2. Market Survey
One important aspect of product design and development is the knowledge of an existing market for the product. This information may result from marketing team or customer’s requirement. For new innovations, the tendency to succeed is low except it is an exceptional design or product (Ulrich and Eppinger 2012). However, some products that stand stiff competition also face the risk of not succeeding. Therefore, the importance of undergoing a market survey comes handy. An explicit market survey helps the organisation to understand customer’s needs and acts according to market trends. By carefully taken into account what the market requires, an organisation can therefore build its product in line with customers demand.
According to a report by Victoria Woollaston (2015) for Mail online, the world’s population is expected to rise from the current 7.3 billion to 9.7 billion by 2050. The rise in the population according to experts will lead to resources being scarce, pollution and poverty. The more people in the world, the more houses will be built and with the recent trend, these houses are becoming quite smaller. Little (2014) explained reasons ranging from aging population, economy and environmental effects of becoming greener among reasons why people tends to build or buy smaller houses. Humans will always need a place to sleep after a long day or to rest the body. The bed provides the support needed by humans when they intend to sleep.
Beds come in various shapes and sizes depending on customers requirement. Some common types include; divan bed, sleigh bed, sofa bed, bunk bed, king and queen sized bed etc. They act as a platform for the body to rest during sleep. It is therefore important that a bed design should be strong enough to withstand the weight of its designed environment.
3. Bunk beds
The Cambridge dictionaries online define a bunk bed “as consisting of one of two beds attached together, one on top of the other.” The origin of this type of bed dates far back to the Egyptian as people of that era tries to maximise sleeping space in scarce resources (ebay 2014). Bunk beds have over the years become one important product as it provides multiple sleeping areas for people. They are widely used in the military, sailing vessels, homes, dormitories, hostel, prison cells, rigs and places where sleeping space is a constraint (Chillsworth 2008), (ebay 2014). They come in various shapes, sizes, colours and are usually made of either wood or metals mostly iron. While the bunk bed is a great space saving design, it should also be strong enough to function in its design capacity.
Safety in bunk bed is one important consideration during its design. Various countries have regulatory bodies mandated to ensure that the design of bunk beds meets necessary safety requirement. ASTM F1427-13 is one international standard for bunk bed design and risk management in bunk bed design is stipulated by the U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission; Office of Compliance 16 C.F.R. Part 1213, 1500 while BS EN 747-1:2012 and BS EN 747-2:2012 is the British/European safety requirement for bunk bed design. In line with the general requirements for the design, the followings are the specifications for the designed bunk bed.
 The designed bunk bed should be able to withstand a total weight of 161.4kg taking the weight of an average human into consideration.
 It will be made from Beech wood products since they can withstand shock and does no wear easily.
 The height of the bed from the ground will be 1.72m while its width will be 1.48m.
 It will be designed to meet the BS EN 747-1:2012 and BS EN 747-2:2012 standard requirements for bunk bed design.
 The design should also contain a shelf for storage of books, clothes and small personal belongings
4. Concept Development