• Question: What criteria do you use when deciding between multiple design options?

    Asked by jakee to Chris, Holly, Lyd, Mark, Michael on 8 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Mark Dougherty

      Mark Dougherty answered on 8 Nov 2015:

      This is a really good question! It is one of the most common sources of disagreements at work, quite often the cost of options plays a big role.

      For example their could be a solution to a problem that will result in no rejected cans of beans but costs millions and millions of pounds when the alternative is much cheaper but one in every 100 cans gets rejected.

      A big team of people from across the business will sit together and work trough the options. This group doesn’t just consist of engineers, it will include people from finance, supply chain and manufacturing.

    • Photo: Michael Sulu

      Michael Sulu answered on 20 Nov 2015:

      This is a really good (hard) question!
      I would try and rank the criteria so you know when option is the most important and then go from there.

    • Photo: Lydia James

      Lydia James answered on 20 Nov 2015:

      That’s a really good question that’s hard to give a general answer to. It can change with so many different variables to think of which will have an effect if one is chosen over the other.

      Usually large decisions to decide on what design or process change will be the best suited will be tested and researched before a week long event dedicated to talking about the solution will take place. Usually the cost of running the process against the benefits the company will see back is the big deciding factor is what gets chosen.

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