A design of a reusable bag for the wet market

• Main Authors: Astillero, Elbert Leo, Lin, Mark Louie
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2013
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/10864
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study looks into the problems on the design of a reusable bag for the wet market. It was found that the current design of the reusable bags were not able to meet the needs of the intended users. One of these is the ability to carry both wet and dry food together inside the reusable bag. Because of this, the reusable bag users would compromise the shortcomings of the current design and tens to use plastic bags to carry wet items instead of placing them inside the reusable bag. To know more of the dilemma of the reusable bag users towards the design of the reusable bag, the study centered on the use of the Quality Function Deployment to determine their needs. Twelve customer requirements were gathered from the analysis. These were further analyzed by using the gap analysis in order to show how far off are the designs of the current reusable bags in the wet market from the requirements of the reusable bag users to the design that they want. The results showed that most of the customer requirements were not able to meet the expectations of the users. A Pareto Analysis was then utilized to determine the vital customer requirements whose gaps contribute to the 80% of the problems that needed to be solved. These were the requirements of being able to carry wet and dry food together, equal distribution of weight, and being foldable wherein the negative gaps are -2.38, -.82, and -0.78, respectively. After knowing the problems in the design of the current reusable bag, the study then used the morphological chart to determined different alternative solutions that can solve the shortcomings of the design. The morphological chart focused on the function of the different parts of the bags in order to come up with as solution. In addition to that, the study also dwelled on using anthropometry to help make the reusable bag fit for the users and make it more comfortable to use. After coming up with alternative designs for the reusable bag in order to meet the needs of its user, the Pugh Design Selection Matric was used as a decision analysis to determine the better alternative to proceed to prototyping. Successive iterations of the prototype were made with the main of improving each iteration. The bases for improvements for each iteration were through using the gap analysis and the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis. The gap analysis was used to know whether the design iteration was able to meet the needs of the reusable bag users. In addition, the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis was used in order to determine the possible failures in the design. The iteration process ended when the gaps of the vital customer requirements were closed. In conclusion, the study was able to fulfill the vital customer requirements by closing its gaps and reducing the gap scores of the other customer requirements between the satisfaction of the reusable bag users towards the design and their expectations. The customer requirements of being able to carry wet and dry foods together, foldable and equal distribution of weight, presented positive gaps of 0.28, 0.11, and 0 respectively.