Technical Feasibility
Definition
The capacity to implement a design change with materials, processes, and knowledge available at the date the product was manufactured and sold.
- Field
- Product liability / design defect analysis
- Reference date
- Date of manufacture and sale
- Basis
- Materials, processes, knowledge available at that time
Common questions
Why does technical feasibility get judged at the manufacture date rather than the trial date?+
Design defect claims typically ask whether a reasonably safer alternative existed when the product was made, so using the manufacture date prevents holding a manufacturer to standards, materials, or knowledge that only became available afterward, which would be an unfair hindsight standard.
Does proving a safer design was technically feasible automatically establish liability?+
No. Feasibility is usually one factor among several in a risk-utility analysis, which also weighs cost, effect on product function, and whether the alternative design would have actually prevented the injury, so feasibility alone does not decide the case.
Related terms
- Commercial Feasibility
- Whether the cost of the safer design, spread across expected production volumes, would have made the product unaffordable or unmarketable.
- Custom vs Mandatory Standard
- Voluntary industry standards represent custom in the industry; regulatory standards (mandatory by law) set the legal floor. A product can violate custom...
- Design Standard
- A document produced by a recognised body (ISO, ASTM, UL, EN, national authority) specifying minimum technical requirements for a product category. Meeting...
- Risk-Utility Calculus
- The balancing of expected harm (probability of injury multiplied by severity) against the burden of prevention (cost of the SAD plus any...
- Safer Alternative Design (SAD)
- A specific, concrete modification to a product that would have reduced the hazard in question while preserving the product's essential utility, and...