Group 26 - Mr. Coffee Coffee Maker Gate 2 Preliminary Project Review
Contents |
Project Management: Preliminary Project Review
Cause For Corrective Action
The original disection plan was followed for the first stages of the disassembly. However, as the disection process further developed the plan had to be altered from the orignal assumptions made in the Product Assessment
. There were several steps thar were added to the disection process because of unkown additional components inside the coffee marker. The addaption to the plan went smoothly, in part mostly because of the improvement of teamwork skills that were found lacking in
Gate 1. Several team meetings and frequent communication via email and text messaging, proved well for keeping the process on schedule. Also the better delagation of tasks to team members strengths, shown to output higher work quality.
The following is an overview of the disection of the coffee maker and the components found inside. It is formatted to match the original disection plan for easy comparison.
Plan Comparison
The following link will take can be used to view and compare the original Work Plan (outlined in Gate 1), to the process completed in Gate 2.
Original Disection Plan From Gate 1
Section 1: External And Simple Disassembly
The external and simple disassembly went as planned. The first few steps of the dissection was either done by hand or with the #1 Phillips Head screw driver with minimal effort. This included the removal of the filter, grinder assembly, and the coffee maker's base. Everytime a component was taken out of the system it was documented and photographed. The total time used for this section was approximately 15 minutes.
Section 2: Interior Component Removal
The interior component also went as planned with a few minor changes. Upon opening the coffee maker it was realized that there were wired conections that prevented the components from removal. This was brought to the conclustion that from this point on, the disection could no longer fall under regular matinance. In other words the following steps were not designed to be done by the consumer. In addition to the photograph procedure of the exterior and simple disassembly, each component was photographed both before and after intial removal from the coffee maker. The additional photograph documentaiton was used to determine the componets relationship to one another inside the system, as well as provided a visual guide for reassembly. As stated in the orginal plan, the removal of every component was first planned out and noted for its connections before its actual removal. The notes of the connections were related to the reason for the included connection and their functionality supplied to the system. After all the proper documentaion was required each component was removed from the coffee maker. The total time used for this stage was approximately one hour.
Section 3: Component Breakdown
We did not really follow the guidelines to closely for this phase. This was because in our original plan we had not seen the inner components yet, and therefor had to use a lot of guess work. The inner components were not to dificult to disect but they were the most dificult part. Seperating the components was dificult because they were clearly not designed to be seperated, the wiring had to be removed first. All of the components and parts were documented in a diagram, which will provide use for CAD drawings, went as plan as well. Overall the plan went ok we just could not examine the parts as much as we wanted to because they couldn’t be removed from the system. The time it took for this stage was a little over an hour.
Challenges:
There were minimal challenges while taking apart the coffee maker. The system is relatively simple and is easily taken apart by one person and a #1 Phillips Head screwdriver. The disection was finished in just under two and a half hours. This however was due to documentation, without documentation the coffee maker takers 20-25 minutes to disassemble.
Difficulty Breakdown:
Rating Scale: from 1 to 5
1 = Simple. Minimal effort and no tools needed, no pre-planning required.
2 = Easy. Little effort and planning, few or no tools needed.
3 = Medium. Some effort required and a small amount of pre-planning is needed. Some tools may be required.
4 = Hard. A lot of pre-planning is required, and a good amount of effort. Tools are required.
5 = Very Hard. A large Amount of Planning and effort is needed. Teamwork is suggested and tools will defidently be required.
| Dificulty Breakdown | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Section | Process | Process Description | Dificulty Rating |
| Section 1 | Remove Top | Opened the top of the Coffee maker to access Grinder and Filter | 1 |
| Remove Bottom | Removed the bottom faceplate in order to access inner components such as heating unit | 2 | |
| Section 2 | Grinder and Filter | Removed the grinder and filter from the top of the coffee maker | 1 |
| Heating unit | Removed the heating unit from the bottom of the coffee maker after detaching some wires | 3 | |
| Water flow system | Removed the water intake tubes and the water transporting tubes as well as the pump system | 3 | |
| Circuitry | Removed the electrical processor and wireing that is responsable for settings (such as timer, brew strength, and brew delay) | 4 | |
| Section 3 | Disection of Grinder | Disect the grinder into individual components (IE: The grinder blades) | 2 |
| Disection of Heating Unit | Disection of heating unit into individual components (IE: Insulated water pipes) | 3 | |
| Disection of Water system | Disection of the water system into its individual components (IE: Rubber tubing, Pump) | 2 | |
| Disection of Circuitry | Disection of the electral system into its individual components (IE: Copper wire, Processor) | 5 | |
Product Design Overview:
The Mr Coffee coffee maker has parts that were designed with common consumer disection in mind, parts with rare consumer disection in mind, and parts with no consumer disection in mind. It is easy to figure out which part is which when disection the product.
- The Filter and grinder were designed with common disection in mind. This is obvious when disecting the product because of how easy it is and the fact that you dont even need any tools. This part of the coffee maker was designed to be taken apart often, and is easy and quick to do.
- The internal systems such as the water heating system were designed to be very rarely taken apart. It is designed so that with a screwdriver and some thinking you can get to these systems and make minor adjustments or repairs (such as patching some leaking tubing). It is not designed to be done often or by many consumers however, because it is dificult to get to and even more dificult to adjust and understand. It would not be expected of a consumer to have to do any of this under normal circumstances.
- Disection of the internal systemes, such as taking apart the circutry or the water system, is not designed to ever be done. In order to take these apart you need to completely disect the coffee maker which takes a lot of time and energy. It is also very complicated and has a lot of wiring and permanent connections that would have to be broken in order to disect any further. At this level of disection, it is clear that the product is not designed with this in mind.
Factors Affecting Product Design
There are a few global, societal, economic, and environmental concerns that influence the Mr Coffee coffee maker design and how it is put together.
- One of the Societal factors is the human desire to have their coffee as hot as possable. This made it so that the coffee maker had to heat the water to very hot tempatures (about 200 degrees fahrenheit) in order to be appealing. This ment that the coffee maker had to be designed with well insulated tubing and pipes, as well as a high voltage heating source.
- Another big factor in the design of the coffee maker was economic Concerns. People in every one of the target countries for product sale have coffee shops. That means for about two dollars, a consumer can go and buy a cup of coffee. In order to sell the product, the price has to be as low as possable and the quality has to be as good as possable. The designers added things like brew delay and brew strength settings in order to make it appealing to the consumer. They also used the least expensive materials that they could without sacrificing to much quality. Much of the coffee maker is made of Plastic, Rubber, Aluminum, and iron. These are some of the least expensive industrial materials available for the purposes required.
- Global concerns that influenced the coffee makers design would be the global popularity of coffee. Coffee is consumed in over half of the worlds countries. This means there is a large demand for coffee, and therefor a large market full of competition. This would then push the design of the coffee maker to be competitive in the other factors (societal, economical, and environmental).
- One of the smallest factors was environmental concerns. The coffee maker does not use an excessive amount of energy, and it has minimal waste in materials (water and coffee beans). this factor may have played a small role in the design based on the fact that if the coffee maker was to wastefull it would not be chosen over one of the competitors less wasteful coffee makers.
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