Establishing Target Specifications
As Exhibit 6-3 illustrates, the target specifications are established after the customer needs have been identified but before product concepts have been generated and the most promising one(s) selected. An arbitrary setting of the specifications may not be technically feasible. For example, in designing a suspension fork, the team cannot assume in advance that it will be able to achieve simultaneously a mass of l kilogram , a manufacturing cost of $30, and the best descent time on the test track, as these are three quite aggressive specifications. Actually meeting the specifications established at this point is contingent upon the details of the product concept the team eventually selects. For this reason , such preliminary specifications are labeled "target specifications." They are the goals of the development team, describing a product that the team believes would succeed in the marketplace. Later these specifications will be refined based on the limitations of the product concept actually selected.