Lift Weight Analysis:

  1. Benchmarking

In order to focus on exactly how the lift concept will be implemented, a benchmarking was completed to compare current existing lift. The table shows the differences between the implementations of each lift concept.

Lift Options

Who?/Where? / Garage Storage/ Overhead storage / Garage Storage/ Overhead storage / Garage Storage/ Overhead storage / Garage Storage/ Overhead storage
What? / Steel Storage Platform / Steel Storage Platform / Steel Storage Platform / Platform made from scratch
Features / 4’x4’
Adjustable height: 8 ft.
Weight Capacity: 250 lbs / 2’x8’
Adjustable height: 24-45 inches
Weight Capacity: 400 lbs / 3’x6’
Adjustable height: N/A
Weight Capacity: 200 lbs / 4’x8’
Adjustable height: N/A
Weight Capacity N/A
Why? / Easy to Use, Durable. Will need to make modification to fit the needs of St. Joseph’s / Cheap, Easy to use. Simple. Will need to make modifications to fit the needs of St.Joseph’s / Durable, Simple, Cheap, Easy to use. Will need to make modifications to fit the needs of St.Joseph’s / Durable, Simple to use. More difficult to make but, can be made to fit the needs of St. Joseph’s.
Price? / $134.18 + $160 (for modifications) = ~$300 / $119.95 + $160 (for modifications) = ~$280 / $128.99 + $160 (for modifications) = ~$290 / $250-$350
Link / / / /



  • Additional (or changes) to the links have been made. The final links will be in the P17431 - Budget/BOM document.

Overall, we can see that the costs for modifying a current lift will cost about $300. Creating a new lift will cost a bit more (projected to be around $350). However, creating a lift that will fit our exact needs would be more beneficial for the team to implement. To further determine which concept to go with, another Pugh’s Method was completed.

  1. Pugh’s Method:

Pugh’s Method
Selection Criteria / Racor Platform Lift / MonsterRax Lift / Garage Gator / Made from scratch
Low Cost / D / S / S / -
Easy effort to build / A / S / S / S
Easy to make modifications / T / S / - / +
Sturdy/Durable / U / S / S / S
Adjustable Height / M / - / - / +
Sum +’s / 0 / 0 / 0 / 2
Sum S’s / 0 / 4 / 3 / 2
Sum -’s / 0 / 1 / 2 / 1
Net Score / 0 / -1 / -2 / 1
Rank / 2 / 3 / 4 / 1

Looking at the Pugh’s Method results, we can conclude that making the lift from scratch will be the best lift option to implement the platform concept. The Racor Platform lift did come in second, however as the lift does not fit our requirements, there would be a lot of modifications to make, driving the cost up. Making the lift from scratch does have a higher cost for creating it, but it can be modified to fit the exact needs of the mattress dimensions, weight, and adjustable distance. The 3D CAD drawings for this in detail over the break and reviewed in the first week of MSD II.