ABSTRACT
Manufacturers are using advanced electronics technologies to build vending machines with more sophisticated mechanisms and controls. Vending machine development at Fuji Electric is market driven, stressing close and fast-paced teamwork between Production and Sales. Design Review (DR) program includes five elements: DR-0, DR-1, DR-2, DR-3, and DR-4. In each case the review committee evaluates the design against customer quality requirements. Once a prototype has been built, each newly found problem causes considerable delays, since opportunities for improvement are fewer and fewer, so right from the concept stage, we seek to predict such problems before they surface. The DR committee has drawn up a standards manual for vending machine quality characteristics and key functions. It accounts for environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity, rain, vibration, wear and tear, sunlight, dust, and noise. The committee has also been verifying DR results and conducting follow-up reliability tests.
