Mechatronic system design

Chapter 5

CONCEPT GENERATION

Dr. Tran Thanh Hung

Department of Automation Technology,
College of Engineering, Can Tho University
Email: [email protected]
 Chapter objectives

At the end of this chapter, students can:

• Understand the method for generating
product concepts
• Can apply the method to generate product
concepts

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Phases of Product Development

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Design a better handheld roofing nailer

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 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? 5
 What is product concept?

• A product concept is an approximate

description of the technology, working
principles, and form of the product.

• A concept is usually expressed as a

sketch or as a rough three-dimensional
model and is often accompanied by a
brief textual description.
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 Concept generation process

• Concept generation process begins with a

set of customer needs and target
specifications and results in a set of product
concepts from which the team will make a
final selection.
• In most cases, an effective development
team will generate 100s of concepts, of which
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 Concept generation process

Common errors exhibited by development

teams during concept generation include:
1. Consideration of only one or two
alternatives, often proposed by the most
assertive members of the team.
2. Failure to consider carefully the usefulness
of concepts employed by other firms in
related and unrelated products.
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 Concept generation process

3. Involvement of only one or two people in

the process, resulting in lack of confidence
and commitment by the rest of the team.
4. Ineffective integration of promising partial
solutions.
5. Failure to consider entire categories of
solutions.

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 Concept generation process

Five-Step Method:
1. Clarify the Problem
2. Search Externally
3. Search Internally
4. Explore Systematically
5. Reflect on the Results and the Process

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Concept generation process

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 Clarify the Problem

Clarifying the problem:

• Developing a general understanding
• Breaking the problem down into sub-
problems

How to clarifying the problem?

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 Clarify the Problem

Review assumptions underlying mission

statement:
Example: 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. 13
 Clarify the Problem

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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 Clarify the Problem

Target specifications
• 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.
Average nailing rate of 4 nails/min.
• Maximum trigger delay of 0.25 second.
• Tool mass less than 4 kg
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 Clarify the Problem

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 sub-
problems(Problem decomposition).

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 Clarify the Problem

Problem decomposition
• Split system into modules Possible sub-modules:
• Document handler
Examples: • Paper feeder
• Image capture device
– document copier • Printing device
• ...

• Many approaches

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Functional decomposition

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 Clarify the Problem

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.
• Follow one of the flows (e.g., materials)
and determine what operations are
required. 19
 Clarify the Problem

Two other approaches

• Decomposition by sequence of user actions.
– Move tool to approximate nailing position,
– Position tool precisely,
– Pull trigger.
• Decomposition by key customer needs
– Fires nails in rapid succession,
– Fits in tight places,
– Has large nail capacity. 20
 Clarify the Problem

Focus on critical sub-problems

• The aim of decomposition techniques is
to split a complex problem into simpler sub-
problems, then solve each in a focused
way.
• Chooses the sub-problems that are most
critical to the success of the product and
that are most likely to benefit from novel or
creative solutions.
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 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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 Search Externally
Hints for finding related solutions:
• Lead Users • Patents
– see emerging needs – search related
before others inventions
– adopt and generate • Literature
innovations first – technical journals
• Benchmarking – conference proceedings
– competitive products – trade literature
• Experts – government reports
– technical experts – consumer information
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– experienced customers
 Search Internally

Use of personal and team knowledge and

creativity to generate solution concepts
(Brainstorming)
Both individual and group sessions can be
useful

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 Search Internally

Guidelines for improving both individual

and group internal search:
1. Suspend judgment
– Suspend evaluation for the days or
weeks required to generate a large set of
alternatives is critical to success.
2. Generate a lot of ideas
– Most experts believe that the more ideas
a team generates, the more likely the team25
is to explore fully the ‘solution space’.
 Search Internally

3. 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.
4. Use graphical and physical media.
– Reasoning about physical and geometric
information with words is difficult.
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 Search Internally
Hints for Generating Solution Concepts
• Make analogies
– Experienced designers always ask themselves
what other devices solve a related problem.
Is there is 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
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new possibilities.
 Search Internally
• 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.
• Use the gallery method
– Use the gallery method to display a large
number of concepts simultaneously for discussion. 28
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 Explore Systematically

• After external and internal search there

are probably tens or hundreds of solutions
to sub-problems, or concept fragments
• Consider all of the possible combinations
of the concept fragments (solution space):
– Use concept classification tree
– Use concept combination table
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 Explore Systematically

Concept classification tree: Used to:

1.Cut less promising
branches (carefully)
2.Identify independent
approaches
3.Highlight inappropriate
emphasis (certain
branches) Classification
4.Refine problem tree for the
nailer energy
decomposition. source concept
fragments.
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 Explore Systematically

Refining problem decomposition

• Too much instantaneous power (~10.000 W)
for an outlet, battery or fuel cell to deliver in
few miliseconds
– Must accumulate and then trigger

A new problem decomposition assuming an electrical energy

source and the accumulation of energy in the mechanical domain. 32
 Explore Systematically

Concept combination table

Potential solutions to the overall problem are formed by combining

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one fragment from each column.
 Explore Systematically

Concept combination table

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 Explore Systematically

Concept combination table

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 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

• The concept generation consists of 5

steps
– Clarify the problem
– Search externally
– Search internally
– Explore systematically
– Reflect on the solutions and the process
• In most cases an effective team will
generate hundreds of concepts, of which 5
to 20 will merit serious consideration. 39