C.O.N.S.O.N.A.N.C.E

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Thursday, January 13, 2005

The 7 Principles of Engineering Economy

What are the Principles of Engineering Economy?

1. Develop the Alternatives
2. Focus on the Differences
3. Use a Consistent Viewpoint
4. Use a Common Unit of Measure
5. Consider all Relevent Criteria
6. Make Uncertainty Explicit
7. Revisist your Decisions

wtf... i m learning all these crap man...

Classical Brainstorming: It is the most well-known and often-used technique for idea generation, It is based on the fundamental princples of deferment of judgement and that quanitity breeds quality. There are four rules for successful brainstorming:
1. Criticism is ruled out
2. Freewheeling is welcomed
3. Quantity is wanted
4. Combination and improvement are sought

A. F. Osborn lays out a detailed procedure for successful brainstorming. A classical brainstorming session has the following basic steps:
1. Preparation. The participants are selected, and a preliminary statement of the problem is circulated.
2. Brainstorming. A warm-up session with simple unrelated problems is conducted, the relevant problem and the four rules of brainstorming are presented, and ideas are generated and recorded using checklists and other techniques if necessary.
3. Evaluation. This ideas are evaluated relative to the problem.

Nominal Group Techniques: The Nominal Group Techniques (NGT), developed by Andre P. Delbecq and Andrew H. Van de Ven, involves a structured group meeting designed to incorporate individual ideas and judgements into a group consensus. By correctly applying the NGT, it is possible for groups of people (preferably, 5 to 10) to generate investments alternatives or other ideas for improving the competitiveness of the firm. Indeed, the techniques can be used to obtain group thinking (consensus) on a wide range of topics. For example, a question that might be given to the group is, "What are the most important problems or opportunities for improvement of...?"

The technique, when properly applied, draws on the creativity of the individual participants, while reducing two undesirable effects of most group meetings: (a) the dominance of one or more participants and (b) the suppression of conflicting ideas. The basic format of an NGT session is as follows:

1. Individual silenet generation of ideas
2. Individual round-robin feedback and recording of ideas
3. Group clarification of each idea
4. Individual voting and ranking to prioritise ideas
5. Discussion of group consensus results

The NGT session begins with an explanation of the procedure and a statement of question(s), preferably written by the facilitator. The group members are theen asked to prepare individual listings of alternatives, such as investment ideas or issues that they feel are crucial for the survival and health of the organisation. This is known as the silent-generation phase and usually takes only a few minutes to "get the thoughts rolling." After this phase has been completed, the facilitator calls on each participant, in round-robin fashion, to present one idea from this or her list (or further thoughts as the round-robin session is proceeding). Each idea (or opportunity) is then identified in turn and recorded on a flip chart or board by the NGT facilitator, leaving ample space between ideas for comments or clarification. This process continues until all the opportunities have been recorded, clarified, and displayed for all to see. At this point a voting procedure is used to prioritise the ideas or opportunities. Finally, voting results lead to the development of group consensus on the topic being addressed.

References:
W. G., Sullivan, E. M., Wicks, J. T., Luxhoj, ENGINEERING ECONOMY, 12th Edition.

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