Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T09:37:04.851Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rediscovering the analysis of interconnected decision areas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2005

ABRAM WEAS  and
MATTHEW CAMPBELL
ABRAM WEAS
Affiliation:
University of Texas at Austin, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Austin, Texas 78712-0292, USA
MATTHEW CAMPBELL
Affiliation:
University of Texas at Austin, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Austin, Texas 78712-0292, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The method known as the analysis of interconnected decision areas (AIDA) has been in use for nearly 40 years, but has made little headway into engineering design. This paper describes an implementation of AIDA that is useful to engineering designers wishing to combine the solution principles of various subfunctions within a product in new ways. Traditionally, the method is used to understand how one decision affects the options available to other decisions in a large-scale project. The method is to be used interactively with designers participating in a brainstorming session so that ideas are added to AIDA and immediately combined with other compatible ideas. The existing implementation has been tested in a classroom setting in which upper level undergraduates have successfully used the AIDA method along with numerous of design methods to solve conceptual design problems.

Keywords

BrainstormingConstraint SatisfactionDecision MakingFunction Structure
Type
Research Article
Information
AI EDAM , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , August 2004 , pp. 227 - 243
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Altshuller, G. (1984). Creativity as an Exact Science: The Theory of the Solution of Inventive Problems (Williams, A., Russ. Trans.). New York: Gordon & Breach Science Publishers.
Bryant, J. (1989). Problem Management: A Guide for Producers and Players. New York: Wiley.
Eppinger, S.D., Whitney, D.E., Smith, R.P., & Gebala, D.A. (1994). A model-based method for organizing tasks in product development. Research in Engineering Design 6(1), 1–13.Google Scholar
Friend, J.K. & Hickling, A. (1987). Planning Under Pressure: The Strategic Choice Approach. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Friend, J.K. & Jessop, W.N. (1969). Local Government and Strategic Choice: An Operational Research Approach to the Process of Public Planning. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Friend, J.K., Power, J.M., & Yewlett, C.J.L (1974). Public Planning: The Inter-Corporate Dimension. London: Travistock Publications Limited.
Gero, J.S. (1996). Creativity, emergence and evolution in design: Concepts and framework. Knowledge-Based Systems 9(7), 435–448.Google Scholar
Harary, F., Jessop, N., Luckman, J., & Stringer, J. (1965). Analysis of interconnected decision areas: An algorithm for project development. Nature 5, 118.Google Scholar
Hickling, A. (1978). AIDA and the levels of choice in structure plans. Town Planning Review 49, 459–475.Google Scholar
Jones, C.J. (1980). Design Methods: Seeds of Human Future. New York: Wiley.
Luckman, J. (1967). An approach to the management of design. Operational Research Quarterly 18, 345–358.Google Scholar
Mitchell, T.M. (1997). Machine Learning. Boston: McGraw–Hill.
Otto, K.N. & Wood, K.L. (1995). Estimating errors in concept selection. ASME Design Engineering Technical Conferences, 2, 397–412.Google Scholar
Otto, K.N. & Wood, K.L. (2001). Product Design: Techniques in Reverse Engineering and New Product Development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice–Hall.
Pahl, G. & Beitz, W. (1996). Engineering Design: A Systematic Approach. London: Springer.
Pugh, S. (1990). Total Design. New York: Addison–Wesley.
Rusholme, J. (1966). Interdependence and Uncertainty: A Study of the Building Industry. London: Travistock Publications.
Weber, R.G. & Condoor, S.S. (1998). Conceptual design using a synergistically compatible morphological matrix. Frontiers in Education Conf., November 4–7, Tempe, AZ.
Zwicky, F. (1948). The Morphological Method of Analysis and Construction, Courant Anniversary Volume. New York: Wiley–Interscience.