This book presents a well-organized structure for learning the process of designing a product. Creativity and Concepts are the two major elements of product design emphasized in the book. Usability is also stressed as an important aspect of product design because it is advantageous to know the requirements of the users and their expectations. The book extensively describes the concept of problem formulation through user centred design (UCD) survey, need statements and major requirements, and specifications and constraints. It also addresses the concept of idea generation of a formulated problem with the help of an idea-rack and optimization through configuration exploration. The text explains several other concepts of product design, such as product life cycle, design phases, simplicity, richness and complexity, uncoupled and decoupled designs, risk management, synthesis and analysis, interdisciplinary approach, and flexibility.
The book is eminently suitable for the students of mechanical engineering, besides being useful to students of all engineering disciplines. Academics will find this text useful for the introduction of an interdisciplinary course on product design either at the senior undergraduate degree level or at the postgraduate level.
KEY FEATURES :
Many examples of products from day-to-day life.
Concept explanation using case studies and anecdotes.
Discussions on philosophical, creative, and conceptual aspects of design process.About the AuthorPRASHANT KUMAR, PhD (Brown University, USA), is Professor Emeritus, Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Pune. He is the Founder Head of the Design Programme introduced at IIT Kanpur in the year 2002. Earlier, he served as Design Engineer with Camber Manufacturing Company, Los Angeles, USA where he designed air-bridges for Boeing 747 airplanes. During his 30 years of tenure at IIT Kanpur, Professor Prashant Kumar taught a course on product design eighteen times to senior undergraduate students and six times to postgraduate students.
