USING PRODUCT DISSECTION TO EXPOSE ENGINEERING STUDENTS TO CULTRUAL ISSUES IN PRODUCT DESIGN
Open Access
- Author:
- Kang, Kang
- Graduate Program:
- Industrial Engineering
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- None
- Committee Members:
- Timothy William Simpson, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Timothy William Simpson, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor - Keywords:
- Engineering Design Education
Product Dissection - Abstract:
- With the growing use of product dissection for benchmarking purposes in industry and for engineering education purposes in academia, a systematic and practical dissection methodology and a model for dissection in education are needed. This work reviews and compares existing methodologies and based on that introduces an integrated product dissection methodology to assess product architecture and functionality. A case study is used to demonstrate the proposed methodology on two rice cookers, and cultural issues of rice cooker design are identified. With globalization becoming an important issue, bringing the concept of global and societal issues into engineering design education is essential. Inspired by the findings of the rice cooker dissection, an experiment is conducted to test the incorporation of rice cookers into product dissection activities in the Spring 2011 offering of ME240: Product Dissection at the Pennsylvania State University. The purpose of adding rice cookers to the appliances dissection section of the course is to expose students to the cultural issues of rice cooker design (e.g., product functions and features based on cooking and dietary needs). The students’ responses were collected and analyzed including numbers of correct responses, sketches of mechanisms and components, suggestions for improving the design, and feedback on cultural needs. The results provide a baseline for future educational evaluation.