Abstract
Subjects involved in the design and production of goods have to build their decisions on market data. Collecting and organizing information is then the preliminary activity, necessary in understanding the complexity of the customer needs, often not “clear and distinct”, but on the contrary, expressed in a confused and interrelated way. Users can play an active role that must be taken into account: user-driven design versus user-centered design is a controversial position that it is worth analyzing. The design process starts by the identification of the needs of potential customers and proceeds with conceptual design, then embodiment and finally detail design, and the knowledge and satisfaction of user real needs is crucial in any phase. The tools developed for acquiring this knowledge are far from being formalized (i.e. mathematically formulated) but, nevertheless, are consistent and based on principles of logic, cognitive sciences and on the human experience of all the subjects that collaborate in the design process. This great work of interpretation and translation leads, at the end of the conceptual design, to fundamental documents which are called “product (or service) specifications” and which are the starting points for all the following design phases.
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Notes
- 1.
Core competency is a harmonized combination of multiple resources and skills that distinguish a firm in the marketplace [22]. The “litmus test” for a core competency is that it is hard for competitors to copy or develop.
- 2.
A market segment is an identifiable group of individuals, families, businesses, or organizations, sharing one or more characteristics or needs in an otherwise homogeneous market, or of purchase decision-makers that with different roles interact with the product [4].
- 3.
The Five Ws (sometimes referred to as Five Ws and How, 5W1H, or Six Ws or: Who, what, why, how, where, when, with what.
- 4.
Journalists are trained to answer those five questions whenever they write an article or press release. The same kind of questions can also be the best way to start with inquiries in a consultancy meeting.
- 5.
how can also be covered by what, when, or where, but it is often a separate question because, sometimes, it proves to be the most interesting.
- 6.
In order for a design to be successful, it must meet people’s basic needs before it can attempt to satisfy higher-level needs [15].
- 7.
Young people aged 25–35 years of higher learning, living in different western countries.
- 8.
We can speak of requirements but, at this stage, it would be better to speak of general wishes yet expressed in a qualitative way, because they derive directly from the customer’s voice.
- 9.
In this way the value of the weighted sum takes into account two aspects: the suitability of the technical choice in satisfying the row requirement and the importance of this requirement as perceived by the user. Thus sums in the last rows indicate the priority actions we should take to satisfy the most important requirements, with the most effective choice of technical parameters,
$$ \displaystyle \sum _{i=A}^{E}[{Imp \times R}] $$.
- 10.
See subsequent chapters.
- 11.
Nominal group technique (NGT) (meaning in name only, because verbal discussion is avoided) is a structured variation of a small-group discussion to reach consensus. It is a more-controlled variant of brainstorming used in problem solving sessions to encourage creative thinking, without group interaction. (Each member of the group writes down his/her ideas which are then discussed and prioritized one by one by the group). It is also called nominal group process [5].
- 12.
Benchmark: a standard or point of reference against which things may be compared or assessed.
- 13.
We detected each requirement independent from each other and therefore a preliminary analysis of dependence between the requirements, performed with relationship matrices, is deemed unnecessary.
- 14.
The specification’s items are expressed as shall statements.
- 15.
The CE Mark. The European Commission describes the CE mark as a passport that allows manufacturers to circulate industrial products freely within the internal market of the EU. The CE mark certifies that the products have met EU health, safety and environmental requirements that ensure consumer and workplace safety. All manufacturers in the EU and abroad must affix the CE mark to those products covered by the New Approach directives in order to market their products in Europe. Once a product receives the CE mark, it can be marketed throughout the EU without undergoing further product modification.
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Freddi, A., Salmon, M. (2019). Requirements and Specifications. In: Design Principles and Methodologies. Springer Tracts in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95342-7_3
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