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Transcript of New Product Development Management NPDM 5 Mohsen SADEGHI Department of Graduate School of Management...
New Product Development
Management
NPDM 5
Mohsen SADEGHI
Department of Graduate School of Management and Economics
Sharif University of Technology
Concept Generation
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?
Concept Development Process
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.
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?
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.
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
Concept Generation Process
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.
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.
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.
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
Problem Decomposition:
Function Diagram
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Patents
• Try the European patent office
– http://ep.espacenet.com
• US patent office
– http://patft.uspto.gov
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’.
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.
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
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.
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.
Solutions for two of the
nailer’s subproblems
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
Concept classification tree
Use it to:
• Prune less promising branches
(carefully)
• Identify related versus
independent approaches
• Highlight inappropriate
emphasis (certain branches)
• Refine problem
decomposition.
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
Concept combination table
• A systematic approach to combine partial solutions
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...
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?
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.