I was interviewed on Plains FM 96.9 Radio in Christchurch this morning.
You can download the podcast here.
November 27, 2008
November 5, 2008
Why Design for Innovation (DfI)?
Posted by designforinnovation under Design for InnovationComments Off
Definition
Design for Innovation (DfI): Creating a Sustainable Competitive Advantage with Continuous Systematic Customer-driven Innovation.
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Introduction
Knowledge-worker productivity is driving unprecedented growth & expansion of intellectual and social capital in the 21st Century for commercial profit & market expansion. Analytical and knowledge-based tools are supporting productivity gains of an order of magnitude by facilitating strategic, accelerated, systematic innovation in new product development. Strategic, accelerated, systematic innovation is creating a level playing-field for anyone, anywhere to realize an idea’s potential to create a sustainable competitive advantage.
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Process Management
DfI is a process that follows the Design for X (DfX) philosophy that a design be continually reviewed from the start to the end (over the project lifecycle) to find ways to improve various aspects of design such as: Design for Manufacture (DfM): for easy and economic manufacture; Design for Assembly (DfA): for easy and economic assembly; Design for Environment (DfE): for maximized environmental protection, etc.
DfI process management provides intellectual asset capture, management and development, from systematic idea conception to commercialization, using: analytical and knowledge-based tools. DfI provides a set of processes based on best practices that can serve as a starting point to define and refine new product & service innovations from Ideation to Development Stage in the New Product Development (NPD) Phase/Stage-Gate process.
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Process Integration
DfI combines three distinct scientific and engineering disciplines: Axiomatic Design, Systems Engineering and Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ). DfI creates the roadmap for sound implementation of any strategic vision to address all aspects of concept, product & process design. The DfI framework covers any level of detail or range of application required.
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Axiomatic Design
Axiomatic design (AD) enables the development of complex systems and products (software, hardware, machines, materials, organizations, and manufacturing) quickly and systematically without depending on expensive and extensive repetition of the “design-build-test-redesign-build-test” cycle until all the bugs are discovered.
Axiomatic design provides trace-ability of design logic when changes are introduced during the development phase and throughout the lifecycle of the product. Axiomatic design has shortened the product development effort and cost by an order of magnitude. Axiomatic design also enhances the ability of designers and engineers to be innovative and facilitates teamwork.
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Systems Engineering
Systems Engineering (SE) is focused on the system (product, service or solution) as a whole, emphasizing its total operation. It looks at the system from the outside, that is, at its interactions with other systems and the environment, as well as from the inside.
It is concerned not only with the engineering design of the system but also with external factors, which can significantly constrain the design.
These include the identification of customer needs, the system operational environment, interfacing systems, logistic support requirements, the capabilities of operating personnel and such other factors as must be correctly reflected in system requirements documents and accommodated in the system design.
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Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ)
TRIZ is the Russian acronym for the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (Teoriya Resheniya Izobretatelskikh Zadach). TRIZ was developed by Genrikh Altshuller, and states that while the evolution of technology is apparently comprised of haphazard steps, in the long run it follows repeatable patterns.
These patterns can be applied to the systematic development of technologies – both for solving product design and production problems, and for developing next-generation technologies.
TRIZ deals not with real mechanisms, machines and processes, but with their models.
Its concepts and tools are not tied to specific objects and, therefore, can be applied to the analysis and synthesis of any technology regardless of its nature.
The premise of TRIZ is that the evolution of technological systems is not random, but is governed by certain laws or prevailing trends. Knowledge of these laws allows anticipation of the most likely next steps that the evolution of a technology will take. It also helps design better systems faster, without wasting time and resources on a random search for solutions.
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Optimizing the Utilization of Resources
With any problem situation there is a theoretical limit to the number of possible solution concepts that exist. Given unlimited time and money you can find all these possibilities and evaluate them for optimal decision making. In reality however, resource constraints imposes a practical limit to the search for solutions. DfI allows you to obtain a practically exhaustive set of possible solution concepts in a short period of time, thus increasing the confidence with which you can make informed decisions.
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Key Benefits of Design for Innovation
1. DfI provides integrity of design over the entire product development lifecycle.
2. DfI provides alignment of strategic objectives with tasks executed, and outcomes achieved.
3. DfI coordinates, prioritizes and integrates the “directions of innovation” pursued with the value creation sought (through their implementation).
4. DfI facilitates systematic innovation throughout the business, product and process lifecycle with “requirements traceability” to track and manage value creation.
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Examples of DfI Applications
1. Product development and design;
2. Project management and assessment;
3. Developing effective business metrics;
4. Strategic business planning;
5. Technical problem solving;
6. Technology planning and development;
7. R&D management;
8. Business restructuring / reorganization; and,
9. Industrial process improvement.
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Overview of New Product Development and Design for Innovation Process
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© Sustainable Innovative Solutions Limited, 2008
