On Solution Concept Evaluation/Selection in Inventive Design☆

Abstract Inventive Design Method (IDM) is an extension of TRIZ. It was developed to solve classical TRIZ limits and address therefore wider and more complex problematic situations. The context of Solution Concepts developed with the aid of IDM is incomplete, conflicting and produces uncertain information. As a result, it becomes more difficult to evaluate then select which Solution Concepts to refine for more in-depth development. The early evaluation stage that is held by experts is usually an informal meeting and it involves generally instinctive judgments based on the experience of the experts. Thus it has a tendency to lack accuracy. The immediate reactions of experts have a strong influence on the decision and always tend to be negative when facing novel Solution Concept and time restrictions in the design cycle. This obvious reaction causes them to abandon Solution Concepts that are considered as unfeasible, too risky or outside of the primary focus of the design project. In order to prevent the rejection of good Solution Concepts or to screen out unfeasible ones, we proposed an approach to assist the designers in increasing confidence in the Solution Concept by providing a rapid estimation and/or exploration of the feasibility of a tested Solution Concept. The results obtained will be further used as inputs in the selection task. In this way, a designer acquires a certain degree of justification in bypassing expert intuition. Consequently, the evaluation and selection process can be implemented with accuracy. In this paper, we will report on current progress made on our ongoing research, and a case study will be given to demonstrate the practicability of the proposed approach.