modules

When it comes to inventing and making a product, a fantastic engineering idea is not enough. The World War 2 Spitfire was an ingenious aircraft to take into battle but its manufacture was very costly, and took three times as long as the enemy's equivalent. An essential aim for engineers today is to design a good product that is also easy to manufacture, and completing this vision demands effective management tools.  

This module introduces you to management concepts and techniques and takes you through the whole engineering procedure from marketing your product idea; exploring fundamentals like patents and intellectual property, to ensuring that your design fulfils customer requirements; and use techniques like QFD or House of Quality in which market needs and major product aspects are analysed to guide your design.

Studying design for manufacture is a key element of this module and this covers different techniques that attempt to ensure your designs are suitable to be made. The main aim is to teach you not just about the value of a strong engineering idea but about the practicalities of how you bring it to market and how these two factors must work together.

By the end of the module you will understand the design and development process and how it is controlled; in particular how you will monitor this efficiently at various stages to produce a product that meets the specification you wrote and the original customers' requirements. With a strong grasp of designing for manufacture in mind, you will also have become more competent to work in the design process of real companies and have an excellent knowledge of how to manage this.  

_{Please note that all modules are subject to change, please get in touch if you have any questions about this module.}