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TECHNIQUES FOR CONCEPT SELECTION

Feasibility

Judgment

Technology

Readiness Assessment

Go/no-go Screening

Decision Matrix Method

Numerous Concepts

Gut Feeling

State of Art

Customer Requirements

Absolute

Relative

Type of Comparison Technique Basis of Comparison

BEST CONCEPT

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EVALUATION BASED ON FEASIBILITY* JUDGMENT

What we think about it?

Understanding + Experience

* Feasibility: The quality of being doable

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EVALUATION BASED ON TECHNOLOGY READINESS ASSESSMENT

Objective - is to determine the readiness of the technologies that may be used in the design concept. Immature technology will lead to a poor-quality product or cancellation of a project due to cost overruns.

Time-Line for Technology Readiness

Technology Development Time

Powered human flight 403 (1500 – 1903)

Photographic cameras 112 (1727 – 1839)

Radio 35 (1867 – 1902)

Television 12 (1922 – 1934)

Radar 15 (1925 – 1940)

Xerography 17 (1938 – 1955)

Atomic bomb 6 (1939 – 1945)

Transistor 5 (1948 – 1953)

Digital camera 30 1965 - 2004

High temperature super conductor ? 1987 - ?

Electric car 1900 - ?

…..

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EVALUATION BASED ON TECHNOLOGY READINESS ASSESSMENT

Six measures to determine if a technology is mature:

1. Can the technology be manufactured with known processes?

2. Are the critical parameters that control the function identified ?

3. Are the safe operating parameters known ?

4. Have the failure modes been identified ?

5. Does hardware exist that demonstrates positive answers to the above four questions ?

6. Is the technology controllable throughout the product's life cycle ?

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Displacement on Demand has been in works for the last 25 years…..

finally:

GM announces that the 2005 model year GMC Envoy XL, Envoy XUV and Chevrolet trailblazer EXT will be the first vehicles to showcase its innovative Displacement on Demand fuel-saving technology, which enhances fuel economy without compromising performance or the ability to carry heavy loads. Displacement on Demand is to be a standard feature in the vehicles' optional Vortec 5300 V-8 engine. The technology, which boosts the Vortec engine's fuel efficiency by 8 percent, is also to be introduced in other GM engines in the 2006 model year.

EVALUATION BASED ON TECHNOLOGY READINESS ASSESSMENT

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Hybrid car

EVALUATION BASED ON TECHNOLOGY READINESS ASSESSMENT

2000 2010

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http://www.veva.bc.ca/enfield/enfield1.jpg

2004

EVALUATION BASED ON TECHNOLOGY READINESS ASSESSMENT

http://www.dieselstation.com/pics/2011-Holden-Volt-car-pics.jpg

2010

Electric car

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EVALUATION BASED ON TECHNOLOGY READINESS ASSESSMENT

Film camera Digital camera

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EVALUATION BASED ON TECHNOLOGY READINESS ASSESSMENT

Incandescent Luminescent LED

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EVALUATION BASED ON GO/NO GO SCREENING

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Concept 1

Poncho

Fender concepts

Concept 2

Device attached to seat post and back of seat

Concept 3

Spring loaded roll

Concept 4

Sissy bar

Concept 5

Device to brush-off water

Concept 6

Half fender

Concept 7

Standard fender with quick release

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Evaluation Based on Go/No Go Screening

Easy to attach

Not rattle

Long life

Lightweight

Not release accidentally

For the sake of simplicity we’ll consider only 5 requirements

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Goal is to compare each concept with the customer requirements in an absolute

fashion.

Each customer requirement must be transformed into a question to be

addressed to each concept.

The questions should be answerable as either Yes or Maybe (Go),

or No (No-Go).

If a concept has only a few No-Go responses, then it may be worth modifying

the design rather than eliminating it.

Evaluation Based on Go/No Go Screening

-1 - no

0 -

maybe

1 -

yes

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Evaluation Based on Go/No Go Screening

The winner

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Evaluation Based on Decision Matrix

The method provides a means of scoring each concept relative to

another in its ability to meet the customer requirements.

This method tests the completeness and understanding of the

requirements, identifies the strongest concepts, and helps foster

new concepts.

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Evaluation Based on Decision Matrix

Decision-Matrix Form

Concepts for Comparison

Scores

Totals

Wei

gh

tsCustomer Requirements

The relative importance of requirements found using pair-wise comparison technique

Concepts to be compared

1 2

3

4

5

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Evaluation Based on Decision Matrix1. Requirements

Easy to attach

Not rattle

Long life

Lightweight

Not release accidentally

For the sake of simplicity we’ll consider only 5 requirements

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Evaluation Based on Decision Matrix

We find the relative importance of these requirements using pair wise comparison technique:

Easy to attach

Not rattle

Long life

lightweight

Not release accidentally

Rating of relative importance:

Equal 1

More important 3

Strongly more important 5

Very strongly more important 7

Extremely more important 9

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" Which requirement is more important to the success of the product?Note: follow the rule “row is more important than column”

Evaluation Based on Decision Matrix, Pair Wise Comparison Technique

Relative importance of requirementsRequirements

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Generate scores (i.e. which customer requirements to use).

Datum - the designer's favorite concept

0 - same as datum

+ 1 - better than datum

- 1 - worse than datum

Evaluation Based on Decision Matrix

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Evaluation Based on Decision Matrix

The winnerRelative importance of requirements

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EVALUATION OF SNOW SHOVEL DESIGN CONCEPT

USING THE DECISION MATRIX METHOD

Concept A Concept B Concept C Concept D

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Concepts for Comparison

Scores

Totals

Wei

gh

tsCustomer Requirements

The relative importance of requirements found using pair-wise comparison technique

Concepts to be compared

1 2

3

4

5

Evaluation Based on Decision Matrix

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Requirements placed on a snow shovel:

Easy to handle

Removes snow fast

Durable

Concepts of a snow shovel design:

A, B, C, D

Which one to choose?

Evaluation Based on Decision Matrix

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The winner

Datum

Pair-wise comparison

Evaluation Based on Decision Matrix

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Concept A Concept B Concept C Concept D

Datum Winner

Evaluation Based on Decision Matrix

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SPECIFICATIONS, CONCEPT GENERATION AND SELECTION SUMMARY

Need

Concept 1

Concept 2

Concept 3

…

Concept n

QFD

Functional Decomposition

Morphological Analysis

Ideation

Brainstorming

Patents

Reference (Books, Trade Journals)

Experts’ help

Feasibility judgment

Technology readiness

Go/no go screening

Decision matrix method

Final conceptRequired

functionality

Des

ign

rev

iew

1

Des

ign

rev

iew

2

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