Blog Entry 2

Hello guys!!!!! I am back for another blog entry. Well, you guys would have been probably wondering what my team and I were up. Well , sit back and enjoy reading my blog as I bring you through the activities. 

Scamper process

Well first , my team and I conducted this process called SCAMPER process. You guys might be wondering what this process is. Well, do not worry as I was also on the same page as you guys, when I first heard about this process. SCAMPER is a acronym for substitute, combine, adapt, modify, put to another use, eliminate and reverse. For every letter of SCAMPER, few minutes will be given, together with a bunch of helper questions related to the word. My group members and I are supposed to answer the helper questions, which will relate to our chemical product. After a few minutes had passed, the next letter will come, followed by the helper questions, until the letter 'R' .

This experience of the SCAMPER process has been a new experience for me as I had never came across this process in previous modules. It was also an exciting experience for me. Usually for group discussions, I would need to put in extra effort to ensure that the ideas that I was contributing must benefit the group and must make sense. However, this time for the SCAMPER process, I was allowed to say anything that came into my mind. I enjoyed this a lot as it was thrilling and fun to hear my classmates ideas as well as to come up with weird ideas, which often brought in a lot of laughter from my group mates. Moreover, it also felt like a chat session with the group. We were having fun while learning. I was too involved in the SCAMPER process that I continuously contributed a lot of ideas. More importantly, I was surprised to see that most of our group's ideas could be actually implemented on our chemical device, to enhance the chemical device. There are some ideas that I contributed that I would have never thought of, if not for the SCAMPER process. This process is an extremely useful process as it makes you think about the modifications of a chemical device in all angles. 

Feasibility Analysis and Idea Screening

My group had a lot of ideas and it was time to shortlist our ideas. After many considerations and intensive thinking, we had shorten the ideas to 5 ideas. The 5 ideas included adding a filter to the diffuser,putting wheels on the diffuser,remote controlled diffuser, cold air spreading diffuser and a diffuser which allows scent selection on the diffuser's interface. At first, it was extremely difficult to choose in between the 5 choices. My group made use of Feasibility Analysis. The criterias present in feasibility analysis included budget, project timeline, technical feasibility and operational feasibility. For the budget aspect, the product should be below $2000. This $2000 includes the cost of the materials used to make the device, as well as transportation fees of the product from other places or overseas, if the products are not available in Singapore Polytechnic Laboratories. All of our 5 products passed this section as all our products were below the $2000 range. For project timeline, we also had to make sure that our products can be completed in one semester. For this part, all the 5 products had passed this section. For the technical feasibility part, there were many things to consider. Firstly, we needed to ensure that the diffuser project was feasible within the limits of the current technology. In the diffuser's case, the 5 different additions had already been implemented on other products. We also needed to make sure that the lab has sufficient space to support the group and necesary testing and fabrication equipment. As our diffuser was designed to be indoors, we wanted all the 5 designs diffuser to occupy minimal space. Moreover, we will be able to test the scent production of the diffusers in the laboratory for all the 5 diffuser products. Making the diffuser requires a computer software, such as Fusion 360, which helps us 3D print the diffuser. Therefore, Fusion 360 can be used for all the 5 types of diffusers. My group members and I have a lot of experience in practical tasks, especially Design and Technology. We also have a lot of knowledge on the working principals of diffusers, especially knowledge that we had acquired through previous modules, such as Introduction to Chemical Engineering. Therefore, I feel that we have the necessary technical expertise and skills required to make the diffuser. Moving on to the operational feasibility, we had to make sure that the operation of the project was safe and legal. The perfume liquid that is being used in the diffuser is harmless. It was also important to have sufficient manpower to carry out the project. However, the idea of using the diffuser to spread cold water was too ambitious for my group members and me to carry out as more people are required. Therefore, my group eliminated the idea of using a diffuser to spread cold water. Feasibility Analysis made this process extremely easy, as it covered all the important aspects of making this diffuser, It also made us finish the analysis in a quicker period of time while being more effective . 

Difficulties in COWS Selection

My group then carried out COWS selection method. COWS stand for criteria, options, weightage and score. Below shows an sample of the table of the COWS selection criteria.

 Doing this COWS selection criteria was no easy feat as my group members and I had faced a lot of difficulties while conducting the COWS selection criteria. For the criteria section, my group painstakingly chose the criterias as chosing the criterias were difficult to do. This was because my group felt that many criterias were equally important in the selection. However, as we could only select 4 to 5 criterias, my group had to think deeply about the criterias and had to ensure that the criterias chosen were valid and that it really determined the best product design. This took a long time for my group members and me. Moreover, choosing the weightage for the criterias were also equally challenging, as it was tedious to choose a criteria which carries a higher percentage than another criteria. 

COWS Selection

 The first criteria my group chose was cost effectiveness. We wanted to make sure that the materials used to make the diffuser had tallied with the cost of the product. This criteria had the highest weightage of 25% as we felt that this criteria was one of the most important criterias. The second criteria included the time taken to produce the diffuser. We need to ensure that the diffuser is completed within the shortest amount of time possible, as we will need some more time to make sure that the diffuser is working perfectly, and to also make amendments if needed. This criteria has the weightage of 25%. The 3rd and 4th criteria included the assessibility of the product and the amount of materials needed to make the product. It is important for consumers to have a pleasurable experience using the product. Therefore, we need to ensure that the product is extremely accessible. The amount of materials needed to make the product should be minimal as possible as this would reduce the cost required for construction of products, as well as the delivering of the products. The weightage for the 3rd criteria is 15% and the weightage for the 4th criteria is 20%. The last criteria included the versatility for consumer. The product should boost the consumer's experience. The weightage of this criteria is 15%. We chose three options such as the remote controlled diffuser, filtering diffuser and the diffuser on wheels.