 How to choose the best concept?  How to decide as a team?  How to document the process?

 How would a group come to consensus?  Agreeing on a process  Supporting the outcome of the process  Merit-based debating  Remaining cool and rational  Emphasis is on discovery

 External decision  Product champion  Intuition  Pros and cons  Prototype and test  Decision matrix

 Possible methods of decision making  External decision: Boss  Product champion: A member  Intuition: Gut feelings and vote

 Pros & cons: Discussion & vote of majority.  Prototype and test  Decision matrix: Each concept is rated w/r to specifications and ranked.

 Two-stage methodology  Concept screening  Initial screening (when > 10 concepts)  Concept screening matrix (> 5 concepts)  Concept scoring  Concept scoring matrix (< 5 concepts)

 Multi-vote technique  Group eliminates unlikely concepts.  Allocate 10 dots to each members  Choose the top 10 concepts

 Process for using matrix methods  1. Identify the criteria  2. Choose a datum  3. Rate the concepts  4. Rank the concepts

 Concept screening matrix  Evaluate concepts w/r to customer needs  Use most important criteria  Choose a reference (datum) concept  A favorite design  A competitive product

 Compare each concept with the datum concept  Give a score of + for “better than” datum  Give a score of - for “worse than” datum  Give a score of 0 for “same as” datum  Rank concepts

PDS CriteriaDatumBCDEF Wall Clearance Bolt clearance 0110 Max Load 0 11 Adaptability Effectiveness Weight 0 1 Cost 00 1 Total

 Combine and improve concepts  Select promising concepts.  Reflect on the process.

 It is important to have a single category for each important criteria. For example do not breakdown “cost” into:  Cost  Ease of manufacture / Assembly  Material availability  Labor This practice inflates some criteria

 If it is preferred to break down criteria, make sure the “importance” is also divided between them:  CostImportance 5  Or  Materials2  Labor2  Tooling1  This method can be used in Scoring Matrix

 Concept scoring matrix  The main criteria are listed as before  Determine a weighting factor for each criteria  Done in QFD (as importance)  Rating the concepts (1-5):  1 : Much worse than reference concept  2: Worse than reference concept  3: Same as reference concept  4: Better than reference concept  5: Much better than reference concept

 Alternate Absolute Scale Scoring  Rating the concepts (1-5):  1 : Useless – Very inferior  2: Poor - inferior  3: Acceptable  4: Good or superior  5: Excellent or much superior

 Consider buying a TV  Selection Criteria  Cost  Screen size  Image clarity  Warrantee  Looks

 Brand-A  Cost: $350, size: 25”, 1 y, 0.28mm, OK looks  Brand-B  Cost: $175, size: 19”, 6 month, 0.19mm, Beautiful  Brand-C  Cost: $430, size: 27”, 2 y, 0.28mm, Very ugly  Brand-D  Cost $275, size 21”, 1 y, 0.15mm, ugly

 Rate and rank concepts  Combine and improve  Select one concept  Consider variation in rates and weights on the final results.  Assess how much difference is really significant.  Reflect on the results  This is “the point of no return” - Everyone on the team must be in agreement about it.

 Was your favorite option selected? If not, here are your options: 1. Ask for a second round of debating 2. Study the decision matrix, why did your design score lower than others? 3. Can you modify your design to address weaknesses 4. Did the team overlook strengths of your design?