Post by Kitsunenotsume on Oct 19, 2017 19:46:49 GMT -5
An Artisan’s Aide to the Assessment and Appraisal of Assorted Articles.
There is a persistent challenge in today’s consistent and fluctuating markets to properly price and compare the quality of work - particularly across multiple disciplines - and to promote trust and comprehension between clients and commercial interests. It is with this in mind that I present this guide, intended to address the issues of appropriate terminology, and assist with ensuring that commissions and tasks may be assigned to the most appropriate craftsman for a particular trade.
The FDA Grading Scale, used by the Fabrication Development Association, is a reasonable simple and straight-forwards quality metric designed to permit quick and meaningful discussions of weight, durability, and expected utility of articles, without bogging customer conversation down by presenting apparent ‘upgrades’ that offer no improvement in functionality.
At the heart of the FDA Grading Scale is our five-step Prototyping Development Process. The PDP is a continual improvement cycle, tracked individually on a per-technology basis, but cross-referenced as it is often noted that discoveries in one cycle can be leveraged in other related projects. The purpose of the PDP is multifaceted: to ensure that we only ever offer functional benefits to customers and avoid the marketing evil of pushing marginal cosmetic or aesthetic improvements; to permit manufacture on economies of scale and time by reducing the frequency of customer alterations; and to ensure that any new technologies are understood, refined, and can be used safely and legally.
The five phases of the PDP are as follows:
Each Full-Grade is assigned both a numerical designation and a descriptive Quality rating. Together these allow a customer to make informed decisions about their purchases without prior knowledge or familiarity with either the FDA Grading Scale, DMC Rating Marks, or any of the numerous other quality metrics used throughout and beyond Calidor.
The Numerical Designations range from 1 to 20 following a logarithmic scale, with each additional grade requiring proportionally more in terms of effort and cost. In theory, Designations above 20 could be enumerated, but would be astronomically expensive and heavily impractical compared to the relatively megre benefits gained. Grade 0 exists in some documentation, but is restricted use to initial prototyping only and should not to be sold as it may reflect poorly on our quality of manufacture.
The Quality Ratings attempt to describe the relevant expected utility without referring to any arbitrary numerical standard. Each Quality Rating corresponds to a single magnitude on the Numerical Scale, as follows:
1: Training - Suitable for basic practice and little else
2: Civilian Standard - Cheap, functional, and Practical for most equipment
3: Civilian-Plus - Odd grades are a cut above, but do not always offer significant boon
4: Explorer - Suitable for an individual wandering the wilds around Calidor for short trips
6: Journeyman - The expected quality of an established journeyman seeking to promote their work
8: Expeditionary - Durable and reliable to perform as expected for short to moderate endeavors with regular maintenance.
10: Artisan - The mark of a respected business-owner capable of producing specialist goods
12: Operations - Designed for moderate to long durations without much maintenance under heavy use.
14: Mastercraft - A grade of superior caliber requiring intimate knowledge of the trade in question
16: Campaign - Suitable for long to very long hardships with little to no repair, subject to brutal abuse, and still slice tomatoes (if bladed).
18: Grand-Master - A magnum-opus of preeminent distinction, often bearing the mark of esoteric trade secrets
20: Apex-Quality - Rated with the potential to last for centuries under harsh conditions, and still retain near-perfect functionality longer than the expected lifespan of its maintainers.
[[Initially developed back in 2015, it's taken me basically 2 years to get this out so customers can read up on James' quality scheme. I'll probably go through and elaborate out on things eventually.]]
There is a persistent challenge in today’s consistent and fluctuating markets to properly price and compare the quality of work - particularly across multiple disciplines - and to promote trust and comprehension between clients and commercial interests. It is with this in mind that I present this guide, intended to address the issues of appropriate terminology, and assist with ensuring that commissions and tasks may be assigned to the most appropriate craftsman for a particular trade.
The FDA Grading Scale, used by the Fabrication Development Association, is a reasonable simple and straight-forwards quality metric designed to permit quick and meaningful discussions of weight, durability, and expected utility of articles, without bogging customer conversation down by presenting apparent ‘upgrades’ that offer no improvement in functionality.
At the heart of the FDA Grading Scale is our five-step Prototyping Development Process. The PDP is a continual improvement cycle, tracked individually on a per-technology basis, but cross-referenced as it is often noted that discoveries in one cycle can be leveraged in other related projects. The purpose of the PDP is multifaceted: to ensure that we only ever offer functional benefits to customers and avoid the marketing evil of pushing marginal cosmetic or aesthetic improvements; to permit manufacture on economies of scale and time by reducing the frequency of customer alterations; and to ensure that any new technologies are understood, refined, and can be used safely and legally.
The five phases of the PDP are as follows:
- Class A - Alphaware is an initial conception of an adjustment or alteration, often seen as a “Proof-Of-Concept”. This phase is primarily focused on identifying if an idea works in principle, rather than if it works optimally, and rarely reflects significant improvements.
- Class B - Betaware is the attempt to refine the idea, often designing new components and mechanisms to actualize the concept proven in the previous phase. Betaware is often slightly more bulky than prior or later stages, as the focus is on “Proof-of-Technology” and on maximizing the selected aspect of innovation chosen for the cycle.
- Class C - Gammaware is the optimization of the devices and mechanisms introduced in the previous phase. The focus is on economizing resource use, removing components that provide little to no benefit to the system, and adjusting the structure as required to ensure an appropriate form-factor for the assigned task.
- Class D - Deltaware is mechanically complete, but must pass safety testing and be validated to be compatible with any applicable laws or ordinances. Risks of user detonation, harm to bystanders, excessive property destruction, any outstanding legal contention, etc. must be resolved before the product may be released on the open market.
- Class E - Epsilonware is the culmination of a development cycle. Having passed all four prior phases of development, the technology is labeled as “Fit to Market” and given a Full-Grade identifier. Future development cycles will be able to use the completed and bench-marked technology as a basis for further alphaware development.
Each Full-Grade is assigned both a numerical designation and a descriptive Quality rating. Together these allow a customer to make informed decisions about their purchases without prior knowledge or familiarity with either the FDA Grading Scale, DMC Rating Marks, or any of the numerous other quality metrics used throughout and beyond Calidor.
The Numerical Designations range from 1 to 20 following a logarithmic scale, with each additional grade requiring proportionally more in terms of effort and cost. In theory, Designations above 20 could be enumerated, but would be astronomically expensive and heavily impractical compared to the relatively megre benefits gained. Grade 0 exists in some documentation, but is restricted use to initial prototyping only and should not to be sold as it may reflect poorly on our quality of manufacture.
The Quality Ratings attempt to describe the relevant expected utility without referring to any arbitrary numerical standard. Each Quality Rating corresponds to a single magnitude on the Numerical Scale, as follows:
1: Training - Suitable for basic practice and little else
2: Civilian Standard - Cheap, functional, and Practical for most equipment
3: Civilian-Plus - Odd grades are a cut above, but do not always offer significant boon
4: Explorer - Suitable for an individual wandering the wilds around Calidor for short trips
6: Journeyman - The expected quality of an established journeyman seeking to promote their work
8: Expeditionary - Durable and reliable to perform as expected for short to moderate endeavors with regular maintenance.
10: Artisan - The mark of a respected business-owner capable of producing specialist goods
12: Operations - Designed for moderate to long durations without much maintenance under heavy use.
14: Mastercraft - A grade of superior caliber requiring intimate knowledge of the trade in question
16: Campaign - Suitable for long to very long hardships with little to no repair, subject to brutal abuse, and still slice tomatoes (if bladed).
18: Grand-Master - A magnum-opus of preeminent distinction, often bearing the mark of esoteric trade secrets
20: Apex-Quality - Rated with the potential to last for centuries under harsh conditions, and still retain near-perfect functionality longer than the expected lifespan of its maintainers.
[[Initially developed back in 2015, it's taken me basically 2 years to get this out so customers can read up on James' quality scheme. I'll probably go through and elaborate out on things eventually.]]