Design concept evaluation in digital human modeling tools

In the design process of products and production systems, the activity to systematically evaluate initial alternative design concepts is an important step. The digital human modelling (DHM) tools include several different types of assessment methods in order to evaluate product and production systems. Despite this, and the fact that a DHM tool in essence is a computer supported design and analysis tool, none of the DHM tools provide the functionality to, in a systematic way, use the results generated in the DHM tool to compare design concepts between each other. The aim of this paper is to illustrate how a systematic concept evaluation method is integrated in a DHM tool, and to exemplify how it can be used to systematically assess design alternatives. Pugh´s method was integrated into the IPS software with LUA scripting to systematically compare design concepts. Four workstation layout concepts were generated by four engineers. The four concepts were systematically evaluated with 2 methods focus on human well-being, 2 methods focus on system performance and cost. The result is very promising. The demonstrator illustrates that it is possible to perform a systematic concept evaluation based on both human well-being, overall system performance, and other parameters, where some of the data is automatically provided by the DHM tool and other manual. The demonstrator can also be used to evaluate only one design concept, where it provides the software user and the decision maker with an objective and visible overview of the success of the design proposal from the perspective of several evaluation methods