Applying decision methods to select rapid prototyping technologies

Purpose - The use of rapid prototyping (RP) technologies is becoming increasingly popular due to the reduction of machinery prices. Consequently, more and more industries now have the opportunity to apply such processes to improve their product development cycles. The purpose of this paper is to present different decision-making approaches to choose an adequate RP process. Design/methodology/approach - Here, four decision approaches are applied to compare six processes regarding six criteria, using the input data from previous works. As a result, six decision methods are compared. Two different scenarios are constructed, where different important attributes are considered, simulating two different prototype applications. Findings - It is demonstrated that not all methods result in the same RP ranking, however, most of them provide the same first option for a given scenario. The characteristics of the methods could be related to their influence on the evaluation, which serve as guidelines for the decision makers in order to reflect their exact opinion or requirements. Research limitations/implications - Owing to different ways of inputting information into the decision methods, some considerations are made in order to convert as close as possible the RP process attributes and scenario requirements into useful data for each method. In particular, the conversion of scenarios, i.e. the relative importance of the criteria, is somewhat challenging. Originality/value - Although the fundamentals of the decision methods are presented here, one should be careful while comparing the RP process, because their attributes may vary enormously depending on the parameter process to build a part. Despite all the considerations and precautions to be observed, the selection of the RP process can be done in a simple way, dispensing with complex calculations.