Product Design & Development

Concept Generation

ETM 551 Lecture 5 -Concept Generation.ppt

Concept Generation Example: Power Nailer

What existing solution concepts, if any, could be successfully adapted for this application? What new concepts might satisfy the established needs and specifications? What methods can be used to facilitate the concept generation process?

ETM 551 Lecture 5 -Concept Generation.ppt

Concept Development Process

Mission Statement Identify Customer Needs Establish Target Specifications Generate Product Concepts Select Product Concept(s) Test Product Concept(s) Set Final Specifications Plan Downstream Development Development Plan

Perform Economic Analysis Benchmark Competitive Products Build and Test Models and Prototypes

ETM 551 Lecture 5 -Concept Generation.ppt

The Activity of Concept Generation

A good concept is sometimes poorly implemented in subsequent development phases, but a poor concept can rarely be manipulated to achieve commercial success. Concept generation typically consumes less than 5% budget and 15% of the development time Because the concept genaration activity is not costly, there is no excuse for lack of diligence and care in executing asound concept 4 generation method.

Preliminary questions
After identifying customer needs and establishing target product specifications, the team should ask: What existing solutions could be adapted for this application? What new concepts might satisfy these needs and specifications? What methods can be used to facilitate concept generation process?
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Concept generation activity

Structured approaches reduce the likelihood of costly problems
Common dysfunctions during concept generation:
Consideration of only one or two alternatives, often proposed by the most assertive members of the team. Failure to consider carefully the usefulness of concepts employed by other firms in related and unrelated products. Involvement of only one or two people in the process, resulting in lack of confidence and commitment by other team members. Ineffective integration of promising partial solutions. Failure to consider entire categories of solutions.
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A Five-Step Method
Step 1: Clarify the Problem Step 2: Search Externally Step 3: Search Internally Step 4: Explore Systematically Step 5: Reflect on the Results and the Process

ETM 551 Lecture 5 -Concept Generation.ppt

Concept Generation Process

2. Search externally 1. Clarify the problem Understanding Problem decomposition Focus on critical subproblems Lead users Experts Patents Literature Benchmarking
EXISTING CONCEPTS

4. Explore systematically Classification tree Combination table

INTEGRATED SOLUTIONS

3. Search internally Individual Group

5. Reflect on solution and process

NEW CONCEPTS

Constructive feedback
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SUBPROBLEMS

The nailer: Step 1

Review assumptions underlying mission statement The nailer will:
use nails (as opposed to adhesives, screws etc.). be compatible with nail magazines on existing tools. nail into wood. be hand-held.
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Customer needs
Customer needs (for a hand-held nailer):
The nailer inserts nails in rapid succession. The nailer works into tight spaces The nailer is lightweight. The nailer has no noticeable nailing delay after tripping tool.

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Target specifications
No noticeable nailing delay after pulling trigger Nail lengths from 25 to 38 mm. Maximum nailing energy of 40 J/nail. Nailing force of up to 2,000 N. Peak nailing rate of 12 nails/second.

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Target specifications (cont)

Average nailing rate of 4 nails/min. Maximum trigger delay of 0.25 second. Tool mass less than 4 kg Maximum trigger delay of 0.25 sec.

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Problem decomposition
Decompose complex problem into simpler sub-problems. Many design challenges are too complex to solve as a single problem. Split a complex problem into simpler subproblems.(Problem decomposition)
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Problem decomposition
Split system into modules
Examples: document copier paper clip
Possible submodules: Document handler Paper feeder Image capture device Printing device ... More dificult to split, but still possible...

Many schemes
Functional decomposition
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Problem Decomposition:
Function Diagram
INPUT Energy (?) Material (nails) Signal (tool "trip") Hand-held nailer OUTPUT Energy (?) Material (driven nail) Signal (?)

Energy

Store or accept external energy

Convert energy to translational energy Apply translational energy to nail

Nails

Store nails

Isolate nail

Driven nail

"Trip" of tool

Sense trip

Trigger tool

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Some useful tips to get started

Create a function diagram of an existing product. Create function diagram based on an arbitrary product concept already generated by the team or on a known subfunction technology. Be sure to generalize the diagram to the appropriate level of abstraction.
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Tips to get started

Follow one of the flows (e.g., materials) and determine what operations are required. The details of the other flows can be derived by thinking about their connections to the initial flow.

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Two other approaches

Decomposition by sequence of user actions.
Move tool to approximate nailing position, Products with very simple Position tool precisely, technical functions involving a lot of user interactions Pull trigger.

Decomposition by key customer needs

Fires nails in rapid succession, Products in which form, and Fits in tight places, not working principles or technology, is the primary Has large nail capacity.
ETM 551 Lecture 5 -Concept Generation.ppt

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Focus on critical sub-problems

The aim of decomposition techniques is to split a complex problem into simpler subproblems, then tackle each in a focused way.

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The Nailer: Step 2 - Search externally

Conduct external searches to find existing solutions to either the overall problem or a sub-problem identified during the decomposition step. Use search engines (in advanced mode) to find existing solutions discussed on Internet sites.

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External and Internet Searches:

Hints for finding related solutions
Lead Users
see emerging needs before others adopt and generate innovations first

Patents
search related inventions

Literature
technical journals conference proceedings trade literature government reports consumer information

Benchmarking
competitive products

Experts
technical experts experienced customers

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Patents
Try the European patent office http://ep.espacenet.com US patent office http://patft.uspto.gov

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Step 3 - Search internally

Suspend judgment
Suspend evaluation for the days or weeks required to generate a large set of alternatives is critical to success.

Generate a lot of ideas

Most experts believe that the more ideas a team generates, the more likely the team is to explore fully the solution space.

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Step 3 - Search internally (cont)

Welcome ideas, even if they do not seem very feasible
Ideas which initially appear infeasible can often be improved, debugged or repaired by other members of the team.

Use graphical and physical media.

Reasoning about physical and geometric information with words is difficult.
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Hints for Generating Solution Concepts

Make analogies
Experienced designers always ask themselves what other devices solve a related problem.

Wish and wonder

Beginning a thought or comment with I wish we could..... or I wonder what would happen if .... helps to stimulate oneself or the group to consider new possibilities.
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Hints (cont)
Use related stimuli
Most individuals can think of a new idea when presented with a new stimulus.

Use unrelated stimuli

Occasionally, random or unrelated stimuli can be effective in encouraging new ideas.

Set quantitative goals

Set a goal of 10 or 20 concepts.
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Hints (cont)
Use the gallery method
Use the gallery method to display a large number of concepts simultaneously for discussion.

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TRIZ
In the 1990s, a Russian problem solving methodology called TRIZ (a Russian acronym for theory of inventive problem solving) began to disseminate in Europe and USA. Useful in identifying physical working principles. The key idea is to identify a contradiction that is implicit in a problem.
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Solutions for two of the nailers subproblems

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The nailer: Step 4 - Explore systematically

After external and internal search there are probably tens or hundreds of solutions to subproblems, or concept fragments Navigate the space of possibilities
With the concept classification tree With the concept combination table

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Concept classification tree

Use it to: Prune less promising branches (carefully) Identify related versus independent approaches Highlight inappropriate emphasis (certain branches) Refine problem decomposition.

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Refining problem decomposition

Too much instantaneous power (~10000Watt) for an outlet, battery or fuel cell to deliver in few miliseconds
Must accumulate and then trigger

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Concept combination table

A systematic approach to combine partial solutions

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Managing the exploration process

Combination tables and classification trees are not unique
Just simple ways to organize thoughts Exploration step acts as a guide for further creative thinking

Often the concept generation phase is not so straightforward

In fact its almost always iterative...
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Step 5: Reflect on the Results and the Process

Is the team developing confidence that the solution space has been fully explored? Are there alternative function diagrams? Are there alternative ways to decompose the problem? Have external sources been thoroughly pursued? Have ideas from everyone been accepted and integrated into process?
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Summary
A product concept is an approximate description of the technology, working principles, and form of the product. The concept generation begins with a set of customer needs and target specifications. In most cases an effective team will generate hundreds of concepts, of which 5 to 20 will merit serious consideration.
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Summary
The concept generation consists of 5 steps
Clarify the problem Search externally Search internally Explore systematically Reflect on the solutions and the process

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