ENGINEERING DESIGN PROCESS
A series of steps that engineers follow to find a solution to a problem
Some of these steps done once while others might be (iterative) repeated
before moving to the next step
The order of the steps vary from one solution to another
ENGINEERING DESIGN STEPS
Capstone I
Capstone II
DEFINE THE PROBLEM
What is the problem that needs to be solved?
Why do we need a solution for this problem
Who will benefit from the solution
This will help to narrow the possibilities of the solutions
What are the limitations and requirements?
This will help to narrow the possibilities of the solutions
BUILDING BACK GROUND
Help to understand the required knowledge to proceed with the process
Benefits from the experience of others
Know similar solution to avoid redoing what was done and to improve previous
work/solution
Avoid the problems faced by others
You may have some solutions/ ideas you did not consider
REQUIREMENTS/CONSTRAINS
Brainstorm as many as possible solutions before opting to start a design
Determine all possible constrains
Constraints are strict limits that a design must meet the objectives in order to be
acceptable.
Constraints are typically framed as a binary yes or no choice.
Constraints enable us to reject unacceptable alternatives while objectives enable
us to select among design alternatives that at least acceptable.
REQUIREMENTS/CONSTRAINS
complexity
feasibility
DESIGN CONSTRAINTS & CRITERIA
Design constraints specify criteria that the implemented project must satisfy
Large commercial designs may have hundreds of criteria; student projects will
generally have less (~5-20)
Designs split into a variety of categories
Always look at the limitations
COMPUTATIONAL CONSTRAINTS &
CRITERIA- Example
What algorithms/methods does your software need to use? (FFT? Sorting
algorithms? Table lookup?)
What computing resources does your design require? (Floating point?
Cryptography?)
What requirements are imposed on your processor? (Clock speed? Memory?)
ELECTRONICS CONSTRAINTS & CRITERIA
What major components does your design use? (Sensors? LCDs? External
memory?)
What major interfaces does your design use? (e.g. if your design uses
Ethernet, it will need a physical Ethernet interface and dedicated control
hardware)
How many I/O lines will your microcontroller need? (Largely derived from
components and interfaces used by your design)
What special interface considerations might you need? (Buffering? Impedance
matching? Protocol considerations?)
MECHANICAL CONSTRAINTS & CRITERIA
Physical constraints (size, weight, etc.)
Mechanical standards (e.g. project follows the rack-mount standard and must
fit within a 1U form factor)
Durability constraints –How much “abuse” does your project need to be able
to withstand? From what height should your project be able to withstand a
fall?
Environmental constraints –Does your project need to be waterproof?
Weatherproof? Dust proof? Shock proof? Bullet proof? (Or any other ‘proofs
you can think of?)
ECONOMIC CONSTRAINTS & CRITERIA
Cost constraints –Generally influenced by the existence of other products
within the market
Import/Export constraints –Generally influenced by laws of target markets.
Best known constraint in this category would be Removal of Hazardous
Substances (RoHS) regulations, which specifies banned materials for products
bound for the European Union. (Covered in further detail with regulatory
analysis, later in the course)
ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS
Consider alternative solutions (two or three)
The alternatives must be different designs based on the
constrains/requirements
Changing components and tools might not be always an alternative solution
Alternatives in the design not on the components
Identify key parameters to compare the alternatives using decision making
Matrix
Decision Making between Alternatives
Decision Making
Selecting one choice from a number of choices involving
some level of uncertainty.
Analytic Decision Making
Slow, deliberate, and controlled Intuitive Decision Making
responses to a problem. Quick and relatively automatic responses
to a problem.
Ex: What stock to purchase Ex: Response to yellow traffic light
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Decision Making Matrix
A Decision Matrix
can be very helpful
When faced with decisions To provide a means of converting
based on several factors non numeric criteria to a
that are not all quantitative quantified result
in nature.
To add discipline to the decision
To provide alternate decisions making process and increases the
with confidence that the best likelihood that all factors that
alternative will be chosen. should be considered, have been
considered.
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Developing a Decision Matrix
A decision matrix is used to compare design solutions against one
another, using specific criteria that are often based on project
requirements.
Cost Cost Complexity
Complexity Development
Development Total Total
Time Time
IdeaIdea
#1 #1 3 2 1 6
IdeaIdea
#2 #2 1 1 2 4
IdeaIdea
#3 #3 4 2 4 10
IdeaIdea
#4 #4 2 3 4 9
IdeaIdea
#5 #5 4 1 3 8
IdeaIdea
#6 #6 3 4 4 11
4 3 2 1
4 Best Worst
Decision-Matrix (Pugh’s method)
A Weighted Decision Matrix
The method is an iterative evaluation that
quickly identifies the strongest design solution.
Ideas for Comparison (Step 2)
Criteria
Weights
for
Comparison Generate Score (Step 3)
(Step 1)
Total (Step 4)
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Step 1: Select the Criteria for Comparison
The list of criteria must be developed from the customer needs and engineering specifications
Step 2: Select the Design Solutions to be Compared
The alternative design solutions should be those that proceed from the brainstorming
Step 3: Generate the Score
A favorite design solution should be selected as a datum. All other designs are compared to it relative to each
customer needs. For each comparison, the concept being evaluated is judged to be either better than (“+” score),
about the same (“s” score), or worse than the datum (“-” score). Numeric scores can also be used.
Step 4: Compute the total score
Three scores are tallied, the number of plus scores, the number of minus scores and the total
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Decision Matrix Using a Numeric Scores
A numeric scale can be developed to assign values for each criteria category
Rank Scale Question Scale
4 3 2 1 2 1
Best Worst Yes No
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Decision-Matrix Using a Numeric Ranking
Visible heater and Hidden heater and Disconnected Removable unit
integrated cable integrated cable power system
Cost 4 3 3 1
Cleanable 1 3 4 2
Add/Remove 1 1 3 4
water
Power system 1 1 4 4
Heating period 2 3 3 3
Easy use 1 1 3 4
Total 10 12 20 18
9 4 3 2 1
Best Worst
Identifying Criteria
Cost
Geometry Reusability
Connections Cleanliness Resilience Testability
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Additional Criteria
Development
Product life time
span
Function Manufacturing
Development costs
Material costs
costs
Size Manufacturing
capabilities
Safety
Company
standards
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The Right Decision
Design decisions should be based
on analysis and logic; not personal
opinion.
A Decision Matrix is a design tool
that may be used multiple times
throughout a design process.
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Example
A simple example of planning the
itinerary for a vacation will be used.
Specifically, the problem is this:
You have a fixed amount of money to
spend on a two month vacation in
Europe.
You do not have enough money to see and do as much as you would like.
So you want to select one of many possible itineraries that maximizes
your enjoyment for a minimum cost.
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Identify the criteria
Cost: the cost of a particular itinerary, including all living expenses
(food, etc.) but excluding activities like tours and buying souvenirs and gifts.
Locations: how many locations that you really want to visit are in a given itinerary
(as, possibly, a fraction of all the locations in the itinerary).
Travel time: total time spent travelling as a fraction of total vacation time.
Travel quality: are the modes of transportation in themselves enjoyable to you?
(Some people enjoy taking trains instead of planes, even though trains are slower).
Travel cost: total cost of only the travel components of the itinerary.
Accommodation: how desirable are the accommodations on a given itinerary?
Safety: will a particular itinerary take you through areas where you will not feel safe?
Novelty: how many new places will you visit, as opposed to places you have visited on other
trips?
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Rank and weight the criteria
Some criteria are probably more important than others.
The relative ranking of the criteria will affect the evaluation.
Preferably, there is a way of assigning weights to the criteria so that you can quantify their relative importance (for
example, cost is twice as important as safety).
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Travel Cost Pairwise Comparison
A Criteria Weight Weight %
Cost B A B Rank and weight the criteria
Travel Cost 5 5*X= 17,85%
Novelty C C C C Cost 4 14.28%
Locations D A B C D Novelty 6 21.42%
Travel time E A B C D E Locations 1 3.57%
Safety F F F F F F F
Travel time 2 7.14%
Accommodat G A B C G E F G
ion Safety 7 24.99%
Travel H A B C H E F G H
quality Accommodation 2 7.14%
Travel quality 1 3.57%
The total of all the weights must be 100%.
The weights must obey the relative ranking given by the pairwise comparison.
100 = 5X+ 4X+ 6X + X + 2X + 7X + 2X + 1X
X=3.57
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Rank and weigh the criteria
Value Meaning
-2 performs terribly with respect to the reference
-1 slightly inferior to the reference
0 roughly of equal worth as the reference
+1 slightly superior to the reference
+2 performs significantly better than the reference
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Example: Itinerary for a Vacation Construct the Decision Matrix
CONCEPTS
REFERENCE TRIP Trip A Trip B Trip C
Criteria Wgt Rating Score Rating Score Rating Score Rating Score
Travel cost 0.25 0 0 1 0.25 0.0 0.0 -1 -0.25
Cost 0.20 0 0 0.0 0.0 1 0.20 -1 -0.20
Novelty 0.15 0 0 2 0.3 1 0.15 2 0.3
Locations 0.10 0 0 -1 -0.1 0.0 0.0 2 0.2
Travel time 0.10 0 0 0.0 0.0 -1 -0.1 1 0.1
Safety 0.10 0 0 2 0.2 1 0.1 2 0.2
Accommodation 0.05 0 0 -2 -0.1 -1 -0.05 2 0.1
Travel quality 0.05 0 0 -2 -0.1 0.0 0.0 2 0.1
TOTAL 0.0 0.45 0.30 0.55
RANK 2 3 1
CONTINUE? Yes No Yes
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Construct the Decision Matrix
CONCEPTS
Solution 1 Solution 2 Solution 3
Constraint Wgt Rating Score Rating Score Rating Score
Complexity
Cost
Novelty
Efficiently
Weight
Speed
Wireless
Shape
TOTAL
RANK
CONTINUE?
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