Free Research Paper On Design Information Research Task

Small engineering business

When the designer sees the design brief from the customer, a number of factors they have to consider. The major factor is the product. The designer has to determine whether they are able to produce the product that has been described. This should be able to meet the customer’s needs in terms of build quality, finishing and it has the product has to be produced within the time the customer wants. These are the most important factors to consider before committing to producing the product (Thompson, 2007). The designer has to place into consideration whether the machinery they have in place is able to produce the required product up to the expected standards. The designer should also consider the cost of producing the item. This is done by considering the number of products the customer needs. Some products require specialized equipment to manufacture. The designer must consider whether the cost of production will be enough to cover the cost of purchasing or leasing the specialized equipment (Lefteri, 2012).
In order to get answers to relevant questions, the designer must liaise with a number of people. The most important is the client who presents the specifications for the product. In some cases, the customer may not be able to provide or overlook some important information. After getting the specifications, the designer must ensure that all information necessary is provided. This is important to ensure that the final product meets the desired goals of the customer but is also good from an engineering point of view. The designer must also liaise with the production team. The designer is responsible for translating customer specifications into a design on paper (Lefteri, 2012).
The engineers are responsible for translating the designer’s image into the physical product. The designer and engineers or artisans must liaise with each other in order to ensure the final product is as expected. The designer will be present through the production process to ensure that the product being manufactured meets the customer’s specifications at every stage. Apart from the artisans or in-house engineers, the designer can liaise with external engineers who may have produced similar products in the past (Chitale, 2011). They can provide useful insight into the product and point out areas of difficulty in the production process. The designer must also be in communication with the management of the firm during the project. In some cases, the designer is a member of management in small firms. However, they have to be in communication with other people such as the finance and accounting department to ensure that the required resources are made available during the period of production (Chitale, 2011).
For a small engineering firm, they have general equipment that is designed to produce a wide range of custom products. This is because they get a wide range of requests and they cannot provide specialized equipment for each product. Therefore, they have general equipment that can be calibrated to produce custom products for different customers. In case of highly specialized products, special manufacturing equipment may have to be leased in order to satisfy the customer’s needs (Thompson, 2007).

Mass producer

For a mass producer, once they see a design brief from the customer, there are many factors to consider. Like in a small engineering firm, the designer must first ensure that the company is able to produce the products requested. This is not necessarily in terms of equipment already available but must also ensure that the capacity is available. The mass producer produces different products for different customers. The designer must therefore ensure that current capacity can accommodate the new product. The designer must also ensure that there is room for increasing capacity in case the production starts. The designer must also consider the number of items the customer requires and for how long the products will be required (Yoshimura, 2010).
This will guide the designer in agreeing to take up on the new project. The brief from the customer will also describe the build quality and finish of the product. The designer must consider this. They must know whether they are able to produce products of the required standard, and if there are any additional costs that will be incurred in achieving the final product specifications. Finally, the designer must also consider the average cost of producing each item. For mass produced products, this is usually cheaper because the designer only has to design a prototype from which the other products in the production run will be based. However, the final cost per item must be within a range the customer is willing to pay the production run to continue (Thompson, 2007).
The designer of the product in this case must liaise with a number of people in order to get answers to any relevant questions. In a large company that produces products for clients in mass, there are many people to liaise with both internally and externally. The most important of these people is the customer. This is because the customer must approve the final product and ensure that all the specifications have been followed. Therefore, in case of any modifications, the designer must consult the customer to ensure that the changes are acceptable. Internally, the designer has to liaise with the engineers and people responsible for manufacturing the product. As explained earlier, the designer translates the customer’s specifications into a graphical representation of the product (Yoshimura, 2010).
The engineers are responsible for translating the designer’s image into an actual physical product. There must be close collaboration of the two people to ensure the final product is up to the expected quality. The designer can also liaise with external designers who have worked with such products before to get insight on any areas that might be problematic. The management is also important as they make the final decision on whether to accept the business from the customer.
Special equipment might have to be produced when producing goods in mass. This will enable the production run to proceed. Mass producers tend to have highly specialized equipment that cannot be used to produce other products without modification. Before the production run can begin, such equipment has to be manufactured. This mainly depends on the quantity of products the customer requires (Emmanouilidis, Taisch, & Kiritsis, 2013). As a rule, the more specialized the equipment, the faster it can produce goods. If the customer requires a large number of goods for a prolonged period, the specialized equipment has to be manufactured. If the production run is not very long, leasing or modification of existing equipment can be done. New production lines may also have to be built in their entirety in order to accommodate the production of the new products in addition to existing products that the company might be already producing (Emmanouilidis, Taisch, & Kiritsis, 2013).

Bibliography

Chitale, A. K. 2011. Product design and manufacturing. S.l.: Prentice-Hall Of India Pv.
Emmanouilidis, C., Taisch, M., & Kiritsis, D. 2013. Advances in Production Management Systems. Competitive Manufacturing for Innovative Products and Services: IFIP WG 5.7 International Conference, APMS 2012, Rhodes, Greece, September 24-26, 2012, Revised Selected Papers, Part I. Berlin, Heidelberg: Imprint: Springer.
Lefteri, C. 2012. Making it: Manufacturing techniques for product design. London: Laurence King Pub.
Thompson, R. 2007. Manufacturing processes for design professionals. New York: Thames & Hudson.
Yoshimura, M. 2010. System design optimization for product manufacturing. London: Springer.