EFFICIENCY IN PRODUCT DESIGN

ROLE OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERS IN CREATING A

PRODUCT WITH MAXIMUM EFFICIENCY
Efficiency is the ability to avoid wasting materials, energy,
efforts, money, and time in doing something or in producing a
desired result.  it is the ability to do things well, successfully, and
without waste 

Industrial engineers are system efficiency designers. They evaluate the

efficiency of various functional system designs proposed by functional
designers and managers and wherever inefficiencies are found, will
facilitate removal of them. 
Product design efficiency engineering is an activity of industrial engineers.
Industrial engineers are system efficiency designers. They evaluate the
efficiency of various functional system designs proposed by functional
designers and managers and wherever inefficiencies are found, will
facilitate removal of them.

Product design efficiency engineering is an activity of industrial engineers.

As a part of the method study, the techniques of methods efficiency
engineering, industrial engineers examined the efficiency of design. The
development of value engineering systematized the product design
efficiency engineering process.

Efficiency of the designs is analyzed with respect to its functions, its

features, subassembly design, component specifications including
tolerances and fits, material specifications, use of standard bought out
parts, and manufacturing processes employed in value engineering. Value
engineering practice has given immense savings in the product costs in
various industrial sectors.
A good product design has following common features:

 Utility: The product design should make product utility as per

expectation of customers and provide steady performance through
the product life.
 Aesthetics: Product aesthetics is important in success of the
product. The product aesthetics is dependent on market and end
customer.
 Producible: Product design should enable effective production of
product through available production methods.
 Profitability: Product design should make economic sense as to
deliver value to customer and sustainability to the organization.
 Differentiable: A good product design should enable product to be
differentiate among its competition. This can be achieved by
attractive packaging and also by providing additional service on the
product.

AN EXAMPLE OF PRODUCT DESIGNED WITH

MAXIMUM UTILIZATION AND EFFICIENCY
EXISTING DESIGNS
PROBLEMS IN EXISTING DESIGN
The problems appearing in above designs are as follows

a) The height is set and cannot be adjusted in the future

b) The height is adjustable but the stability is questionable
c) Again the height is set and the material is not suitable for cooling the
laptop as its wood and wood can be highly flammable

ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS

4 BAR

6 BAR
8 BAR
 DESIRED DESIGN
8 BAR MECHANISM

Level adjustable

Fully compressed
 It can be
utilized in fully way as well
FINAL DESIGN

USER ANALYSIS AND ITS UTILIZATION

 User analysis is the process by which engineers, developers, and
designers track how users engage and interact with their software,
product, or application in an attempt to improve their product, bring
more users in, improve user engagement with their product, and the
general success of their application

Personas:
Personas are fictional characters created to represent the different user
types that might use a product in a similar way. The purpose of personas is
to create reliable and realistic representations of the key audience
segments for reference. Once created, personas help product teams to
understand the users’ goals in specific contexts, which is particularly useful
during ideation.
Empathy Map:
An empathy map is a visualization tool used to articulate what a product
team knows about the user. This tool helps a product team build a broader
understanding of the “why” behind user needs and wants. It forces product
teams to shift their focus from the product they want to build to the people
who will use the product. As a team identifies what they know about the
user and then places this information on a chart, they gain a more holistic
view of the user’s world and the problem or opportunity space.

Ideation

The ideation phase is a time when team members brainstorm on a range of

creative ideas that address the project goals. During this phase, it’s critical
not only to generate ideas but also to confirm that the most important
design assumptions are valid. Product teams have a lot of techniques for
ideation — from sketching, which is very helpful for visualizing what some
aspects of the design will look like, to storyboarding, which is used to
visualize the overall interactions with a product.

User Journey Mapping

A user journey map is a visualization of the process that a person goes
through in order to accomplish a goal. Typically, it’s presented as a series
of steps in which a person interacts with a product.
A user journey can take a wide variety of forms depending on the context
and business goals. In its most basic form, a user journey is presented as a
series of user steps and actions in a timeline skeleton
Scenarios and Storyboards:
A scenario is a narrative describing a day in the life of a persona, including
how a product fits into their life. A storyboard presents the user’s story in a
visual way — similar to a movie or comic. It can help product designers
understand how people interact with a product in real life, giving designers
a clear sense of what’s really important to users.
Job Stories:
A job story is a way to describe features. It’s a description of a feature from
a jobs-to-be-done perspective. A job story is an effective technique for
defining a problem without being prescriptive of a solution .

Sketching:
Sketching is the easiest way to visualize ideas. Drawing by hand is a fast
way to visualize a concept — enabling the designer to visualize a broad
range of design solutions before deciding which one to stick with.

INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES IN WORKPLACE FOR

EFFECIENCY
Technological advancements have entirely reshaped the organizations by
making their business processes highly integrated, and more streamlined.
This is more so in case of small or medium enterprises. Run by a few
people, small businesses need technology like nothing else.

 Companies were in a mess as they had to deal with a lot of paperwork,

meetings had to be held in rooms, travel expenses were incurred on client
meetings and communication across the organization was not so easy.
From the ways of communication to the methods of solution, technology
has helped businesses come a long way. All the operational and
communication issues have now been simplified and streamlined with the
help of new technology. Businesses no longer need to take a pause in any
of their tasks.
Whatever barriers that used to be there a long time back, like the
communication barrier, task-performing barriers, management barriers, or
outsourcing barriers, have been overcome by the invention of technology.
Internet and various software and applications have made it possible for
the businesses to remain focused on their goals with no or negligible
disruption by the day-to-day operational procedures.
1. Changing the Way Businesses Communicate

Technology has changed the way people used to communicate in the

modern workplace. The arrival of smartphones, social networking sites,
chat apps has brought communication to a new level. Communication
among the employees, or management to subordinates, or management
to management has become fast, instantaneous, more deliberate,
collaborative, and unified.
You can send emails, text or video chat or even video conference with
subordinates or superiors through social networking apps like
WhatsApp, Skype, etc. With the help of technology, you no longer need
to be present at your workplace every time. You can engage in other
important works outside the office, and keep in touch even face-to-face
with your colleagues at the office through video chats and conference.
2. Keeping It Fully Organized

Technology helps in keeping the business fully organized. Systems like

Project Management Software helps in building, delegating, reviewing,
and assessing a task. Employers and managers can easily supervise
workplace activities that help in keeping everything on track. It fixes the
responsibility, accountability, efficiency, and timed delivery of tasks
assigned to people.
The modern workplace has now many innovative products and software
to increase the workflow and boost efficiency. Project Management
Software helps to improve the quality and quantity of work, and also
helps in risk assessment by providing a red flag every time a task gets
off track that might lead to a project failure. Space management
 software helps keep your workplace organized which results in improved
space utilization.
3. Making Business Operations More Productive

Businesses nowadays rely on business productivity software that

provides many tools to overcome challenges of executing on strategy
every day. It enables managers to more easily track progress during
every phase of goal completion and offer immediate reinforcement or
coaching to keep performance and deadlines on track.
This is another example of the role of technology in improving the
productivity and performance of the organizations. Access to new
technology has enabled the employees to do things faster with precision
and has helped in discouraging workplace distractions, thus raising
productivity.
4. Helping in Cost Management

Improving profitability is the ultimate goal of every company. Due to

innovative technological software, companies are now becoming fiscally
healthy as these innovations are proving to be more cost-effective.
Every workplace has some chore tasks that need dedicated people to
handle it. It needlessly keeps the costs high. This cost can also be
reduced by installing SaaS tools in the workplace.
Through SaaS tools, we can eliminate the manual handling of a task by
automating wherever possible and focusing on the integration of
different tasks. Not only that, automated processes give more accurate
results, and help keep every record with its date and time mentioned.
This way they are easy to be recalled for any business purpose. This
overall management of costs at different levels provides better
profitability by reducing the cost.
5. Keeping the Business Secure

Business workplace at its every level demands a great level of security

for its safe running. Technology plays a vital part in doing so. It provides
an end-to-end hardware and software-based data encryption so that
 only authorized parties are able to retrieve and read it. Fingerprint and
facial recognition features give an added level of security to the systems
at the workplace.
The companies are using innovative technology and implementing
security software and algorithms to make sure that sensitive information
is accessible to the right people and is protected from malicious hacking
attempts.
6. Giving Customizing Options

Technology has made it possible to customize any software according

to the variable business needs. Businesses are now using such
software to manage their day-to-day operations. One such software that
is becoming popular in the modern workplace is facility management
software.
Whether large or small, every business workplace has its own way of
doing things for achieving their goals. For that, they need a kind of
technological support that suits their style of working and the
customizable software is able to provide those services.
7. Increasing Collaboration

Technology has completely changed the way companies collaborate.

Technology has helped us connect with people anywhere and at any
time. This increased collaboration has brought a high level of flexibility in
communication that allows employees, co-workers, and managers to
connect with each other easily.
As employees can now connect and communicate no matter where they
are, this has helped in encouraging teamwork, mutual understanding,
and bonding between the employees. Improved level of collaboration
also helps leaders and managers to stay in touch with their employees
and manage them better. Increased collaboration on projects has
enabled the companies to keep their clients updated on their project
performance and progress.
8. Reducing the Risk of Security Breaches
 Stealing critical and important information was easy in the past, but now
with the use of technology, the threat of data thefts and leaks have been
reduced. Proper security measures are being implemented in the
workplace that helps in keeping important information safe.
It has also become easier to keep a check on the employee’s’ online
communication and activities to ensure that they don’t get involved in
any practice which is against the interest of the company. As employees
know that they are being watched all the time, the likelihood of getting
involved in any wrong practice is reduced.
9. Improving Efficiency of Employees

Time management is important in the modern workplace as poor time

management can cause deadlines to be missed leading to an unhappy
client. Time management has now become easier with the help of
modern technological tools. These tools have helped in optimizing the
daily working routine and enabling the employees to focus on the most
important task.
This helps in increasing the efficiency of the employees, allowing them
to meet the deadlines and eventually results in client satisfaction. As
technological advancements have reduced the amount of time and effort
spent on daily activities, employees can now spend more time on
creativity and developing new ideas.
10. Enabling Remote Working

New technology has enabled remote working, teleconferencing and co-

working space which has completely reshaped the modern workplace.
Mobile and cloud technology has allowed instant and remote access
which enables internet-based service models. This has resulted in
interconnected workplaces not tied to one location, but many. They are
hinged together by virtual conferencing, complete connection and
portability.
Cloud technologies and improved IM systems have helped the
employees to work from anywhere with the click of a mouse. Video
 conferencing has made it possible to coordinate with the best
employees no matter where they are.
The impact of technology in the workplace is incredible. It has changed the
way traditional workplaces used to work. It’s up to the business leaders to
keep up with its evolving pace in the most efficient manner. Business
owners cannot afford to compromise their company’s productivity,
profitability, and security. By implementing new technological solutions and
facilities management software such as QuickFMS, business leaders can
ensure optimal profitability and productivity in their modern workplace.