Purpose of Trade-off Analysis to Engineering Curriculum

To facilitate assessment for Student Outcome C, ability to design a

system, component, or process to meet desired needs within realistic
constraints such as economic, environmental, social, political, College of Engineering Education
ethical, health and safety, manufacturability, and sustainability, in
accordance with standards

Who are required to conduct Trade-off Analysis?

All research / thesis courses

All design-related courses GUIDELINES ON
TRADE-OFF ANALYSIS

2016 Edition
S. T. S.
R. S. P. Jr.
I - What is Trade-off Analysis? III – Different Tools/Methods in Trade-off Analysis

A technique of reducing or forgoing one or more desirable 1. Pugh Matrix

outcomes in exchange for increasing or obtaining other desirable 2. Quality Function Deployment
outcomes in order to maximize the total return or effectiveness 3. Transportation Models
under given circumstances. 4. Simplex Solution Technique
5. Others…
Source: businessdictionary.com
IV – Pugh Matrix
II – Rationale  developed by Stuart Pugh in the 1980s and is often called
Pugh concept selection.
The need to select one concept from many raises several questions:  narrow the number of concepts quickly and to improve the
concepts.
 How can the student choose the best concept, given that the  a type of Matrix Diagram that allows for the comparison of
designs are still quite abstract? a number of design candidates leading ultimately to which
 How can a decision be made that is embraced by the whole team? best meets a set of criteria.
 How can desirable attributes of otherwise weak concepts be  permits a degree of qualitative optimisation of the
identified and used? alternative concepts through the generation of hybrid
 How can the decision-making process be documented? candidates.
 easy to use and relies upon a series of pairwise comparisons
Trade-off Analysis is the process of evaluating concepts with respect between design candidates against a number of criteria or
to customer needs and other criteria, comparing the relative requirements.
strengths and weaknesses of the concepts, and selecting one or  can handle a large number of decision criteria.
more concepts for further investigation, testing, or development.
Steps in Concept Screening
The method presented is also useful in the development process 1. Prepare the selection matrix
when the team must select subsystem concepts, components, and  An optimized version of the concept screening matrix
production processes.  Determine % weighting for each selection criteria

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2. Rate the concepts using pairwise concept
Pairwise ranking is a structured method for ranking a small
list of items in priority order. It can help you:
 Prioritize a small list.
 Make decisions in a consensus-oriented manner.
How to do it:
Rank each pair.
For each pair, have the group (using a consensus-oriented
discussion) determine which of the two ideas is preferred.
Then, for each pair, write the number of the preferable idea
in the appropriate box. Repeat this until the matrix is filled.
3. Rank the concepts
 Once the ratings are entered for each concept, weighted
scores are calculated by multiplying the raw scores by the
criteria weights. The total score for each concept is the
sum of the weighted scores:
𝑛
Summary of Concept selection
𝑆𝑗 = ∑ 𝑟𝑖𝑗 𝑤𝑖
𝑖=1
𝑟𝑖𝑗 = raw rating of concept j for the ith criterion
𝑤𝑖 = weighting for ith criterion
𝑛 = number of criteria
𝑆𝑗 =total score for concept j
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Finally, each concept is given a rank corresponding to its
total score.
4. Combine and Improve the Concepts.
 Some of the most creative refinements and improvements
occur during the concept selection process as the team
realizes the inherent strengths and weaknesses of certain
features of the product concepts.
5. Select one or more concepts
 The final selection is not simply a question of choosing the
concept that achieves the highest ranking after the first
pass through the process.
 The team should explore this initial evaluation by
conducting a sensitivity analysis. Weights and ratings can
be varied to determine their effect on the ranking.
 Uncertainty about a particular rating can be assessed and
may affect the choice.
 The top two concepts may be further developed,
prototyped, and tested to elicit customer
Concept selection is the process of evaluating concepts with
respect to customer needs and other criteria, comparing the
relative strengths and weaknesses of the concepts, and
selecting one or more concepts for further investigation or
development.
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Sample Calculation Using Pugh Matrix

Say, you consider the following realistic constraints:

1. Sustainability
2. Social
3. Economic
4. Manufacturability

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