<!DOCTYPE html>
<html class="client-nojs vector-feature-night-mode-disabled vector-feature-language-in-header-enabled vector-feature-language-in-main-page-header-disabled vector-feature-page-tools-pinned-disabled vector-feature-toc-pinned-clientpref-1 vector-feature-main-menu-pinned-disabled vector-feature-limited-width-clientpref-1 vector-feature-limited-width-content-enabled vector-feature-custom-font-size-clientpref-1 vector-feature-appearance-pinned-clientpref-1 vector-sticky-header-enabled" lang="en" dir="ltr"><head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Trade study</title>
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<link rel="canonical" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_study"> <link href="./mw/skins.vector.icons.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
<link href="./mw/skins.vector.search.codex.styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
<link href="./mw/skins.vector.styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
<link href="./mw/user.styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
<meta name="ResourceLoaderDynamicStyles" content="">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./mw/site.styles.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./mw/noscript.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./footer.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./vector-2022.css">
</head>
<body class="skin--responsive skin-vector skin-vector-search-vue mediawiki ltr sitedir-ltr mw-hide-empty-elt ns-0 ns-subject page-Trade_study rootpage-Trade_study skin-vector-2022 action-view">
<div class="mw-page-container">
<div class="mw-page-container-inner">
<div class="mw-content-container">
<main id="content" class="mw-body">
<header class="mw-body-header vector-page-titlebar">
<h1 id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading mw-first-heading">
<span id="openzim-page-title" class="mw-page-title-main"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Trade study</span></span>
</h1>
</header>
<a id="top"></a>
<div id="bodyContent" class="vector-body ve-init-mw-desktopArticleTarget-targetContainer" aria-labelledby="firstHeading" data-mw-ve-target-container="">
<div id="mw-content-text" class="mw-body-content mw-content-ltr" lang="en" dir="ltr"><div class="mw-content-ltr mw-parser-output" lang="en" dir="ltr">
<style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1305433154">
/* start https://en.wikipedia.org/ */
.mw-parser-output .ambox{border:1px solid #a2a9b1;border-left:10px solid #36c;background-color:#fbfbfb;box-sizing:border-box}.mw-parser-output .ambox+link+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+link+style+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+link+link+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+.mw-empty-elt+link+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+.mw-empty-elt+link+style+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+.mw-empty-elt+link+link+.ambox{margin-top:-1px}html body.mediawiki .mw-parser-output .ambox.mbox-small-left{margin:4px 1em 4px 0;overflow:hidden;width:238px;border-collapse:collapse;font-size:88%;line-height:1.25em}.mw-parser-output .ambox-speedy{border-left:10px solid #b32424;background-color:#fee7e6}.mw-parser-output .ambox-delete{border-left:10px solid #b32424}.mw-parser-output .ambox-content{border-left:10px solid #f28500}.mw-parser-output .ambox-style{border-left:10px solid #fc3}.mw-parser-output .ambox-move{border-left:10px solid #9932cc}.mw-parser-output .ambox-protection{border-left:10px solid #a2a9b1}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-text{border:none;padding:0.25em 0.5em;width:100%}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-image{border:none;padding:2px 0 2px 0.5em;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-imageright{border:none;padding:2px 0.5em 2px 0;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-empty-cell{border:none;padding:0;width:1px}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-image-div{width:52px}@media(min-width:720px){.mw-parser-output .ambox{margin:0 10%}}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .ambox{display:none!important}}
/* end https://en.wikipedia.org/ */
</style>
<p>A <b>trade study</b> or <b><a href="Trade-off" title="Trade-off">trade-off</a> study</b>, also known as a <b>figure of merit analysis</b> or a <b>factor of merit analysis</b>, is the activity of a <a href="Multidisciplinarity" class="mw-redirect" title="Multidisciplinarity">multidisciplinary</a> team to identify the most balanced technical solutions among a set of proposed viable solutions (FAA 2006). These viable solutions are judged by their satisfaction of a series of measures or <a href="Cost_curve" title="Cost curve">cost functions</a>. These measures describe the desirable characteristics of a solution. They may be conflicting or even <a href="Mutually_exclusive" class="mw-redirect" title="Mutually exclusive">mutually exclusive</a>. Trade studies are commonly used in the design of <a href="Aerospace" title="Aerospace">aerospace</a> and <a href="Automobile" class="mw-redirect" title="Automobile">automotive</a> vehicles and the <a href="Software" title="Software">software</a> selection process (Phillips et al. 2002) to find the configuration that best meets conflicting performance requirements.
</p><p>The measures are dependent on variables that characterize the different potential solutions. If the system can be characterized by a set of <a href="Equation" title="Equation">equations</a>, one can write the definition of the trade study problem as: Find the set of <a href="Variable_(mathematics)" title="Variable (mathematics)">variables</a>, x<sub>i</sub>, that give the best overall satisfaction to the measures:
</p>
<ul><li>T<sub>1</sub> = f<sub>1</sub>(x<sub>1</sub>, x<sub>2</sub>, x<sub>3</sub>.....)</li>
<li>T<sub>2</sub> = f<sub>2</sub>(x<sub>1</sub>, x<sub>2</sub>, x<sub>3</sub>.....)</li>
<li>T<sub>3</sub> = f<sub>3</sub>(x<sub>1</sub>, x<sub>2</sub>, x<sub>3</sub>.....)</li>
<li>T<sub>N</sub> = f<sub>N</sub>(x<sub>1</sub>, x<sub>2</sub>, x<sub>3</sub>.....)</li></ul>
<p>Where T<sub>j</sub> is a target value and f(...) denotes some <a href="Function_(mathematics)" title="Function (mathematics)">functional</a> relationship among the variables. Further, the equality between the target and the function may be a richer relationship, as will be developed below. If the equations are <a href="Linear_equation" title="Linear equation">linear</a>, as in the production volume example used as a starting point below, then this problem is solvable using <a href="Linear_programming" title="Linear programming">linear programming</a> techniques. Generally, one or more of the targets is not fixed at a specific value, and it is desired to make these T values as large or small as possible. These are generally referred to as cost functions, and the other measures are treated as <a href="Constraint_(mathematics)" title="Constraint (mathematics)">constraints</a>.
</p><p>If the situation was as described above, formal optimization or linear programming methods would work totally. However, in practice, needed information is:
</p>
<ul><li>Uncertain</li>
<li>Evolving - new information is being developed that affects the trades</li>
<li>Both <a href="Qualitative_research" title="Qualitative research">qualitative</a> and <a href="Quantitative_analysis_(finance)" title="Quantitative analysis (finance)">quantitative</a></li>
<li>Comes from conflicting sources - in <a href="Systems_engineering" title="Systems engineering">systems engineering</a>, many people have some of the information needed; no one person has it all.</li>
<li>The best choice comes from a team, building a shared <a href="Mental_model" title="Mental model">mental model</a> of the situation.</li></ul>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2></div>
<ul><li><a href="Robust_decision" class="mw-redirect" title="Robust decision">Robust decision</a></li></ul>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>
<ul><li>FAA, System Engineering Manual Version 3.1, Section 4.6, Trade Studies, Federal Aviation Administration, 2006, <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080916144301/http://www.faa.gov/about/office%5Forg/headquarters%5Foffices/ato/service%5Funits/operations/sysengsaf/seman/SEM3.1/Section%204.6.pdf">[1]</a></li>
<li>Phillips, B. C. and S.M. Polen, Add Decision Analysis to Your COTS Selection Process, Crosstalk, April 2002</li>
<li>Ullman D.G. and B.P. Spiegel, Trade Studies with Uncertain Information, Sixteenth Annual International Symposium of the International Council On Systems Engineering (INCOSE), July 2006. <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.acqnotes.com/Attachments/Trade%20Studies%20with%20Uncertain%20Information.pdf">[2]</a></li></ul></div><!--htdig_noindex--><div><div class="zim-footer">
This article is issued from <a class="external text" title="Last edited on 2023-03-09" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/?title=Trade_study&oldid=1143796214">Wikipedia</a>. The text is available under <a class="external text" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en">Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0</a> unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.
</div>
</div><!--/htdig_noindex--></div>
</div>
</main>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</body></html>