Transformable Camping Cart Design for a Jack Company

Abstract

For fuel efficiency and long-distance driving, it is important to reduce vehicle weight. This pushes car manufacturers to replace extra weighted components, such as spare tires and jacks, with light and disposable ones. However, this trend is a crisis for companies manufacturing extra components for cars. It is crucial for car manufacturing companies to find new business opportunities based on their existing technologies. This paper shows how design can contribute to new business development for a company facing such a crisis. To this end, we developed a new item for a jack manufacturer, focusing on applying the manufacturer’s proprietary technology. In the design research stage, we analyzed social trends and the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the manufacturer and its technologies. As such, we designed a deformable camping cart using the jack’s mechanism to minimize the obstacles and discomfort that campers faced during use of the camping cart. Our study suggests that design offers the capability to produce new products and the potential to create new markets for B2B suppliers with their own production technology. In addition, there is a higher possibility of design concept realization when a design project starts with existing technology than when it relies mainly on market and user research. We hope this study provides insights into new product development through a design process for B2B suppliers.