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Revision as of 19:04, 29 September 2009

Client Comments on Report 1

We received your report, and we have some comments and questions. Your highlighted opportunities appear to be addressing failure modes? Several sections of the report appear to be duplicated. Please respond point by point to the items below. We are looking forward to seeing your ideas in Report 2.

• Executive Summary: How do you arrive at the $1.5 billion figure? According to your figures, if every household purchases a $40 feeder every year, this would be only $4.4 billion revenue. Somewhere between 30-70% of households have dogs or cats, but these households would not buy a new feeder every year.
• Stakeholder Needs: Good list of needs. Some appear to be missing such as quiet operation, low floorspace, easy to clean, etc.
• Use: Clear description. What happens if the user forgets to twist or if they try to operate the machine with treats instead of dry food?
• Assembly: Very clear
• Mechanical Function: Where is the timing belt mentioned in the description? Reference to part numbers will help. Are you certain the belt is a timing belt? Which component trips the limit switch to shut off the motor?
• Mechanical Analysis: The assumption of a uniform load appears suspect, and only a fraction of the load is shown as acting on the food, which is incorrect. Please provide a free body diagram of the food and explain how the load is found. If friction is assumed negligible and the force is normal to the surface, than the vertical component of that force must be sufficient to balance the weight of food at that point.
  • How is your solution sensitive to the Young's Modulus, within the likely range that you mention?
  • Once you have found the answer for deflection, how do you interpret this result in terms of design implications?
• Bill of Materials: Good.
• DFMA: Good observations.
• FMEA: Good observations - the peace-of-mind aspect of confirming to the owner that the animal has been fed could be a great angle for innovation.
• DFE: Interesting that dog food emissions dominate. This seems to imply that reducing waste may be the best way to reduce impact - is there any food waste associated with the product? Does the production of batteries that you have included in the use phase include the electricity that is stored in the batteries and used by the device, and would the use phase differ much if the device were plugged into the wall instead?
• If any of your images, figures, or text were taken from another source, please be certain to provide proper attribution.