A Design Alternatives Assessment and Management Approach

One of the objectives of concurrent engineering has been to integrate more and more knowledge as soon as possible during the product development process. In such a method and owing to designer creativity, new design solutions are carried out. Design alternatives then appear; the differences can be relative to the functions, the technology, the materials or the manufacturing process as well. This paper presents some first specifications in modelling those design alternatives. Much more design solutions can then be kept in designers’ mind instead of focusing on the a priori best solution. The final solution is therefore chosen depending on every point of view involved in the design process. First of all this work aimed at defining the new knowledge that have to be taken into account in the product modelling in order to support the design alternatives management. Those new model elements must currently be integrated or linked with already-known product and design process models. The alternatives modelling has secondly been tested on very simple design examples. Afterwards, the design of a surgical simulator has been carried out that pointed out the real benefits and the feasibility of the alternatives modelling.