Computer tools for Scheduling There are several alternatives for doing automated scheduling. The “gold standard” program is Microsoft Project. It is very powerful for larger projects, but is still useful for smaller efforts. The Open Software initiative developed a knock off for Project, called, “Project Libre” which is a free download and basically works just like Project, even with the same file types. And, “GanttProject” is another program that is free to download and is advertised as being compatible with Project files. Fall 2016 ECEn 490

Prototyping and Design Standards Fall 2016 ECEn 490

Iomega HipZip Case Study History: 1998 events Iomega had been successful designing and selling the Zip drives, but sales had begun to fall. They were using the “razor and razor blade” product concept. The media was the big money maker. Their core technology was designing contact recording heads that could “fly” over flexible magnetic discs. Marketing was trying to get into another mass consumer market. Engineering prototyped a miniature Zip like drive, code named Clik! Clik! had a 40 MB disc capacity in a PCMCIA Type II card slot. What other product ideas come to mind? Engineering prototyped an audio player called HipZip built around the Clik! mechanism. Analyze the product potential. What are the strengths, weaknesses? Fall 2016 ECEn 490

Iomega HipZip Case Study Cont. What steps would you take in developing a product build around this technology? In depth customer needs evaluation! Thorough competitive benchmarking! What did the development team miss? The semiconductor technology was continuing to improve areal density at the rate of ~ 2X every 18 months. (Moore’s Law) There wasn’t a simple source for generating music content. Actual results; Product was introduced, but never really went into high volume production. Product was dropped within 9 months due to lack of market interest. Estimated that this project cost Iomega over $25 million Fall 2016 ECEn 490

What are prototypes used for? Prototyping Concepts A Prototype is “an approximation of the product along one or more dimensions of interest.” What are prototypes used for? Learning. How well does it meet the customer needs? Communications. Help to visual the product or key components. Integration. Ensure that the components work together as planned. Milestones. Illustrate that the product has reached a certain level of functionality. Fall 2016 ECEn 490

Other uses of Prototypes Often we don’t know enough about the final design. We may be using a new technology that hasn’t been proven. We may have two or more concept alternatives that are “too close to call”. You may have designed an expensive subsystem that requires a long lead time for fabrication. Fall 2016 ECEn 490

Prototyping Concepts Physical Comprehensive Focussed Analytical Component Evaluation Production Prototypes Comprehensive Focussed Not Generally Feasible Component Modeling Analytical Fall 2016 ECEn 490

Why not prototype everything? Costs prototypes can be a major development cost 10,000 unit prototype run!!! Time it takes time to build prototypes and time to evaluate them. Risk prototypes often don’t represent the final product, and decisions made on prototype performance may be wrong. Fall 2016 ECEn 490

When to build Prototypes Analytical Prototypes used extensively Carefully planned comprehensive prototypes Often sell the prototypes Many comprehensive prototypes built Technical or Market Risk Few prototypes may be built for verification Very few comprehensive prototypes built. Cost of Comprehensive Prototype Fall 2016 ECEn 490

How to save time by Prototyping Identify long lead time assemblies that are part of the critical path Prototype in parallel with actual part development Use prototype to help detect unanticipated design problems. You can’t model everything. Most prototypes allow the designer to make quick changes. Fall 2016 ECEn 490

Define carefully what each prototype will be. Prototyping Concepts How do you keep your project from being caught up in the “hardware swamp”? (prototypes that do not really contribute to the goals of the project. Define carefully what each prototype will be. Purpose. Why are we building this prototype? Level of approximation required. How close do we need to come to the final design? What experiment are we trying to perform, and how does the prototype fit into this plan. Develop a schedule for construction and test. Prototype with a plan Fall 2016 ECEn 490

Prototyping Concepts Physical Comprehensive Focussed Analytical Analyze your project concepts and decide what prototypes you will need. Place the prototypes on this chart. Physical Analytical Comprehensive Focussed Fall 2016 ECEn 490

Design Standards What are ‘Design Standards’? Specifications or values that have become generally accepted as common for similar designs. Where did they come from? General use, industry committees, market success, government agencies, etc. List some examples. How do they impact your design? Are Design Standards a constraint or an advantage to the designer? Fall 2016 ECEn 490

Design Standards Assignment for the final report. Include a section in your final report that includes a list of the industry standards that impact your project, and how each standard affected your design. Fall 2016 ECEn 490

Homework Assignment: Continue to work on the project schedule Homework Assignment: Continue to work on the project schedule. It will be due Thursday Feb 18th. Also, begin to look at a Test Plan for at least one of the major design criteria for your project. This should include the test set up, procedures and expected results. Due March 1st. Next lecture is on “Managing your boss” or How to survive in any work group. Fall 2016 ECEn 490