Product design thinking

Product design refers to the preparation and management of a series of technical work from determining the product design task book to determining the product structure. It is an important link in product development and the beginning of the product production process. Therefore, product design is of great significance.

Shanghai Zhengcun Rubber & Plastic Industry Co., LTD., as an excellent partner of many Oems and first-tier suppliers in the automotive industry, has many simultaneous design and development projects. In the process of promoting growth one by one, we have learned a lot of experience and sorted out the thinking process of product design, taking SAIC EP39 project as an example:

1 Requirement Analysis

"Customer-centric" is the corporate culture that Zhengcun has always upheld. In 2022, WK29 Zhengvillage received the front door harness jacket design demand of SAIC EP39 project. We immediately set up a project team and held a meeting with the customer to communicate and understand the customer's explicit needs, such as the need to cooperate with the platform connector, the need to assemble the body sheet metal and the door sheet metal, the waterproof sealing requirements, etc. At the same time, The Masamura team will also expand the analysis of other hidden needs of customers, such as the need for lightweight products.

2 Conceptual Design

After fully analyzing the needs of customers, in 2022 WK30, the project team of Masamura brainstormed together to envision a variety of product structures, such as whether it is necessary to design plastic clips for assembly, and the design rationality of rubber lip interference that affects watertight properties. Members of the project team will analyze and evaluate together and draw a manuscript or sketch.

3 Material selection

The input of material selection comes from the use environment of the product and the ADVP requirements of the customer. Zhengcun has communicated with SAIC about the material requirements, learned the enterprise standard defined by SAIC for materials, and selected materials in Zhengcun's material database according to it. If no existing materials can be used directly, Zhengcun's material research and development team will design and develop new materials. Ensure customer needs are met. At the same time, Zhengcun's R & D team will also consider whether the material performance is redundant and other issues, as far as possible to provide customers with inexpensive material solutions.

4 Detailed design

According to the conceptual design sketch and the selection of material scheme, Zheng Cun carried out the detailed design of the product in 2022 WK31~WK32. After the structural design department drew the preliminary draft of the digital model, the relevant departments of materials, molds, molding and projects were organized to conduct feasibility analysis together, and the project team put forward suggestions for optimization and improvement of the digital model. After optimizing the data, the project team will meet with SAIC and a customer for technical exchanges. If the customer has optimization opinions, Zhengcun will adjust the data again until the customer locks in 3D.

5 Manufacturing Drawings

Drawing is the input of mold development, but also the standard of product quality evaluation. After the customer locks in 3D, Masamura will immediately draw the processing drawings. The project team will fully identify the factors affecting the product assembly, installation and sealing performance, and mark and control the special characteristics and key dimensions. For example, the height of the lip of the waterproof seal, the axial & radial size of the installation sheet metal position, the allowable height & width of the closing line, the matching size between the connector and so on. After the technical department draws the first draft of the drawings, the project department organizes the project team to review the drawings again. After the optimized drawings are signed and confirmed by the customer, the manufacturing drawings are finally locked.

6 Sample production

With the locked product 3D digital model and production drawings as input, Masamura carried out the structural design and production of the soft model from WK33 to WK36 in 2023, and carried out the sample production and sample delivery at WK37. During the period of WK38~WK48, Zhengcun completed each product level and material level experiment in strict accordance with the ADVP requirements of SAIC.

In the trial assembly stage of the sample car, Zhengcun will actively cooperate with the customer's work. In the trial installation phase of the EP39 project, there was a problem of product installation difficulties. After receiving customer feedback, Zhengcun immediately sent personnel to SAIC Zhengzhou Factory to analyze and solve the problem, and finally identified that the installation method needed to be optimized. After communicating with the installation personnel, the problem was closed and the product was smoothly guided to mass production.

From the beginning of getting the design requirements, to the mass production of products, the project team of Zhengcun has been adhering to the core idea of customer-centric, actively respond to customer needs, and provide customers with the most excellent service.

We believe that under the strict, serious and responsible product design and development concept, the synchronous development of Shanghai Zhengcun will be better and better, customer satisfaction will be higher and higher, and the pace of Zhengcun development will be more and more stable!