Mg6103 Engineering Management: Design Of Assessment Answers

Answer:

Introduction

This project is built upon the following four pillars; Marketing, Management, Modelling, Manufacturing and Money (4MandM). The project is part of a two man team project and involves a novel study based upon entrepreneurial engineering to develop a two person, modular and inexpensive water craft which creates new market space. Fundamentally, the design follows the modular design approach which encourages minimum number of parts and in a simplified fashion. In this case, symmetrical balance will be very essential so as to easily locate the insertion points of the various parts and facilitate easy assembly and disassembly. In this regard, a number of concepts were proposed and concisely reviewed based on the selected performance and design criteria. Notably, issues like product safety and versatility featured prominently. Finally a design that largely met the criteria by scoring higher points was selected and developed further.

Admittedly, as earlier mentioned, there are a number of factors that must be considered from the project onset and this has been summarised into 5 main pillars that holds the integrity of this project and they include: Marketing, Management, Modelling, Manufacturing and Money. It is desired that the design stays within the requirements of the intended customer while ensuring the operational and engineering realities come to the fore. For instance, one of the customer requirements is that the said product should be affordable within an optimized performance baseline. This then pushes the designer to conduct a materials selection review in order to choose the right materials that are relatively cheaper but structurally fit to withstand the forces and stresses imposed during boat rowing and other operations. Secondly, the boat is to be aesthetically designed so as to ‘sell itself’ otherwise even with the right combination of materials and performance, it is likely to attract less customers in the market. Admittedly, therefore, quality of workmanship especially finishing aspect must be beyond reproach.

Now, what are the expectations from this project? The aim of this project is to design and build a more user-friendly, functionally versatile and more economical recreational boat that integrates the principles of modular design, manufacturing and assembly. Furthermore, in order to realise the set objectives, there will be need to establish an effective system of management of entire project right from the onset where problem definition and project mission statement is developed till the customer purchases the product and provides the useful feedback for further improvement. Therefore, this is a complex end-to-end system of project management that must deliver value to both the customer and the manufacturer. It is the responsibility of the Lead Project Engineer to ensure that the project goes through and is successfully completed within the time and budget constraints. Therefore, in this case, a section on manufacturing process details the step by step of production of the listed boat parts. Ideally, flexible manufacturing system would need to be deployed should the product market space widen as envisaged. FMS ensures parts are produced quickly, more efficiently and in large quantity per production cycle hence proving more economical; but only for large product volumes with insatiable demand at all times. Otherwise for a start, the product parts manufacturing and assembly will have to be implemented manually hence quality of workmanship is an essential component of Manufacturing. Zero to minimum errors should be the only variables to be tolerated.

Lastly, cost optimization techniques are to be employed in order to ensure that both the customer and manufacturer gain value for their individual efforts. One way of facilitating this approach would be to ensure that a concrete value chain cycle is established. For instance, in the use of recyclable materials by the manufacturer, the life cycle of the materials making some of the parts can be traced such that once the customer finishes using the product and its lifecycle elapses then it is returned to the manufacturer for reuse; this then creates a double-gain model for both parties as the old parts are sold to the manufacturer by the user and the manufacturer further creates value by manufacturing the product using the recycled materials hence decreasing the marginal costs of design and manufacturing.

Therefore, the project explores various aspects involved in design and manufacturing of the said product by integrating the principles of sustainable and modular design and manufacturing hence let the work begin.

Problem Statements

Need Statement

There is need to design and build a multi-purpose, light weight, inexpensive and modular, two person water craft for recreational boating purpose.  

The Objectives

The objectives of this particular part of the project are to:

• Determine materials and design requirements for a recreational two person water craft which will;

1. Maximise strength and minimise weight
2. Allow for ease of storage and assembly (thus modular in construction)
3. Validate structural and system effectiveness i.e. document design, testing and quality control
4. Include safety as a primary specification when considering the product and user operating system. This requires a clear specification of all operating conditions and environmental factors; embodiment design based on well proven engineering principles; thorough testing and evaluation of component durability under overload and adverse conditions; and evaluation of limits of safe operation.
5. Determine materials and manufacturing process (processes) which will be used to produce the final product at a cost of no more than $4500 NZD.

Research Scope

This recreational water craft must be designed and tested before 8^th February 2018. Subsequently, a thorough investigation must not only be conducted on existing and competing products but also there is need to focus on areas such as:

• Concept design
• Embodiment and detailing
• Design specification – including both safety and designing to recognised standards
• Application of accepted analysis techniques
• Methods of construction and testing
• Making permanent records of history of product design and development
• Communicating methods of operation and maintenance via an operator and service manual.

Investigation of Existing Knowledge

At the centre of this project are the materials and manufacturing process aspects. A big portion of existing knowledge considers the materials properties vis-à-vis the conditions of performance. According to Golpinar (2005), the most commonly used material for the boat body is fiber reinforced plastic which offers such desirable properties as: being heat resistant, easy maintenance, low cost maintenance requirements, lightweight and being very competitive. Besides, it allows for more complex shapes to be produced hence it can be used to fortify the aesthetic value of the boat. Additionally, materials such as wood, steel, aluminum, and composites are often used in place of fiber reinforced plastic (Golpinar, 2005). Now, why do we consider selection of materials so essential?

As mentioned earlier, materials for making the boat has huge impact on the safety performance (Gougeon, 2005). One typical material that greatly assures on both structural integrity and optimized boating performance is the fiber reinforced plastic. Notably, the fiber reinforced plastic is a special case of the ‘sandwich effect’ (Sandcore, 2000). The term ‘Sandwich’ from the etymological definition means, in this context, a material is placed between two other materials of different nature. This greatly improves the mechanical properties tenfold (Winarto, Eddy, Liza, & Syamsul, 2015).

Additionally, it is also essential to revisit the available boat profiles.

Figure 1: Antrim 40' Racer / Cruiser Trimaran-hull: Composite sandwich construction with Kevlar and carbon fiber reinforcements. WEB_1 (2004)

Ethical Issue

The law requires that a manufacturer must proactively integrate safety in their designs and create no concealed danger; that manufacturers provide all needed safety devices as part of the design of a product; and that the design of a product utilises materials of adequate strength and complies with accepted standards.

This project requires consideration of design aspects concerning product liability and therefore must adhere to:

1. Industry and government standards to lessen possibility of product defects
2. Test before any sale – design modified to eliminate failure modes
3. Use of quality control procedures to ensure sound designs are properly manufactured
4. Evaluation of product/system relationships, which includes warning user of potential hazards or foreseeable misuse
5. Document design, testing and quality control for possible reference in any liability suite
6. Integration of warning labels into the design process

Furthermore, the following ethical issues must also be considered:

• At all times place responsibility for welfare, health and safety of the community before responsibility to sectional or private interests
• Act in order to merit trust in the community and dignity of the profession as an engineer
• Offer services or advise on or undertake an engineering assignment, only in areas of competence
• Apply skills and knowledge, without compromising the welfare, health and safety of the community
• Take all reasonable steps to inform the community of social and environmental consequences

Design Specifications

After doing a strategy canvas on the boat market in different category such as boats for fishing, sailing, sports, or fun, it can be concluded that the 4MandM boat project has to be designed by the following specifications:

1. The final product must not exceed NZD 4500.
2. The weight of the boat should not be more 200 kg.
3. Minimum two person or more side by side.
4. Must be designed for ease of storage and assembly (not using bolts for big parts).
5. Maximum length must be 3m and beam 1.7m.
6. The boat must be designed for multi-purposes (at least three tasking).
7. Must use very light materials (i.e. cardboard, plastic, wood, etc).
8. The product must be designed to withstand the environment that is built for.
9. The boat must be very strong even if it is light.
10. Must be stable on the sea/water.
11. Minimum speed of the boat is 6 hp.

Notably, in making the boat “easy to assemble and store”, the modular design approach requires the parts configuration to be such that they can easily be broken down into relatively small parts and then lock mechanism can easily be used for assembly and disassembly without sacrificing the operational integrity of the boat. Besides, other methods can be reviewed and adopted should the lock mechanism prove inappropriate in some sections of the boat. Now, the boat must always be stronger when using very light materials. In this case, some special coatings for waterproofing can be used. Besides, some special foams of boat filling for the hollow sections can be applied as well.

Development of Design

In this section, a number of design concepts are presented for review, focusing on both merits and limitations.

Concepts

First

This concept appears to have more aesthetic quality. Due to its shape, it is likely to be more stable hence providing the best boating experience. Checking at the location of the propellers, they are centrally located at the longitudinal symmetry of the boat; this provides the best balance hence stability even in rough waters; it also ensures that effective steering of the boat is achieved. Now, the seats are almost in the middle of the boat; this is a great strategy of achieving further effective control even in higher speeds. Additionally, on a closer look, one can see that almost all of the control gadgets are within the reach of the rider hence ergonomically speaking it is also sound. The seats and other control gadgets are all fixed on the same base and in a common orientation. This translates to quicker assembly and disassembly. Finally, the design integrates the aspects of multitasking (Steward, 2018).

Figure 2: Sketched design concept 1(a)

Figure 3: Sketched design concept 1(b)

Figure 4: Sketched design concept 1(c)

Second

This one unfortunately scores low in aesthetic quality if the shape is anything to go by. The key aspects of ergonomics are missing. However, it is a simple design hence reduced manufacturing costs and simplified assembling. Besides, due to its unsymmetrical shape it may be unsuitable to race in higher speeds and it is more likely to experience greater yaw, pitch and roll more than the rest. Additionally, it is expensive to build as it integrates more unnecessary parts; as a result of this, its weight is also increased. The assembly of parts will take longer hence taking more productive work. Lastly, it does not integrate the aspects of multitasking (Songüler, 2000).

Figure 4: Sketched design 2(a)

Figure 5: Sketched design concept 2(b)

Figure 6: Sketched design concept 2(c)

Third

This one also looks very simple in design. However, it scores lower in aesthetic appearance. Structurally, it is sound as it is likely to experience less yaw, roll and pitch. We should note that stability of the boat is very essential hence this design scores higher in that front.  

Figure 7: Sketched design 3(a)

Decision Matrix of Final Concept

From the three designs reviewed above, a measurable performance rating system can be established based on the tabulated criteria. It should be noted that these criteria were derived from the objectives and design requirements as sourced from the potential customers’ needs.

Table 1: Decision Matrix of the proposed design concepts

Selection of Final Design

By evaluating the three concepts based on decision matrix, concept number one is the selected design as it scores the highest total rate. Basically, it can be made for multi-purposes which includes fishing, sailing, rowing, sport, or fun. Whereas the others got a maximum two or three multi-purposes. In terms of designing the boat for ease of storage and assemble, this concept can be broken down into relatively small parts and applicable techniques for joining the parts will be employed (this step will be done after doing the calculations and the analysis) so as to make it easier for transportation.

The materials that can be used in this concept are the cheapest and lightest materials. Hence, there are different methods to make this boat stronger (Kahraman, 2000). Additionally, by using very light materials, this product will decrease the weight to be much lighter than in the other concepts. Therefore, in implementing this design concept, there is an opportunity to integrate flexible manufacturing system or otherwise the conventional manufacturing system can be deployed.

This design uses a wide range of recycled materials. Hence, recycling gives the manufacturer latitude to reuse the materials for new parts development; besides, it is an environmentally friendly endeavor hence contributing to the green economy. Additionally, in tracing the life cycle of the product parts, it can be noted that the product parts materials would sustainably circulate between the customer and the end user and the manufacturer hence creating a value chain network for all parties. This ultimately benefits both the manufacturer and the consumer. Besides, the method increases the profits of the manufacturer as well as decreasing the price for the consumers.

The capacity of this design is such that only two persons (seated side by side) will be accommodated. This design gives the passengers more freedom to comfortably walk inside the boat as well either sit on chair or lie down.

Materials Outlines

Materials selection follows a proper comprehension of the properties that makes them desirable for performance in the designated environment. In this section, a number of candidate materials are reviewed and the best is proposed for selection.

Fiberglass

Environment: Fiberglass is not an environmentally friendly as the world is trying to find new methods to deal with fiberglass waste. Moreover, to produce fiberglass, it takes substantial amount of energy, electricity, water, and other resources.

Cost: It has higher cost.

Weight: It is very heavy when it is thick, heavier than aluminium and wood.

Material property: E type glass Woven Rovings Laminate 45% glass, tensile strength is 250 MPa, compressive strength is 150 MPa.

Manufacturing: It takes very long processes to produce a composite fiberglass, and then it takes very long process to make the mould up to the finishing product. Needs high skill workers to do most of the work as well as it is done manually.

Maintenance: It requires minimal maintenance. However, for a big damage, it might take a long time to fix it as well as required professional worker.

Others: Fiberglass can be shaped into very complexed design.

Wood

Environment: Normally wood is 100% natural, so there is no need to worry about waste.

Cost: It is relatively inexpensive.

Weight: It is relatively lightweight.

Material property: Normally oak white is used for framing, its modulus of rupture is 50 MPa while modulus of elasticity is 6.1 GPa, and compression parallel to grain is 22.7 MPa, compression perpendicular to grain 4.7 MPa, shear parallel to grain is 9.3 MPa, tension perpendicular to grain is 5.5 MPa, side hardness is 4.9 KN. Sassafras for planking, modulus of rupture is 41 MPa, modulus of elasticity is 6.3 Gpa, compression parallel to grain is 18.8 MPa, compression perpendicular to grain 2.6 MPa, shear parallel to grain is 6.6 MPa.

Manufacturing: It is easy to manufacture’ it does not require high skill workers, and simplest tools can be used.

Maintenance: Normally regular painting is required.

Others: It is non-conductive, non-magnetic, absorbs 12% moisture, relatively easy to damage.

Aluminium

Environment: aluminium can be recycled. However, recycling consumes energy as well as the process of producing aluminium which starts from finding pure aluminium.

Cost: It often incurs higher cost of manufacturing.

Weight: It is relatively lightweight.

Material property: Aluminium 6060-T6, tensile yield strength is 276 MPa, ultimate tensile strength is 310 MPa, modulus elasticity is 68.9 GPa, fatigue strength is 96.5 MPa, shear strength is 207 MPa.

Manufacturing: relatively easy to manufacture, high professional workshop required, some parts can be done with CNC machines and manually, in some cases it requires high skill welding.

Maintenance: regular repainting required.

Others: aluminium can be welded, non-magnetic, easier than steel to work on, highly conductive.

Steel

Environment: steel does require massive amount of energy from finding it to manufacturing it and then work on it to use it. Thus, it emits carbon dioxide on the air.

Cost: relatively high cost.

Weight: low cost.

Material property: alloy steel, tensile yield strength is 350 MPa, ultimate tensile strength is 420 MPa, modulus of elasticity is 200 GPa, shear strength is 80 GPa.

Manufacturing: very strong harder than aluminium, high professional workshop required, some parts can be done with CNC machines and manually, it requires high skill welding.

Maintenance: regular painting required, if not protected with painting, it is very high opportunity to corrode.

Others: magnetic, highly conductive, can be welded.

Table 2: Material cost and density

Decision Matrix on Materials Options

Decision matrix as shown in the table is one technique of ascertaining the extent of material properties vis-à-vis the prevailing conditions of performance of the boat. From a thorough set of material properties criteria, the following table provides the rating for the performance. This was after doing the boat building materials research such that each material is reviewed by checking both its advantages and disadvantages. Admittedly, therefore, to select the appropriate material for 4M&M project, the decision matrix will be the most appropriate method to choose the material based on the design requirements outline which must cover most of the specifications.

Table 3: Decision Matrix of Material selection

Manufacturing

To finally obtain the finished product ready for boating, it is necessary to provide a breakdown of the manufacturing processes that various parts of the boat will have to undergo before assembly and finishing is done.

Manufacturing Processes

Hull making  

This is among the most critical portions of the boat as it is the largest part of the boat. In fiber glass hull manufacturing, they are often produced using molding process. Firstly, female mold is made with glass cloth. As for the male mold, a wooden plug is used then it is covered with a glass cloth to minimize sticking during actual molding of the fiberglass. Reinforcing may be necessary on the outside in order to stabilize the mold.

However, for the wooden boat in which this report considers as it is the selected material, the following describes the sequence for its manufacture:

Propeller Manufacturing

Marine propellers are often produced using casting as the main manufacturing method and this takes place as follows:

• Layout preparation: Layout onto which the propeller is to be cast is prepared.

It normally acts as the female portion as the contours and cross sections of the blades at the strategic points are mirrored as depression. They include: the angle, rake, thickness machining allowance; length and shrinkage allowance among others.

• Patterning of layout

The exact patterns are produced using specialized equipments like panning machine such that the wood is shaped accordingly

Figure 8: Patterning of layout (Image courtesy of industrialsshapeandform.com)

Once layout is done, further an offset is determined to ensure correct pitch of blade is achieved. The layers are marked and ready for sticking using glues. Because of the difficulty to handle the layers, screws are used to hold the layers tightly. A propeller-like shape appears. And then the layout is used to produce a sand mold.

• Sand casting

The prepared sand mold that is often a mixed of 50% green sand and 50% recycled is used to prepare the cast. The molten metal is poured into the mold and left to cure to obtain the propeller which is then assembled at rear end base of the boat.  

How to Minimize Manufacturing Waste Materials

This can be minimized using recycling method where old parts can be reused to make new ones. This not only leads to waste reduction but also contributes to further gain in value proposition.

Cost in Details

Table 4: Cost of Manufacturing

Maintenance

The boat will require some maintenance in order to keep its operational state within the required limits. The scratches on the hull can be removed by using a special filler material. Notably, fiber reinforced plastic is less susceptible to impact scratch than the aluminum or steel. Besides, for steel corrosion is often a major challenge.

Discussion and Results

Fundamentally, the above design provides a competent modular design methodology which is based on the simplicity of parts and minimum number of parts. In the selected design concept which was developed further, symmetry and common insertion points with a common orientation became the essential points of consideration in selecting the design concept. This is meant to facilitate easy assembly and disassembly. Now, a number of concepts have been reviewed based on the selected performance and design criteria (Gerr, 2000). It should be noted that product safety and versatility featured prominently. This is because the performance of the boat squarely depends on how it will manoeuvre different forces while in operation (Goodson, 2001). A safe design also encourages the user and builds confidence in the product. Finally a design that largely met the criteria by scoring higher points was selected and developed further. Other issues that were considered in the selection include: price, weight, size, assembly, reliability, multitasking, transportation and manufacture.

Admittedly, as earlier mentioned, a number of factors were considered from the initiation of the project; this was summarised into 5 main pillars which enabled the project design to go through successful.  They include: Marketing, Management, Modelling, Manufacturing and Money. From the objectives, it can be said that they were largely met as was desired from the beginning. For instance, in maintenance of structural integrity, the numerous materials tests performed revealed something interesting on the choice of material for the project. The fibre reinforced plastic exhibited greater resilience in impact tests more than it was expected as it withstood greater impact ranges. Besides, it’s tensile strength was also matching with that of steel hence based on the combined properties, the design was going to be safe. However, there was another issue that came to the fore: the issue of environmental pollution by the material. This then pushed the designers to conduct a materials selection review in order to choose the right materials that are relatively cheaper but environmentally fit to withstand to allow reuse hence making it cheaper as it lowers the marginal costs in production and transportation.

Secondly, the boat was aesthetically designed so as to ‘sell itself’ otherwise even with the right combination of materials and performance, it is likely to attract less customers in the market. Admittedly, therefore, quality of workmanship especially finishing aspect was beyond reproach. A quality assessment on the product, processes and procedures were conducted and very small discrepancies were detected between the design requirements and the final product. Nevertheless, the production system was recommended for continuous improvement (Greene, 2004).

Furthermore, in order to realise the set objectives, there was need to establish an effective system of management of entire project right from the onset where problem definition and project mission statement was developed till the customer purchases the product and provides the useful feedback for further improvement. Therefore, this is a complex end-to-end system of project management that must deliver value to both the customer and the manufacturer. It is the responsibility of the Lead Project Engineer to ensure that the project goes through and is successfully completed within the time and budget constraints. Therefore, in this case, a section on manufacturing process details the step by step of production of the listed boat parts. Ideally, flexible manufacturing system would need to be deployed should the product market space widen as envisaged. FMS ensures parts are produced quickly, more efficiently and in large quantity per production cycle hence proving more economical; but only for large product volumes with insatiable demand at all times. Otherwise for a start, the product parts manufacturing and assembly will have to be implemented manually hence quality of workmanship is an essential component of Manufacturing. Zero to minimum errors should be the only variables to be tolerated.

Lastly, cost optimization techniques are to be employed in order to ensure that both the customer and manufacturer gain value for their individual efforts. One way of facilitating this approach would be to ensure that a concrete value chain cycle is established. For instance, in the use of recyclable materials by the manufacturer, the life cycle of the materials making some of the parts can be traced such that once the customer finishes using the product and its lifecycle elapses then it is returned to the manufacturer for reuse; this then creates a double-gain model for both parties as the old parts are sold to the manufacturer by the user and the manufacturer further creates value by manufacturing the product using the recycled materials hence decreasing the marginal costs of design and manufacturing.

Therefore, the project explores various aspects involved in design and manufacturing of the said product by integrating the principles of sustainable and modular design and manufacturing hence let the work begin.

Recommendations

Based on the observations made in the project progress, the following are the recommendations:

1. In the selection of the right material, the criteria needs to be expanded to make it more complex so that materials are not just dismissed at the face value but rather actual tests are performed to confirm the claims
2. The simulation of the final design was missing; in future, this is recommended so that the unseen design flaws can be detected at the earliest opportune time and be rectified before the actual project is carried out(Hollister, 1994). This was beyond the scope of this report.
3. The seats need to be redesigned to make them more ergonomically aligned. The boat rider must be very comfortable and her safety assured. This can be done by having an adjustable sit so that rider can choose the best height for riding.

Conclusion

This report has provided a design project on a recreational boat that is to be inexpensive and versatile. A number of design parameters were considered. At the centre of this is the aspect of safety which has been discussed and design has accommodated some of the safety design issues. For example, the stability of the boat has greatly been improved by ensuring that the base provides multi-insertion points for various parts that make up the boat. Secondly, checking the final design, one can see that the rider seat and other boat control gadgets are placed almost in the middle; this ensures that the boat remains stable even in great speeds. The propeller is also located at a strategic point at the middle rear of the boat to provide effective steering and forward thrust. Notably, therefore, it can be concluded that the design has greatly met the objectives and need to proceed to the next level of commercialization and mass production.  

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