The growing complexity in invention process

Technological and design process complexities may pose challenges to engineering design and related outcomes through invention. Understanding the trends related to the complexity of inventions and invention processes is crucial for informing engineering design research and education for invention, but has not been formally developed in the design literature. Herein, we utilize a set of patent-based metrics, drawn from complex systems research and engineering design research, to detect various aspects of the complexity in invention processes. By an analysis of U.S. patents from 1975 to 2011, our results suggest that technology inventions have been increasingly (1) requiring larger teams and more distant collaboration, (2) integrating a growing base of prior technologies, and (3) delivering more systemic and integrative new technologies. These trends may positively reinforce each other so as to contribute to a continual growth of the complexity in invention processes. Individual productivity for invention is also in decline, as we measured from the patent data. These findings suggest the increasing importance of research, education and application of complex system analysis methods and tools to control and manage the complexity in invention processes.

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