Designing a mouse trap using the Analytic Hierarchy Process and expert choice

An approach to an engineering design problem with constraints showing how the Analytic Hierarchy Process helps to elucidate the thinking process in the many different stages a design goes through. The model developed demonstrates how decisions are interrelated with decisions reached in one model leading to the creation of another model. Though the topic may appear humorous, in one example the intricacy of many human endeavors has been captured. The first decision was to select the method for extinguishing the rodent’s life (electric shock was chosen). The second decision was focused on where to deliver the shock. Next the problems of attracting the mouse, the physical shape of the trap, and the marketing of it had to be solved.