Introductio

n to Design
Processes -
Requireme
nts
 Today’s session
Assessment 1 – Initial Report (20%) – Maximum of 8 pages (Excluding appendices)

You will submit an initial report based on your initial assessment of the requirements. This should include:

1) A design specification for the pipe climber.

2) A project plan which indicates the schedule for the work using a Gantt chart and an outline of the responsibilities and role
each member will play in the group’s activities.

3) A set of hand sketched or electronic (CAD) concept designs for the pipe climber. You should produce at least three concepts
per team. Your concepts should be supported by text and annotations.

4) The selection of the concept to take forward will use the Weighted Objectives Method (WOM). Note – this should involve the
full WOM as outlined during the lecture classes
The Iterative Design Process
The iterative design process is one of the most traditional process for the design of any engineering
component or system

It is used widely throughout many industries

The process is not very efficient!

With the advent of more streamlined digital workflows we aim to cut out excess iterations from our
process

The majority of your projects will likely follow this process

The Iterative Design Process
Where do I start?
How many of you have been given a job to do and wondered where do I start?

What’s the answer?

Some of you might not know where to start with your assignments right now
All Projects
have three
things in
common
Scope/Requirements
This should always be obvious, often it is not.

It is often your job as an engineer to fully define the scope of your task

This is why specifications are very important, as they allow us to know if we have achieved what
we set out to.

All three aspects of the triangle can affect the overall quality
Project 1
Queen Elizabeth Class Carrier
Time – July 2015
Time actual – Feb 2018

Cost - £3.5 billion

Cost actual - £6.1 billion

Scope –
◦ 70,600 tonnes
◦ 26 knots (30mph)
◦ 250-9000 troops
◦ Capable of carrying more than 70 aircraft
Queen Elizabeth Class Carrier
Project 2
Tyne Tunnel 2
Time: Mar 2004 – Jan 2012
Time actual: Mar 2004 – Nov 2011

Cost: £139million
Cost actual: £260million

Scope: Build a second Tyne tunnel between Jarrow and Howden, refurbish existing tunnel
Tyne Tunnel 2
Project 3
Aidan’s Dissertation
Time: 9 months
Time actual: 8 months and 3 weeks

Cost - £0
Cost actual: £0

Scope: Demonstrate the capability of Ansys fluent in predicting turbulent flow behaviour and
wind noise prediction induced by air travelling around a car wing mirror
Time
How to you plan time for a project?

Project timelines
Gantt charts
Progress reviews
Gantt Charts
Gantt charts are an effective way to track the progress of a project based on key actions and
items

The predicted length of an action or item is plotted against time in days/weeks/months/years

Progress can be measured by drawing a line across the chart on any given day
Gantt Chart
Budget
How do I know how much a project will cost?
Budget
Most engineering projects follow the same budgetary trend from beginning to end.
Budget
Most Engineering projects will share similar costs:
◦ Man hours
◦ Materials
◦ Logistics
◦ Overheads

Ultimately these all must be estimated at the beginning of the project to set a budget

Once these costs have been estimated it is then important that all costs are recorded against the
project budget
Bill of Materials (BoM)
An engineering BoM is a very important tool as it allows the engineer to keep track of all of the
materials required for the project

This should include:

◦ A description of the component
◦ Quantity ordered
◦ Supplier
◦ Item or order numbers/details
◦ Price per ea.
◦ Total cost
◦ Lead time
Bill of Materials (BoM)

Item number Item Description Quantity Supplier(s) Order details Unit cost Total Cost Lead time Notes
1
2
3
Case Study – Bridge Launch Mechanism

24
Specification
Priority Serial Requirements Source Acceptance Criteria Notes Verification

1 PERFORMANCE
E 1.1 Constrained Interfaces
[E.g. Gun sweep, approach angle etc.] [E.g. Contractual, [E.g. Calculation, FEA [E.g. Verified during FAT – see report XXXXX]
experience etc.] investigation, FAT etc.]
E 1.2 Mechanical

E 1.3 Electrical

E 1.4 Control

E 1.5 Hydraulic

E 1.6 Duty Cycle (Battlefield Mission)

2 ERGONOMICS
E 2.1 User Interfaces

M 2.2 Manual Handling

E 2.3 User Operation

E 2.4 Maintenance

E 2.5 Training

3 ENVIRONMENT
E 3.1 Mechanical
[E.g. Load cases, vibration, shock, impact etc.]
E 3.2 Electrical
[E.g. Supply voltage, EMC etc.]
E 3.3 Chemical

E 3.4 Natural
[E.g. Temperature, corrosion, humidity etc.]
What happens when you don’t
stick to the design
requirements?
A camel is a horse designed by a committee
Requirements Example
Requirements Example
Design tools
CAD is now accepted universally as a fundamental
engineering skillset but this has not always been
the case
Before the widespread implementation of CAD
engineers would hand draw component drawings
for manufacture
Why do you think CAD was so readily adopted?
The design stage
The design stage goes through its own process

For mechanical components consider fit, form and function as well as any other customer metrics

Design for manufacturability and assembly!

Assembly design and component integration

Integration of other systems, hydraulics, pneumatics, electronics, etc.

Never forget maintenance and repair!

Analysis
Here we do some initial checks on our design
This might be some basic hand calculations
This might be FEA or CFD
Analysis
The most important thing about analysis is that it is
cheap!
The cost of running software is often significantly less
than the cost of building a prototype Analyze

This allows for multiple analysis to be carried out

At this stage errors or design changes can be corrected
and re-analysed very quickly
Re-design
Analysis is not just FEA!
At the analysis stage we can also run
manufacturing simulations to assess
manufacturability
We can assess tooling wear and associated
costs
We may decide that we need to produce
bespoke tooling
Testing
This is not the same as analysis
After analysis has been carried out often you will create a prototype
Importantly, this stage is more expensive than analysis because it often requires the physical
production of a component to test
It also allows for testing of a physical component in real life conditions, some of which can be
too complex to simulate in analysis.
Testing
Prototyping is a very valuable and
important stage of the design process
and can often identify faults that
weren’t found in the initial design
process

Although it can be costly to create a

prototype it is more costly to
prematurely develop a product that
has not been tested effectively as
dealing with faults with a ‘fully
developed’ consumer product is much
worse than with a prototype
Prototyping
A proof-of-principle prototype
A working prototype represents all or nearly all of the functionality of the final product.
A visual prototype
A user experience prototype
A functional prototype
A paper prototype
Evaluation
Now that we have tested prototype and collected results we need to evaluate those results
Did everything work first time?
◦ If it did then why?

Did some aspects not work?

If not then why.
Evaluation
It is also important to get customer or user feedback and use this as effectively as possible
Weighted feedback matrices can be produced to assess where changes need to be made
We start gain
The cycle starts again until we have a complete product to launch
Deployment
So we’ve made a product and launched it, job done?

No not quite.

Our roles as engineers do not stop at product deployment

Maintenance
Maintenance is something that is often forgotten during new product design but is essential for
many projects

If your product breaks or does not work correctly your customers will not be happy

It is important to have a clear maintenance plan in place

Toothbrush
Cost
Service life
Maintenance requirements
Maintenance plan
Rolls Royce Jet engine
Cost
Service life
Maintenance requirements
Maintenance plan
Remember to think about
disposal!
The iterative design process
The process is widespread and used, either consciously or subconsciously by many different
industries

So does that mean its perfect?

What might a bad project look
like?
Bad Project
Requirements
Design and Analysis

Evaluate

Prototyping
What might a bad project look
like?
Too much time building things – this is expensive and it takes time!
Not enough time checking at the design phase – this can seem like it is taking a long time as it
involves a lot of planning without making anything but it will save huge amounts of time in the
long run
Due to the above more time is needed for evaluation as there are more errors!
So what would a good project
look like?
Good Project
Requirements
Design and Analysis

Evaluate

Prototyping
Good project
Here we have spent much more time on design and analysis
Simulating things digitally has lead to:
◦ Less manufacturing and assembly issues
◦ Less functionality issues
◦ Less time spent manufacturing
◦ Less time spent testing as testing could be focused on only key issues that couldn’t be simulated

As the design and analysis phase is cheaper than the prototyping phase this has saved a great
deal of time and money
Reality?
We are all engineers and engineers like to make things! But we have to make sure we spend as
much time designing and analysing as possible before prototyping!
Unfortunately many engineers can become reliant on having a physical tangible prototype to
work on
Additionally there can be a great deal of distrust with analysis software in industry. Usually this
comes down to lack of knowledge and training
You need to be the driving force for change!
As few iterations as possible
With any design activity we want to identify any issues so they can be resolved as early as
possible
Fail fast and fail cheap!
Its an iterative process but the fewer iterations we go through, the more time and money we
save.