Selection method for multiple performances evaluation during early design stages

Abstract Because of their high impacts on the product’s requirements, evaluation phases are crucial steps during its early design. Many indicators and tools are developed to help designers to assess performance during those stages. However, the design stakeholders’ choice is really difficult when multiple performances (innovative, manufacturability, sustainability) are to be assessed. In fact, each tool uses its own form of data during a specific stage of the design process and its own set of questions. The global supervision is not possible without multiple methods. To facilitate the evaluation phases, we here lay out a method to realize a continuous supervision of the design process. The proposal aims to develop a method to select and assess existing tools to provide a global evaluation during the early stages. This method is divided into three steps: locating the adapted tools during the early design stages to evaluate the performance of the product, identifying the data needed by the tools and finally merging the different tools for the design phase. In the context of making a sustainable and innovative product conceived for additive manufacturing the differences between each expertise and tool have to be managed to provide a global evaluation method.