1. The FSD should have the following information:
Project Description and background: A description of the project, and what is the expected level of completion to be accomplished. A high-level system block diagram should be included to aid in presenting the overall concept.
Customer Needs: The customer needs and requirements should be listed including their relative importance and priority as completed in the class assignment.
Product Specifications: The customer needs are then mapped into project metrics, and preliminary values assigned. Use a Needs/Metrics table to show the linkage of customer needs and measurable metrics. You should include preliminary target values for each specification. A complete FSD should also include a description of each metric and the reason that the team has chosen this measure for the project.
Linking of the Project Requirements and Product Specifications: Each critical customer need must have an associated product metric to insure that these critical program and customer requirements are being met. This can easily be shown on the Needs/Metrics chart illustrated in class.
Summary: As with any written document, you need to include a summary section which ties all the other sections together and reviews the significant
Winter 2015

2. Concept Generation.
Winter 2015

3. Concept Development Phase
System-Level
Design
Detail
Design
Testing and
Refinement
Production
Ramp-up
Development
Plan
Mission
Statement
Test
Product
Concept
Set
Final
Specs
Plan
Downstream
Development
Identify
Customer
Needs
Establish
Target
Specs
Generate
Product
Concepts
Select a
Product
Concept
Perform Economic Analysis
Benchmark Competitive Products
Build and Test Models and Prototypes
Concept Development
Exhibit 2 Chapter 3 Ulrich & Eppinger
Winter 2015

4. The Competency Matrix Knowledge Awareness You know You Don't Know
Conscious Competent
Facts and data
Past experience
Observations
BOF’s
Conscious Incompetent
Information that needs to be researched.
You fill find people with the required knowledge.
You will avoid making assumptions without data
You Know
Unconscious Competent
Skills you possess even though you don't know it
Data you know that you don't know you will need.
Unconscious Incompetent
This is the area to avoid.
This is where you get really surprised.
Don't assume that not knowing won't hurt you.
You Don't Know
Winter 2015

5. Concept Generation
The idea of doing a structured process to generate design concepts is one of the most difficult concepts to teach.
What makes it so hard?
Have you ever done a task only to find out later that there was an easier way? Why did you choose the harder method?
What are some example of break-through, out of the box thinking?
Winter 2015

6. Concept Generation Why emphasize early concept generation?
“Thorough exploration of alternatives early in the development process greatly reduces the likelihood that the team will stumble upon a superior concept late in the development process or that a competitor will introduce a product with dramatically better performance than the product under development.”
Ulrich and Eppinger
Concept generation answers the question of “how” the product will satisfy the customer needs as mapped into the functional specifications. 6
Winter 2015

7. Iterative Process of Concept Generation
Target
Specification
Chosen
Solution
Concept generation
Concept screening
Concept scoring
Concept testing
Winter 2015

8. Advantages of Early Concept Generation
Reduce the likelihood of costly problems later in the development process.
Early concept generation is a very affordable way of looking at a lot of alternatives.
Develops confidence in the team that you are not going to be surprised later on.
A product solution without an alternative is not an acceptable solution--
Winter 2015

9. What are some of the problems you may encounter w/o a structured approach to concept generation?
Won’t consider many alternatives.
Influenced by the most dominant person on the team.
Don’t consider product concepts from other companies or unrelated products.
Team doesn’t get a “buy in” to the final proposal.
May miss entire an entire category of solutions.
Winter 2015

10. X = Home Depot Theorem Home Depot Corollary
Time spent in Project Planning =
Complexity of the problem
Distance to the nearest
Home Depot store X
Home Depot Corollary
Complexity of the problem
Time spent on the actual Project =
Distance to the nearest Home Depot store
Winter 2015

11. Concept Generation is a 5 step process
Clarify the problem. Break it down into sub-problems, and prioritize.
Search externally for existing solutions = BOF’s.
Search internally, using individual and group resources.
Explore systematically, using concept fragments.
Reflect and evaluate.
This is not necessarily a linear process, it is usually iterative.
Winter 2015

12. Step 1 Clarify the problem
Start with the Customer needs analysis and Functional Specs as inputs
limit the scope of the problem. Don’t try to “boil the ocean”.
Prioritize the critical subsystems where you can differentiate your design. You will only have a few areas where you will need to apply the formal process.
Be sure to list the critical assumptions you are making about the problem.
Winter 2015

13. Decomposition of design concepts
The goal of problem decomposition is to help identify the few critical functions for your design.
Every Product Function has a series of inputs and outputs that describe the behavior of the function.
Functional
description
inputs
outputs
Take a “systems” approach to design
Winter 2015

14. Hand held Nailer
The design team decomposed the problem into several subproblems: Energy Source, Material (nails), Initiate action
Store or
Accept
External
energy
Convert
Energy to
Translational
energy
Energy
Apply
Translational
Energy to nail
Store
Nails
Isolate
Nail
Driven
Nail
Nails
Initiation
action
Sense
initiation
Trigger
tool
Winter 2015

15. In-class exercise #1
Develop a decomposition function diagram for one of the design subproblems for your project.
What would be some of the inputs and outputs.
Functional
description
inputs
outputs
Winter 2015

16. Step 2 Search Externally
Be a pirate! Take the best ideas that others have developed and build on them.
You don’t have to do everything perfectly. It only takes a couple of areas of differentiation to have a success in the market.
What technology allowed Honda to become a leader in transportation vehicles.
Reliable engines.
HP inkjet printers
An ink that could be boiled to produce droplets.
Colored inks.
Winter 2015

17. Search Externally Interview lead users. Consult industry experts.
Search Patents.
Search published literature.
Benchmark related products.
For you Concept Generation and Selection document, I want you to show evidence of at least two areas where you have researched some external inputs for concept generations.
Winter 2015

18. Step 3 Search internally
Be careful to avoid assuming you know more than you do about a subject.
Be careful to not over-simplify a problem
“For every complex problem there is a simple, easy-to-understand, wrong answer.”
Complex problems usually have complex solutions
Winter 2015

19. Search internally
Use your personal and team knowledge and creativity to generate solution concepts.
Some guidelines for generating concepts:
Suspend judgment. Don’t be quick to jump to conclusions.
Generate a lot of ideas. Don’t spend time evaluating ideas, just capture them.
Welcome “out of the box” ideas. Don’t worry about feasibility during the initial brainstorming.
Use graphical and visual methods to capture ideas. Quick drawings and sketches are great.
Winter 2015

20. Step 4 Explore Systematically
At this point the team should have a collection of concept fragments—solutions to the subproblems. The goal of systematic exploration is to synthesize a complete solution from the concept fragments.
The problem is that not all fragments will work together in a final solution space. Your job is to come up with practical concepts from all the pieces.
Winter 2015

21. Systematic exploration
There are two tools that can help the team in navigating through the maze of concept fragments:
1. The concept classification tree, and,
2. The concept combination table.
Concept classification tree helps to divide the solutions into independent categories,
And the concept combination table helps in the selection of possible fragments.
Winter 2015

22. Systematic exploration
concept classification tree
Fuel-air system
Explosive System
Chemical
Oil pressure system
Hydraulic
Wall outlet
Store or
Accept
energy
Batteries
Electrical
Fuel Cell
External air system
Pneumatic
Internal air system
Winter 2015

23. Concept classification tree
What are we trying to accomplish with the tree?
Prune less promising branches quickly.
Identify independent approaches to the problem.
Find where gaps may exist in the concept fragments.
Refine the thought process for a particular branch.
Winter 2015

24. Concept combination table
This is a tool to link fragments into complete solutions.
The first step is to identify the general functional diagram for the anticipated solution.
Convert
Energy to translational energy
Accumulate Translational energy
Apply Translational energy to nail
Winter 2015

25. Concept combination tables
Step 2 is to put all concept fragments into a column of the combination table. This helps to identify if concept fragments are missing or redundant.
Step 3 is to link concept fragments into complete solutions. This also shows where more evaluation or exploration is necessary.
Winter 2015

26. Concept combination tables
Step 1- add fragments to the table
Apply translational energy to nail
Convert Electrical energy to translational energy
Accumulate
Energy
Rotary motor with transmission
Spring
Single impact
Linear Motor
Multiple impact
Moving Mass
Solenoid
Push nail
Rail gun
Winter 2015

27. Concept combination tables
Step 2- connect fragments into solutions
Apply translational energy to nail
Convert Electrical energy to translational energy
Accumulate
Energy
Rotary motor with transmission
Spring
Single impact
Linear Motor
Multiple impact
Moving Mass
Solenoid
Push nail
Rail gun
Winter 2015

28. Concept combination tables
As you can see, there are a lot of combinations available. (4 x 2 x 3)
Many obviously don’t make sense and can be quickly eliminated.
However, you often find a new idea by looking at the possible combinations of concept fragments.
Remember, this is an iterative process, you may have to go back to square one quite often.
Winter 2015

29. Step 5 Reflect and Evaluate
Are you confident that the solution space has been adequately explored?
Do you have alternate functional diagrams?
Can you decompose the problem in an alternate way?
Have you considered external sources?
Have everyone’s ideas been considered and integrated into the process?
Winter 2015

30. Concept Generation-Summary
Develop innovative solutions that will meet the target specifications that have been determined by the needs of the customer.
Find design concepts that will differentiate our solution from the competition.
Insure that you haven’t overlooked some critical areas of the design.
Winter 2015

31. Homework assignment
Complete the FSD. Due on Tues Jan 27rd. Link it to your team management page and a copy to me.
me with >5 concept alternatives for your actual project. We will discuss these in class on Thursday.
Information for the next lecture is in chapter 7, Concept Selection in Ulrich and Eppinger or in the class notes.
Winter 2015