Modelo, S.A., is considering three providers of automated visual inspection systems for their packaging needs

Question

A team of manufacturing engineers, production managers, and process engineers has developed the following list of criteria and assigned them ratings on a scale of 1 (completely unimportant) to 5 (critical). This team has also rated the candidate products on each of these dimensions using a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). Which provider should they choose and what caveats, if any, should go with their recommendation?

Dimension Importance Provider A Provider B Provider C
4 megapixels 5 4 5 5
Minimal fringing 3 4 3 2
15 fps VGA movie mode 4 4 4 1
Minimal shutter lag 2 2 5 5
Works in dim light 1 2 3 4
Water resistant 5 5 2 1

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answer: The highest score using the customer value index is obtained by Provider A.

V =

VA = 5 × 4 + 3 × 4 + 4 × 4 + 2 × 2 + 1 × 2 + 5 × 5 = 79
VB = 5 × 5 + 3 × 3 + 4 × 4 + 2 × 5 + 1 × 3 + 5 × 2 = 73
VC = 5 × 5 + 3 × 2 + 4 × 1 + 2 × 5 + 1 × 4 + 5 × 1 = 54

Caveats to this technique are the methods used to assign an importance rating to each of the criteria and scores to each of the providers. A slight switch in ratings or scores could swing the choice from Provider A to Provider B, for example, an increase in importance of the Minimal shutter lag criterion from a 2 to a 4 will put the two products in a tie.