easily
evaluated .
• Some needs cannot be easily translated into
quantifiable metrics eg: the product gives
pride – cannot be quantified .The team simply
repeats the need statement.
• The metrics should include the popular
criteria for comparison in the market
place.eg.: consumer reports,science
reports,internet sites etc.
Step 2:Collect Benchmarking Informatin
• Unless there is total monopoly ,the relationship
of the new product to competitive products is
important to determine the its commercial
success .
• The target specifications are the language the
team uses to discuss and agree on the detailed
positioning of its product relative to existing
product .
• A Chart showing the competitive calues of
metrics should be created .
Step :3 Set Ideal and Marginally Accepable Target values
• There are five ways to express the values of the
metrics:
• At least X: At least 100 Kg higher the better
• At most Y: At most 1.5cms smaller the better
• Between X and Y: 100N to 550N
• Exacttly X: Avoid these type as they place costraints
on the design
• A set of discrete values
• The desirable range of values for one metric may
depend on another.
Step 4: Reflect on the results and the process
• Some iterations will be required to agree on
the targets.Reflection after each iteration
ensures that the results are consistent with
goals of the project .
Selecting the final specifications
• Finalizing the specifications is difficult because
of trade offs –inverse relationship between 2
specifications that areinherent in the selected
product concept
Five step process for setting final specifications

• Step 1:Develop Technical models of the

product.
• A technical model of the product is a tool for
predicting the values of metrics for a
particular set of design decisions.
• Analytical and physical models for
experimentation.
Develop a cost model of the product
• To produce the product at target cost.
• The target cost is the cost at which the
company and its distributionpartners can
make adequate profits while offering the
product to the end customer at a competitive
price.
• For initial estimates a bill of materials,
estimate or fabrication cost for each
part,assembly cost and estimate from vendors
Step 3: Refine the specifications making trade offs
where necessary
• A competitive map can be constructed to
position the new product relative to the
competition .
• Using the technical and cost models of the
product and competition maps ,the team can
refine the specifications in order to satisfy both
the inherent constraints of product concept and
make trade offs in a way that will provide a
performance advantage relative to competition
Step 4: Flow down the specifications as appropriate
Establishing specifications takes on additional
importance and is challenging for a highly
developed product consisting of subsystems
designed multiple development teams.
In this case the specifications are used to define
the development objectives of each of the
subsystems as well for the total products
Flow down the overall to specifications for each
subsystem .
specifications
Step 4 continued …..
• Example :
The overall specification for an automobile contain
metrics like fuel economy ,acceleration time ,turning
radius etc
However the specifications must also be created for
several major subsystems.
• If the specification for the subsystem are achieved
the overall product specification will be achieved .
• Example: Fuel Efficiency is a relatively complex
function of vehicle mass ,rolling resistance
,aerodynamics drag, frontal area and engine
efficiency. This leads to system engineeing.
Step 5:Reflect on the result and the process
• The product concept should allow the team to
actually set the specifications so that the
product will meet the customer needs and
excel in the market w.r.t competition
• Hoew much uncertainty is there in the
technical and cost models ?
• Is the concept choosen best suited for the
target market or could it be applied to other
market.