A FUZZY MODEL OF LEGAL REASONING FOR CONCURRENT ENGINEERING

The role of Concurrent Engineering is expanding to recognize enterpris e issues in the product realization process. This work continues that trend by advocating proactive consideration of legal liability for def ective design in preliminary design. To accomplish this, a fuzzy logic model of legal reasoning is demonstrated. The model evaluates the pot ential liability of a manufacturer for not adopting a proposed alterna tive design. As such, it functions as a heuristic-based progressive mo del within Prasad's [24] Concurrent Engineering paradigm. This model i s based on the use of interpretive charts by the designer to quantitat ively assess six variables on a zero to ten scale as inputs to the mod el. This allows evaluation of legal concepts by the fuzzy model, and i t permits determination of a quantitative measure of potential legal l iability for defective design. The system demonstrated here is validat ed using 100 cases, with acceptable responses at the 99% level. Additi onally, use of this system is illustrated with four example cases for product design. Conclusions are drawn regarding potential use within t he product realization process.