IDENTIFY GATHER DEFINE GENERATE SCREEN

IMPLEMENT HANDOFF
OPPORTUNITY INFO PROBLEM CONCEPTS CONCEPTS

ME 4054W:
DESIGN PROJECTS

Week 6 – Tuesday

Concept Selection

Reference: Ulirich & Eppinger, Chapter 7

Class Agenda
• Methods of Concept Screening
• Concept Screening (Pugh) Matrix
• Concept Scoring (Decision) Matrix

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Concept Selection
• While concept generation is easy (and fun),
concept selection is difficult (and fun)
• You never have enough information; you must
make informed decisions nonetheless
• You will likely use estimation, analysis, and
some prototyping to complete the selection
process
• Weed out bad (vs. picking “best”)
• Look for new concepts and synergies during
the process
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Concept Selection
• Start with a Product Design Specification
(PDS) that is finalized
• Examine ALL concepts at the same time

Documenting the selection process

is nearly as important as the result
(and must be included in your design report)

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Concept Selection - Pictorially

Controlled
convergence

Exhibit 7-4
5 “Product Design and Development” by Ulrich and Eppinger
WRONG WAYS TO DO SCREENING

• Gut feel
• Boss says, “Do it this way”
• Single customer decides
• One team member is strong champion
• Influence of experienced designer

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BETTER WAYS TO SCREEN CONCEPTS
• Multi-voting
– Each team member votes for several concepts.
The concept with the most votes is selected.
• Pros and cons
– The team lists the strengths and weaknesses of
each concepts. The group then selects the best
concept based on group opinion.
• Prototype and test
– Prototypes of each concept are built and tested;
the test data is used to make the selection
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PREFERRED Concept Selection Process
• Decision Matrices
– Start with a Product Design Specification
– Examine ALL concepts at the same time
– Can be weighted or unweighted

Concepts
Decision matrices are A
B C D E
(reference)
a required method 1 0 + - 0 -
Selection Criteria

in this course 2 0 + + - -
3 0 - 0 + 0

4 0 + 0 0 +
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 Benefits of a Structured Concept
Selection Method

• A customer-focused product
• A competitive design
• Better product-process coordination
• Reduced time to product introduction
• Effective group decision making
• Documentation of the decision process

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 Two Stages of Concept Selection
1. Concept screening
• Reduce the many product concept ideas
generated to a relative few that will get
additional refinement and analysis

2. Concept scoring
• Use objective methods to select to your
consensus final concept selection

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 Concept Screening
1. Prepare the selection/screening matrix
• Selection criteria must relate to key customer needs

2. Rate the concepts

• + = “better than”
• 0 = “same as”
• − = “worse than”
3. Rank the concepts
• As objectively as possible using the concept rating

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 Concept Screening
4. Combine and improve the concepts
• Is there a generally good concept that is downgraded
by one feature?
• Can two concepts be combined to preserve the
“better than” features while simultaneously removing
any “worse than” features?
5. Select one or more concepts for further
refinement and analysis
6. Reflect on the results and process
• Are all team members “comfortable” with the
decisions? If not, what needs to be resolved?

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 Concept Screening Matrix Example

Exhibit 7-5
“Product Design and Development”
By Ulrich and Eppinger

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 Stage 2: Concept Scoring
1. Prepare the selection matrix
• An optimized version of the concept screening matrix
• Determine % weighting for each selection criteria

2. Rate the concepts

Page 135
“Product Design and Development”
14 By Ulrich and Eppinger
 Concept Scoring
3. Rank the concepts

Page 136
“Product Design and Development”
15 By Ulrich and Eppinger
 Concept Scoring
4. Combine and improve the concepts
5. Select one or more concepts for
further refinement and analysis
• Sensitivity analysis
• Build and test prototypes

6. Reflect on the results and process

• Down-select to the consensus final concept
selection

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 Concept Scoring Example

Sensitivity analysis on criteria
weighting can provide insight
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Exhibit 7-7
“Product Design and Development”
By Ulrich and Eppinger
 Project Example:
Heated Veneer Press, Spring 2000
• Specifications taken from the product design specification
• If a specification does not differentiate one implementation
over another, remove it from the selection chart
• Limit specifications to 10 or less of the most important
• New specifications may arise associated with
manufacturability, etc. Add them to your PDS!

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 PDS (Abbreviated):
Veneer Press
Need #'s Metric Importance Units Marginal Value Ideal Value
5 Surface flatness 5 mm/m < 2.0 < 1.0
10 Cost 3 US $ < 800 400
Laminating
4 5 kPa 50-60 50-100
pressure
Pressure
12 variation over 4 kPa < 40 < 20
panel surface
Duration of
9 pressure 3 hours 0-2 0-24
application
8 Set-up time 2 min < 30 < 10
7 Loading time 3 minutes < 10 <1

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 Concept Scoring Matrix:
Veneer Press
Weighting
Criteria Roller Clamp Dead Weight Vacuum
Factor
Surface flatness 25 2 5 5 2
Pressure variation over
20 2 5 5 4
panel surface
Duration of pressure
20 1 5 5 5
application
Loading time 15 3 5 4 3
Set-up time 10 5 4 4 3
Cost 10 5 3 4 2
Total score 100 255 470 465 325
Rank 4 1 2 3

If the total scores of two or more concepts are close

(as above), you can add selection criteria from your
PDS, do a sensitivity analysis or do both.

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 Concept Selection Exercise
• Review your PDS
• Identify specs to include on concept
selection matrices
• If time allows, begin creating a concept
screening matrix
– Most promising concepts across the top
– Most important specs on the side
(5 minutes)
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 Commons Pitfalls in Concept Selection
• Not doing it
• Running with the first idea
• Forgetting the customer
• Selection chart criteria don't correspond to PDS
• Letting an "experienced" designer make the
choices
• Going by gut feel
• Letting a manager decide
• Not buying into the process as a team
• Ignoring cost
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 Congratulations!
IDENTIFY GATHER DEFINE GENERATE SCREEN
IMPLEMENT HANDOFF
OPPORTUNITY INFORMATION PROBLEM CONCEPTS CONCEPTS

• After following the structured process, you are

now ready to implement a design solution that
addresses the customer’s needs (PDS).
• Implementation includes, but is not limited to:
– Design and analysis
– Fabrication of prototype(s)
– Testing
– Optimization
– Documenting the design and design process

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