Introduction
The sun energy batteries project called ‘solarinds’ has gone through a precise process of design and architecture with the purpose of defining all types of connections possible within the chunks constituting it in order to clarify the whole set of advantages and disadvantages the construction has and to work out a decision on the most profitable and optimal clustering of chunks. The process had several stages that were essential for the final result – restructuring of the product design to better fit its purpose and to become more user-friendly and productive.
Main
The first stage in the process of identifying the product design and architecture is identifying the number of chunks and the way they are clustered. Speaking about the ‘solarinds’ project, one may see that the whole construction has been divided into seven chunks: the ‘Solarind’, the Chassis, the power supply, ‘Solarind’ mechanism, Blinds, Logic Board and User Interface board. Secondly, it is necessary to identify fundamental and incidental interactions existing within the mechanism.
Fundamental interactions are the interactions of a direct type – the ones initially meant to be established for the proper functioning of the product. As it comes from the example of Solarinds, the fundamental interactions in the described product are the following. The ‘solarind’ mechanism appears to be central in the whole scheme – it is connected with blinds by the flow of material. The elements within the ‘solarind’ mechanism – DC Motor, LED and LDR, are connected with each other by the flow of data. The accumulated force of these three elements of the ‘solarind’ mechanism is transferred to the logic board consisting of two elements: the control ‘solarind’ and the element of communication with the user. The data flows through the control ‘solarind’ to the second element, finishing its way in the user interface board where user inputs are located.
The initial source of energy is the power supply chunk consisting of a rechargeable battery, solar cells and the AA Backup Battery. The first two elements are interconnected through the flow of power/energy (it comes from the solar cells to the rechargeable battery). Power/energy accumulated by the AA Backup Battery is united with the flow from the rechargeable battery and then is supplied to the ‘solarind’ mechanism elements, namely the DC Motor and LED.
The elements of enclosure and chassis are separated from the whole mechanism, so the flow of power/energy exists only between them, leaving the element of chassis in the outward direction then. This is the overall view of the initial plan of the ‘solarinds’ product construction that was made up according to the functional needs of the mechanism – the fundamental interactions within the construction.
At the stage of the product differentiation substantial changes were introduced in the construction of the product and in clustering its chunks. The reason for the change was dictated by several considerations – first of all, the inner functionality of the mechanism demanded placement of similar components working in a similar way on a close distance from each other to reduce production costs and to increase user-friendliness. Besides, one of the incidental interactions is the difficulty for the motor to rotate the blinds in cases when the LDR detects low quantity of light. Thus, the discovered condition required specific placement of details for the sake of the product’s better, more efficient and productive operation.
The second consideration was about the life span of separate details compared to each other that dictated the specific placement of details in order to ensure easy replacement of details with a shorter life span without deep interference with the whole mechanism and without touching the elements with a longer life span.
The construction of clustering chunks underwent considerable changes and resulted in the following: LED was separated into an independent chunk to avoid the interaction and negative influence of other elements that were likely to cause certain malfunctions of the mechanism; solar cells were also separated into an independent unit resulting in the different way of the power supply chunk functioning. If before the change energy was at first accumulated with the energy from the AA Backup Battery, then after the change the flows of energy from the solar cells and from the AA Backup Battery are supplied to the DC Motor separately.
Conclusion
The product does not have to go through the stage of differentiation and supply chain considerations because, first of all, it is targeted at the narrow market and group of consumers, and, secondly, it is planned to be distributed on a small territory – only inside Australia. The target group of consumers comprises people with small kids or people wishing to protect their house from intrusion by lighting the surrounding space around their house. Consequently, the supply chain will not be long – the maximum considerations that the product design should include is whether to supply the device in the compete construction or in details, for the users to connect the chunks themselves. In the present situation, with the device including only seven elements, it would be much better to offer the deconstructed supply of devices for the customers to do this independently. Commonalty plan is also excessive for the defined set of reasons.
Works Cited
Product Architecture. Chapter Nine, pp. 163-186.