GEK1523T

Assignment 2– 2010
by

LIN SHAODUN A0066078X

TAO JIE A0066141N
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

RECOGNITION OF NEEDS 2

IDENTIFICATION OF CONSTRAINTS IMPOSED 3

SPECIFICATION AND REQUIREMENTS 4

FEASIBILITY STUDY 5

IDEA GENERATION AND DEVELOPMENT 5

DETAIL DESIGN 7

PRODUCTION OF DESIGN 9

DISTRIBUTION, SALE, USAGE 9

OBSOLESCENCE 10

CONCLUSION 10

BIBLIOGRAPHY 10

1
 RECOGNITION OF NEEDS

Swimming is considered as a healthy and relaxing activity. It tones the body and provides
an excellent cardiovascular workout; it also strengthens heart muscle and improves the
delivery of oxygen to different parts of body.

Swimming provides individuals with several physical, social and mental benefits; it helps
in weight control and relieves people from stress and tension. Moreover, swimming can
be a wonderful recreational activity for individuals and families. [1]

Singapore, as a tropical country nearby the

equator, four seasons has the same summer-
like climate; naturally swimming becomes
a most popular sports activity here. Look at
the map at left side, it is not surprise to
realize that there are so many public
swimming complexes in Singapore [2].
According to data from Singapore
Department of Statistics, total attendance of
swimming is more than 7.5 millions [3] in
year 2009.

Since most of people do not inherently know how to swim, learning to swim is essential
for them to enjoy the numerous benefits from this activity. Besides, learning to swim is
especially important as a preventative measure against accidental drowning. (Drowning,
ranked the 3rd leading cause of unintentional injury death globally after road traffic
injuries and falls [4], and the 2nd highest cause of accidental death of children [5].)

In Singapore, many people learn swimming from coaches certified by Singapore Sports
Council (SSC) or Singapore Swimming Association (SSA), and usually have to follow
the training schedule which is not so flexible for many working adults.

If there is a swimming-aid device which could help people gain confidence and become
familiar with water and eventually master swimming, it will significantly reduce the
dependency on training instructors, and people can easily arrange suitable time slot to
train themselves swimming, that would be very convenience for people who willing to
learn swimming but unable to follow up the training schedule for various reasons.

Apparently, this kind of personalized swimming-aid device exhibits great market

potential; hence it is worth to invest into this product development and in the end mass
produce it to satisfy the potential consumer needs.

2
 IDENTIFICATION OF CONSTRAINTS IMPOSED

For swimming-aid device, there are certain constraints need to be considered before
finalize the detail product specifications:

Human Factors

Human has different psychological, physical,

and biological characteristics, so the
swimming-aid device must be able to suit for
wide range of anthropometrical dimension,
physical strength and physical coordination
ability, etc.

Ergonomic factors also need to be studied to

ensure the device fits to human body so that it
can be comfortably worn without affecting
the swimming movements.

Safety Constraints

The swimming-aid device must comply with applicable requirements of regulations set
by government agency (Health Promotion Board), Singapore Sports Council (SSC) or
Singapore Swimming Association (SSA).It should equip with fail-safe features and it
should be able to withstand body mass range to the 97.5th percentile level.

Other Constraints

Geometry Constraints: The device has limited

overall size, all the functional parts and control
systems needs to fit into it.
Manufacturing Constraints: The device will be
mass produced, so the product design needs to
consider manufacturability and ease of
assembly, as well as availability of standard
components.
Economic Constraints: Limitation of Development, Design, Manufacturing, Marketing
and Distribution costs.
Aesthetic Constraints: The shape, color, texture and form of the product should be
attractive to the customers.
Ecological Constraints: Impacts to environment during the life cycle of this product.

3
 SPECIFICATION AND REQUIREMENTS

Specifications:

 Product Weights: ≤ 1.5kg
 Product capability: Able to withstand ≤ 75kg body mass, BMI level 18.5 to 24.9 kg/m2 [6]
 Product dimension: ≤ 40cm (Length) × 30cm (Width) × 10cm (Thickness)
 Production cost: ≤ SGD 80.
 Product Life Span: Minimum 5 years.
 Reliability: MTBF of the product should be more than 4000 hours.
 Target customer: Age ranges from15 to 55 years old with normal physical condition.

Other Requirements:

 Safety: The product must meet safety standards formulated by government agencies
(Consumer Product Safety Authority, SPRING Singapore and Health Promotion
Board), one of the mandatory standards must meet is: Swimming and Flotation aids
for water familiarization and swimming tuition.
 Aesthetics: The product appearance should be aesthetically pleasing, the product
should come with multiple color / texture schemes to suit different consumer needs.
 Maintenance: Ease of maintenance, no special tool is needed when perform simple
inspection or cleaning of the product.
 Environment: All materials used in this product must be recyclable or biodegradable.
Need to consider minimum carbon footprint and
environment impact throughout the whole life cycle of
the product.
 Materials: Material used in this product must align with
UL, CE and ROHS regulations.
 Ergonomics: The product should be easy to use and
comfortable to wear on, and it should be easily adjusted
to fit different body shape.
 Packaging: Shrinkage-wrap plastic film with paper-back
for individual production packaging.
 Documentation: A simple user instruction with graphical illustrations should be
included inside the packaging.
With the design constraints, product specifications and requirements identified, we
proceed for brainstorming and design of swimming-aids device. In order to success in
fast-paced market, many innovation ideas and improvement concepts needs to be
integrated into the product design to gain upper-left corner in Positioning Map [7].

4
 FEASIBILITY STUDY

After multiple discussions with design team, we had identified some factors which will
determine the success or failure of our product. They have being generalized into two
main standpoints:

1) Economical standpoint:

Affordability: According to market survey result, majority of the respondents

recommended that the acceptable price for this kind of product should range from S$150
to S$200. Hence the retail price of our product must fall within this range to attract
potential consumers.

Cost of product: In order to attain the maximum profit from this product, we need to keep
the manufacturing cost as low as possible. Hence we are required to source for the
manufacturer whom could meet our quality standard with lowest cost.

2) Technical standpoint:

Strength of the material selected: The strength of the material selected must have a safety
factor of 3 and above with respect to the design calculation and FEA (Finite Element
Analysis) study; this is to avoid any unnecessary accident happening to customers as it
will damage the reputation of company.

Accessibility of spare parts: Spare parts of the device must be easily available so that
repair work of our product can be carried on smoothly to minimize the customer waiting
time. Hence adequate amount of spare parts must be stocked earlier to avoid this kind of
incident.

IDEA GENERATION AND DEVELOPMEN

Here are some of the concepts generated during project discussion:

1) Floating Aid:

This swimming-aid consist a pair of buoyancy

pouches that stores multiple removable
Styrofoam cells, buoyancy is adjustable by
control the number of Styrofoam cells in the
pouches, so that it will assist user to learn swimming
progressively. The two pouches are connected using drawstring or other
connecting means to suit the body shape and mount onto individual’s chest.

5
 2) Swimming Training Aid:

This swimming training aid comprises a

combination of floating and positioning
member attaches to body joints, i.e. the knee,
ankle, elbow and wrist/hand joints. The
member is relatively rigid yet retaining some
flexibility and configured to restrict the body joints in a preferred
angular position as determined by proper swimming technique.
The member is made by buoyant material which also helps to lift
up the body, the floatation factor overcomes the fear of sinking commonly
found in non-swimmers and promotes proper horizontal positioning of the body.

3) Programmable Training Device.

This is a high-tech swimming training suit; it looks just like a normal

life jacket, while inside the jacket it has a fully automatic
programmable swimming training system. It consist two miniature air
compressors and inflatable chambers, and equips with micro-
processor, motion sensors and pressure sensors. The sensors provide
real time feedback to micro-processor and define how the pneumatic
pumps operate. User can define the swimming mode and the
personalized parameters will be stored inside the EEPROM to
improve the effects of training.

Decision Matrix

Ranking Possible Floating Swimming Programmable

Criteria Points Aid Training Aid Training Device

Innovativeness 10 2 5 10

Appearance 10 3 3 8

Easy to Use 10 5 5 8

Cost 10 10 8 2

Comfort 10 5 3 8

Function 10 2 5 10

Total Score - 27 29 36

Ranking - 3 2 1

6
 Based on the product selection criteria, the Programmable Training Device emerged as a
successful product in our idea generation. Our team decided to work further to realize
product design of Programmable Training Device.

DETAIL DESIGN

Here explains the concepts of final detail design:

Basic Working Principles

As illustrated below, this swimming-aid device comprises miniature air cylinders, air
pumps and inflatable chambers. The bi-directional air pump can transfer air from
cylinder to chamber or in reverse direction, by manipulate the volume of chamber; the
buoyancy can be changed dynamically to suit the physical condition of trainee. The air
flow/volume control is determined by user setting, motions sensor and pressure senor
feedback, as such it forms a close-loop control of flotation force.
Buoyancy

Gravity
Miniature Miniature Inflatable Buoyancy
Air Tanks Air Pump chamber Control

By close-loop control, user will experience a constant support force during training,
which will reduce the fear of sinking and gain confidence gradually, eventually master
the technique of swimming.

Control System Design

The swimming-aid device is a micro-

processor based system. A typical micro-
processor like PIC16F8XX can read analog
and digital signal from varies sensors, then
generate proper control signal to the air
pumps. Trainee can select different
swimming modes like Front Crawl,
Breaststroke, and Butterfly stroke from user
interface. The motion sensor will register the
learning progress and feedback to micro-processor.

7
 Pneumatic System Design

Here is the schematic diagram of swimming-aid device.

The pneumatic system mainly is made up of air pumps, throttle valves and air chambers.
The air pumps are bi-directional, which means air can flow from air cylinder into air
chamfer or in reversed direction, so as to adjust the volume of air chambers and control
the buoyancy force.
A manual override valve is provided for user to release the air from air cylinders to air
chamber, which will inflate the chamfer without bypassing the air pumps, so it will be
extremely helpful in emergency cases.

Air
Chamber

Throttle
Valve

Air Pump

Manual
Override
No-return Valve
Valve

Gas Bottle

8
 PRODUCTION OF DESIGN

The main structures are made by Styrofoam, rubbers and plastics, easy for mass
production and low cost for manufacturing.

To ensure the cost of the product is viable before it is launched to the market, we have
taken the following steps in cost reduction:

 To source for cheaper raw materials.

 Accurate sale forecast where mass production can take place accordingly.
 To use recyclable materials where appropriate.

DISTRIBUTION, SALE, USAGE

Distribution of product:

 24 hour convenience store like 7-11 to maximize the accessibility to all customers.
 Supermarkets like Carrefour, Giant and NTUC Fairprice.
 Sports Equipment shops.
 Swimming complex shops.

Sale of the product:

 Estimated cost of production is $80.00 per piece

 Estimated selling price of device is $140.00 per piece
 Estimated gross profit is $60.00 for every device sold

Advertising and Marketing:

Advertising and Marketing can be classified under internal strategy and external strategy:

For internal strategy, the best way is to let our employees test our product for a period of
time less than one month, upon completion of one month, they could purchase it at a
discount of 10%. Reason being for this is mainly because when our employee purchase
the product for his personal use, general customers would have more confident in our
product.

For external strategy, we would propose collaboration with the Health Development
Board. The purpose of this is to develop a swimming activity culture and to educate the
people about the healthy life style.

9
 OBSOLESCENCE SOLESCENCE

 Can be scrape at end of useful life.

 All the parts can be recycled.
 The amount of wastage at the end of useful life is minimal.

CONCLUSION

During this design project, several type of swimming-aid device has been proposed and
evaluate, the final design was selected based on the decision matrix.

During this project, the design morphology learnt from GEK 1523 and ME2101E is
applied throughout the whole design process.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

[1] The Benefits of Swimming. n.d. http://www.24hrfitness.co.uk/fitness/the-benefits-of-swimming.html

(accessed June 21, 2010).

[2] Singapore Swimming Pool. n.d. http://www.singaporeswimming.com/pools (accessed June 21, 2010).

[3] "Utilisation of Sports Facilities." Singapore Department of Statistics. n.d.

http://www.singstat.gov.sg/pubn/reference/mdsmay10/excel/topic18.xls (accessed June 20, 2010).

[4] Drowning. n.d. http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/other_injury/drowning/en/ (accessed

June 21, 2010).

[5] "Drowning factsheet." World Health Organization. n.d.

http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/publications/other_injury/en/drowning_factsheet.pdf
(accessed June 22, 2010).

[6] Body mass index. n.d. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_mass_index (accessed June 29, 2010).

[7] Cagan, Jonathan, and Craig M. Vogel. Creating Breakthrough Products: Innovation from Product
Planning to Program Approval. New Jersey: FT Press, 2001.

10