I. INTRODUCTION
The project is intended to demonstrate students’ ability to develop a new product/service idea and/or criticize an existing product/service design. Students would independently choose an existing product/service, or develop a new design idea to evaluate in terms of customers’ needs, perceptions and functionality. They are expected to perform a perceptual mapping to position it on the market and execute the house of quality step of Quality Function Deployment (QFD). Through both methods, market gaps and competitive position of the product/service as well as the voice of the customers are identified.
For the service or the service component of a product, service blueprint should be prepared. Where it is applicable, current vs. ideal process flows should be compared. Finally to assess the quality of the service, SERVQUAL survey is applied.
For a product, existing/new product is analyzed in terms of DFM, DFA and DFE. VA/VE technique is exercised where it is applicable. Improvement suggestions for the product should be made.
In addition to applying technical knowledge in a ‘real world’ project, this would demonstrate the students’ ability to conduct group research, teamwork, and report writing and project management skills.
IV. PROJECT SUMMARY (SCENARIO)
The project intends to evaluate either an existing or a new product/service design offering. In both cases, the students are expected to evaluate the product/service in terms of its form, functionality and customers’ perceptions through perceptual maps and the house of quality of QFD. This process might be helpful to identify the gap existed in the market so that it may bring some new product/service ideas. Some steps you need to evaluate in phase 1 are as follows:
•?Definition of the product/service ?
•?Main characteristics of the product/service ?
•?Differentiating factors of the product/service ?
•?Perceptual maps ?
•?House of quality ?
•??Critical analysis of the product/service ?In phase 2, the students should evaluate either the service further drawing the service blueprints and assessing the service quality through SERVQUAL survey (At least 30-40 responses are required) or the product using the tools such as DFM, DFA, DFE and VA/VE. In conclusion, a comprehensive analysis of the findings should be discussed. ?
? Report Requirements:
The report should follow the APA format and guidelines, and includes the following subsections after a cover page: ?
• What is the product/service you are going to evaluate? ?
• Why is it interesting and who would use your analysis? ?
• What data will you use? ?
• How will you collect and organize the data? ?
What work do you plan to do in the project?
• Introduction to the problem: The topic of the project and problem statement, ?
• Description of the selected product/service, ?
• Objectives of the project, ?
• Description of the collected data ?
• Main characteristics of the product/service ?
• Differentiating factors of the product/service ?
• Perceptual maps ?
• House of quality ?
• Critical analysis of the product/service ?
• Work schedule & Gantt chart for the project showing the current progress. ?
• Evaluation of the product/service (service blueprint and SERVQUAL results for services, and DFM, DFA, DFE and VA/VE for the products) ?
• Results and Analysis ?
• Conclusions and Recommendations. ?
