Hybrid Methods for Engineering

In Hybrid Methods for Engineering, you'll learn ...

• A hybrid approach to solving engineering problems where the benefits of one method are enhanced by using another method
• Hybrid methods and their applicability
• How the problem-solving process evolves from a simple equation-based approach all the way to a hybrid technique

Overview

Preview a portion of this course before purchasing it.

Credit: 3 PDH

Length: 53 pages

It has been proven philosophically that analyzing and synthesizing elements of existing knowledge, with the purpose of continuously recombining them in new, creative ways, is key to achieving societal progress.

This course introduces a hybrid approach to solving engineering problems where the benefits of one method are enhanced by using another method, or the drawbacks of one technique are mitigated by using elements from other approaches. This methodology utilizes the engineers’ solid technical background acquired in school and throughout their careers to maximize their ability to solve more types of technical and non-technical problems.

Using a common, practical problem, the course shows how the problem-solving process evolves from a simple equation-based approach all the way to a hybrid technique. Additionally, several examples are shown to suggest how this approach can be used to increase the applicability and flexibility of a given method:

• Financial Management + Fuzzy logic
• Multi-Criteria Decision Making + Delphi Analysis
• Axiomatic Design + Design of Experiments
• Waterfall project planning + Agile project execution

The theoretical material and examples introduced in this course suggest the limitless possibilities that this approach can generate. This course enables engineers to recognize opportunities for augmenting the benefits of one method with other methods (or relevant elements of other methods), thus increasing the tools’ flexibility and utility. After taking this course, engineers should be better prepared to attack problems that would otherwise have been very difficult to solve, impossible to solve, or just discarded.

This course will help engineers, project engineers, manufacturing engineers, quality engineers, and engineering managers expand their problem-solving abilities and find solutions to problems that have been previously considered too complex or have just been discarded.

Specific Knowledge or Skill Obtained

This course teaches the following specific knowledge and skills:

• The general features of problem-solving methodologies: the levels of problem understanding, problem characteristics, and the predictability of outcomes
• How each problem-solving methodology can apply to situations that vary from low flexibility to high flexibility and from low usability to high usability: rigid methods, alternatives of rigid methods, adaptable methods, tunable methods, and combination of methods
• Hybrid methods and their applicability
• The process of combining the various methods to enhance their applicability in a Hybrid Engineering technique
• The process of combining the various elements of methods to enhance their applicability in a Hybrid Engineering technique
• The applicability of Hybrid methods using several examples:
  • Understand how to extend the applicability of a multi-parameter equation that expects values within rigid boundaries via an example of Altman’s Z value statistic enhanced by a Fuzzy Logic approach
  • Understand how to extend the accuracy of Multi-Criteria Decision Making tools via an example of Weighted Sum Method enhanced with a Delphi Analysis
  • Understand how to better focus a Design Engineering process via an example of Axiomatic Design enhanced by a Design of Experiments method
  • Understand how to increase the chance of success of projects via a combination of Waterfall project planning and Agile project execution

Certificate of Completion

You will be able to immediately print a certificate of completion after passing a multiple-choice quiz consisting of 15 questions. PDH credits are not awarded until the course is completed and quiz is passed.