Overview
To understand Econ and Tech scores it is important to understand what information is considered and how it is processed to get to a result.
The graph to the right describes exemplary the relation among a part’s properties, blackboxes, and scores.
Each part is made up of a number of properties and corresponding values.
Blackboxes are small functions that evaluate one or several part properties by reading their values and calculating a result.
The blackbox results are fed into scores where they are aggregated and produce a score result.
Calculating an Econ Score
By convention, Econ and Tech score results lie between 0 and 1. whereby 0 indicates poor suitability and 1 perfect suitability. The results in the [0, 1] interval are displayed as percentage values from 0% to 100% in the user interface.
The formula to arrive at an Econ score is to choose which blackboxes should influence the Econ score results and then calculate the Weighted Average of these results. Results of blackboxes also lie in an [0, 1] interval by convention.
Extensive details on the Weighted Average formula can be found on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weighted_arithmetic_mean#Mathematical_definition
An econ score might consist of the following blackboxes - the properties that are evaluated by each blackbox - and a weight that informs how much impact an individual blackbox has in relation to the other blackbox results.
Blackbox | Properties incl. Type | Weight |
|---|---|---|
Lead time |
| 0.7 |
Part price |
| 0.5 |
Price per kg |
| 0.5 |
Selection logic |
| 1.0 |
In the above example, the blackbox Selection logic has the strongest impact on the econ score.
The results of the score calculation are displayed for each part and each score in an overview:
Factor
The blackbox - and thus the corresponding properties - that are considered for the scoreScore
The individual result which is calculated by the corresponding blackbox - without applying weights.Impact
The weight, or impact, this blackbox should have in the overall calculationSubscore
The weighted result of each blackbox how it is considered for the overall score calculation
Calculating a Tech Score
A Tech score is calculated in a similar manner as an Econ score by applying the Weighted Average on a set of blackbox results.
Blackbox | Properties incl. Type | Weight |
|---|---|---|
Geometry |
| 1.0 |
Material |
| 0.4 |
Profiles with Different Weights
It is possible to look at the same part from different angles. Two typical cases for optimization are cost reduction and lead time improvement. It is possible to set up different Econ scores by including different blackboxes or adjusting the weights by which blackboxes impact the overall results. Thus different Profiles can be created that score parts according to different measurements.
By default, we have configured three different profiles by which to assess parts:
General
Cost reduction
Lead time improvement