1. New Product Development Management NPDM 5 Mohsen SADEGHI Department of Graduate School of Management and Economics Sharif University of Technology

2. Concept Generation

3. 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?

4. Concept Development Process

5. 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 generation method.

6. 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?

7. 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.

8. 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

9. Concept Generation Process

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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. 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.

13. 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) Split system into modules – Examples: – document copier (Document handler, Paper feeder, Image capture device, Printing device) Many schemes – Functional decomposition

14. Problem Decomposition: Function Diagram

15. 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. 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.

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. External and Internet Searches: Hints for finding related solutions Lead Users – see emerging needs before others – adopt and generate innovations first Benchmarking – competitive products Experts – technical experts – experienced customers Patents – search related inventions Literature – technical journals – conference proceedings – trade literature – government reports – consumer information

20. Patents Try the European patent office – http://ep.espacenet.com US patent office – http://patft.uspto.gov

22. 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’.

23. 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.

24. 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

25. 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. Use the gallery method – Use the gallery method to display a large number of concepts simultaneously for discussion.

26. 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.

27. Solutions for two of the nailer’s subproblems

28. 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

29. Concept classification tree Use it to: Prune less promising branches (carefully) Identify related versus independent approaches Highlight inappropriate emphasis (certain branches) Refine problem decomposition.

30. 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

31. Concept combination table A systematic approach to combine partial solutions

36. 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...

37. 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?

38. 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.