PRODUCT REDESIGN FOR EASE OF MAINTENANCE: A CASE STUDY

This paper reports a study on the maintainability of a domestic product from the aspect of design modularity. In this study, the clustering technique was applied to a domestic product, an electric coffee maker in order to identify its functional components and the interactions between the components. The service modes of the product were determined so as to ascertain the level of servicing difficulty faced by the user. Guidelines in design for maintenance were applied during modifications to the existing design, focusing on three components in the main module of the product namely the cover of the base, the spraying unit and the cover of the strainer aperture. Results from the study has shown that taking into consideration the design modularity and maintenance requirements at the early stage of product design, has enabled product servicing to be identified and planned in more systematic and effective manner. The new design of the electric coffee maker that takes into consideration ease of maintenance is presented and discussed in this paper. The proposed design has certainly enhanced the product’s maintainability as well as reliability.