A Systems Analysis and Design Tool for Product Design
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Date
2008-03
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Publisher
The Ohio State University
Abstract
In the past ten years, system decomposition has been used by product designers to analyze complex products. Good product design practice calls for system level design to occur before detailed design begins. The end result of the system design process is the product architecture. Once the functional architecture of the product is developed, then individual components can be mapped to it.
System decomposition has been shown to be a very effective analysis tool; however, practical interactive tools currently do not exist that allow designers and engineers to use system decomposition as a design tool. There is a need for the development of a tool that can help design teams create the product or system architecture as they design the product and product family evolution. The purpose of this research is to create a new design tool, and show how it can be applied to a very popular consumer product, the Kodak one-time-use family of cameras.
This research is focused on creating an easy–to–use visualization tool for systems analysis and design. An examination of current visual diagram methods to describe product functions has been studied by applying the Kodak cameras to each method and detailing the benefits and drawbacks of the visualization. Effective visual communication techniques have been applied to the problem so that the design tool is not graphically complex. The ultimate goal is to create interactive software that will assist designers in creating more logical designs. The tool will help designers create new products and product families more efficiently in cost and time, thus leading to greater productivity, and more logical, sustainable designs.
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Keywords
product design, product architecture, design tool, system decomposition