ME 549: Product Design

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ME 549 - Product Design

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ME 549: Product Design, Spring 2000 (Fronczak), formerly Course Homepage of instructor Fronczak

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Catalog Description

549 Product Design. I; 3 cr. A project oriented, interdisciplinary course with an emphasis on designing competitive, quality products. The product development process is covered from problem identification through detail design and evaluation. Included among the topics covered are: idea generation and evaluation, visualization, and quality. P: Sr or Grad st in engr or Grad st in other college or cons inst.

Course Prerequisite(s)

See catalog description above.

Prerequisite knowledge and/or skills

The prerequisite of senior or graduate standing is intended to insure that the students have a higher level of maturity and intellectual capability than that usually encountered with lower level students. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the course (students from most Engineering departments as well as from Art, Law, Human Ecology, and Business have taken the course) the course has been structured so that no particular mathematical or engineering specific knowledge is required. However, the ability to integrate knowledge as well as the ability to think deeply is needed (as well as hopefully further developed).

Textbook(s) and/or other required material

The text is a set of course notes originally compiled by Prof. Mike Phillpot and made available to the students as a bound volume.
In addition the students are required to read and report on a book from an extensive book list related to Product Design.

Course objectives

The principle objectives ofthe course are for students to develop an understanding of and an appreciation for using a stuctured design methodolgy. In addition, the students should come away from the course with a better understanding of the wide range of aspects that must be effectively dealt with in designing a successful products. They should also come aweay with some product design specific knowledge such as mateial selection, design for assembly, design for manufacturability, quality issues, etc.

Topics covered

Design Methodology Product Design Specification Conceptual Design Conceptual blockbusting Brainstorming Morphological Charts Functional decomposition Detailed design: DFX where X is Function Effective material usage Manufacturability Assembly Environment Assorted topics as dictated by student interest Quality Aspects of Product Design

Class/laboratory schedule

Class meets three times per week for 50 minutes each session.

Contribution of course to meeting the professional component

This course contributes primarily to the students' knowledge of engineering topics, and does provide design experience.

The following statement indicates which of the following considerations are included in this course: economic, environmental, ethical, political, societal, health and safety, manufacturability, sustainability.

The course adresses the following considerations: Economic Environmental Ethical Political (especiall as related to environemntal and safety) Societal Health and Safety Manufacturability Sustainability (as related to environmental) These topics are all adressed with about equal emaphasis and are thoroughly integrated into the overall structure of the course, that is they all clearly relate to all aspects and phases of the design process.

Relationship of course to undergraduate degree program objectives and outcomes

This course serves students in a variety of engineering majors. The information below describes how the course contributes to the college's educational objectives.

The course helps the students develop a better appreciation for the interdisciplinary nature of engineering practice as well as an understanding of current best practices (as well as the fundamental principles supporting those practices) involved in product design. This helps meet the departments and college goals associated with helping the students be prepared for engineering practice.

Assessment of student progress toward course objectives

There are three distinct activities which contribute to the students' grades. These are: individual assignments, a book report, and two team projects.

The individual assignments are made about one per week and require the students to focus on a particular aspect of the central topic that we are covering in class, e.g. when discussing effective material usage, the students are given the assignment of examining and reporting on a flight feather's design and construction. Their discussion typically includes consideration of how the material and geometry affects the feather's functionality as well as durability.

In addition to the assignments, the students are required to read a book related to product design (selected from an extensive list) and prepare a report and brief presentation on the book.

There are also two team projects, one which extends for about a five week period of time and involves designing a new product (based either on a brief problem statement provided by the instructor or one of the team's own choosing. This design is carried through the concept generation and evaluation stage of the design process. The students provide a written report as well as give a presentation of their design.

The final design project is also a team effort and involves a detailed redesign of an existing product (once again, the product is either one suggested by the instructor or one of their own choosing). This project emphasizes detailed design considerations (i.e. DFX, rather than conceptual design).

Person(s) who prepared this description

Frank J. Fronczak

Copyright 2007 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
Date last modified: 04-Aug-2007
Content by: deptinfo@me.engr.wisc.edu
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