You can use a
Pugh Matrix
to compare product designs or process improvements. For example, use your
customer requirements as the criteria when you compare a proposed design and
the baseline design.
The
Pugh Matrix
answers the following questions.
- Which product design proposal
best matches customer requirements and other organizational goals?
- How do alternative product
design proposals compare to the current or preferred designs?
- Which improvement strategy
best matches organizational goals?
- How do alternative improvement
proposals compare to the suggested improvement?
How-to
Use this tool as a team exercise.
- Create a list of the
selection criteria, such as VOC requirements, customer requirements, or
organizational improvement goals.
- Create a list of the
potential improvement solutions or the product designs to be rated.
- Select one potential
improvement or product design as the baseline. All other proposals are compared
to the baseline.
- For product designs, the
baseline is usually either the current design or a preferred new design.
- For improvement
proposals, the baseline is usually the improvement suggested by the team or an
improvement that has strong support from management.
- Enter the baseline proposal.
- Enter the proposed solutions
along the left side of the matrix and the selection criteria across the top of
the matrix.
- Apply a weighting factor for
each selection criteria. Use a scale of 1 to 9 to weight the importance of the
selection criteria. Use 1 for the least important criteria and 9 for the most
important criteria.
- Based on team input, rate
how well the baseline proposal matches each of the selection criteria. Use a
scale of 1 to 9 to score the baseline. Use 1 for poor matches and 9 for strong
matches to the criteria.
- For each alternative
proposal, the team should determine whether the alternative is better, the
same, or worse than the baseline, relative to each of the selection criteria.
- Better = +1
- Same = 0
- Worse = −1
- Examine the scores for each
alternative on the bar chart.
For more information, go to
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Additional guidelines
The
Pugh Matrix
is similar to the
Solution Desirability Matrix.
Both tools help you choose the best proposal from a list of competing
proposals. Choose the tool that is best for your application.
- Pugh Matrix
-
- Compares how well each alternative proposal matches the baseline
proposal for each of the selection criteria.
- Penalizes an alternative that is worse than the baseline for a
particular selection criterion by an amount equal to the importance rating of
the selection criterion. There is no distinction for being slightly worse
versus dramatically worse.
- Rewards an alternative that is better than the baseline for a
particular selection criterion by an amount equal to the importance rating of
the selection criterion. There is no distinction for being slightly better
versus dramatically better.
- Can be easier and more consistent to use when the number of
proposals and selection criteria is large because each alternative proposal is
compared to the same baseline.
- Solution Desirability Matrix
- Rates all proposals on how well they match the selection criteria,
which creates much higher scores for better proposals.
