XM Analysis of Industry Standards

Introduction

The best starting point for building any device or machine is to study what has been done already. This analysis should be performed in 2 areas:

1. Closed source industry standards - from proprietary machines
2. Open source industry standards - from other open source projects.

Since documentation is accessible in open source projects, it is generally more useful to pursue access to such documentation. This may not always be the case, as poor documentation or lack of access to solid documentation may be a problem.

It is an assumption of OSE that here are no inventions, but only small incremental developments on a large, existing pool of knowledge. These are known as innovations.

In order to create an innovative design, it is critical to have a deep understanding of the designs and mechanisms that are in common use - such as in products that are available on the open market. It is also desirable to research lesser known mechanisms which are not in common use - which may also be relevant to OSE designs because the unique features of OSE Specifications make these relevant.

The Analysis of Industry Standards includes:

1. Comprehensive listing of mechanisms or designs that are in common use today, as well as listing of lesser known designs
2. Explanation of the key features of each design
3. Commentary on how the designs follow or not follow OSE Specifications
4. Analysis of performance to cost ratio for each machine or component. This should be expressed as cost per unit of performance, such as: cost per kW of power generated, cost per throughput of production, etc.
5. Assessment of the above to determine initial implementation strategy or technical choice when there are choices between several technology.
6. It should also include an analysis of various other concepts and why they are or are not desirable.

The analysis of industry standards - and in particular analysis of functitonal mechanisms - provides a good starting point for producing the components of a Systems Engineering Breakdown Diagram.

Outputs

The work product is a list of existing machines, key mechanisms, specifications, and cost.

Standards

Here is a sample template that should be used: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Av4ZjQn4DHJHdF9NQmVZZHdfdkc3My1yaFJCbE5Ocnc#gid=0