Team 5
Phase 1 Report
Cirrus Engineering has asked our team to design a machine that will mimic the motion of human movement. Our proposal brings to the market a machine that combines the effectiveness of the running/walking motion with the ease/low-impact of biking. By designing something that is low cost and can be mass-produced, Cirrus Engineering’s goal of 5 million dollars will be met and surpassed. The details of our proposal are listed below.
Problem Definition: Design a mechanism which mimics or uses human running or walking movement to perform some action that would be attractive to a customer.
Design Problem Identification: Using a linkage, facilitate the human running or walking movement in a useful mechanism.
Customer Wants: It is important to take into account the different customers interested in this product when defining customer wants. The three groups targeted for this design will be Cirrus Engineering, the young adult market and the elderly market. These wants include the cost of manufacturing, unit price, appearance, portability, safety, durability, comfort and ease of use. All three groups will have different rankings of these wants. The attached spreadsheet shows this.
Customer Constraints: Safety is the main customer constraint for our design. Another constraint may include the conformity to human movement. This means that the product cannot defy the walking or running motion in order to adhere to our problem definition.
Benchmarking: See attached spreadsheet for drawings of alternate and existing products. Price variations are included for the competing designs.
Objective Mission: The goal is to design a mechanism meant for recreation and exercise that will mimic the human walking/running motion and will produce five million dollars in five years for Cirrus Engineering.
Performance Specifications: The product must move safely and adhere to the human movement. The mechanism must be a linkage and make a profit of 5 million dollars.
Cost Specification: The market cost of our product was found by researching the material costs of the components and the estimated production costs. By deciding the material selection and amount, we were able to predict the cost for each component of the model. Combining the component costs and the production cost (estimated to be 50 dollars per machine) we were able to derive the total cost of the machine. Within the production cost, we took into account the cost of advertisement and marketing which in relation to the expected unit sales, were turned into an individual unit production cost. Using the NPV spreadsheet, we were able to relate the unit cost to the unit price in a manner that resulted in a 5 million dollar profit for Cirrus Engineering.
Broader Societal Impact: We are hoping, through this product, to provide an alternative to the current exercise machines. By doing so, this will have the effect of a more social exercise community as a result of bringing people out of the house with a self powered mechanism.
Proposed Concept: See attached sheet for concept drawing.
Development and Commercialization Plan: Due to the fact that a bike already has a firm grip on the market for this purpose of recreation and exercise, marketing will be a top priority in assuring success of our goal statement. Making a prototype of our product and presenting the concept/motive to Cirrus Engineering will assist in the development of the product. The commercialization plan will include advertising to get the product into the stores and selling.
The design work just as an elliptical machine works, using a four-bar design to simulate the motion of walking. But unlike the elliptical machine, our design uses the rear bar’s circular motion to propel a three wheel base.
VALUE SYNTHESIS / 2004 / 2005 / 2006 / 2007 / 2008 / 2009YEAR> / 0 / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5
$ In / UNIT SALES / # / 6000 / 8000 / 10000 / 12000 / 13000
UNIT PRICE / $ / 435 / 432 / 430 / 420 / 410
REVENUE / $m / 2610 / 3456 / 4300 / 5040 / 5330
MARGIN / % / 50 / 60 / 65 / 55 / 45
$ Out / OPN COSTS / $m / 1305 / 1382 / 1505 / 2268 / 2932
UNIT COST / $ / 218 / 173 / 151 / 189 / 226
DES/DEV COST / $m / 100 / 100
CAP COST / $m / 500
TOT COST / $m / 100 / 1905 / 1382 / 1505 / 2268 / 2932
DEPR OF CAP 10%/yr) / $m / 50 / 50 / 50 / 50 / 50
Value / BT EARNINGS / $m / -100 / 705 / 2074 / 2795 / 2772 / 2399
AT EARNINGS / $m / -60 / 443 / 1264 / 1697 / 1683 / 1459
DISCOUNTED EARNINGS / $m / -60 / 410 / 1084 / 1347 / 1237 / 993
NPV / $mm / 5.01
Discount Factor* / 1.000 / 0.926 / 0.857 / 0.794 / 0.735 / 0.681
Cost of Capital / 0.08