Collaborative evaluation of engineering design concepts on the Web

Selection of the best design concept in engineering design is important to improve the product quality and reduce the development time and cost. To improve the efficiency of concept selection by a design team, a model and a Web-based system are developed to facilitate the selection procedure. Four facilities are provided: 1) to define the criteria and calculate their weights collaboratively, 2) to assess the performance of design alternatives by all design members, 3) to enable the evaluation in the imprecise and uncertain environment, and 4) to make the selection procedure more robust and flexible. With the aid of the collaborative system, a design team can select the most suitable design concept for further refinement. A case study is given to demonstrate the model and system.