Concept Design

Concept Design is the early-phase engineering process of generating, evaluating, and downselecting candidate solutions to a product brief before geometry is locked. It is where the bulk of lifecycle cost and quality is committed even though only a small fraction of project hours has been spent.

Scope

Concept-phase activities include functional decomposition, target-setting, architecture exploration, sketches and concept models, system simulation, and tradeoff studies against cost, mass, performance, and manufacturability. PLM and MBSE tools capture decisions and rationale so that the chosen architecture has a traceable lineage into detailed design.

Relationships (see sidebar)

• Realizes Time to Market and Platform Modularity.
• Supported by logical capabilities such as CAD 3D Design, Model-Based Systems Engineering (SysML), and CAD Simulation.
• Preceded by Product Portfolio Planning; hands off to Detailed Design.