Consumers are continually searching for viable products, which are technically functional, cost effective and affordable and environmentally friendly. However due to poor system design, manufacture and support, many products today fail to meet the much desired requirements. It is expected that a full life cycle analysis commencing from the conceptual stage of system design will go a long way to improving system reliability and maintainability achieved within reasonable cost and consequently minimising their chances of failure in the future.
A client has approached you to design (or redesign) and develop a named, functional, technical product / device with a minimum life cycle of five years. The system / device chosen for design / redesign should be suitable to perform one of the following functions:
(1) Dry
(2) Control
(3) Cook
(4) Cool
(a) A variant of the system design should demonstrate high technical performance (high spec and reliability) irrespective of life cycle cost and environmental impact implications.
(b) A second variant of the system design would need to be produced within tight budget (design to cost) irrespective of technical performance and environmental impact.
(c) A third variant is an eco-product with low environmental impact (green product) with no restriction on life cycle cost as long as the product is modestly functional.
Assume that;
- Variant A should exhibit the characteristic of a high spec technical performance product (rated as 70% of product performance) with relatively lower emphasis on environmental attributes (rated as 20% of product performance) and economic attributes (rated as10% of product performance).
- Variant B should exhibit the characteristic of a highly economic product (rated as 70% of product performance) with relatively lower emphasis on technical performance attributes (rated as 20% of product performance) and environmental attributes (rated as 10% of product performance).
- Variant C should exhibit the characteristic of a highly environmentally friendly product (rated as 70% of product performance) with relatively lower emphasis on economic attributes (rated as 20% of product performance) and technical performance attributes (rated as 10% of product performance).
- High tech product is technologically advanced product
- Highly economic product is cost effective, affordable, and inexpensive product
- Environmentally friendly product is benign to environment with recyclable and reusable components
Requirement
- You are required to prepare a detailed report for your client describing clearly the differences between the three variants of your design.
It is expected that you should address some of the following life cycle characteristics as part of your report to guarantee the design of a sustainable product.
- System Supportability
- System Reliability
- Sustainability Index
- Life Cycle Assessment / Environmental Impact
- Material Utilisation Principle
- Maintainability
- Carbon Footprint
- Life Cycle Costing and Economic Analysis
- Technological Obsolescence
- Energy Use
- Resource / Waste Management (60%)
(ii) Using one of your variants above (A or B or C) as example
- Derive an expression for the mean corrective maintenance time (Mean time to repair) for your product and explain the significance of this variable (10%)
- Derive an expression for the total life cycle cost and explain how this variable can be minimized over the life of the product (10%)
(iii) Out of the three variants of your system / product which one do you think is the most sustainable and cost effective? You need to back your answer with sound business thinking and academic reasoning. (20%)
