Decision Making and Concept
Selection
Chapter 7
1
Concept Generation & Selection
2
Requirements for Selecting a Design
1) A set of design selection criteria
2) A set of alternatives believed to satisfy the set of criteria
3) A means to evaluate the design alternatives with respect
to each criterion
3
Evaluate & Select Concept Stage in PDP
4
Concept Generation and Evaluation
5
Shot Buddy Concept Generation
Adapted from J. Davis, J. Decker, J. Maresco, S. McBee, S. Phillips, and R. Quinn, “JSR Design
Final Report: Shot-Buddy,” unpublished, ENME 472, University of Maryland, May 2010.
6
Design Selection Based on Absolute
Criteria
Evaluation based on judgment of functional feasibility of
the design
Concepts should be placed into one of the followings:
Feasible
Not Feasible
Will Work
Evaluation based on assessment of technology readiness
Product design is not the appropriate place to do R&D.
Evaluation based on go/no-go screening of the constraints
and threshold levels of engineering characteristics
7
Pugh Chart
8
Pugh Chart
A particularly useful method for identifying the most
promising design concepts among the alternatives
generated at is the Pugh chart.
Pugh’s method compares each concept relative to a
reference or datum concept and for each criterion
determines whether the concept in question is better
than, poorer than, or about the same as the reference
concept.
Pugh Chart is a relative comparison technique.
9
Steps of Building the Pugh Chart
1) Choose the criteria by which the concepts will be
evaluated
2) Formulate the decision matrix
3) Clarify the design concepts
4) Choose the datum concept
5) Complete the matrix entries
6) Evaluate the ratings
7) Establish a new datum and rerun the matrix
8) Examine the selected concept for improvement
opportunities
10
Pugh Chart 1 for Shot-Buddy Example
11
Pugh Chart 2 for Shot-Buddy Example
12
Weighted Decision Matrix
13
Weighted Decision Matrix
A decision matrix is a method of evaluating competing
concepts by ranking the design criteria with weighting
factors and scoring the degree to which each design
concept meets the criterion.
To do this it is necessary to convert the values obtained
for different design criteria into a consistent set of values.
The simplest way of dealing with design criteria
expressed in a variety of ways is to use a point scale.
14
Evaluation Scheme for Design
Alternatives or Objectives
15
Systematic Methods for Determining
Weighted Factors
Direct Assignment:
This method is only recommended for design teams where
there are many years of experience designing the same
product line.
Objective Tree:
This method relies on some experience with the
importance of the criteria in the design process.
16
Objective Tree: Design of a Crane Hook
17
Weighted Decision Matrix:
Steel Crane Hook
The best solution is the riveted plate design option.
18
Pugh Chart 2 for Shot-Buddy Example
19
Delaney Bales et al., Sports For Nathan, Final Report, Mech. Eng., California Polytechnic State University , Senior Design Project
Pugh Chart from Student’s project
Delaney Bales et al., Sports For Nathan, Final Report, Mech. Eng., California Polytechnic State University , Senior Design Project
20 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.
©2013.The McGraw-Hill Companies
