Systematic Methods for Getting Ideas to Generate Conceptual Designs During The Product Development Process

During the product development cycle, Concept development is an important phase. It starts after the specifications have initially developed and the function decompaction of the product has been drafted. Generally, the conceptual design phase consumes almost 15% of the total time of the product development design process. #designers start working on finding concepts that achieve the functions .each function might require evaluating and testing more than one concept. Concepts might be depicted as a sketch,3D model, Prototype, or set of calculations. Below chart show location of generating concept process within the product development cycle.

In some companies, however, design begins with one concept to be developed into a product without working to understand the requirements. In general, this philosophy does not lead to quality products.

?In this article, we discuss ways designers can innovate new ideas, find new concepts, and get inspired more quickly.

"There is a great tendency for designers to take their first idea and start to refine it toward a product. This is a weak methodology. If you a designer who jump into detail design from the first idea , keep in mind below advices form expert '' David G. Ullman

1- Analogies.??

In the analogy method, we search for other products from different fields from nature or other industries that can provide similar functions and try to map and apply that solution to needed new functions. Simply ask yourself, what else provides the same function? An object that provides a similar function may trigger ideas for concepts.

For example, engineers are studying the skin of sharks to reduce drag on boats, how ants manage traffic to reduce congestion and how moths, snakes, and dogs sense odors for bomb detection. The below picture shows how nature (duck’s legs) led to making great products such as swimming fins and gloves.

An example from real #industrialautomation Field is Festo , Festo developed commercial adaptive shape gripper DHEF by noticing how the lizard grip insects .

Another example from the industrial field could be the silicon gun (see below image), a similar concept that has been used to inspire and develop other products such as (the universal sealant gun, one-handed quick gripping tool, and cookie press.

2. Searching in Patents literature.?

The patent literature is a powerful source of ideas. It is relatively easy to find patents on almost any subject. One of the difficulties of using patents is that it is hard to find the exact information you need; it is easy to find other, interesting, distracting things that are not related to your issue. Furthermore, patents are not very easy to read.?

There are generally two types of patents: utility patents and design patents.

A- Utility patent (Function patent)

• Most patents you see on products are function patents.
• Function patents are very powerful because they cover how the device works, not its appearance
• Millions of function patents exist.

B- Design patents

• It is only the look or form of the idea that is covered by design patents, so here we are using the term design in the visual sense.
• Design patent numbers begin with the letter "D".

When searching for patents, there are many search engines and databases available. Keywords are used to find a specific function, better to write a verb that describes the function. Here is a list of most famous search engine ,

• Wipo : By World Intellectual Property Organization – WIPO
• Lens :
• USPTO? : By USPTO
• ESPACENET : By European Patent Office

Here is an example of how we can get ideas for tensioning a rubber track. Using the patent search engines, you can find different concepts as shown below. You can now analyze and evaluate each of these concepts and map them to achieve the desired functionality.

The patents have been organized in other useful ways over the years in order to help generate concepts. This includes TRIZ, which is another method of finding concepts.

?"If you generate one idea, it is probably a poor one. If you generate twenty ideas, you may have a good one" David G. Ullman

3- Using the invention theory, ( #triz ).

The invention theory is a comprehensive Systematic Innovation methodology used to solve engineering contradictions. Altshuller developed this theory after discovering that all inventions could be organized and generalized by function.?More than 200,000 patents from different industries were studied by him and his team, which led to the discovery of 40 inventive principles that could be used to overcome 39 engineering contradictions.

According to the theory, the following assumptions are made:

• ?Engineering problems often contain elements that have already been solved in completely different industries.
• By following a structured process, we can innovate without waiting for the "inspiration" or relying on trial and error.

What does engineering contradiction mean?

When requirements start to conflict with each other we call it contradiction and it could be a technical contradiction such as making one parameter better making another parameter worse. For example, needing a light car body and stronger at the same time. Or physical contradiction when it is needed to have an opposite thing in the same object for example wanting to have an umbrella wide and narrow at the same time, wider when open and narrow when folding it.

To solve problems using TRIZ, you map your problem to conceptual problems of similar worlds, check relevant worlds' solutions, then map these solutions back to your problem. The TRIZ Communities have developed many tools to facilitate the effective use of this methodology, such as the TRIZ Matrix.

On this link, Oxford Creativity provides a well-organized copy of the TRIZ matrix for free. The following steps will help you use the matrix effectively:

1. Identify the parameter you want to improve, for example( 9. Speed ).?
2. Define the worsening characteristic that will be evaluated (13. Strength).
3. Determine the crossover point between numbers (9 & 13) using the matrix.?
4. Take a look at the crossover points and the principles they mention.
5. Analyze and research each of the recommended principles to see how it has been applied in other industries.?In this Document from Oxford Creativity | Oxford TRIZ you can see example of how this principles been used and applied.
6. Evaluate how to apply and map this principle to your design problem.

Getting familiar with TRIZ Methodology to innovate and solve problems will require at first a good understanding of the functions and benefits required from the desired solution and this means a good function analysis and good function block diagram have been developed. Secondly, it will require that the designer has seen enough samples of how these principles have been applied to solve other industries' problems. With little practice, this methodology could be a standard approach to overcoming most of the engineering contradictions systematically.

4- Using the evaporative cloud to solve contradictions?and generate ideas.

Previously we discussed TRIZ?methodology to handle common 40 engineering contradictions. The evaporative cloud is a logical diagram representing a problem that has no obvious satisfactory solution (conflict). It is one of the six Thinking Processes in the Theory of Constraints (TOC). It could be used effectively to analyze and solve contradictions and generate new ideas for concept generation issues.

This method requires finding ‘win-win’ solutions because it emphasizes that both conflicting functions are trying to reach the same goal.?

The steps required to perform the evaporative cloud analysis for generating ideas are explained in the below example. We are trying to find a win-win situation to meet two customer requirements that conflict with each other.

1. Specify the conflicting functions.?
2. Identify why you need to force the two functions. Answer This question ( why this function is important ? )?
3. Identify the issue and the objective of the needs. Answer this question ( Why all these functions are needed together? ).

4.Generate the assumptions that underlie all of the above. In this step, stop at each box and arrow in the diagram and write the assumptions by asking "Why" and write the "because" answer.

Some assumptions may seem obvious, they may overlap, and in some cases, they are trivial. By noting these assumptions, you will:

• Note that some of the assumptions may demand more information (e.g., whether it is true that “the customers are not aware of our product” or “we understand the customers’ desires”).
• Explore how each assumption adds a requirement or constraint to the problem.
• Identify new alternatives. These are called injections and are the focus of the final step.

5. Generate the assumptions that underlie all of the above. In this step, stop at each box and arrow in the diagram and write the assumptions by asking "Why" and write the "because" answer.

Some assumptions may seem obvious, they may overlap, and in some cases, they are trivial. By noting these assumptions, you will:

• Note that some of the assumptions may demand more information (e.g., whether it is true that “the customers are not aware of our product” or “we understand the customers’ desires”).
• Explore how each assumptions adds a requirement or constraint to the problem.
• Identify new alternatives. These are called injections and are the focus of the final step.

As a result ,New ideas can now be suggested and evaluated separately like using plugins and modules or using software instead of hardware to achieve the functions.

Conclusion?

In this article, we discussed a few best practices to follow when generating concepts. In spite of the fact that these methods are efficient, systematic, and can lead to great new ideas, they are not widely used by designers. The best way to master these methods is to practice them on real-world examples to make them part of your design toolbox. In order to use the methods effectively, designers must take time to study how each method has been applied in other industries to resolve problems and how it helped resolve contradictions, and then jump into their problems with a thorough understanding of how to use them.

?Other methods are commonly used also to generate ideas but are not discussed in this article since they are well known, such as Brainstorming, searching in Reference Books and Trade Journals and on the Web, and consulting subject experts which is a costly option for many companies.

"who spends too much time developing a single concept realizes only that concept" David G. Ullman

References?:?

• Ullman, D. G. (2017). The Mechanical Design Process (6th ed.). David Ullman LLC.
• Gadd, K. (2011). TRIZ for Engineers: Enabling Inventive Problem Solving (1st ed.). Wiley.
• Oxford TRIZ Home - Oxford Creativity | Oxford TRIZ https://www.triz.co.uk/
• James Harrington, H. (2017). Lean TRIZ | How to Dramatically Reduce Product-Development Costs with This Innovative Problem-Solving Tool (1st ed.). CRC Press.