A Lifecycle-Cost Model of Concept Testing

Abstract

This paper presents a lifecycle-cost model of concept testing, with and without learning. In the lifecycle-cost model, product lifecycle is divided into four stages: marketing, concept generation, prototyping, and product lifecycle after prototyping. Engineers minimize the expected lifecycle cost to find the optimum number of prototypes that engineers develop to test concepts. The optimum number of prototypes is a function of unit costs in these stages. The optimum number of prototypes depends not on the absolute cost of prototyping one concept, but on prototyping cost relative to the other stage costs. In the lifecycle-cost model with learning, engineers can more accurately choose good concepts that they test as prototypes once they gain experience in developing similar products or as they learn more effectively from their experiences. As engineers gain more experience or improve their learning capability, the optimum number of prototypes decreases.

Department(s)

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Keywords and Phrases

Concept Testing; Learning; Lifecycle Cost; Prototyping; Set-Based Product Development

Document Type

Article - Conference proceedings

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2006 American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2006

This document is currently not available here.

Share

 
COinS