A Model for Conceptual Design Methodology

Conceptual design is the seminal phase in the design process. This phase determines the level of product innovation, the efficiency of the product, and the effectiveness of the down-stream stages of the design process. It has tremendous leverage on the final product performance, cost, and time-to-market. To improve the efficiency of the conceptual design process, the paper combines the parameter analysis methodology with a fundamental insight from robust design. Parameter analysis is a generic design methodology that aids in systematically developing an idea into a viable design. It is particularly useful in creating innovative conceptual designs. Robust design is, often, used after finalizing the conceptual design. Robust design improves the product quality by first reducing the variability in product performance and then, tuning the low variability performance onto the target. The paper presents guidelines for executing the parameter analysis methodology which in turn provides consistent or low variability performance by considering robustness in the very early phases of the design process. The paper illustrates this process with two case studies. The case studies also show how to qualitatively optimize a conceptual design by developing the overall concept before details.