The product design engineering process is a product development process. Before constructing the product, product engineers must follow this process to ensure they are creating the right product for the customer. This blog post will discuss product development and product engineering, as well as how to collaborate with your team to ensure that the product you design meets the final customer requirements.

What is Engineering Product Design?

Engineering product design is a creative, comprehensive information processing process that presents the shape of a product in either two-dimensional engineering drawings or three-dimensional data by combining various elements such as lines, symbols, numbers, colors, and more through CAD/CAM software. Engineering product design combines creativity, technical design skills, engineering science, and analysis to create products that meet the functional requirements of end-users.

Challenges in Engineering Product Design

Engineering product design is evolving as people no longer settle for functional product requirements alone. They desire products they use to not only look good and be of high quality but also be stylish. Of course, affordability is also considered within the scope. These diverse demands are endless and are constantly changing and developing alongside technological advancements and evolving customer requirements.

From the perspective of product engineers, product design is an intellectual activity that integrates multiple disciplines such as mechanical engineering, materials science, electronics, electrical engineering, hardware and software disciplines, intelligent manufacturing, and more.

The gap between industrial design and mechanical product manufacturing is narrowing. This compels interdisciplinary engineers to work across teams, finding more efficient working and collaboration modes. It also requires an understanding of other processes to help comprehend how products come together. As a result, you will see many new design management processes, project management techniques, and other approaches emerging to streamline cross-team product development.

Today, product design engineers need to continuously learn new skills, materials, manufacturing processes, surface finishing, etc. They must research and consider every aspect of product design, constantly expanding their knowledge base and adapting to innovations to provide the best product experience to end-users.

Engineering Product Design and Development Process

Concept design

In the concept development and product planning phase, relevant information regarding market opportunities, competitiveness, technological feasibility, and production requirements is synthesized to define the framework for a new product.

This involves conceptualizing the new product, identifying the target market, determining the expected performance levels, and assessing the investment requirements and financial impact. Before deciding whether to proceed with the development of a new product, companies may also conduct prototypes to validate concepts and viewpoints. Experiments may include sample production and soliciting feedback from potential customers.

Detailed Product Design

In the detailed design phase, once the concept is approved, the detailed design phase commences. The primary activities in this phase involve the design and construction of product prototypes and the development of tools and equipment for use in commercial production.

The core of detailed product engineering involves a “design-build-test” cycle. The required products and processes need to be conceptually defined and embodied in product prototypes (which can exist in the form of digital representations on computers or physical entities). Subsequently, the product should undergo simulated usage testing. If the prototype fails to reflect the expected performance characteristics, engineers must seek design improvements to address this discrepancy, thus repeating the “design-build-test” cycle.

The detailed product engineering phase concludes when the final product design meets the specified technical requirements and is approved with a signature as a symbol of completion.

Design Validation

Purpose of Design Validation

Design validation refers to determining that specified requirements have been met by providing objective evidence. The objective evidence required for validation can be in the form of test results or other forms of confirmation, such as calculations or document reviews.

The purpose of design validation is to verify whether the design outputs meet the specified requirements of the design inputs. It is typically conducted after a phase or the entire design is completed and is often performed using calculations or document checks.

Methods for Design and Development Validation:

Design and development outputs are information or documents that need to be validated to ensure that the data from design and development outputs conform to the requirements specified in the input data. The typical validation method involves creating a prototype. The validation method should be chosen based on the specific circumstances, and there are two main approaches to consider:

  1. When the entire design is complete, a prototype can be manufactured based on the approved design and development drafts. The technical department is responsible for testing the prototype or sending it to an authoritative testing institution for evaluation and providing a testing report as validation evidence. Rapid prototyping is a critical aspect of the design validation process, ensuring that products like automotive lighting prototypes meet customer requirements by perfectly showcasing their design and lighting effects.
  2. At appropriate stages of design and development, partial designs of the prototype or the functionality and performance of the prototype can be compared to similar designs that have already been proven successful. Relevant evidence from these similar designs can be used as validation evidence for the design at that stage.

Steps in Design and Development Validation:

  1. The project leader for design and development consolidates all validation results, compiles a Design and Development Validation Report,” and records the validation results and tracking information in the report for approval by the Chief Engineer. This ensures that every performance and functional indicator from the design and development input has a corresponding validation record.
  2. After prototype validation, the technical department organizes relevant departments to assess the feasibility of small-batch production. A “Trial Production Report” is filled out based on the characteristics of the developed product and submitted for review by the Chief Engineer and approval by the Chairman. This report then determines the investment in mold-making and tooling design manufacturing. The technical department assists the production department in conducting small-scale trial production (not exceeding 50 units).
  3. The quality department inspects or tests the products produced in the small-scale trial production and issues a testing report. The technical department validates the production process and issues a process validation report. The supply department provides a feasibility report on material batch supply, and the finance department provides a cost accounting report. Based on this information, the technical department compiles a trial production summary report, which is submitted to the Chief Engineer for review and approval by the Chairman as the basis for batch production.

Small-Scale Manufacturing

In the stage of small-scale production, individual components that have been processed and tested on production equipment are assembled together and undergo testing as a system within the factory. During low volume manufacturing, a certain quantity of products should be manufactured, and the new or improved production processes should be tested for their capacity to handle commercial production. It is at this moment in the product development process that the entire system (including design, detailed design, tools and equipment, components, assembly sequences, production supervision, operators, and technicians) comes together.

Conclusion

KUSLA Prototype is a company that provides engineering product design and rapid prototyping services. We follow a comprehensive design process to ensure delivering the highest quality service to our clients. If you have a product only in your mind, contact us and we could help you realize it from prototyping to production.

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