Grass trimmer
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Contents |
Executive Summary
Electric grass shears are a small, hand-held device which trim grass using oscillating blades. They are commonly used to trim the edge of a lawn along a garden or other edge. Electric grass shears offer an alternative to both string trimmers (aka weed whackers or weed eaters) and hand shears – all for cutting edges of lawns so they look nice and well-kept.
This report contains a detailed analysis of the use and design of Homelite electric grass shears, purchased for $30 from Home Depot. From our own use of the product, comments from existing users, and online reviews we found that from a user’s perspective the electric grass shears are overall very effective in trimming grass but have limited battery life (which also degrades over time), require the user to pull the trigger constantly during use as a safety feature (which can be half an hour or more), blades jam in thick grass, and blades dull over time.
findings from dfma, dfe, fmea
After analyzing how the product is used and problems with the current design, we have the following recommendations for improvement:
- Use a removable battery so that the user can switch to another fully charged battery if other is completely discharged
Major Stakeholders
Manufacturers
- Low cost materials, parts, and manufacturing equipment
- Minimal assembly labor
- Reliable supply chain
Distributors
- Compact packaging to reduce shipping costs
- Lightweight to reduce shipping and material handling costs
- Durable to prevent damage during product shipping
Retailers
- Compact packaging to reduce shelf-space costs
- Aesthetically pleasing packaging and product to draw customer interest
- Good quality and performance to prevent returns and improve customer loyalty
End Users
- Function as expected – trim grass effectively and efficiently
- Reliable and long product life-time
- Safety features to prevent harm to user during use (very important since sharp, oscillating blades are on product)
- Easy to use
- Battery life to last user’s duration of grass trimming
- Ergonomic to prevent harm and injury to user’s hand
- Lightweight to prevent excessive strain on user’s muscles
- Compact for portability and small storage space
- Reasonable recharge time
- Easy to maintain
- Aesthetically pleasing
Use Study
Steps for Use
Initial Assembly
- Connect charger to grass trimmer and let charge for 10 hours
- Open the black bottom cover
- Insert blades into latch
- Close by sliding in black bottom cover
- Slide the locking switch
Grass Trimming
- Hold down the lock down button
- Press the switch trigger
- Bending down and holding the trimmer parallel to the ground, slide the trimmer over the grass
- Let go of both the trigger and the lock down button to power off
