Product Design & Development
Concept Generation
ETM 551 Lecture 5 -Concept
Generation.ppt
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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
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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
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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
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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?
ETM 551 Lecture 5 -Concept
Generation.ppt
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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
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Concept Generation
Process
2. Search externally
1. Clarify the
problem
• Understanding
• Problem
decomposition
• Focus on critical
subproblems
•
•
•
•
•
Lead users
Experts
Patents
Literature
Benchmarking
4. Explore
systematically
• Classification tree
• Combination table
3. Search internally
• Individual
• Group
SUBPROBLEMS
EXISTING
CONCEPTS
INTEGRATED
SOLUTIONS
5. Reflect on solution
and process
NEW
CONCEPTS
• Constructive feedback
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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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Generation.ppt
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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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Generation.ppt
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Problem decomposition
• Split system into modules
Examples:
– document copier
– paper clip
• Many schemes
Possible submodules:
• Document handler
• Paper feeder
• Image capture device
• Printing device
• ...
More dificult to split,
but still possible...
– Functional decomposition
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Problem Decomposition:
Function Diagram
INPUT
OUTPUT
Energy (?)
Energy (?)
Hand-held
nailer
Material (nails)
Signal (tool "trip")
Energy
Nails
"Trip" of
tool
Material (driven nail)
Signal (?)
Store or
accept
external
energy
Convert
energy to
translational
energy
Store
nails
Isolate
nail
Sense
trip
Trigger
tool
ETM 551 Lecture 5 -Concept
Generation.ppt
Apply
translational
energy to nail
Driven
nail
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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
problem
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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
• Patents
– see emerging needs
before others
– adopt and generate
innovations first
• Benchmarking
– competitive products
• Experts
– technical experts
– experienced
customers
– search related
inventions
• Literature
– technical journals
– conference
proceedings
– trade literature
– government reports
– consumer information
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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 1990’s, 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
nailer’s 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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Generation.ppt
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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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Generation.ppt
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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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Generation.ppt
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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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