14/6/2018

Concept Generation in PDP

Concept Generation

Chapter 6

1 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 2 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.

©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

Models of the Brain & Creativity

 The science of thinking and the more narrow science of design are classified as
sciences of the artificial.
 Freud’s Model of Levels of the Mind:
 Conscious mind
 Preconscious mind
 Subconscious mind
 Brain-Dominance Theory:

6.1 Introduction to Creative

Thinking
How does brain process information and creates thoughts?

3 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 4 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.

©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

Creativity and Problem Solving

 Creative thinkers are distinguished by their ability to synthesize
new combinations of ideas and concepts into meaningful and
useful forms.
 A creative engineer is one who produces a lot of useful ideas.
 A creative person is adept at breaking a problem-solving task
down to take a fresh look at its parts, or in making connections
between the current problem and seemingly unrelated
6.2 Creativity and Problem observations or facts.
Solving  There is the popular myth that creative ideas arrive with flash-
like spontaneity.
How can creativity help design projects?
 A characteristic of the creative process is that initially the idea is
only imperfectly understood.
5 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 6 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.
©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

1
 14/6/2018

Four-Stage Model of Creative Thinking

Supports to Creative Thinking Process & Problem Solving
1) Develop a creative attitude: 1) Preparation (stage1):
 To be creative it is essential to develop confidence that you can provide a creative
solution to a problem.  The elements of the problem are examined and their
2) Unlock your imagination: interrelations are studied.
You must rekindle the vivid imagination you had as a child.

2) Incubation (stage 2):
3) Be persistent:
 Creativity often required hard work!  You “sleep on the problem”. Sleep disengages your conscious
4) Develop an open mind: mind, allowing the unconscious mind to work on a problem freely.
 Having an open mind means being receptive to ideas from any and all sources. 3) Inspiration (stage 3):
5) Suspend your judgment:  A solution or a path toward the solution emerges.
 Nothing inhibits the creative process more than critical judgment of an emerging
idea. 4) Verification (stage 4):
6) Set problem boundaries:  The inspired solution is checked against the desired result.
 We place great emphasis on proper problem definition as a step toward problem
solution.

7 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 8 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.

©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

Barriers to Creative Thinking Types of Mental Blocks

 It is important to recognize how mental blocks interfere  Perceptual Blocks:
with creative thinking.  Have to do with not properly defining the problem and not
recognizing the information needed to solve it.
 A mental block is a mental wall that prevents the problem
 Emotional Blocks:
solver from correctly perceiving a problem or conceiving its
 Obstacles that are concerned with the psychological safety of the
solution. individual.
 A mental block is an event that inhibits the successful use of  Intellectual Blocks:
normal cognitive processes to come to a solution.  They arise from a poor choice of the problem-solving strategy or
having inadequate background and knowledge.
 Environmental Blocks:
 These are blocks that are imposed by the immediate physical or
social environment.

9 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 10 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.

©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

Perceptual Blocks Emotional Blocks

 Stereotyping:  Fear of risk taking:
 Thinking conventionally or in a formulaic way about an event, person, or way of
doing something.  This is the feat of proposing an idea that is ultimately found to be
 Information overload: faulty.
 You become so overloaded with minute details that you are unable to sort out the  Unease with chaos:
critical aspects of the problem.
 “NOT BEING ABLE TO SEE THE FOREST FOR THE TREES!”  People in general , and many engineers in particular, are
 Limiting the problem unnecessarily: uncomfortable with highly unstructured situations.
 Broad statements of the problem help keep the mind open to a wider range of
ideas.  Inability or unwillingness to incubate new ideas:
 Fixation:  In our busy lives, we often don’t take the time to let ideas lie
 People’s thinking can be influenced so greatly by their previous experience or some dormant so they can incubate properly.
other bias that they are not able to sufficiently recognize alternative ideas.
 Priming or provision of cues:  Motivation:
 If the thinking process is started by giving examples or solution cues, it is possible  People differ considerably in their motivation to seek creative
for thinking to stay within the realm of solutions suggested by those initial starting
points. solutions to challenging problems.

11 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 12 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.

©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

2
 14/6/2018

Intellectual Blocks Environmental Blocks

 Poor choice of problem-solving language or problem  Physical environment:
representation:  This is a very personal factor in its effects on creativity.
 It is important to make a conscious decision concerning the “language”
 Criticism:
for your creative problem solving.
 Nonsupportive remarks about your ideas can be personally
 Memory block:
hurtful and harmful to your creativity.
 Memory holds strategies and tactics for finding solutions as well as
solutions themselves.
 Insufficient knowledge base:
 Generally, ideas are generated from a person’s education and
experience.
 Incorrect information:
 It is obvious that using incorrect information can lead to poor results.

13 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 14 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.

©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

Improving Creativity
 Improving creativity is a popular endeavor.
 A search of Google under Creative Methods yielded over
12 million hits!
 The following methods are aimed at improving the following
characteristics of the problem solver:
 Sensitivity: The ability to recognize that a problem exists.
6.3 Creative Thinking Methods  Fluency: The ability to produce a large number of alternative
solutions.
 Flexibility: The ability to develop a wide range of approaches to a
How can we improve our creativity? problem.
 Originality: The ability to produce original solutions to a problem.

15 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 16 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.

©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

SCAMPER Checklist to Aid in

Brainstorming Brainstorming
 Brainstorming is the most common method used by design
teams for generating ideas.
 The word brainstorming has come into general usage in the
language to denote any kind of idea generation.
 Brainstorming is a carefully orchestrated process.
 A well-done brainstorming session is an enthusiastic session
of rapid, free-flowing ideas.

17 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 18 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.

©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

3
 14/6/2018

Idea Generating Techniques Beyond

Refinement and Evaluation of Ideas Brainstorming
 The objective of creative idea evaluation is not to winnow  Six Key Questions:
Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?
down the set of ideas into a single or very small number of
 Five Whys:
solutions.
 Why has the machine stopped?– A fuse blew because the fan
 The primary purpose of the refinement and evaluation step overloaded.
in concept generation is the identification of creative,  Why was there an overload?– Inadequate lubrication for bearings.
feasible, yet still practical ideas.  Why wasn’t there enough lubrication?– The pump stopped working.
 Why wasn’t the pump working?– Pump shaft vibration caused by
 A quick way of sorting ideas: abrasion wear.
 Ideas that are feasible as they stand.  Why was there abrasion? – No filter on lube pump, allowing debris
 Ideas that may have potential after more thought or research are to enter the system
applied.  Checklists
 Ideas that are very unfeasible and have no chance of becoming  Fantasy or Wishful Thinking
good solutions.
19 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 20 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.
©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

Schematic Diagram of the Creative Idea

Evaluation Process A Checklist for Technological Stretching

G. Thompson and M. London, “A Review of Creativity Principles Applied to Engineering Design,”

E. Lumsdaine and M. Lumsdaine, Creative Problem Solving, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1995, p.226. Proc. Instn. Mech. Engrs., vol. 213, part E, pp.17-31, 1999.
21 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 22 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.
©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

Synectics: An Inventive Method Based

Random Input Technique on Analogy
 Edward de Bono is a long-time developer of creativity  In design, like in everyday life, many problems are solved
methods. by analogy.
 He coined the term lateral thinking for the act of cutting  Synectics (from the Greek work synektiktein, meaning
across thought patterns. joining together of different things into unified
 One of the key tenets of lateral thinking is the concept connection) is a methodology or creativity based on
that an act of provocation is needed to make the brain reasoning by analogy that was first described in the book
switch from one pattern of thought to another. of Gordon.
 “It has never happened to me that the random word is  Synectics recognizes four types of analogy:
too remote. On the contrary, what happens quite often is  Direct Analogy
that the random word is so closely connected to the  Fantasy Analogy
focus that there is very little provocative effect.”  Personal Analogy
 Symbolic Analogy
23 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 24 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.
©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

4
 14/6/2018

Biomimetic Design Concept Map

 A particularly intriguing source of direct analogies is  A very useful tool for the generation of ideas by association, and
those that are inspired by biological systems. for organizing information in preparation for writing a report, is
the concept map.
 Biomimetic is the mimicking of biological system such as:
 The invention of the Velcro fasteners.  A concept map is good for generating and recording ideas
during brainstorming.
 The team is asked to locate the main problem at the center of a large
 The challenge for designers is twofold: sheet of a paper and then:
1) engineering designer are not trained in a wide variety of biological  Write down team-generated thoughts surrounding the central problem
systems label.
2) the words engineers use to express behavior do not always match  Underline or circle them and connect them to the central focus.
words used to describe biological systems.  Use an arrow to show which issue drives what.
 Create new major branches of concepts to represent major subtopics.
 If the process develops a secondary or separate map, label it and connect it
to the rest of the map.
25 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 26 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.
©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

Concept Map for the Recycling of a

Metal

6.4 Creative Methods for Design

Why do we need creativity for a design task?

27 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 28 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.

©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

Creativity Techniques for a Design Generating Design Concepts

 The motivation for applying any creativity technique to a design  Systematic methods for generating engineering designs exist.
task is to generate as many ideas as possible.  The task of the designer is to find the best of all possible
 Quantity counts above quality, and wild ideas are encouraged at candidate solutions to a design task.
the early stages of the design work.  Generative design is a theoretical construct that creates many
 Once an initial pool of concepts for alternative designs exists, feasible alternatives to a given product design specification
these alternatives can be reviewed more critically. (PDS).
 The goal becomes sorting out infeasible ideas.  The set of all possible designs is an n-dimensional hyperspace
 The team is identifying a smaller subset of ideas that can be called a design space.
developed into practical solutions.  The key idea to remember in design is that it is beneficial in
almost every situation to develop a number of alternative
designs that rely on different means to accomplish a desired
behavior.

29 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 30 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.

©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

5
 14/6/2018

Schematic of an n-dimensional design

space Systematic Methods for Designing
 Some design methods are labeled as systematic because
they involve a structured process for generating design
solutions.
 Systematic methods for mechanical, conceptual design
generation are:
 Functional Decomposition and Synthesis
 Morphological Analysis
 Theory of Inventive Problem Solving
 Axiomatic Design
 Design Optimization
 Decision-Based Design

31 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 32 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.

©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

Functional Decomposition and

Synthesis
 A common strategy for solving any complex task or
describing any complex system is to decompose it into
smaller units that are easier to work with.
 Decomposing must result in units that meaningfully
represent the original entity.
 Mechanical design is recursive:
 That means the same design process applied to the overall product
6.5 Functional Decomposition applies to the units of the product and can be repeated until a
and Synthesis successful outcome is achieved.
How does functional decomposition help a design?  Functional decomposition method has solution-neutrality:
 It does not initially impose a design, allowing more leeway for creativity
and generates a wide variety of alternative solutions.
33 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 34 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.
©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

Functional Representation:
Physical Decomposition of a Bicycle Standard Flow Classes & Member Flow

R. E. Stone, “Functional Basis”, Design Engineering Lab Webpage,

designengineeringlab.org/FunctionCAD/FB.htm, accessed November 10, 2011.
35 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 36 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.
©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

6
 14/6/2018

Components Abstracted into Function Function Structure Black Box for a

Blocks Basketball Ball Return

37 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 38 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.

©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

Function Structure for a Mechanical

Performing Functional Decomposition Pencil
 Functional decomposition produces a diagram called a
function structure.
 A function structure is a block diagram depicting flows of
energy, material, and signal as labeled arrows taking paths
between function blocks.
 The most general function structure is a single function
block description of a device.
 This type of function structure (a single function block) is
called a black box representation of a device.

39 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 40 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.

©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

Function Structure for a Basketball Strengths and Weaknesses of

Return Device Functional Synthesis
 Strengths:
 First, creating function structures forces re-representation into a
language that is useful for the manipulation for mechanical design
problems.
 Second, using a function structure to represent a design lends
functional labels to potential solution components, and these
labels serve as hints for new memory searches.
 Weaknesses:
 Some products are better suited to representation and design by
functional decomposition and synthesis than are others.
 The function structure is a flow diagram where flows are
connecting different functions performed by the product the
structure represents.
41 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 42 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.
©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

7
 14/6/2018

Morphological Methods Morphological Method for Design

 Morphological analysis is a method for representing and  The general morphological approach to design is
exploring all the relationships in multidimensional summarized in the following three steps:
problems.
 The word morphology means the study of shape and form.
 Morphological analysis is a way of creating new forms.  Divide the overall design problem into simpler
 Morphological methods have been recorded in science as a subproblems.
way to enumerate and investigate solution alternatives as  Generate solution concepts for each subproblem.
far back as the 1700s.  Systematically combine subproblem solutions into different
 Zwicky formalized the process of applying morphological complete solutions and evaluate all combinations.
methods to design in the mid-1960s with the publication of
a text that was translated into English in 1969.

43 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 44 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.

©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

Morphological Chart for Shot Buddy

Basketball Return System Sketch of Shot-Buddy Concept

Adapted from J. Davis, J. Decker, J. Maresco, S. McBee, S. Phillips, and R. Quinn, “JSR Design
Final Report: Shot-Buddy,” unpublished, ENME 472, University of Maryland, May 2010.
45 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 46 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.
©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

TRIZ
 The Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, known by the acronym
“TRIZ,” is a problem-solving methodology tailored to provide
innovative solutions for scientific and engineering problems.
 TRIZ offers four different strategies for generating an innovative
solution to a design problem.They are:
 Increase the “ideality” of a product or system
 Identify the product’s place in its evolution to ideality and force
6.7 TRIZ: The Theory of Inventive the next step.
Problem Solving  Identify key physical or technological contradictions in the.
product and revise the design to overcome them using inventive
What is TRIZ? principles.
 Model a product or system using substance-field analysis and
apply candidate modifications.
47 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 48 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.
©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

8
 14/6/2018

Invention: Evolution to Increased Innovation by Overcoming

Ideality Contradictions
 Altshuller’s examination of inventions led to his  The following list describes each innovation level and shows its
observation that systems had a level of goodness he called relative frequency:
ideality and that invention result when changes were made  Level 1: (32%) Conventional design solutions arrived at by methods
well known in the technology area of the system
to improve this attribute of a product or system.
 Level 2: (45%) Minor corrections made to an existing system by well-
 Six specific design suggestions to examine for improving the known methods at the expense of some compromise in behavior
ideality of a system are as follows:  Level 3: (18%) Substantial improvement in an existing system that
 Exclude auxiliary functions resolves a basic behavior compromise by using the knowledge of the
same technology area; the improvement typically involves adding a
 Exclude elements in the existing system
component or subsystem.
 Identify self-service functions
 Level 4: (4%) Solutions based on application of a new scientific principle
 Replace elements or parts of the total system to eliminate basic performance compromises
 Change the system’s basic principle of operation  Level 5: (1% or less) Pioneering inventions based on a discovery
 Utilize resources in system and surroundings outside of known science and known technology
49 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 50 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.
©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

TRIZ List of 39 Engineering Parameters TRIZ List of 40 Inventive Principles

51 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 52 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.

©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

Five Most Frequently Used Inventive

Principles of TRIZ TRIZ Contradiction Matrix
 Principle 1: Segmentation

 Principle 2: Extraction

 Principle 10: Prior action

 Principle 28: Replacement of mechanical system

 Principle 35: Transformation of properties

“TRIZ 40 Principles,” www.TRIZ40.com, Solid Creativity, 2004, accessed November 10, 2011.
53 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 54 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.
©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

9
 14/6/2018

Metal Powder Hitting Bend in Pipe Technical Contradictions

 Problem: metal powder flows through a pipe and impinges on the bend
causing erosion Technical Contradictions for Improving Speed of Metal
Powder and Principles to Eliminate Them:

55 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 56 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.

©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

Strengths of TRIZ Weaknesses of TRIZ

 The principles at the hear of TRIZ are based on designs  Inventive Principles are guidelines subject to designer
that are certified as inventive through the patent-type interpretation
system of the country of the inventor.  The principles are too general for application in a particular
 The developers of TRIZ continued to expand their design domain
database of inventive designs beyond the original 200,000.  The designer must develop her own analogous design
 A dedicated TRIZ user community (including students of solution for the given problem
Altshuller) continues to expand the examples of inventive  There are differences in the interpretation of TRIZ
principles, keeping the TRIZ examples contemporary. concepts
 The TRIZ user community has made the contradiction  There are aspects of TRIZ that are less intuitive
matrix web-accessible through sites like The TRIZ Journal
found at www.triz-journal.com.

57 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e. 58 Dieter/Schmidt, Engineering Design 5e.

©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies ©2013. The McGraw-Hill Companies

10