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Sustainable Product and Market Development for Subsistence Marketplaces

 A Unique Educational Experience at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

 

GE598AY2- Spring '08 Course Schedule

Prof. Ali Yassine

Monday – 5:00-8:00 pm

Rm. 215 Transportation Building

 

This class provides students with significant experiential learning about market and product development for underserved and poor customer populations. The students will learn and use principles of marketing, cost accounting, project finance, engineering development, manufacturing development and new product development to develop marketable and profitable new product/service concepts and prototypes suitable for subsistence marketplaces. (4 credit hrs).

 

Prerequisites

Part 1 & 2 (Fall '07): http://www.business.uiuc.edu/~madhuv/submktcoursemainpage.html   GE 598AY1 or BADM590MAV

 

Required texts

Ulrich, K. & S. D. Eppinger, Product Design & Development, 4th  Edition, Irwin/McGraw-Hill, 2007.

Prahalad, C.K. The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Wharton School Publishing, 2005.

Schumacher, E.F., Small Is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered. London: Blond & Briggs Ltd., 1973.

 

Grading:

Case study presentations 20%, homework assignments 20%, and a group term project (60%). Term projects deal with the design and development (including prototyping and market testing) of new product concepts suitable for a subsistence marketplace based on the students’ marketing research.

 

 Detailed Schedule

 

Part 3 – Product Design & Development Basics

The aim of this part of the course is to learn a systematic and structured approach for developing products and services for subsistence marketplaces. This will include conceptual design, system (architectural) design, detailed design, cost modeling and testing & prototyping methods. In addition, it includes writing project mission statements, business plans, and other related topics at the intersection of business and engineering.

Week Schedule & Reading Assignments Lecture Notes

 Week 1

Monday 14 Jan. 08

Introduction to the course

Trip Brief

Mission Statements & Business Plans

Project & Team Management

Deep Dive Video (ABC News Special Report)

Reading assignment: How to Write a Great Business Plan, HBR article

 

Lecture 1

Week 2

Monday 21 Jan. 08

No Class – ML King Holiday

 

Week 3

Monday 28 Jan. 08

Topics Covered:

BOP Product Design Processes

Deep Listening Methodologies

Appropriate technology

 

Reading assignments:

          Donaldson, K., “Product Design in Less Industrialized Economies: Constraints & opportunities in Kenya,” Res. Eng. Design, 2006. TEAM 1

          Green et al. “Frontier Design: A product usage context method, Proceedings of the ASME. Philadelphia, PA., Sept. 10-13, 2006. TEAM 2

          Rodriguez et al. (2006), “Gaining insight into unfamiliar contexts: A design toolbox as input for using role-play techniques,” Interacting with Computers, 18(2006) pp. 956-976. TEAM 3

 

1-page Business Plan & Project Schedule Due

 

Lecture 2

Week 4

Monday 4 Feb. 08

Topics Covered:

Establishing Engineering Specifications

Concept Generation & Selection

Prototyping Methods

 

Reading assignments:

          Hauser, J., Clausing, D. (1988), “The House of Quality," Harvard Business Review, May-Jun. 1988. TEAM 2

          Hargadon, A., Sutton, R. (2000), “Building and Innovation Factory,” Harvard Business Review, May-Jun 2000. pp. 157-166. TEAM 3

        Stone, R., Wood, K., Crawford, R. (2000), “A heuristic method for identifying modules for product architectures,” Design Studies, 21(1), 2000, pp. 5-31. TEAM 1

 

Lecture 3

Week 5

Monday 11 Feb. 08

Topics Covered:

Design Exercises for BOP

Homework assignment on BOP product search Due

Faculty Consulting & Team Meetings

 

Week 6

Monday 18 Feb. 08

Topics Covered:

Material Selection & Manufacturing Processes & DFMA

 

Reading assignment:

          Ashby, M. Johnson, K. (2003), “The Art of Materials Selection,” Materials Today, December 2003.

          DFMA - chapter 11, Ulrich & Eppinger, 2007.

 

 

Week 7

Monday 25 Feb. 08

Topics Covered:

Financial Modeling

Robust Design

 

Reading assignment:

          Taguchi, J., Clausing, D. (1990), “Robust Quality,” Harvard Business Review, Jan-Feb 1990.

          Handouts

 

Faculty Consulting & Team Meetings           

 

Conceptual Design Due – written report

 

 

 

Part 4 – Product Design & Development – BOP Case Studies

The aim of this module is to enforce the basics learnt in part 3 with design case studies in various BOP contexts. In addition, several guest speakers will share their views and design experiences for BOP product development. Finally, major portion of class time is used to coach students on their team projects.

 

Week Schedule & Reading Assignments Notes

Week 8

Monday 3 Mar. 08

Guest speaker 1- Patrick Walsh, UIUC Physics student

Faculty Consulting & Team Meeting --- Prof. Madhu Viswanathan

 

 

Week 9

Monday 10 Mar. 08

Midterm Presentations

Faculty Consulting & Team Meeting

 

 

Week 10

Monday 17 Mar. 08

No Class - Spring Break

 

Week 11

Monday 24 Mar. 08

Assignment - Case 1 – ApproTEC Kenya (TEAM 1)

Faculty Consulting & Team Meeting

 

 

Week 12

Monday 31 Mar. 08

Assignment - Case 2 – CEMEX Housing (TEAM 2)

Faculty Consulting & Team Meeting

 

Detailed Design Due – written report

 

 

Week 13

Monday 7 Apr. 08

Guest speaker 2- Eng. w/o Boarders

Faculty Consulting & Team Meeting

Assignment - Case 3 –  Kinkajou Project (TEAM 3)

 

Financial Modeling & Manufacturing Plan Due – written report

 

 

Week 14

Monday 14 Apr. 08

Guest speaker 3- TBD

Case 4 – Disacare Case

Case 5 – Sugarcane Charcoal in Haiti

Faculty Consulting & Team Meeting

       

 

Week 15

Monday 21 Apr. 08

Wrap up

Faculty Consulting & Team Meeting

Peer Evaluation

 

 

Week 16

Monday 28 Apr. 08

Final Presentations

Final Reports, Prototypes, Business & Manufacturing Plans Due

 
 

 

Group Projects deliverables and deadlines

 

Mission Statements, Business Plan & project Schedule

At this stage, the project team delivers its missions statement and preliminary business plan. This includes figuring out the purpose of their existence as a start-up company, identifying major stakeholders, target markets, and milestones.

 

Group Projects – 1-page Business Plan & Schedule Due

 

Conceptual Design

The aim of this stage is to develop sketches of the one or two most promising alternative solution concepts.

 

Group Projects – Conceptual Design Due – a PowerPoint presentation only

 

Detailed Design

In this stage, the conceptual design is to be detailed by providing detailed drawings, engineering specifications, material selection, and preliminary cost analysis.

 

Group Projects – Detailed Design Due  – a PowerPoint presentation and a written report

Group Projects – Group Presentations & Review

 

Financial Modeling & Manufacturing Plan

Group Projects – Financial Model & Mfg Plan Due – a PowerPoint presentation only

 

Development of Prototype & Business Plan

Group Projects – Final Presentations

Week 14 - Group Projects – Final Report, Prototypes, Business & Manufacturing Plans Due

 

Team assignments for weeks 3 and 4:

Each team is assigned a paper to read and present in class. About 30 minute presentation. Every one is encouraged to read all papers assigned for the class period, but at a minimum they must read carefully the paper they are assigned to present. No written reports are required.

 

Case assignments:

Each team is assigned to present a single case study. The other teams are required to read these case studies (although they are not presenting it) in order to carry a meaningful discussion of the case in class. A one page write-up is required form each team except the presenting team. Each team is required to address the following: needs assessment (specific need being served, and relevant consumer behavior), technology appropriateness (why is the technology appropriate & how does it work, suggestions for improvements), engineering issues, product design, industrial design, manufacturing technology, recommendations for design & development for subsistence marketplaces, and specific lessons learnt for group project.