Designing design decision process. Chuck Jones wanted to

Designing design decision process. Chuck Jones wanted to

Designing for Dollars – Page 129 1. Would you characterize product design decisions structured or unstructured problems? It can be both. Product design is a balance of art and science. The structured decisions are those defined as recognizable and defined.

Unstructured decisions are described as problems that are new or different for which the information is and for which information is inadequate For this, Whirlpool had no prior knowledge or procedure in place for the consideration of the amount (dollars) for design changes.As Chuck went ahead and created this process by starting groups to focus on changes as well as marketing this would be measured as an unstructured problem that Chuck made into the Industry norm for Whirlpool. 2. Describe and evaluate the process Chuck went through to change the way design decisions were made. Describe and evaluate the company’s new design decision process. Chuck Jones wanted to change the design process to an approach backed by data instead of a return on the investment approach.

When the resource team requested that Mr. Jones provide proof that his new design ideas would make profits he was unable at the time to give hard financial data to prove the design would payoff. Mr. Jones’ first step was to outsource and survey other companies that were similar in production and making of the product.

He found out other companies which were only a few had a process for figuring out results for the future with previous performance. Mr.Jones needed to provide a new plan for measuring how customers would react to new changes. Good feedback from the public would equal possible future return on the investment that was requested by the research team. Therefore Whirlpool could and would focus on the needs of the customer.

The company was now putting the customer first. 3. What criteria does Whirlpool’s design team use in design decisions? What do you think each of these criteria involves?The design department of Whirlpool used customer preference as the focus of the company’s main goal. The bottom-line of the company was to discover what preferences the customer desired and stay with it.

The adherence of the bottom-line is of measuring strength and stability of the company’s main structure, but Mr. Jones needed a system that could forecast the return on Whirlpools investment. After much consideration and investigation of the companies competitors and projections to be considered as in competitive companies what Mr.Jones discovered is that many other organizations including very large global companies is that they faced the same or similar situation as Whirlpool and that all of them needed a system that could forecast a profit. The design team created a process that would put design prototypes for customer focus groups and this way he could get the preferences of customers regarding design, workability, performance and usability. This approach would provide management with now designing on documented fact and not of just an opinion.