Concept Scoring and Screening

Concept scoring and concept screening were completed to decide which of the designs should be considered or improved upon. The first method used was concept screening, which only involves comparing each design to the original. If a criteria is improved upon in a new sketch, a “+” is used. If it is worse than the reference a “-” is used. If it is similar in quality, a “0” is used. All of the symbols were added in the end, and the ones that received a better or equal score to the reference were further considered in concept scoring.

After concept screening, a decision was made to take three of the four designs into the concept scoring phase. Michael, Jacob L, and Jacob F’s designs were considered to be better than the reference, so they were further considered. Brennan’s was not considered better so it was not further considered, largely because it would have been difficult to build and lacked efficiency.

Concept scoring is an improved and more detailed version of concept screening. Our group discussed which of the criteria were most important and assigned a value for each. Each design was given a rating for each criteria, which gave a score based on the weighted value of the criteria. When all of the scores were added, the two highest designs were further considered. All of the designs that made it to the concept scoring stage were considered better than the reference. The consensus was that the reference lacked efficiency and safety. Michael’s design scored the highest because it appeared to be a safe, stable and efficient design. The only potential flaws were that it was expensive. Jacob L’s scored similarly, but severely lacked in safety, despite being cheaper and lighter. Jacob F’s scored lower due to a lack of efficiency and being expensive. The team decided to continue with Michael and Jacob L’s designs. Michael’s would be tested first and Jacob’s would be considered next if it could be improved in the criteria it didn’t score well in.