Concept Generation

1
Concept Generation
10
Create Concepts
concept rough description of
technology
working principles
form of the product
sketch, description or model
2
The Problem
in a tropical harbour
3
Existing Solution
tri-butyl-tin copolymer
'self-polishing' self eroding
sea water
after two years
Cu2O pigment
skin
works well
no longer allowed
4
Oil Flows
total flow 100 ton s-1
distance 10 000 km
5
Oil Tanker
load 300 000 ton
5 m s-1
50 MW
20 m
50 m
400 m
1000 supertankers worldwide
6
Fuel Consumption
1 of content on a roundtrip
form drag
propulsion efficiency 0.4
D
v
W
L
d
roughness
skin drag
counts when d 0.1mm!
7
Cost and Operation
cost
10-2
0.010
ton-1
10-3
cost per tanker, per year
10-4
speed 10 130 000
d m
fuel price 10 470 000
0.005
roughness
roughness 2 260 000
vopt
10 days out 310 000
0.000
velocity
v m s-1
2
6
10
8
Project Scope CleanShip
product
environmentally friendly system to keep tankers
clean
available September 2002
timing
tankers and other large ships
markets
100 tankers per year
turnover 108 per year
on existing product line (minor modifications)
constraints
ship owners, ship builders/repairers, ship crews,
shipping authorities, core team, management,
manufacturing...
stakeholders
9
Specifications CleanShip
keeps ship free of fouling for gt 3 years
roughness lt 1 mm
harmless to non-target marine life
non-toxic to applicators
allows small repairs on wet ship
cost lt 1 000 000 per ship per year
shortened
10
Many Concepts. Why?
bad concept bad quality
few concepts missed opportunities
few concepts chance of getting stuck
many concepts higher quality
better understanding of competition
concepts quick and cheaply conceived
beginning a hundred later (seriously) 3..7
11
Bad Ways
only consider one or two alternatives
from the most assertive team member
only one or two people involved
no team commitment
do not consider concepts from others
not invented here
forget combining of concepts
forget entire categories of solutions
12
How to Create Concepts
list of specifications
1
split the problem
create concepts
3
2
newideas
5
look back
existingideas
4
combine ideas
list of concepts
13
1
split the problem
Anti-fouling Paints for Oil Tankers
a
b
c
d
could we promote smooth growth?
a
could other coatings (Teflon) be better?
b
could we avoid problems by transporting gas?
c
could we use trucks or a pipeline?
c
split to get new ideas it doesn't matter how!
14
1
split the problem
shearing
non-protected ship
which organisms?
clean ship
organism life cycle?
sequence of organisms?
micro-organisms
organism growth factors?
adhesion mechanisms?
larger organisms
15
1
split the problem
protected ship current method
live organism
'Cu'
dead organism
'Sn'
organism repelled
substances?
rate of release?
what happens with 'Cu' and 'Sn'?
concentrations?
16
2
existingideas
interview, read, summarise
lead users
a continuing activity
experts
patents
literature
finding is cheaper, quicker than own development
meetings
competition
17
3
newideas
let the team create concepts
individually
most effective
as a group
keeps everyone involved
guidelines for creating concepts
suspend judgement
used in 'brainstorming'
generate a lot of ideas
welcome daft ideas
use graphical and physical media
18
Laterate!
3
newideas
engineers can learn from artists, writers,
architects and industrial designers...
avoid vertical thinking
engrained in your education!
logical, step-by-step
use lateral thinking
step aside, make jumps in your thinking
tricks
look at something different
use analogies
look at something similar
wish and wonder
'mind map'
'brainstorm'
19
Mind Map
3
newideas
just a handy way of making associations
identifies approaches
problem
helps in further splitting
variations
helps pruning poor branches
brings order in ideas
exposes lack of knowledge
solution methods
20
Existing Ideas
2
existingideas
21
Brainstorm
3
newideas
group of 6..10 people
one leader
'quiet' room no disturbance
blackboard
'public' registering of ideas
flip chart
no criticism, no evaluation!
computer projection
leader explains problem
members bring up ideas
association encouraged
session ends when it dries up
final tidying up of list of ideas
22
3
newideas
23
4
combine ideas
combination table
solutions
solutions
possible combinations
a
b
c
d
e
a
which combinations look promising?
b
c
(you cannot explore all combinations)
d
e
combine low-adhesion coating with jet cleaning?
24
you do this throughout the development process!
5
look back
look back after forming concepts
is concept space fully explored?
have all ideas been considered?
other ways of splitting?
how better next time?
25
Summary
concept creation uses
customer needs
target specifications
leads to many ideas
(3..7 selected later)
five steps
split problem
find existing ideas
often several iterations required
find new ideas
combine ideas
look back