2008 Integrated Product Development

2008 product challenge: a Portable Disaster Area Personal Hygiene Station.

View pictures of the On-Campus Trade Show - December 03, 2008

Disasters are extreme events that displace significant numbers of people and wipe out the existing infrastructure.  In these situations, providing personal hygiene facilities is a critical environmental intervention for limiting infant mortality and preventing the spread of infectious diseases. 

This year, the IPD teams (combining business, engineering, and art & architecture students) were challenged to design and build an easily shipped, carried and deployed station for disaster areas that facilitates bathroom functions, washing and showering.  The product criteria included that it:

  • Must be free standing and use no external power source.
  • Must allow people to go to the bathroom, wash one’s face and hands, bathe an infant and bathe/shower an adult. 
  • Must have a safe, easily executed waste removal and transport system from the bathroom facility.  All waste must be easily      removed and reliably sealed off from the local environment as it is transported elsewhere.
  • Must weigh less than 40 pounds and pack down for easy transportation.
  • Must manage gray water from the sink and shower, by directing it to a hose connection.


    Highlights of the 2008 IPD Competition

    This year’s Integrated Product Development (IPD) trade shows were well attended: 1,314 votes from around the world were cast on the web, and 302 people voted at the physical trade show on U-M's north campus. Thank you to everyone who voted!

    Inventory policies played a very significant role in the final profits this year. Several teams were left with a significant amount of unsold inventory, which hurts profitability because we assumed no salvage value for unsold product.  In total, there was about $2.9M left in unsold inventory across all teams, enough to significantly change the product rankings from the online and on-campus trade shows (results below).  The biggest inventory losses went to Hygenius and Escape, who overstocked by 3,605 and 4,706 units, respectively.  Cocoon and Clean Cube also lost a lot by overstocking.

    • Final Profit Rankings
    Cocoon $1,162,276
    Peeki Hut $595,952
    Mobiloo $520,400
    Neptune $420,493
    Hygiene Haven $310,496
    Versaclean $241,763
    Hygenius $160,113
    Clean Cube $(225,530)
    Escape $(228,113)

    To highlight the importance of inventory strategy this year, the above numbers would have been significantly different with perfect inventory policies:  Hygenius would be in second place with over $1M in profit, Escape would be $500K in the black and Clean Cube would be $176K in the black.   Note that, at least in the case of Peeki Hut, stocking out is not ideal, but it’s also not deadly.   If you have a high variable cost (low margin) product, the downside of being stuck with unsold inventory is more dangerous than the risk of losing some extra sales.

    Market shares on the web and physical trade shows were different, as many voters perceived differences between a product’s web presence and physical reality. The web and physical shows’ market shares were as follows:

    Web Market Share
    Hygenius 26.0%
    Cocoon 22.0%
    Hygiene Haven 9.8%
    Mobiloo 9.7%
    Peeki Hut 8.1%
    Versaclean 7.2%
    Neptune 6.1%
    Clean Cube 5.6%
    Escape 5.5%
     
    On-Campus Trade Show Market Share
    Peeki Hut 17.9%
    Hygenius 16.9%
    Cocoon 15.9%
    Versaclean 13.9%
    Mobiloo 9.6%
    Neptune 9.3%
    Hygiene Haven 8.3%
    Escape 5.0%
    Clean Cube 3.3%

    Once again this year, market shares (pleasing customers), keeping costs low (high margins) and inventory strategy combined to significantly impact the results. 

    Download the results discussion by Dr. Bill Lovejoy (PDF)

    Cocoon
    Cocoon

    Peeki Hut
    Peeki Hut

    Mobiloo
    Mobiloo

    Neptune
    Neptune

    Hygiene Haven
    Hygiene Haven

    Versaclean
    Versaclean

    Escape
    Escape
    Clean Cube
    Clean Cube
    Hygenius
    Hygenius

    Thank you to everyone who participated in the online and on-campus Trade Shows!

    2008 IPD Product Web Sites

    Click on each product below to view the design team's web site.
     (from within each site, return to this page by clicking on the "IPD Home" icon)

    Clean Cube
    Neptune
    Hygenius
     
    Peeki Hut
    Cocoon
    VersAclean
     
    Hygiene Haven
    Escape
    Mobiloo
    For more information about the IPD course or trade shows,
    please contact Tauber at (734) 647-0308 or email tauber.info@umich.edu