1M. Sc. [Engg.] Student, Department of Design, M.S. Ramaiah School of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, 560 058
2Professor, Department of Design, M.S. Ramaiah School of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, 560 058
3Professor, Department of Design, M.S. Ramaiah School of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, 560 058
Online published on 18 February, 2020.
Tea cultivation in India has a long history of application in traditional system of medicine as well as for consumption. India is cultivating and consuming for thousands of years. Commercial production of tea in India started with the arrival of English East India Company. Tea is a major beverage in India. It is considered as the second cheapest drink after water. India and China are the largest producers as well as the consumers of tea. Tea manufacturing is done by processing the tea leaves. The tea leaves are plucked from the plant and take to the factory where it is processed. For good quality tea only the buds including the third leaf has to be plucked and processed. The shortage of laborers and the increase in wages made the management to think of an alternate method of harvesting the tea leaves. This resulted in the mechanization of tea leaves harvesting.
Research has to be conducted among the tea leaf harvesting people to understand more about the current scenario. Research was carried out through product study, market study, literature review, interviews, user study, ethnographic research etc. Quality function deployment (QFD) was prepared were the customer voice were converted into technical voice. Detailed product design specification (PDS) was created as per the data's from QFD. Mind mapping was used to create ideas. Five Concepts were generated using the prepared PDS. Using the weighted ranking method, a concept was selected which has most of the qualities which the QFD demands.
The final concept was selected with the help of weighted ranking method and the detailed drawings were made. Mock-up model of size 1: 1 was made. The validation of the product has been carried out. The mock up model was satisfying with for most of the designers and customers. The user requirements like light weight, proper vision of the process, easy cleaning and servicing were met through this study. From the study, the proposed concept appears to show a potential saving of 15% in weight, and should therefore likely find acceptance in the field.
