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Contents






Sigma Magic Help Version 18

Solution Selection Matrix

Overview

The Solution Selection Matrix can be used to determine which of the solutions is the best to pick when you have multiple solutions. The evaluation criteria are based on sigma impact, time impact, cost impact, and other impacts. It is an analytical approach to picking the winning solution for deployment.

This tool can be added to your active workbook by clicking on Project and then selecting Solution Selection > Solution Matrix.

Inputs

Click on Analysis Setup to open the menu options for this tool.

Setup

A sample screenshot of the setup menu is shown below.
inputs
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Num Solutions: Specify the number of solutions to display on the worksheet. This information is used to reformat your worksheet and create a table for data entry. Note that any data below this table will be cleared.
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Highlight Solutions: Specify the number of solutions to highlight from the list on the worksheet.
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View Example: Click on this button to open the example file. You can view the example to get an idea of how to fill out this tool, or you can use the example as a starting point and modify it to meet your project needs.
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Help Button: Click on this button to open the help file for this topic.
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Cancel Button: Click on this button to cancel all changes to the settings and exit this dialog box.
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Create Design: If this is your first time using this template, click this button to format the worksheet template. You can also update the worksheet format any time, but remember that you may lose any data entered on this worksheet. Once you are happy with the worksheet template layout, you must enter any required data on the worksheet. When the data entered into the worksheet is complete, you can click on Analysis Setup and then Compute Outputs to generate analysis results.
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Analyze Design: Click on this button to save all changes and compute the outputs for this analysis. Review the results of your analysis and make changes to your inputs if required to update analysis results.

AHP Weights

A sample screenshot of the AHP Weights menu is shown below. Based on the relative weights specified by the user for two factors, the software translates them into an overall score for each factor. These weights can then be used to determine the overall score of each project.
inputs
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Factors: There are four factors for this analysis - impact, time, cost, and others. Impact refers to the impact of the solution, such as benefits. What is the overall financial impact of the solution? Time could refer to the duration required for the deployment of the solution. The cost could refer to the number of resources required to deploy the solution. The other factor could be any other important factor to the company not covered by the first three. For example, the other factor could be a risk.
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Weights: Enter a score for the relative importance of each factor compared to the other factor on a scale of 1-10. Compare each row vs. column element and assign a relative importance score. All the diagonal elements compare the same factors, so their relative weight is 1. For the non-diagonal elements, assign a score between the two factors. For example, which factor is more important when comparing impact vs. cost? It would be best if you came up with a score for how important impact is compared to cost. If we assign a score of 2, we will enter a value 2 for the impact row. The other non-diagonal element is left blank. Similarly, now, compare impact and time. Continue to perform these pairwise comparisons until all matrix elements are filled out.
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Update AHP: Click on this button to compute the overall weights using the AHP process. These weights are then used to score the solutions.

Worksheet

In the worksheet, enter the following information:
  • Specify the number and description of the various solutions
  • Enter the evaluation scores of these solutions concerning the four criteria:
    • Sigma Impact: the ability of your solution to impact the primary metric. The higher the score, the greater the impact of this solution on the primary metric.
    • Cost Impact: the cost of implementing this solution. The lower the cost of the solution, the higher the score.
    • Time Impact: the time it would take to implement this solution. The faster you can implement the solution, the higher the score.
    • Other Impact: any other important impact to you. For example, risk. The lower the risk, the higher the score for this element.

Verify

If you click the Verify button, the software will perform some checks on the data you entered. A sample screenshot of the dialog box is shown in the figure below. Verify The software checks if you have correctly specified the input options and entered the required data on the worksheet. The results of the analysis checks are listed on the right. If the checks are passed, they are shown as green checkmarks. If the verification checks fail, they are shown as a red cross. If the verification checks result in a warning, they are shown in the orange exclamation mark, and finally, any checks that are required to be performed by the user are shown as blue info icons.
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Item: The left-hand side shows the major tabs and the items checked within each section
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Status: The right-hand side shows the status of the checks.
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Overall Status: The overall status of all the checks for the given analysis is shown here. The overall status check shows a green thumps-up sign if everything is okay and a red thumps-down sign if any checks have not passed. Note that you cannot proceed with generating analysis results for some analyses if the overall status is not okay.

Outputs

Click on Compute Outputs to update the output calculations. A sample screenshot of the worksheet is shown below. outputs The analysis results are shown in the overall score column—the higher the score, the better the solution to meet the four requirements. The solution ranking column shows which solution is ranked higher. You may implement the topmost-ranked solution or pick multiple solutions based on other criteria. Depending on your dialog box setting, the solutions are appropriately highlighted on the worksheet.

If there are no error messages, the following sample message is displayed. outputs 2

Notes

Here are a few pointers regarding this analysis:
  • Both the Pugh Matrix and Solution Selection Matrix can be used to select solutions. However, the Solution Selection matrix is more analytical and can help you objectively reach your conclusion based on specific evaluation criteria. Pugh Matrix is more general and lets you pick the evaluation criteria, but it could be more subjective. The Pugh Matrix is usually used to select concepts, and the Solution Selection matrix is used to select solutions.


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