Concept Generation

Introduction
 After identifying a set of customer needs and
establishing target product specifications, the
team faced the following questions:
What existing solution concepts, if any,
could be successfully adopted for this
application?
What new concepts might satisfy the
established needs and specifications?
What methods can be used to facilitate
the concept generation process?
The Activity of Concept
Generation
 Product concept is an approximate
description of the technology, working
principles, and form of the product.
 Concept is usually expressed as a sketch or
as a rough 3-D model and a brief textual
description
 Concept generation activity is not expensive
- spend adequate time & effort
The Activity of Concept
Generation
 Team will generate hundreds of
concepts, of which 5 to 20 will merit
serious consideration during the
concept selection activity

 Explore full space of design alternatives

Concept Generation
Common dysfunctions during
concept generation
Consideration of 1-2 alternatives
(proposed by assertive members)
Failure to consider usefulness of
concepts employed by others firms in
related and unrelated products
Involvement of only few people
 Ineffective integration of promising
partial solutions.
Failure to consider entire categories of
solutions.
Structured Approaches Reduce the
Likelihood of Costly Problems

Guide the team in the thorough

exploration of alternatives
Provide a mechanism for integrating
partial solutions
Step-by-step procedure for those
members of the team who may be
less experienced in design-intensive
activities
Concept Generation: A Five-
Step Method
Step 1: Clarify The Problem
 Develop a general understanding and
then breaking the problem down into
subproblems if necessary
 The mission statement for the project,
customer needs list, and the preliminary
product specification are the ideal
inputs to the concept generation
process
Step 1: Clarify The Problem
 Example: Challenge was to “design a better hand-
held nailer”
 Some of the assumptions in the team’s mission
statement were:
 The nailer will use nails(as opposed to adhesives,
screws, etc.)
The nailer will be compatible with nail
magazines on existing tools.
The nailer will nail into wood.
The nailer will be hand held.
Step 1: Clarify The Problem
Based on the assumptions, the team
identified the customer needs for a hand-
held nailer:
The nailer inserts nails in rapid
succession.
The nailer fits into tight spaces.
The nailer is light weight.
The nailer has no noticeable nailing
delay after tripping the tool
Step 1: Clarify The Problem
 Gather supplementary information to
clarify and quantify the needs
 such as the approximate energy and speed of
the nailing.
Step 1: Clarify The Problem
 Basic needs target product specifications.
 The target specifications included the following:

 Nail length from 50 millimeters to 75 millimeters.

 Maximum nailing energy of 80 joules per nail.
 Nailing forces of up to 2,000 newtons.
 Peak nailing rate of one nail per second.
 Average nailing rate of four nails per minute.
 Ability to insert nails between standard stud/joints (368
millimeter opening)
 Tool mass less than 4 kilograms.
 Maximum trigger delay of 0.25 seconds.
Decompose a Complex Problem
into Simpler Subproblems

 For example, the design of document

copier broken down into
the design of document handler,
the design of a printing device, and
the design of an image capture device.
Decompose a Complex Problem
into Simpler Subproblems
 Decomposition may not be very useful for
products with extremely simple functions
such as a paper clip
 Dividing a problem into simpler subproblems
is called problem decomposition.
 Various ways (schemas) by which a problem
can be decomposed.
Functional decomposition
 Represent the overall function as a
single black box operating on material,
energy and signal flows
 Divide the black box into sub-functions
(3-10 sub-functions)
Exhibit 6-4
Functional decomposition
 Challenge: to describe the functional
elements of the product without implying a
specific technological working principle for the
product concept.
 For example, the subfunction “isolate nail”
expressed in such a way that it does not
imply any particular physical solution concept,
such as indexing the “stick” of nails into a slot
or breaking a nail sideways off the stick.
Functional decomposition
 Note that the function diagram is
typically non unique.

 Create several drafts and then work to

refine them into a single diagram that
the team is comfortable with.
Functional decomposition
 If the material, energy, and signal flows are
difficult to identify: A simple list of the
subfunctions of the product, without
connections between them, is often sufficient.

 Functional decomposition is most applicable

to technical products, but it can also be
applied to simple and apparently nontechnical
products. For example, an ice cream being
separated, formed, transported, and
deposited.
Decomposition by
sequence of user actions
 For example, the nailer problem might be
broken down into three user actions:
 moving the tool to the gross nailing position,
 positioning the tool precisely,
 triggering the tool.

 This approach is often useful for products

with very simple technical functions involving
a lot of user interaction.
Decomposition by key
customer needs
 For the nailer, this decomposition might
include the following subproblems:
 fires nails in rapid succession,
 fits in tight places,
 has a large nail capacity.

 This approach is often useful for products in

which form, and not working principles or
technology, is the primary problem. Examples
of such products include toothbrushes
(assuming the basic brush concept is
retained) and storage containers.
Focus Initial Efforts on the
Critical Subproblems
 For example, the nailer team chose to
focus on the subproblems of
storing/accepting energy, converting
the energy to transnational energy, and
applying the transnational energy and
nail
Step 2: Search Externality
 External search is aimed at finding
existing solutions to both overall
problem and to the sub problems
identified during the problem
clarification step.
 External search occurs continually
throughout the development process.
Step 2: Search Externally
 There are at least five good ways to
gather information from external
sources: lead user interviews, expert
consultation, patent searches, literature
searches, and competitive
benchmarking.
Interview Lead Users
 Lead users are those users of a product
who experience needs months or years
before the majority of the market and
stand to benefit substantially from a
product innovation. Frequently these
lead users will have already invented
solutions to meet their needs.
Interview Lead Users
 In the hand-held nailer case, the nailer team
consulted with the building contractors from
the BPS television series This Old House in
order to solicit new concepts.
 These lead users, who are exposed to tools
from many manufacturers, made many
observations about the weakness in existing
tools, but in this case did not provide many
new product concepts.
Consult Experts
 Experts may include professionals at firms
manufacturing related products, professional
consultants, university faculty, and technical
representatives of suppliers.
 A good habit to develop is to always ask
people consulted to suggest others who
should be contacted. Best information often
comes from pursuing these “second
generation” leads
Search Patents
 Patents are a rich and readily available source
of technical information containing detailed
drawings and explanations of how many
products work.
 Main disadvantage of patent searches is that
concepts found in recent patents are
protected (generally for 20 years from date of
the patent application), so there may be a
royalty involved in using them.
Search Patents
 Concepts contained in foreign patents
without global coverage and in expired
patents can be used without payment
of royalties.
Search Published Literature
 Published literature includes journals:
conference proceeding; trade magazines;
government reports; and new product
announcements
 Electronic searches  the most efficient
 Examples: Mark’s Standard Handbook of
Mechanical Engineering, Perry’s Chemical
Engineer’s Handbook, and Mechanisms and
Mechanical Devices Sourcebook
Benchmark Related Products
 Benchmarking can reveal existing concepts
that
 have been implemented to solve a particular
problem
 information on the strength and weakness of the
competition
 Useful source: Thomas Register of American
Manufacturers, a directory of manufacturers
of industrial products organized by product
type
Benchmark Related Products
 For the nailer,
the closely related products included a
single-shut gunpowder-actuated tool for
nailing into concrete, an electrical solenoid-
actuated tacker, a pneumatic nailer for
factory use, and a palm-held multiblow
pneumatic nailer.
Benchmark Related Products
 Team obtained and disassembled most
of these related products
 to discover the general concepts on which
they were based
 to get the names of the suppliers of
specific components.
Step 3: Search Internally
 Use of personal and team knowledge and
creativity to generate solution concepts.
 Four guidelines are useful for improving
both individual and group internal search:
1. Suspend Judgment
2. Generate a lot of ideas
3. Welcome ideas that may seem infeasible
4. Use graphical and physical media
Both Individual and Group
Sessions Can Be Useful
 Formal studies of group and individual
problem solving suggest that a set of
people working alone for a period of
time will generate more and better
concepts than the same people working
together for the same time period.
Hints for Generating Solution
Concepts
 Make analogues. what other devices solve
a related problem; Think of a natural or
biological analogy to the 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.
Hints for Generating Solution
Concepts
 Use related stimuli. Most individuals can
think of a new idea when presented with a
new stimulus. For example, one way to use
related stimuli is for each individual in a
group session to generate a list of
ideas(working alone) and then pass the list to
his or her neighbor.
 Use unrelated stimuli. Occasionally
random or unrelated stimuli can be effective
in encouraging new ideas.
Hints for Generating Solution
Concepts
 Set quantitative goals. Have quantitative
targets of 10 to 20 concepts.
 Use gallery method. The gallery method is
a way to display a large number of concepts
simultaneously for discussion. Sketches,
usually one concept to a sheet are taped or
pinned to the walls of the meeting room.
Hints for Generating Solution
Concepts
 In the 1990s a Russian Problem-solving
methodology called TRIZ (A Russian acronym
for theory of inventive problem solving)
began to be disseminated in the United
States.
 The methodology is primarily useful in
identifying physical working principles to
solving technical problems. The key idea
underlying TRIZ is to identify a contradiction
that is implicit in a problem.
Step 4: Explore Systematically
 As a result of external and internal
search activities, the team will have
collected tens or hundreds of concepts
fragments – solutions to the
subproblems.
 Systematic exploration:navigating the
space of possibilities by organizing and
synthesizing these solution fragments.
Step 4: Explore Systematically
 Given 3 subproblems & average of 15
fragments for each subproblem, the team
would have to consider 3,375 combinations of
fragments (15x15x15).

 There are two specific tools for managing this

complexity and organizing the thinking of the
team: the concept classification tree and
concept combination table
Exhibit 6-6
Concept Classification Tree
 Divide the entire space of possible
solutions into several distinct classes
which will facilitate comparison and
pruning
Concept Classification Tree
Concept Combination Table
 Provides a way to consider combinations of
solution fragments systematically
 Columns in the table correspond to the
subproblems identified
 As a practical matter, concept combination
tables lose their usefulness when the number
of columns exceeds three or four.
Concept Combination Table
Concept Combination Table
Concept Combination Table
Concept Combination Table
Concept Combination Table
Managing the Exploration
Process
 Rarely do teams generate only one
classification tree and one concept
combination table.

 More typically the team will create

several alternative classification trees
and several concept combination tables.
Step 5: Reflect on the Results
and the Process
 Team confidence that the solution space has
been fully explored?
 Alternative functions diagrams?
 Alternative ways to decompose the problem?
 External sources been thoroughly pursued?
 Have ideas from everyone been accepted and
integrated in the process?