Abstraction and Generalization in Conceptual Design Process: Involving Safety Principles in TRIZ-SDA Environment

Abstraction and generalization are the processes of facilitating a specific problem to help designers solve problems efficiently. Abstraction and generalization reduce complexity and increase creativity. Both abstraction and generalization guide designers to focus on the key factors of a problem towards producing a broader solution perspective. This paper aims to discuss the use of abstraction and generalization in the conceptual design process within the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ) environment, specifically, in TRIZ-SDA (Systematic Design Approach), which was developed to increase the understanding of safety principles in the conceptual design process. In addition, the aspects of abstraction and generalization advantages, their implementation in the design process, safety constraints and comparisons between abstraction and generalization are also reviewed. A case study of an aircraft component is used as the example in conducting abstraction and generalization in the safety approach

Modelling the dynamics of products and processes requirements

AbstractThis paper proposes a new modelling framework aimed at overcoming the current limitations of existing techniques for the representation of products and processes within a Technology Forecasting study. Starting from the review of the available modelling approaches, the authors define system requirements as the key elements to represent both drivers and barriers for the evolution of technical systems, analysed in the context of a business process. The new proposal allows such requirements to be mapped in an integrated and scalable model connecting finished goods with the related business processes, so as to collect the knowledge from different experts and stakeholders in a unified and manageable description, thus reducing the risks due to uncertain and partial representation.The paper presents also an example of application in the field of pharmaceutical tablet manufacturing, focusing on the industrial processes requiring the granulation of pharmaceutical powders. An in-depth discussion about the emerged criticalities supports the definition of further developments to make this approach more repeatable and suitable for Technology Forecasting methodologies

FORMAT - Building an original methodology for Technology Forecasting through researchers exchanges between industry and academia

AbstractThe paper presents an overview of the FORMAT methodology, an approach for technological forecasting capable of satisfying the need of manufacturing industries to better support decision-making processes in planning corporate strategies for R&D. The methodology has been developed within the FORMAT consortium, gathering partners from both industry and academia in a Marie-Curie EU funded project of the 7th Framework Programme - IAPP PEOPLE. The methodology is intentionally shaped as a generic one, so as to foster its adoption by the wider audience, but it suggests the adoption of several TRIZ techniques and models to support the forecast. Its exemplary application in the field of forming technologies for domestic refrigerators aims at showing its potential and viability in a real industrial context. The paper is supplemented by a case study in the white goods manufacturing (forming techniques for the inner liners of domestic refrigerators)

OTSM-TRIZ games: Enhancing creativity of engineering students

AbstractEnhancing the ability of solving non-typical problems especially in engineers is an important issue for any R&D&I department. Consequently, some initiatives have been launched recently to foster new educational approaches and methods.The system of OTSM-TRIZ games, developed by Tatiana Sidorchuk and Nikolai Khomenko, proposes a series of games for 3-8 years old kids to lead them thinking according to the OTSM-TRIZ postulates and models, without learning TRIZ tools directly. This paper postulates that these games can be efficiently used also for stimulating creativity of engineering students, with interesting insights on their behaviors when challenged through unexpected situations and tasks. Some of these games have been tested both with 12 years old Iranian kids and with MS students in Mechanical Engineering of Politecnico di Milano. The research shows improvement in creativity indexes for MS engineering students under the condition of the proposed experiment.First, in the paper a thorough description of the classical OTSM-TRIZ games is provided. Then, after presenting the experimental activities run with kids and university students, their behavior is discussed so as to extract some general guidelines about the implementation of these educational practices in different contexts, as well as some preliminary assessment on the resulting outcomes

Linking TRIZ to conceptual design engineering approaches

AbstractDuring the last decades, product design has yielded several interest by scholars, leading to a great amount of contributions concerning design methodology. Some of them, beyond modeling the whole design process, propose their model of the early design activities devoted to the development of the product concept, i.e. the conceptual design phase. These design approaches are widely diffused in academia. However, some uncertainties appear in literature, concerning their efficacy in performing innovative design. This observation forms the basis of this work, which aims at improving classical design processes by integrating their procedure with the TRIZ base of knowledge. To achieve such an objective, authors’ approach consists in considering generally valid steps of the conceptual design process, and then in identifying most suitable TRIZ tools for each of them. A structured list of suggestions concerning the proposed integration is finally presented, together with an explanatory case study application of the proposed improvements

Applications of TRIZ and Axiomatic Design: A Comparison to Deduce Best Practices in Industry☆

Abstract In the first decade of 2000s, several contributions have illustrated methods combining TRIZ and Axiomatic Design (AD). The strength of the connection was found in the complementary objectives AD and TRIZ pursue. AD is supposed to analyze the problem and structure it in the most convenient way, while TRIZ should solve the minimum number of design conflicts that are intrinsically present in a case study. Nevertheless, despite the promising match between AD and TRIZ, no conjoint application strategy has emerged as a reference, neither in academia, nor in industry. Conversely, the quantity has dropped of scientific papers contextually making reference to both methodologies. Some studies attempt to remark the methodological problems concerning the combination of AD and TRIZ. In a different perspective, the authors performed an application-oriented study, in order to point out the industrial domains for which the methodologies result the most suitable. The survey highlights that TRIZ is mostly employed for mass-market products, while AD is basically used to develop systems that industrial organizations make use of. The authors discuss the consequences of these findings, inferring how design can benefit from TRIZ and AD heuristics and the practical cases in which they are likely to be combined successfully

A fuzzy front end model for concurrent specification in new product development

This research reports on the development of a new model for an early design stage in new product development (NPD) programmes called the Fuzzy Front End (FFE). The new FFE model aims at overcoming two kinds of limitations identified in previous FFE models. The first limitation concerns current trends in FFE model improvement including the need for a data-driven model, and to address agile development, incremental and radical NPDs, balanced explicitness and responsiveness characteristics, and balanced procedural and performative structures. The second limitation concerns deficiencies in the performance structure and operating mechanism regarding contextual performance and concurrent collaboration. This means that performances in the FFE do not systematically link with each other, either in a single functional domain or multidimensionally across diverse functional domains, but instead exist independently. A pragmatic-prescriptive model has been functionally embodied by analysing real-world FFE scenarios using inductive reasoning. The model is data-driven with a performative structure wherein parameters can interlock for contextual performance and concurrent collaboration throughout the entire FFE process. With this interlocking structure, once an initial parameter is produced, all remaining parameters considered from both perspectives can be obtained successively. This model allows performers to explicitly understand the purpose and roles of parameters and their relationships from both perspectives when processing parameters. The model thus leads to more agile FFE execution by reducing the iterative work needed to correct defective parameters which have not been handled with contextual performance and concurrent collaboration in mind but instead exist independently. A theoretical-descriptive model, produced by validating the developed pragmatic-prescriptive model, using deductive reasoning, consists of mathematical formulas, providing the underlying concept of an overall FFE as well as that of its parts. Consequently, the pragmatic-prescriptive model can serve as functional performance guidance, while the theoretical-descriptive model can serve as conceptual performance guidance when employing the pragmatic-prescriptive model.Open Acces