Design to Best Value

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Colin Simmons MD, Krysalis Ltd.
Design to Best Value
University of Portsmouth 23 November 2005
www.krysalis.co.uk
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Traditional Approach
In traditional MCDA (Multi Criteria Decision
Analysis) the general aim is to evaluate all
options against a common set of criteria to come
up with a ranking of the options and then select
the highest ranking one.
In some cases this may not be very useful as
problems cannot be tackled in isolation, but
have to be placed in the context of the overall
problem
Design to Best Value
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An Example Assembly Machine
The aim is to design a machine that will assemble
cassettes
For each different part of the machine there are
different design options. Only one option can be
selected for each part, and selected options
have to form a machine that will produce
cassettes to the companys requirements.
Design to Best Value
due to confidentiality agreements the actual
information cannot be disclosed
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Designing Machines Options in each Category
The attachment can be done
The device cover can be
The feed can be
Leader or No Leader
Bend vertically or Bend horizontally or Post and
hole or Hook and hole or Tension clip or Adhesive
Open/ Close cover or RR device cover or Place
device cover
etc..
Design to Best Value
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Designing Machines HiPriority Model Overview
An overview of the whole model Categories,
options and interactions
Interactions between the options help exclude
infeasible combinations
Design to Best Value
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Designing Machines Criteria
How do you select options from each category?
The common aspect across all options is that
they - require costs - to produce benefits
Costs are normally what we wish to allocate.
Benefits are what we wish to maximize per unit
of cost.
In this particular case
Benefits - Quality - Complexity - Cycle time -
Tolerance
Costs - Capital costs - Maintenance need -
Process steps
Design to Best Value
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Designing Machines Signature
The aim is to select the options with the highest
benefit for every given cost
Quality
Tolerance

Benefits
9.0



Option j

3.0
3.0
Capital Costs
Process Steps
Costs
Signature

or
benefit
cost
Design to Best Value
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Designing Machines Calculation Structure
Cost
Benefit
Ratio
Total Cost
Total Benefit
Quality
Cycle time
Complexity
Capital
Process Steps
1
7
Very low
4158
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Average
score
value
84
62
54
80
90
8.3
21.0
5.25
3.02
6.23
11.22
3.58
2.53
Weighted value
Design to Best Value
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Designing Machines Benefit to Cost Ratios
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3
So within each category/ part of the machine the
options with the highest benefit to cost ratio
will be selected first, unless there are
interactions.
Design to Best Value
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Designing Machines Vector
Each option maps to a point on the Benefit / Cost
space.
Resultant Vector
Benefit
Cost
Design to Best Value
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Designing Machines Solution Space
4
Solutions are shown as vectors.
5
Benefit
2
3
Options are shown as triangles.
1
Cost
Design to Best Value
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Designing Machines HiPriority Possible
Combinations
Each point on the Golden Frontier is a package of
options that cannot be dominated (i.e. there is
no other combination of options that would yield
higher benefits for that cost)
The number of combinations has been reduced
significantly from approximately 520000 to 4.
Design to Best Value
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Designing Machines HiPriority Solutions
Each of those 4 solutions is a different
combination of options each with different costs
and different benefits.
Deciding which of those 4 solutions to go for
largely depends on the available resources
Design to Best Value
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Designing Machines HiPriority What-if
scenarios and Stakeholder
What-if analyses can be performed by forcing
certain options in the solution and then
exploring the new solution space and comparing it
with the original one.
This also allows to perform stakeholder analyses
, by exploring the impacts of the differing
viewpoints
Design to Best Value
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Designing Machines Benefits of the Approach
As interactions between the various design parts
make each part dependent on others, this approach
helps solve local problems within the context of
the overall problem, thus providing a
well considered decision.
It significantly reduces complexity as only non
dominated combinations of options are proposed.
Each decision is fully auditable as a transparent
log exists for the reasons behind it
It is more flexible as it allows decision makers
to model both hard facts and judgement
Design to Best Value
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Extending the Metaphor
Power-plant Decommissioning
Creating Consortia
Designing Machines
Various Parts - Transport mechanism -
Treatment - Decontamination - Cell - Containers -
Lift method
Various Players - Designers - Architects -
Structural engineers - Quantity surveyors -
Project managers - Builders - Maintenance
managers - Site managers
Various Parts - Delivered - Device cover -
Form - Feed - Tape attachment - Lid close
Design to Best Value
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Creating Consortia
Create a a consortium that will design,
construct, manage and maintain a public function
such as a hospital, a road, etc. The consortium
will consist of a designer, a structural
engineer, a quantity surveyor, a project manager,
a builder, a maintenance manager, a site manager
and an architect.
Fidias and Socrates make up a good team
We only need 1 architect
1. Fidias Architects 2. Pericles Project
managers 3. Socrates Quantity surveyors 4.
Praxitelis Architects 5. Hermes Site
managers 6. Diomedes Designers 7. Hermes
Project Management
Clearly a bad combination
For Hermes to do Site management they have to do
project management as well
Design to Best Value
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Creating Consortia
Interactions are added to the model to indicate
the interdependencies between the various teams.
As with the design of machines, the benefit to
cost ratio of each option (stakeholder) is
calculated. Then the interactions are included to
safeguard that the whole can function smoothly,
efficiently and effectively.
The result is a collection of options that
produces the overall highest benefit for every
given cost.
Design to Best Value
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Other Uses

• HiPriority and the methodology described herein
  has also
• been used for
• Budget / Resource Allocation
• Balance of Investment
• Project Prioritization

The Education Edition of HiPriority can be
downloaded for free _at_ www.krysalis.co.uk
www.krysalis.co.uk