Machine Design: Product Innovation Processes and Life Cycle Thinking

Machine design lecture slides on how a design activity is started and organised. The opening questions decide which approach will realise the design goal: what the goal is, the resources, time and budget available, the expertise and infrastructure on hand, who the stakeholders are with their needs, desires and wishes, and who will do the work with what skills, attitudes and ambitions. A second block asks how the work is then divided among team members, what the dependencies between activities are, which milestones are necessary and what intermediate results must be delivered. The course moves into models of the product innovation process, from strategic product position and linear logic to circular chaos, then design in and for emerging economies, where bottom-of-the-pyramid projects have poor and vulnerable intended users and so raise sustainability separately, and finishes with life cycle stages: production and supply of materials, manufacture, distribution with less, cleaner or reusable packaging and energy-efficient transport and logistics modes, and utilisation.