| The electronics industry must have the tools necessary to keep pace with rapidly changing technology. The time it takes to design an electronics product, also called the design cycle time, is a significant portion of the time needed to get a product to market. This thesis introduces and explores a method to estimate the design cycle time for printed circuit boards (PCBs) before the design phase has commenced. This method allows for alternative design scenarios to be examined before the design phase begins. The design scenarios include such decisions as whether a PCB design should be done in-house or should be out-sourced. This method uses a new concept called activation and statistical modeling to make the cycle time estimates. |
