netrashetty
Netra Shetty
Deere & Company, usually known by its brand name John Deere (NYSE: DE), is an American corporation based in Moline, Illinois, and the leading manufacturer of agricultural machinery in the world. In 2010, it was listed as 107th in the Fortune 500 ranking. Deere and Company agricultural products, usually sold under the John Deere name, include tractors, combine harvesters, balers, planters/seeders, ATVs and forestry equipment. The company is also a leading supplier of construction equipment, as well as equipment used in lawn, grounds and turf care, such as ride-on lawn mowers, string trimmers, chainsaws, snowthrowers and for a short period, snowmobiles.
The company's slogan is "Nothing runs like a Deere" and has a picture of a deer as a logo, a word play pun on "nothing runs like a deer."
Additionally, John Deere manufactures engines used in heavy equipment and provides financial services and other related activities that support the core businesses.
The company was founded in 1837 by John Deere, who developed and manufactured the first commercially successful cast-steel plow.
roduct design is a critical factor in organizational success because it sets the characteristics, features, and performance of the service or good that consumers demand. The objective of product design is to create a good or service with excellent functional utility and sales appeal at an acceptable cost and within a reasonable time. The product should be produced using high-quality, low-cost materials and methods. It should be produced on equipment that is or will be available when production begins. The resulting product should be competitive with or better than similar products on the market in terms of quality, appearance, performance, service life, and price.
THE INCREASING IMPORTANCE
OF PRODUCT DESIGN
Product design is more important than ever because customers are demanding greater product variety and are switching more quickly to products with state-of-the-art technology. The impacts of greater product variety and shorter product life cycles have a multiplicative effect on the number of new products and derivative products that need to be designed. For example, just a few years ago, a firm may have produced four different products and each product may have had a product life cycle of ten years. In this case, the firm must design four new products every ten years. Today, in order to be competitive, this firm may produce eight different products with a life cycle of only five years; this firm must introduce eight new products in five years. That represents sixteen new products in ten years or one product every seven and one-half months. In this fast-paced environment, product design ceases to be an ad hoc, intermittent activity and becomes a regular and routine action. For an organization, delays, problems, and confusion in product design shift from being an annoyance to being life threatening.
PRODUCT DESIGN AND SUPPLY
CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Product design can also be an important mechanism for coordinating the activities of key supply chain participants. As organizations outsource the production of sub-assemblies and components, they also may be asking suppliers to participate in product design. As they outsource design capabilities it is essential that they manage and coordinate the flow of information among the supply chain participants. This can be especially important as firms outsource components to two or more suppliers. Now, there may be important design interfaces among two, three, or more suppliers. These interfaces must be properly managed to ensure cost effective and timely designs. Clearly, information and communication technologies become important parts of this effort.
PRODUCT DESIGN: A KEY
TO ORGANIZATIONAL SUCCESS
Product design is an essential activity for firms competing in a global environment. Product design drives organizational success because it directly and significantly impacts nearly all of the critical determinants for success. Customers demand greater product variety and are quick to shift to new, innovative, full-featured products. In addition, customers make purchase decisions based on a growing list of factors that are affected by product design. Previously, customers made purchase decisions based primarily on product price and/or quality. While these factors are still important, customers are adding other dimensions such as customizability, order-to-delivery time, product safety, and ease and cost of maintenance. Environmental concerns are expanding to include impacts during production, during the product's operating life, and at the end of its life (recycle-ability). In addition, customers demand greater protection from defective products, which leads to lower product liability losses. Safer and longer lasting products lead to enhanced warrantee provision, which, in turn, impact customer satisfaction and warrantee repair costs.
Programs and activities are being put in place so organizations can cope with these dimensions. Organizations are embracing concepts such as mass customization, design for manufacturing and assembly, product disposal, quality function deployment, and time-based competition. They are using technology such as rapid prototyping and computer-aided design to examine how products function, how much they may cost to produce, and how they may impact the environment. Firms are searching for and implementing new technologies to determine ways to design better products. They are examining legal and ethical issues in product design as well as the impact of product design on the environment.
MASS CUSTOMIZATION
Mass customization is the low-cost, high-quality, large volume delivery of individually customized products. It is the ability to quickly design and produce customized products on a large scale at a cost comparable to non-customized products. Customization, cost effectiveness is the ability to produce highly differentiated products without increasing costs, significantly. Consumers expect to receive customized products at close to mass-production prices. Customization volume effectiveness is the ability to increase product variety without diminishing production volume. As markets become more and more segmented and aggregate demand remains constant or increases, firms must continue to design and produce high volumes across the same fixed asset base. Customization responsiveness is the ability to reduce the time required to deliver customized products and to reorganize design and production processes quickly in response to customer requests. It would be counter-productive to pursue mass customization if a customized product takes too long to produce. Speed in product design and production is an indispensable criterion for evaluating an organization's mass customization capability.
DESIGN FOR MANUFACTURING
AND ASSEMBLY
Improving manufacturability is an important goal for product design. A systems approach to product design that was developed by two researchers from England, Geoffrey Boothroyd and Peter Dewhurst, is called design for manufacturability and assembly (DFMA). It can be a powerful tool to improve product quality and lower manufacturing cost. The approach focuses on manufacturing issues during product design. DFMA is implemented through computer software that identifies designs concepts that would be easy to build by focusing on the economic implications of design decisions. These decisions are critical even though design is a small part of the overall cost of a product because design decisions fix 70 to 90 percent of the manufacturing costs. In application, DFMA has had some startling successes. With the DFMA software, Texas Instruments reduced assembly time for an infrared sighting mechanism from 129 minutes to 20 minutes. IBM sliced assembly time for its printers from thirty minutes to three minutes.
Firms are recognizing that the concept behind DFMA can also be extended beyond cost control to design products that are easy to service and maintain. To do this effectively, service and maintenance issues should be considered at the earliest stages of the design. Also, firms will be required to examine disposal during product design as they become liable for recycling the products they make. It can be easier to recycle products if those factors are part of the product design paradigm.
DISPOSAL AND PRODUCT DESIGN
Disposal is becoming an increasingly important part of product design. The European Union is taking the lead by requiring that most of an automobile is recycled by the year 2010. This requirement has a major impact on product design. The most obvious effect is to change the notion that a consumer is the final owner for a product. With this approach, the product returns to the manufacturer to be recycled and the recycling process should begin in product design. Vehicles should be designed so they can be disassembled and recycled easily. The designers should avoid exotic materials that are difficulty to recycle. For example, parts that have plastic and metal fused together should not be used in applications where they are difficult to separate. The designers should determine which parts will be designed to be refurbished and reused, and which will be designed to be discarded, broken down, and recycled. All this should be done without adding costs or reducing product quality.
The researcher’s next task is to make sense of the collected data. Before the researcher can gain understanding from the collected data, he/she must first examine the raw information (i.e., what was actually collected) to make sure the information exists as required. There are many reasons why data may not be presented in the form needed for further analysis. Some of reasons include:
Incomplete Responses – This most likely occurs when the method of data collection (e.g., survey) is not fully completed, such as when the person taking part in the research fails to provide all information (e.g., skips questions).
Data Entry Error – This exists when the information is not recorded properly which can occur due to the wrong entry being made (e.g., entry should be choice “B” but is entered as choice “C”) or failure of data entry technology (e.g., online connection is disrupted before full completion of survey).
Questionable Entry – This occurs when there are apparent inconsistencies in responses such as when a respondent does not appear to be answering honestly.
To address these issues the researcher will take steps to “cleanse” the data which may include dropping problematic data either in part (e.g., exclude a single question) or in full (e.g., drop an entire survey). Alternatively, the research may be able to salvage some problem data with certain coding methods, though a discussion of these is beyond the scope of this tutorial.
The company's slogan is "Nothing runs like a Deere" and has a picture of a deer as a logo, a word play pun on "nothing runs like a deer."
Additionally, John Deere manufactures engines used in heavy equipment and provides financial services and other related activities that support the core businesses.
The company was founded in 1837 by John Deere, who developed and manufactured the first commercially successful cast-steel plow.
roduct design is a critical factor in organizational success because it sets the characteristics, features, and performance of the service or good that consumers demand. The objective of product design is to create a good or service with excellent functional utility and sales appeal at an acceptable cost and within a reasonable time. The product should be produced using high-quality, low-cost materials and methods. It should be produced on equipment that is or will be available when production begins. The resulting product should be competitive with or better than similar products on the market in terms of quality, appearance, performance, service life, and price.
THE INCREASING IMPORTANCE
OF PRODUCT DESIGN
Product design is more important than ever because customers are demanding greater product variety and are switching more quickly to products with state-of-the-art technology. The impacts of greater product variety and shorter product life cycles have a multiplicative effect on the number of new products and derivative products that need to be designed. For example, just a few years ago, a firm may have produced four different products and each product may have had a product life cycle of ten years. In this case, the firm must design four new products every ten years. Today, in order to be competitive, this firm may produce eight different products with a life cycle of only five years; this firm must introduce eight new products in five years. That represents sixteen new products in ten years or one product every seven and one-half months. In this fast-paced environment, product design ceases to be an ad hoc, intermittent activity and becomes a regular and routine action. For an organization, delays, problems, and confusion in product design shift from being an annoyance to being life threatening.
PRODUCT DESIGN AND SUPPLY
CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Product design can also be an important mechanism for coordinating the activities of key supply chain participants. As organizations outsource the production of sub-assemblies and components, they also may be asking suppliers to participate in product design. As they outsource design capabilities it is essential that they manage and coordinate the flow of information among the supply chain participants. This can be especially important as firms outsource components to two or more suppliers. Now, there may be important design interfaces among two, three, or more suppliers. These interfaces must be properly managed to ensure cost effective and timely designs. Clearly, information and communication technologies become important parts of this effort.
PRODUCT DESIGN: A KEY
TO ORGANIZATIONAL SUCCESS
Product design is an essential activity for firms competing in a global environment. Product design drives organizational success because it directly and significantly impacts nearly all of the critical determinants for success. Customers demand greater product variety and are quick to shift to new, innovative, full-featured products. In addition, customers make purchase decisions based on a growing list of factors that are affected by product design. Previously, customers made purchase decisions based primarily on product price and/or quality. While these factors are still important, customers are adding other dimensions such as customizability, order-to-delivery time, product safety, and ease and cost of maintenance. Environmental concerns are expanding to include impacts during production, during the product's operating life, and at the end of its life (recycle-ability). In addition, customers demand greater protection from defective products, which leads to lower product liability losses. Safer and longer lasting products lead to enhanced warrantee provision, which, in turn, impact customer satisfaction and warrantee repair costs.
Programs and activities are being put in place so organizations can cope with these dimensions. Organizations are embracing concepts such as mass customization, design for manufacturing and assembly, product disposal, quality function deployment, and time-based competition. They are using technology such as rapid prototyping and computer-aided design to examine how products function, how much they may cost to produce, and how they may impact the environment. Firms are searching for and implementing new technologies to determine ways to design better products. They are examining legal and ethical issues in product design as well as the impact of product design on the environment.
MASS CUSTOMIZATION
Mass customization is the low-cost, high-quality, large volume delivery of individually customized products. It is the ability to quickly design and produce customized products on a large scale at a cost comparable to non-customized products. Customization, cost effectiveness is the ability to produce highly differentiated products without increasing costs, significantly. Consumers expect to receive customized products at close to mass-production prices. Customization volume effectiveness is the ability to increase product variety without diminishing production volume. As markets become more and more segmented and aggregate demand remains constant or increases, firms must continue to design and produce high volumes across the same fixed asset base. Customization responsiveness is the ability to reduce the time required to deliver customized products and to reorganize design and production processes quickly in response to customer requests. It would be counter-productive to pursue mass customization if a customized product takes too long to produce. Speed in product design and production is an indispensable criterion for evaluating an organization's mass customization capability.
DESIGN FOR MANUFACTURING
AND ASSEMBLY
Improving manufacturability is an important goal for product design. A systems approach to product design that was developed by two researchers from England, Geoffrey Boothroyd and Peter Dewhurst, is called design for manufacturability and assembly (DFMA). It can be a powerful tool to improve product quality and lower manufacturing cost. The approach focuses on manufacturing issues during product design. DFMA is implemented through computer software that identifies designs concepts that would be easy to build by focusing on the economic implications of design decisions. These decisions are critical even though design is a small part of the overall cost of a product because design decisions fix 70 to 90 percent of the manufacturing costs. In application, DFMA has had some startling successes. With the DFMA software, Texas Instruments reduced assembly time for an infrared sighting mechanism from 129 minutes to 20 minutes. IBM sliced assembly time for its printers from thirty minutes to three minutes.
Firms are recognizing that the concept behind DFMA can also be extended beyond cost control to design products that are easy to service and maintain. To do this effectively, service and maintenance issues should be considered at the earliest stages of the design. Also, firms will be required to examine disposal during product design as they become liable for recycling the products they make. It can be easier to recycle products if those factors are part of the product design paradigm.
DISPOSAL AND PRODUCT DESIGN
Disposal is becoming an increasingly important part of product design. The European Union is taking the lead by requiring that most of an automobile is recycled by the year 2010. This requirement has a major impact on product design. The most obvious effect is to change the notion that a consumer is the final owner for a product. With this approach, the product returns to the manufacturer to be recycled and the recycling process should begin in product design. Vehicles should be designed so they can be disassembled and recycled easily. The designers should avoid exotic materials that are difficulty to recycle. For example, parts that have plastic and metal fused together should not be used in applications where they are difficult to separate. The designers should determine which parts will be designed to be refurbished and reused, and which will be designed to be discarded, broken down, and recycled. All this should be done without adding costs or reducing product quality.
The researcher’s next task is to make sense of the collected data. Before the researcher can gain understanding from the collected data, he/she must first examine the raw information (i.e., what was actually collected) to make sure the information exists as required. There are many reasons why data may not be presented in the form needed for further analysis. Some of reasons include:
Incomplete Responses – This most likely occurs when the method of data collection (e.g., survey) is not fully completed, such as when the person taking part in the research fails to provide all information (e.g., skips questions).
Data Entry Error – This exists when the information is not recorded properly which can occur due to the wrong entry being made (e.g., entry should be choice “B” but is entered as choice “C”) or failure of data entry technology (e.g., online connection is disrupted before full completion of survey).
Questionable Entry – This occurs when there are apparent inconsistencies in responses such as when a respondent does not appear to be answering honestly.
To address these issues the researcher will take steps to “cleanse” the data which may include dropping problematic data either in part (e.g., exclude a single question) or in full (e.g., drop an entire survey). Alternatively, the research may be able to salvage some problem data with certain coding methods, though a discussion of these is beyond the scope of this tutorial.
Last edited: