Avoiding disasters due to the problems stemming from resonance is a major concern in any construction project. This becomes particularly important for oil and gas pipeline systems as some damages may lead to leakage of flammable fluids, explosions, fires, destruction and loss of life. The proximity to the natural frequencies of forced frequencies (frequency ratio) normally leads to intolerant resonant vibrations and catastrophic failures. A relevant case study on a partial pipeline design with an unacceptable level of frequency ratio is presented. In order to assess the overall design merit of the case study, the Concept Design Analysis (CODA) method is utilised to map captured Customer Needs (CNs) into Engineering Characteristics (ECs). As the frequency ratio is an important EC of the whole system, the improved CODA method for the pipeline design introduces an avoidance type merit function that allows excluding a range of relevant ECs. This improved CODA method is demonstrated in a model whereby certain frequency ratios are successfully avoided in the final design.