Reinventing The See-Saw

REINVENTING THE
SEE-SAW
A CASE STUDY AT BIG TOYS
Presented By,
Mr. Dhiraj S. Patil
Mr. Wasim B. Patel
INTRODUCTION
It was found in nearly every
public park at school
playgrounds upto 20th century
At the beginning of 21st
century, Concern for safety
and with increased ligitation,
they are slowly getting
disappeared
Reinvention took place in
2005
WHY WE NEED TO REINVETING

THE SEE SAW?
For the safety concern we reinvent the design
of see saw.
While redesigning the see saw the close
cooperation with children were concern for
their safety.
The design process should followed by QFD
(Quality Function Deployment) on Autodesk.
Its takes more time to developed but results in
better product with safety.
History Of See-Saw
The seesaw has been around a long time. There are Greek vase
paintings of children playing on see saws.
The SeeSaw ,In this romantic image, the cooperative play feature
that has made the toy a favorite throughout history is clear with three
people actively enjoying the experience.
This cooperative play feature is important to the Rock n Cross

as can be seen with the five children playing on it in the
photograph.
Rock N Cross.
Big Toys
For nearly 40 years, Big-Toys, Inc. Manufacture the
equipment that encourages children of all ages and
abilities to play, exercise, think, communicate, and
cooperate.
Located in Olympia, Washington, the company is
known for caring for the environment as much as for
children.
Big-Toys sturdy and durable steel and plastic play
structures contain 100-percent U.S.-made recycled
materials.
its use of post-consumer, high-density polyethylene
plastic helps keep hundreds of thousands of milk jugs
out of landfills every year.
Problem associated with Safety

Concerns
Falling from the raised side or while standing on top of it.
Smashing into the ground by the person on the high side
when the lower person jumps off .
Pinching injuries from fingers in the pivot mechanism.
Hitting injuries with a person standing on the ground
being struck by the seesaw either with people on it or
with it pushed in motion while empty.
Each year more than 215,000 got injuries. But of these,
only about 3%ii of the injuries are attributable to see
saws, with a majority of these due to falls on hard
surfaces.
Accountability of injuries
Type of Equipment
Cause Of Injury
% of Injuries
Monkey Bars
Hitting against the equipment
29
Slides
Fall on Hard Surfaces
27
Swings
Pinching injuries from fingers
25
Play Structures
Other
16
See Saw
Falling on hard surface
What is QFD?
Quality Functions Deployment (QFD) was implemented for
costumers safety while designing the Rock N Cross.
The QFD method was developed in Japan in the mid1970s and
introduced in the United States in the late 1980s.
Using this method, Toyota was able to reduce the costs of bringing
a new car model to market by over 60 percent and to decrease the
time required for its development by onethird.
It achieved these results while improving the quality of the product.
Of the companies surveyed, 83 percent felt that the method had
increased customer satisfaction and 76 percent indicated that it
facilitated rational decisions.
QFD Methodology
This Methodology
Followed By 8 Steps as
Follows:1.Who?
2.What?
3.Who Vs. What ?
4.Now?
5.How?
6.What vs. How?
7.How Much?
8.How Vs. How?
1.IDENTIFY THE CUSTOMERS: WHO ARE THEY?
The Mechanical Design Process, a customer is defined

as any person who comes in contact with the product, its
manufacture, sales, and use. The customers are the
who in the QFD diagram .
The most obvious customers for seesaws are children.
But not all children play the same.
The Rock n Cross was designed for schoolaged
children, but 5 year old children play differently than 12
year olds do, a difference described in the section below
on Prototype Testing.
List Of Customers
5 Years old Children's
12 Years old Children's
Playground Supervisors
Playground Equipment Specifiers
Safety Standard & their Organization
Installation/Maintenance Personal
2.Determine the Costumers Requirements What they Want?
To determine what each of the

customer groups wants in a see
saw.
Requirement
Customer(s)
Fun To play on
Children and supervisors
Can play with my friends
Children and supervisors
Can play alone if I am the only one

there
Children
Needs minimal supervision
Supervisors
Safe to use
Supervisors, Specifiers and Safety

Standards
Reliable
Supervisors and maintenance
Meet ASTM Std F1487, CPSC 325
Specifiers
Inexpensive to purchase, install and

maintain
Specifiers, installation and

maintenance
Can be surface mounted
Installers
3: DETERMINE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF THE

REQUIREMENTS: WHO VERSUS WHAT
To evaluate the importance of each of the

customers requirements.
Big-Toys did not do this in any formal way,
but treated all the requirements as
important.
4: IDENTIFY AND EVALUATE THE COMPETITION:

HOW SATISFIED ARE THE CUSTOMERS NOW?
The purpose for studying existing products is twofold:
1. It creates an awareness of what already exists (the now),
2. It reveals opportunities to improve on what already exists.
. In some companies this process is called competition
benchmarking .
. The Comparison is carried out on the basis of Scoring given
to various aspects Out of Five .
5.GENERATE ENGINEERING SPECIFICATIONS:

HOW WILL THE CUSTOMERS REQUIREMENTS
BE MET?
6: RELATE CUSTOMERS REQUIREMENTS TO

ENGINEERING SPECIFICATIONS: HOW TO
MEASURE WHAT?
7: SET ENGINEERING SPECIFICATION TARGETS

AND IMPORTANCE: HOW MUCH IS GOOD
ENOUGH?
8: IDENTIFY RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN

ENGINEERING SPECIFICATIONS: HOW ARE THE
HOWS DEPENDENT ON EACH OTHER?
Concept Development
Big toys does not start to design new see saw. They just saw
the opportunity to develop the conventional one.
The idea of rock n cross is generated from two basic
sketches.
The tilting of the traditional seesaw has been replaced by a

mechanism that moves the riders in the same circular path.
using a rotating arc rather than a pivot.
Where seesaws balance due to weight distribution, by using
spring shown in the righthand, Sling Shot diagram.
In the diagram on the left, the concept that was to become the
Rock n Cross, the springs are not shown, but are implied.
The lefthand diagram is the cooperative play that was to become
an important feature of the Rock n Cross.
Here the springs not only center the riders rotationally, they support
them and provide lateral stiffness.
This style of seesaw is unconstrained in its motion about all axes
and in all directions.
The Rock n Cross on the other hand is constrained to one degree
of freedom, like a traditional seesaw
Its performance is very dependent of the weight of the riders.
Costumers review
Based on the market potential and increased safety over the
competition and the other feature made evident in Table 3,
Cost was clearly going to be higher due to relative
complexity.
one idea to developed the prototype stage internal steering
committee select the Rock n cross.
Requirement
Traditional seesaw
Rock n Cross concept
Final Rock n Cross
1
Fun To play on
Can play with my friends
Can play alone if I am the only one there
Needs minimal supervision
Safe to use
Reliable
Meet ASTM Std F1487, CPSC 325
Inexpensive to purchase, install and maintain
Prototype Testing
For Concept a prototype was built out of plastic materials.
There is an arc shaped playground device that has two parts.
1. The first part is a fixed rail and the second a moving member
with seats on the ends.
2. The moving portion is spring loaded to a predetermined
position allowing it to move toandfro on the rail.
There are three reasons to develop prototypes,

1. To test the function of the product
2. To test the design of the product itself (i.e. fit assemblability, etc.)
3. To test the processes for manufacturing the product.
This first prototype was sufficient for testing the function with children in
an internal environment.
One detail developed and tested during this period was the truck,
The truck serves two purposes.
1. It locks together sections of the moving tubing.
2. supports the wheels that run on the fixed pipe.
After design refinements prototype was developed and installed on a

playground at a local school.
At first the children played on it, but after 1 month no one was using it.
Big-Toys interviewed and observed the children to learn why the loss of
enthusiasm for the product.
They Found that: Five year olds play differently than twelve year olds.
The younger children are more cooperative.
some children act as helpers to the children who are sitting on the Rock
n Cross. The idea of a helper may have been hard to see during the
QFD development.
Twelve year olds are more competitive and like the challenge and risk of
hanging on the middle while other try to shake them off.
This change in play challenge has been a unique factor for the Rock n
Cross.
Playground supervisors thought that supervision was much lower than
that needed for the traditional seesaw.
Conclusions
Big-Toys has developed a 21st century see saw that meets all the customers
requirements with the exception.
That it is more expensive than a traditional see saw.
With the increase in play value, safety and ease of supervision, this has had
little effect on sales.
The toy is a favorite of children and play ground supervisors.
It has proven to be challenging, foster cooperative play and proven safe to play
on.
While Big Toys did not use the QFD process, they achieved many of the QFD
results.
Using the QFD may have saved them some development effort.

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REINVENTING THE

Mr. Wasim B. Patel

WHY WE NEED TO REINVETING

This cooperative play feature is important to the Rock n Cross

Problem associated with Safety

Hitting against the equipment

Fall on Hard Surfaces

Pinching injuries from fingers

Falling on hard surface

1.IDENTIFY THE CUSTOMERS: WHO ARE THEY?

The Mechanical Design Process, a customer is defined

2.Determine the Costumers Requirements What they Want?

To determine what each of the

Children and supervisors

Can play with my friends

Children and supervisors

Can play alone if I am the only one

Needs minimal supervision

Supervisors, Specifiers and Safety

Supervisors and maintenance

Meet ASTM Std F1487, CPSC 325

Inexpensive to purchase, install and

Specifiers, installation and

Can be surface mounted

3: DETERMINE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF THE

To evaluate the importance of each of the

4: IDENTIFY AND EVALUATE THE COMPETITION:

5.GENERATE ENGINEERING SPECIFICATIONS:

6: RELATE CUSTOMERS REQUIREMENTS TO

7: SET ENGINEERING SPECIFICATION TARGETS

8: IDENTIFY RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN

The tilting of the traditional seesaw has been replaced by a

Can play with my friends

Can play alone if I am the only one there

Needs minimal supervision

Meet ASTM Std F1487, CPSC 325

Inexpensive to purchase, install and maintain

There are three reasons to develop prototypes,

After design refinements prototype was developed and installed on a

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