HOW TO MAKE PRODUCT FAMILY SIZE DECISIONS: A PROPOSED APPROACH & THE VIPER STAND CASE STUDY
Open Access
Author:
Sotos, Cassandra
Area of Honors:
Industrial Engineering
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Gul Kremer, Thesis Supervisor Gul Kremer, Thesis Supervisor Dr. Paul M Griffin, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
quality function deployment QFD product family clustering violin stand variants product design Viper Electric Violin
Abstract:
This study explores of the issue of optimizing the size of a product family in the context of designing a stand for a unique electric violin known as the “Viper.” The study aims to take collected customer data and use that information to identify the optimal number of design variants in the product family. The ultimate goal of this work is to provide a simple, easy to understand, easy to reproduce and customizable method of making product family size decisions and laying a foundation for the design of a product family in any industry.
The proposed methodology, which utilizes K-means clustering analysis and a validity measure, is applied to the design of an instrument stand for the Viper electric violin. A survey was created and distributed to current Viper players and the data was analyzed. In order to determine the optimal number of variants in the product family, clustering analysis is used. Clustering and separating the groups also enables us to profile the different customer types. Generated design concepts are then fit to synthesized design variants using Quality Function Deployment in order to appropriately satisfy the needs of different customer clusters.
