Last Homework assignment Complete the FSD. Due Today. Put on website and email a copy to me.

1. Last Homework assignment Complete the FSD. Due Today. Put on website and email a copy to me. Work on the Concept Generation portion of the CG&S Document for your Project. Email me with ~5 concept fragments for your actual project. We will discuss these in class on Tuesday. Read Chapter 7, Concept Selection in Ulrich and Eppinger ECEn 490

2. Team Pythagoreans: 01/27/09 Jonathon Taylor Daniel Richins Jim Meaders Ryan West ECEn 490

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4. Lecture 7 Concept Selection or Decision Making 101 ECEn 490

5. Plan Downstream Development Test Product Concept Set Final Specs Perform Economic Analysis Benchmark Competitive Products Build and Test Models and Prototypes Concept Development Phase Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4 Phase 5 Concept Development System-Level Design Detail Design Testing and Refinement Production Ramp-up Mission Statement Development Plan Establish Target Specs Generate Product Concepts Identify Customer Needs Select a Product Concept Concept Development Exhibit 2 Chapter 3 Ulrich & Eppinger ECEn 490

6. Filter and decide Concept generation Concept screening Concept scoring Concept testing Expand our thinking Iterative Process of Screening and Scoring ECEn 490

7. Every team uses some method of decision making. Common methods include: • External decision; let someone else decide, customer, client, etc. • Product Champion; an influential team member chooses the concept. • Intuition; subjective criteria are used to decide. It just feels better. • Multi-voting; team members vote for their favorite. • Pros and Cons; team list strengths and weaknesses and choose based on opinions. • Prototype and test; team builds several units and decision is based on results. • Decision matrices; team rates each concept against defined selection criteria. ECEn 490

8. Benefits of using decision matrices • A customer focused approach; concepts are evaluated against customer-oriented criteria. • More competitive designs; concepts are benchmarked against best-in-class designs. • Reduced development time; using a structured approach develops a common vision and language for the design team. • Better group decision making; the decision is more likely to be based on objective criteria. • Documentation of the decision process; the method provides its own documentation. ECEn 490

9. Caution • Concept Scoring and Screening matrices are only used on those few (less than 5) design problems that will make a significant difference in the outcome of your project. • You don’t need the formality of concept scoring and screening for obvious design choices or those that are dictated by the preferred solution. ECEn 490

10. The Two Stages of Concept Selection Concept Screening: give relative score against a known benchmark design. fast, approximate evaluation that produces several viable concepts. Best used when quantitative comparisons are difficult. Usually requires some sort of reference concept for relative evaluation. Concept Scoring: weighted ranking of measurement criteria. Used when only a few alternatives are being considered. Required quantitative comparisons of concepts. Can still be quite subjective due to choices of weights and ranks. ECEn 490

11. In both cases we use the Six Steps of Concept Selection 1. Prepare the selection matrix—choose the selection criteria. 2. Rate the concepts. 3. Rank the concepts. 4. Combine and improve concepts. 5. Select one or more concepts. 6. Reflect on the results and the process. Evaluate against a reference Give the concept a # score ECEn 490

12. Method 1--Concept Screening Product Concepts F A B C E Selection Criteria Criteria 1 Criteria 2 Criteria 3 Sum/Rank ECEn 490

13. Concept Screening Concept Ratings Concepts F Criteria A B C E Criteria 1 Criteria 2 Criteria 3 Sum/Rank A= reference ECEn 490

14. Step 1--Preparing the Selection Matrix. The choice of the selection matrix is key to the success of both Screening and Scoring. Selection criteria should be independent. Selection criteria should be chosen to differentiate among the concepts. The criteria should be of the same relative worth. Don’t get too many criteria. Use industry comparisons if available. ECEn 490

15. Concept Screening matrix • Start with the selection criteria. • Where are you going to get the selection criteria? • These are the key attributes or features of the product as determined in the FSD. ECEn 490

16. Next develop the list of concepts that you are considering for the solution • This list is the output of the concept generation exercise. • Prune the list using intuitive methods to a manageable number of concepts to consider. • Each concept should be a solution to the same problem. ECEn 490

17. Concept Screening Step 2--Rating Concepts Use a relative score, +, 0, - or colored dots rate against a reference Step 3--Rank the Concepts sum up the scores rank the concepts by scores, highest to lowest. Step 4--Combine and Improve the Concepts Look at the results and see if there are ways to combine concepts is there one bad feature that is degrading a good concept? ECEn 490

18. In-Class Exercise • Your team is working for “Innovative Directions” • You have been given the assignment to work with BYU on a special project. • Your team has been assigned this task: • “Design and build an economical solution which will make it easy for those unfamiliar with the BYU campus to find their way around.” ECEn 490

19. Innovative Directions Concept Generation • What would be some of the possible solutions for providing campus directions? • Physical map • Downloadable map • New signs on campus • New building signs • Color coded strips on the sidewalks ECEn 490

20. Innovative Directions Concept Screening example • What would some good screening criteria for choosing the best alternative for the Innovative Directions example? • Criteria • Cost of the solution • Ease of use • Portability • Accuracy of data • Cost of development • Availability of solution • What would be a good benchmark concept? ECEn 490

21. Concept Screening Concepts Color coded stripes on walks New signs on campus New building signs Downloadable Map Physical Map Criteria Ease of Use Availability of information Cost Sum/Rank ECEn 490

22. Concept Screening continued Step 5--Select One or More Concepts Look for patterns and groupings of concepts. Look for natural breakpoints among concepts. Step 6--Reflect on the Results try to get consensus among the team on the results. Ask if the criteria reflects the critical customer needs. ECEn 490

23. Method 2--Concept Scoring Step 1--Preparing the selection matrix. In addition to the requirements for screening: each criteria must be assigned a weight in relationship to its importance. A good way of assigning weights is to allocate 100 percentage points across all criteria. Or, importance values can be assigned, 1-9. There are empirical methods of assigning weights, but more often they are determined by team consent. ECEn 490

24. Concept Scoring Matrix Weighted Score Weighted Score Weighted Score Weighted Score Rating Rating Rating Rating Concepts Concept A Concept B Concept C Concept D Criteria Weight Criteria 1 Criteria 2 Criteria 3 X% Y% Z% 1 3 9 1X 3Y 9Z Totals 100% Sum ECEn 490

25. Concept scoring, continued Step 2--Rate the Concepts assign a numerical value to each concept with respect to the criteria. Use a wide scale to help differentiate among concepts. I.e. 1,3,9 Step 3--Rank the Concepts ranking is done by multiplying the concept scores by the criteria weights. Add up all the scores for each concept. List the concepts by descending order. ECEn 490

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27. Concept Scoring continued Step 4--Combining and improving is similar to concept screening. Step 5--Select one or more concepts choose the highest ranking concepts look for individuals scores where one criteria was significant to the total. Decide whether the scoring was quantitative enough to make a decision. Step 6--Reflect on the Results this is again similar to screening, does the answer make sense. ECEn 490

28. In class exercise • Develop a scoring matrix for the criteria that you developed in Exercise #1. • Give relative weights to the criteria and design a scoring definition for the ranking. • How does this help with the evaluation of the criteria? ECEn 490

29. In class exercise ECEn 490

30. Potential problems Concept criteria are not independent a set of criteria reflects a common need, resulting in too heavy a weighting. For example, if you had three criteria relating to quality, and only one relating to cost, the sum of the quality scores would be spread over three criteria, while cost is concentrated in one criteria. Criteria are too subjective. How do you deal with subjective criteria? Cost must always be included in some form, because of the importance to the customer. ECEn 490

31. Summary All teams use some form of selection, often it is implicit and unstructured. Structured concept selection provides a level of objective measurement that can help differentiate between competing solutions. Concept screening is useful for eliminating alternatives when you have a large number to consider. Concept scoring is used to refine the selection when you have only a few choices. Screening and scoring are not exact sciences. ECEn 490

32. Homework Complete the Concept Generation and Scoring Document. Due at design review next week. Be sure to cover all 5 of areas of the decision Matrix to insure that the reader will understand your thought process, and especially the assumptions that you are using. (see the document description on the ECEn 490 business website.) ECEn 490

33. Critical parts of the body of the CG&S document. You need a written section with Scoring for each of the following; • Description of the alternatives considered • Discussion of the decision criteria; why were they chosen? why they are important? These should come directly from the customer needs/FSD. • The thought process that resulted in the weighting factors. This should be heavily driven by the FSD prioritized needs. Include the values. • An analysis of the process of scoring. Why did you choose the various scores? Include the scores! • Review your results. ECEn 490