ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the reader with an understanding of what is meant by product evaluation and how evaluations are conducted to verify that the product will meet its stated requirements and to validate that the right product is developed. Vehicle evaluation generally involves some form of testing. The vehicle evaluations are conducted for both verification and validation purposes. Tests conducted for evaluations should measure both “performance” and “preference”. The evaluations can be conducted at various levels of the product, that is, evaluations on components, subsystems, systems, or the whole product. During the entire vehicle development process, a number of evaluations are conducted to ensure that the vehicle being designed will meet the needs of the customers and other corporate and government requirements. In addition, many tools used in fields such as industrial engineering, quality engineering and design for six sigma, and safety engineering can be used in evaluations.
