Issue Resolution for Conceptual Design Using AHP

摘要

This paper presents a methodology for issue resolution in conceptual design. Conceptual design is the preliminary phase of design in which both well-defined problem specifications and high level design solutions are developed. It has been shown that eighty five percent of the lifecycle costs are determined during the conceptual design phase in the development of a product. Generally there are three modules: problem definition, issue resolution, and conceptual formation in the architecture of conceptual design. Problem definition generates a problem description, a set of requirements, and/or a set of design constraints. After the problem is defined, consultation with professionals may be necessary to find out the actual corresponding issues for the design. A more objective approach for convincing participators of the correctness of the chosen issues is to use data. After the design issues are identified the conflicts among them need to be resolved in the issue resolution module. The proposed approach provides a methodology for designers to determine the solutions to the appropriate issues that fit in with the problem definition and improves the efficiency of conceptual design process. It is based on an intuitively appealing methodology, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Our approach has been applied to magnesium alloys industry for the conceptual design of WIP containers. The conflicts among the identified issues are resolved successfully after applying it. The real world case demonstrates the practicability and efficiency of the proposed methodology.