Improving the consideration of costs during conceptual design

Conceptual design is arguably the most important phase of the design process. It is the stage where the overall form of the product is determined and hence has significant implications in terms of product cost. To date, estimating the cost of a product at the conceptual stage has either required a full costing or has relied on the past experience of the designer to make appropriate assumptions and estimates. Modern computer based techniques facilitate systems which allow designers to rapidly explore many options to a much higher level of detail than was currently feasible. This has the advantage that the designer is made much more aware of the cost implications of his/her decisions and is able, at the very early stages of design, to analyse the impact of large and small changes to the product. A practical example of such a system is presented here, which uses bridge design as its basis