Product design and development
Concept generation refers to the creative process of generating new ideas, solutions, or approaches to address a specific problem or fulfill a need. It involves brainstorming, ideation, and exploration of different possibilities through methods like mind mapping, sketching, or prototyping. The goal is to innovate and develop original concepts that can potentially lead to new products, services, or improvements in existing systems. Concept generation typically involves collaboration, experimentation, and a willingness to explore unconventional ideas to achieve breakthroughs and solve complex challenges effectively. It plays a crucial role in fostering innovation and driving progress in various fields from technology and design to business and beyond.
Structured Approaches Reduce the Likelihood of Costly Problems
Structured approaches, such as detailed planning and systematic problem-solving methodologies, diminish the likelihood of costly issues. By adhering to organized frameworks and rigorous analysis, potential risks and pitfalls can be identified early and mitigated effectively. This methodical approach not only enhances efficiency but also improves overall project outcomes by promoting proactive problem-solving and ensuring resources are allocated optimally. Thus, structured approaches serve as a safeguard against expensive setbacks and contribute to sustainable project success.
A Five-Step Method
This chapter introduces a structured five-step method for concept generation, detailed in Exhibit 7-3, which involves breaking down complex problems into manageable subproblems. Solutions are then generated through both internal and external searches. Classification trees and concept combination tables are utilized to systematically explore and integrate solution concepts. The process concludes with a reflective evaluation of the results and methodology. While presented in a linear fashion, concept generation is iterative, adaptable across various stages of product development, from overall concepts to subsystems or specific components, and applicable across diverse product types.
Step 1: Clarify the Problem
Clarifying the problem involves developing a comprehensive understanding and potentially breaking it into subproblems. Inputs ideally include the projects mission statement, customer needs list, and preliminary product specifications, though these can evolve during the concept generation phase. Team involvement in identifying needs and setting specifications is crucial. Assumptions for designing a better handheld roofing nailer included compatibility with existing nail magazines and nailing through roofing shingles into wood. Customer needs focused on rapid, lightweight operation with no noticeable delay after tripping the tool. Specifications ranged from nail lengths to energy and speed requirements, guiding subsequent design efforts effectively.
Decompose a Complex Problem into Simpler Subproblems
Functional Decomposition: Break down the product into subfunctions based on energy, material, and signal flows.
Sequence of User Actions: Divide the problem by user interactions, such as positioning and triggering.
Key Customer Needs: Decompose based on critical customer requirements like rapid firing, lightweight design, and high capacity.
Applicability: Functional decomposition suits technical products; user action sequence suits user-intensive designs; customer needs decomposition fits form-centric products.
Focus Initial Efforts on the Critical Subproblems
Focused Problem Solving: Divide complex problems into simpler ones for targeted solutions.
Critical Subproblems: Identify crucial subproblems for creative solutions, deferring others.
Example: Nail gun team prioritized energy storage, conversion, and application, deferring nail handling and user interaction.
Core Technology: Start with fundamental technology before refining form and usability.
Consensus Building: Teams quickly agree on initial subproblems to address.
Step 2: Search Externally
External Search for Solutions: Integral to concept generation, aiming to uncover existing solutions and technologies relevant to both overall product challenges and specific subproblems.
Continuous Process: Despite being labeled as a step, external search is ongoing throughout development to leverage existing solutions, saving time and costs.
Advantages of Existing Solutions: Implementing known solutions is quicker and cheaper, allowing teams to focus creativity on critical subproblems lacking satisfactory solutions.
Synergy of Solutions: Combining conventional and novel solutions often yields superior designs, enhancing overall product innovation.
Methods of External Search:
Lead User Interviews: Tap into early adopters who may have already innovated solutions.
Expert Consultation: Engage professionals for specialized insights and redirection of search efforts.
Patent Searches: Explore protected concepts and avoid infringement, uncovering novel technologies.
Literature Searches: Utilize journals, reports, and online databases for comprehensive technical information.
Benchmarking: Analyze competitors and analogous products to understand strengths and weaknesses.
Step 3: Search Internally
Internal Search Overview: Utilizes team knowledge and creativity to generate solution concepts, often through brainstorming sessions.
Creativity Methods: Based on Osborns methods from the 1940s, focuses on extracting and adapting existing team knowledge to address the current problem.
Open-ended and Creative: Considered one of the most creative tasks in product development, involving either individual or group efforts.
Guidelines for Effective Internal Search:
1. Suspend Judgment: Critical for allowing a free flow of ideas without premature evaluation, fostering a conducive environment for creativity.
2. Generate Many Ideas: Quantity fosters exploration of a broader solution space, stimulating further creativity and ensuring comprehensive exploration.
3. Welcome Infeasible Ideas: Even seemingly impractical ideas can spark innovative thinking and expand the boundaries of possible solutions.
4. Use Sketches Extensively: Visual representation aids in conceptualizing physical objects more effectively than verbal descriptions alone, enhancing understanding and communication.
5. Build Sketch Models: Physical models, even simple ones like foam or cardboard prototypes, facilitate deeper exploration of form, user interface, and spatial relationships, contributing to better design outcomes.
Hints for Generating Solution Concepts
In the process of concept generation for the nailers subproblems, the team employed various creative techniques to explore innovative solutions. These methods not only stimulated new ideas but also encouraged the integration of diverse perspectives into the design process.
Analogies and Biological Analogies:
The team initially drew inspiration from analogous devices and natural phenomena. By comparing the nailer to construction pile drivers, they explored similarities in function, leading to the concept of a multiblow tool. This approach leveraged existing solutions from different contexts to inspire novel designs in their own problem domain.
Wish and Wonder:
Using prompts like "I wish we could..." and "I wonder what would happen if...", team members challenged conventional boundaries. For instance, contemplating the length of a rail gun led to the idea of a longer tool that could be used akin to a cane for nailing decking, enhancing user convenience and operational efficiency.
SCAMPER Method:
Employing the SCAMPER method (Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to other uses, Eliminate, Reverse/Rearrange), the team creatively rearranged and modified fragments of existing solutions. This structured approach facilitated the synthesis of diverse concepts, enriching the solution space for energy storage and delivery in the nailer.
Gallery Method:
The gallery method served as a platform for collaborative brainstorming. By displaying individual sketches of concepts on the meeting room walls, team members could critique, refine, and build upon each others ideas. This interactive approach fostered a dynamic exchange of perspectives, enhancing the quality and feasibility of generated concepts.
TRIZ Methodology:
Exploring the TRIZ methodology, which focuses on inventive problem-solving through identifying contradictions and applying principles to resolve them, the team tackled issues like increasing power without increasing weight. This systematic approach prompted them to consider unconventional solutions, such as using repeated smaller impacts for driving nails, derived from principles like periodic action.
Outcome:
Through these methods, the nailer design team generated a range of innovative solutions for critical subproblems such as energy acceptance and translational energy delivery. These concepts laid the foundation for further refinement and development, emphasizing both creativity and systematic problem-solving in the product design process.
Overall, the combination of creative techniques and structured methodologies enabled the team to explore and articulate diverse ideas effectively, driving forward the innovation process in nailer design.
Step 4: Explore Systematically
In tackling the complexity of exploring numerous concept fragments for energy storage, conversion, and delivery in nailer design, the nailer team employed systematic methods to organize and synthesize their ideas effectively.
Concept Classification Tree:
To manage the multitude of concept fragments, the team utilized a concept classification tree. This tool allowed them to categorize and group solutions into distinct and independent categories. For instance, different energy storage methods such as chemical reactions, flywheels, batteries, and human power were organized into separate branches of the tree. This classification helped in structuring their approach and focusing on exploring variations within each category rather than attempting to evaluate all possible combinations simultaneously.
Concept Combination Table:
Recognizing the impracticality of evaluating every possible combination of concept fragments, the team also employed a concept combination table. This table facilitated the systematic exploration of selected combinations deemed most promising or relevant. By strategically pairing fragments across different subproblems—such as energy storage with energy conversion and delivery—they could evaluate synergies and feasibility more efficiently.
Managing Complexity:
These tools not only helped in managing the complexity inherent in exploring thousands of potential combinations but also guided the team in maintaining a structured and methodical approach to concept development. Rather than becoming overwhelmed by the sheer number of possibilities, the team could focus on refining and iterating upon feasible combinations that aligned with their design objectives and constraints.
Outcome:
Through the systematic use of the concept classification tree and concept combination table, the nailer design team successfully navigated the solution space for energy-related subproblems. This approach ensured that their concept generation efforts were both comprehensive and focused, leading to the identification of innovative solutions that could be further developed into viable design concepts.
In tackling the complexity of exploring numerous concept fragments for energy storage, conversion, and delivery in nailer design, the nailer team employed systematic methods to organize and synthesize their ideas effectively.
Concept Classification Tree:
To manage the multitude of concept fragments, the team utilized a concept classification tree. This tool allowed them to categorize and group solutions into distinct and independent categories. For instance, different energy storage methods such as chemical reactions, flywheels, batteries, and human power were organized into separate branches of the tree. This classification helped in structuring their approach and focusing on exploring variations within each category rather than attempting to evaluate all possible combinations simultaneous
1. Pruning of less promising branches: By analyzing the classification tree, the team identifies approaches that may not be viable or practical. For instance, the nailer team excluded nuclear energy due to economic and regulatory concerns, focusing instead on more feasible options like chemical and electrical sources. This pruning ensures resources are allocated efficiently to more promising avenues.
2. Identification of independent approaches: Each branch in the classification tree represents a distinct approach to solving the problem. Teams can assign different branches to separate groups or individuals to explore independently. This approach was evident with the nailer team, which divided efforts between chemical/explosive and electrical approaches, fostering healthy competition and reducing complexity.
3. Exposure of inappropriate emphasis: Constructing the classification tree allows quick reflection on the distribution of effort across different branches. The nailer team realized they had underexplored hydraulic energy sources, prompting focused attention on this area to ensure comprehensive exploration.
4. Refinement of problem decomposition: Specific branches of the tree, such as electrical energy sources, may require tailored problem decomposition. For example, understanding the need for instantaneous power in nailing led to the addition of "accumulate translational energy" as a subfunction in their design process. This refinement helps in aligning conceptual frameworks with practical requirements.
Constructing effective classification trees involves choosing branches that significantly influence solutions to other subproblems. This strategic approach optimizes the concept generation process, ensuring that efforts are concentrated on the most promising paths forward.
Concept Combination Table
In the concept generation process for the handheld nailer, the nailer team utilized the concept combination table as a strategic tool to explore and refine potential solutions. Here’s how they managed the exploration process and refined their concepts:
Concept Combination Table Utilization:
The concept combination table, as shown in Exhibit 7-9, organized various solution fragments across key subproblems identified in their problem decomposition. These subproblems included converting electrical energy to translational energy, accumulating energy, and applying translational energy to the nail. Each column in the table represented different options or technologies that could address these subproblems, such as rotary motors with transmission, solenoids, springs, and different modes of applying energy like single or multiple impacts.
Guidelines for Effective Use:
1. Pruning Infeasible Fragments : The team first eliminated clearly infeasible fragments to streamline their exploration. For instance, if a rail gun was deemed impractical, it reduced the number of viable combinations from 24 to 18, focusing efforts on more promising solutions.
2. Focus on Coupled Subproblems: They concentrated their efforts on subproblems whose solutions were interdependent. For example, choosing between a battery or a wall outlet as an electrical energy source was critical and influenced how energy was converted and applied. This focused approach helped in managing complexity and refining viable combinations.
Exploration and Refinement Process:
Multiple Concept Tables and Trees: Recognizing the iterative nature of concept generation, the team created several classification trees and concept combination tables. This allowed them to explore diverse pathways and combinations systematically.
Iterative Refinement: Throughout the process, they refined their problem decomposition and explored both internal and external sources to gather insights. This iterative approach ensured that as they narrowed down alternatives, they could focus on refining critical aspects such as user interface, industrial design, and overall configuration.
Step 5: Reflect on the Solutions and the Process
Reflection played a crucial role throughout the concept generation process for the nailer team, ensuring that their efforts were focused and their decisions well-founded:
1. Exploration of Solution Space: The team constantly questioned whether they had sufficiently explored all possible solutions within the energy storage and conversion domains. This ongoing reflection helped them gauge the completeness of their exploration and identify any gaps that needed further attention.
2. Alternative Function Diagrams and Problem Decomposition: They considered alternative function diagrams and ways to decompose the problem, particularly reflecting on whether their initial focus on energy issues overshadowed aspects like user interface and overall tool configuration. They reaffirmed that energy concerns were indeed central but acknowledged the need to balance attention across all critical aspects.
3. Thorough Pursuit of External Sources: Reflecting on their research efforts, they assessed whether they had thoroughly pursued external sources of information. This ensured they leveraged available knowledge and insights to inform their decision-making process.
4. Integration of Ideas: The team reflected on whether ideas from all team members had been sufficiently integrated. This inclusive approach helped in considering diverse perspectives and fostering collaborative innovation.
5. Decision-making on Concept Pursuit: Reflecting on their journey through different branches of the classification tree, they evaluated whether they had diverted too much effort into less promising pathways, such as the chemical approach with safety concerns. They concluded that earlier elimination of certain branches could have allowed deeper exploration of more viable alternatives.
6. Prototype Development and Feasibility Testing: Finally, their reflection guided the decision to build working prototypes based on two fundamentally different concepts: a single-blow mechanism and a multi-blow mechanism. Ultimately, their thorough reflection led them to identify the multi-blow tool as the most technically feasible approach to pursue further.
Question and answers
1. Decompose the problem of designing a new barbecue grill. Try a functional decomposition as well as a decomposition based on the user interactions with the product.
Ans: Designing a new barbecue grill involves both functional and user interaction decompositions. Functionally, the grill can be decomposed into several key components: heating element (gas or charcoal), cooking surface (grates or plates), temperature control mechanism (knobs or vents), and safety features (heat shields, handles). Each component serves a specific function critical to the grills operation and performance.
2. Generate 10 concepts for the subproblem “prevent fraying of end of rope” as part of a system for cutting lengths of nylon rope from a spool.
Ans: Ten concepts are:
- Heat Sealing: Use a heated element to melt and seal the ends of the rope.
- Fray Stopper Tape: Apply a specialized adhesive tape designed to prevent fraying.
- Whipping Knot: Tie a whipping knot at the end of the rope to secure the fibers.
- Liquid Sealant: Apply a liquid sealant that hardens and seals the fibers.
- Hot Knife Cutter: Use a hot knife to simultaneously cut and seal the rope end.
- Plastic Tubing: Slide a short piece of heat-shrink plastic tubing over the rope end and shrink it with heat.
- Cauterization Tool: Use a cauterization tool to burn and seal the rope fibers.
- Soldering Iron: Use a soldering iron to melt and seal the rope end.
- Resin Coating: Dip or apply a resin coating to the rope end to seal the fibers.
- Overhand Knot with Melting: Tie
3. What are the prospects for computer support for concept generation activities?
Ans: Computer support for concept generation activities is promising, leveraging AI and machine learning to enhance creativity, streamline ideation processes, and offer novel insights. Tools like generative
algorithms and collaborative platforms are advancing this field, promising more efficient and innovative idea generation.
4. What would be the relative advantages and disadvantages of involving actual customers in the concept generation process?
Ans: Advantages include gaining direct insights, validating ideas early, and fostering customer loyalty. Disadvantages may include biasing innovation towards current customer needs and potentially slowing down the ideation process.
5. What would be the relative advantages and disadvantages of involving actual customers in the concept generation process?
Ans: Involving actual customers in concept generation offers the advantage of gaining real-world insights and ensuring the resulting concepts resonate with target audiences. Their input can enhance relevance and usability. However, challenges may arise from varying levels of expertise in articulating needs or desires, potentially leading to less focused outcomes. Additionally, managing diverse opinions and ensuring unbiased feedback can be complex. Balancing these factors is crucial for effective customer-involved concept generation.
6. For what types of products would the initial focus of the concept generation activity be on the form and user interface of the product and not on the core technology?
Ans: Concept generation focusing initially on form and user interface rather than core technology is particularly suited to consumer electronics, wearable devices, household appliances, and any product where user interaction and aesthetics play a crucial role in consumer acceptance and usability.
7. Could you apply the five-step method to an everyday problem like choosing the food for a picnic?
Ans:1. Identify the problem: Choosing food for a picnic.
2. Gather information: Consider preferences, dietary restrictions
3. Generate alternatives: Sandwiches, salads, fruits, snacks.
4. Evaluate alternatives: Balance variety, ease of preparation.
5. Make a decision: Select menu items based on preferences .
8. What existing solution concepts, if any, could be successfully adapted for this application?
Ans: Existing solution concepts that could be adapted for choosing food for a picnic include meal kit services offering portable meal options, pre-packaged picnic baskets available at grocery stores or online, and apps that suggest picnic-friendly recipes based on dietary preferences and number of people.
9. What new concepts might satisfy the established needs and specifications?
Ans: New concepts could include:
1. A customizable picnic planner app allowing users to input dietary preferences and number of attendees, then suggesting recipes and generating shopping lists.
2. Eco-friendly, reusable picnic kits with compartments for different types of food, minimizing waste and enhancing organization.
10. What methods can be used to facilitate the concept generation process?
Ans: Methods to facilitate concept generation include brainstorming sessions with diverse teams, conducting user interviews and surveys to gather insights, using ideation techniques like mind mapping or SCAMPER (Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Reverse), and prototyping to visualize ideas and gather feedback early in the process.