The role of Concurrent Engineering is expanding to recognize enterprise issues in the product realization process. This work continues that trend by advocating proactive consideration of legal liability for defective design in preliminary design. To accomplish this, a fuzzy logic model of legal reasoning is demonstrated. The model evaluates the potential liability of a manufacturer for not adopting a pro posed alternative design. As such, it functions as a heuristic-based progressive model within Prasad's [24] Concurrent Engineering para digm. This model is based on the use of interpretive charts by the designer to quantitatively assess six variables on a zero to ten scale as inputs to the model. This allows evaluation of legal concepts by the fuzzy model, and it permits determination of a quantitative measure of potential legal liability for defective design. The system demonstrated here is validated using 100 cases, with acceptable responses at the 99% level. Additionally, use of this system is illustrated with four example cases for product design. Conclusions are drawn regarding poten tial use within the product realization process.
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