Concurrent design and economic justification in developing a product

Abstract

SUMMARY In today's globally competitive world it is essential to design products with maximized functionality and minimized costs. An environment that facilitates the interactions between design and justification would enhance such a decision process. A conceptual framework for such a concurrent design and justification system is presented in this paper. A prototype implementation was developed to explore the usefulness of the design justification concept Actual data from the design of an electromagnetic/radio frequency shield, a component in electrical metering equipment, was used. In this implementation the design justification environment allowed the decision maker to see the potential economic implications of different design alternatives. It also enabled the decision maker to take advantage of their present knowledge and combine it with that of the environment to better analyse the design of the shield throughout the entire product development period.