Product: A DS19380 Sanyo Television

Targeted Audience: Senior Citizen

Feedback:

             Reverse engineering is when you take a product apart to see how it works so you can improve it. It is practiced throughout the manufacturing industry because it is a cost effective way to further improve a product to better suit the consumer, and it is a good way to learn how to break a product down and create a better one with limited materials. Forward engineering, on the other hand, teaches you how to come up with your own product, take your idea, and bring it to life. Reverse engineering usually produces a better product because it takes an already successful product and makes it better while forward engineering may have major flaws in the design. Also, reverse engineering attracts new customers because the improved product will better suit global demands while still keeping loyal customers because they will still use the improved product.

            On my teams product, the constraints were that is could only come in three colors, and cost no more than three hundred dollars; while the criteria was that it must appeal to the senior citizen consumer. Things we agreed on to make it meet those demands were to make it light weight, cheap, simple, closed caption capable, and power efficient. The criteria helped me by giving me boundaries and better allowing me to understand what seniors want and how to keep the product simple and cost efficient. Immediately, we realized that our television needed to be much lighter and louder with a bigger display. The original design only had one speaker and a small screen with a space consuming frame. The elderly might have bad eyesight and hearing so this product wouldn’t suit them. In addition, their bones are fragile and they can’t do much heavy lifting. The process of reverse engineering is also simple and can be completed before a deadly. First, we looked at the original product and recorded some ideas. Next, we actually took the entire product apart and sketched a drawing of each of the components. Then, we moved on to the research stage and discovered how the product worked. After that, we thought about which parts should be upgraded to make the product more appealing to the elderly consumer. Then finally, we designed are new televisions based on the criteria, constraints, and information that we had gathered during our research.

            In conclusion, the product was a good experience overall. It allowed me to understand how to work and discuss as a team, as well as giving me knowledge on reverse engineering. It showed me how to focus on a specific consumer when designing a product and how to put my designs down on paper. It further increased my research skills and gave me new knowledge on how a television actually works. I didn’t know what was behind the screen, but now I know about a televisions circuit board, ray tube, speakers, and display process. All in all, this project has allowed me to design an improved product through reverse engineering and has caused me to further think of what type of engineering I will study in the future.