Our team (of 4) was required to perform a reverse engineering on a consumer product as a part of the coursework 'Design for Manufacturability' where we had to identify possible design improvements using DFMA guidelines and perform cost and assembly time analysis as a part of design validation.

We decided to go with the 'Hamilton Beach' blender for our project. The motivation to select this product is the fact that this is one of the commonly found household product. But, as helpful as the blender is in daily lives, its equally dangerous to users with the kinds of accidents we have seen happening. Thus, we saw a potential in improving the product's safety and make the product more reliable for users.

1. The product was disassembled and each part was studied for its material and manufacturing method.

2. We created the 3-D model of the components and assembly of the blender using Solidworks and tried to replicate the exactness as much as possible.

3. We performed material analysis, study of manufacturing methods and DFA analysis to identify the components/sub-assembly that could be worked around to get results.

4. We identified 3 major improvements in the components namely jar cap, control buttons and body base; the components were redesigned.

5. Order of Magnitude estimates, DFA analysis, cost analysis and assembly time analysis were performed and documented in a final report.