Redesigning a Kitchen Knife
You are to select a manufactured good (not a service) and redesign the good or some part of it. The redesign should be your redesign; do not simply describe how some product was redesigned by a company or compare one product in the market with another. You are to improve the design by using at least one of the following design principles:
1. Reduce the number of parts/components
2. Use common components (those used elsewhere in the product or in other products made by the same company)
3. Use standard components (those that are available widely to any purchaser)
4. Redesign to simplify the fabrication or assembly process
5. Use modular design.
Your objective is to either:
1. Improve the quality of the product without increasing the cost of making it, or
2. Reduce the cost of making the product without lowering the quality.
Note: It is not acceptable to redesign it to improve its quality by increasing the cost of making it. Also, it is important to think about the impact of your product design changes from the perspective of all potential customers; a change that would be attractive to some customers, but makes the product less desirable to others, is considered to be a reduction in quality.
In your write-up you should:
1. Describe the original product (a photo or drawing of the item would be helpful)
2. Clearly describe the change(s) you would make (a drawing would be helpful)
3. Clearly state which of the above principles you used and how you used it/them to improve the design.
4. Justify your new design; i.e., explain how it improves quality without increasing cost or how it reduces production cost without hurting quality.
The total length of the report should be 2-3 pages, typed, double-spaced (not including photos or drawings).
Product Design
Student’s First Name, Middle Initial(s), Last Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Number and Name
Instructor’s Name and Title
Assignment Due Date
Product Design
The Original Product
The objective of the redesign is to improve the kitchen knife to increase the efficiency of its use and reduce injuries associated with its use. A knife is designed to aid in chopping cooking materials into finer components according to the chef’s requirements. The main parts of the knife are a steel blade, wooden or plastic handle, and bolts that join the two materials together. A sharpened knife is good for chopping, but the risk associated with using it are immense (Xue & Jia, 2020). The user risks getting cut since the knife needs to be sharp to reduce the effort used. The kitchen knife has to be realigned to decrease the sharpness of the blade and improve its usability and lessen the degree of injuries caused. Thus, the redesign aims at reducing damages caused by using the kitchen knife while maintaining its efficiency.
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The Changes in Design
First, the sharpness of the blade has to be reduced to diminish the instances of injurious situations. By lessening the chances of cutting oneself, much is solved as children can also operate with knives without the risk of injuries. The general design has to be altered to include a hinge at the end of the blade, reduce the amount of steel used in making the blade, and the addition of small base support to the new knife. Consequently, the blade will have a plastic covering and a handle at the edge of its blade. The user will be required to place the product that requires chopping on top of the base and slice through using the effort from the hands. Also, the blade will not be much sharpened as the most energy is derived from t...