Overview

During my Engineering Design and Economics class at Virginia Tech, we were tasked, in groups of three, to develop an idea for a product, model and prototype the design, and conduct market research of similar products to determine the viability of the product based on expected units sold at a given price compared to the complete cost of manufacturing and selling of the product. We then had to present the project to our classmates and the professor.

My team's product idea was called The Medium. It was a small, portable box with several switchable board games and magnetic playing pieces for physical board game fun on the go.

Throughout the project, we had to write several reports detailing the design, customer needs for the design, team progress and task scheduling, and the economics of selling the product. Customer needs were established by researching similar products and surveying members of the target customer base, determined by creating a customer profile. These needs then had their importance established in a Quality Function Deployment (QFD) chart and were given target and marginal values for achieving success. Potential sources of failure for the design were also evaluated using Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA).

All team members contributed to the reports and researching throughout the project.

My Main Contributions

During the project, I came up with the the original design for my team's product, The Medium. It is a small board game box featuring several different playing boards for different games on the inside of the lid with a magnetic playing surface and magnetic pieces to allow the game to easily be played in uneven environments, critical to allow for the design's portable nature.

I created two prototypes of the design, one rudimentary one out of poster board for a proof of concept, and one highly functional prototype out of wood featuring complete magnetic functionality and playability of several board games, including chess and peg solitaire.

I created the CAD models for all of the parts and compiled them into a functional assembling featuring a working hinge, allowing to the lid to open and close in the CAD model.

I created the economic model for the product. As the main team member responsible for creating the design, I knew how much it cost to build, and added in estimates for labor costs per unit and fixed costs such as the workspace required to manufacture the products. Utilizing the market research gathered by my teammates, I was able to create a good sale price estimate for the design and determined the break even point for the number of units that needed to be sold. I also created a second economic model for a premium version of the product that had a higher profit margin to showcase the differences across a possible product line.

As the team member responsible for constructing the prototypes, I was also responsible for creating our Bill of Materials (BOM) and both our Design for Manufacturing (DFM) and Design for Assembly (DFA) analyses.

Finally,  I also created the marketing video for the product. In our case, since we had a very consumer oriented product, our video was an approximately 60 second TV-style advertisement for the product showcasing the convenient fun provided by the portable device, allowing people to play games on the go in a physical manner, rather than relying on phones and mobile games.