Denis Cavallucci

Representing and selecting problems through contradictions clouds

Within the scope of Computer Aided Innovation, it is commonly agreed that problem formulation remains in need of robust improvement. Prior to this, means of conducting and representing problems are needed, so as the way a software implementation would help designers, for instance, in decision making. Our approach presents the originality of including the use of a contradiction formalism associated to the notions of problem network, parameter network and their interactions. Several other research outcomes have clearly presented interesting results in the direction of problem network constitution and defined its role within problem formulation and inventive design but have not yet clarified the way these networks are linked together. In this article, we present the notion of contradiction clouds and its manipulation in order to fulfil the objective of assisting decisions in a more advanced way than an intuitive decision method. These proposed rules of representation are based on the assumption that contradictions need to be associated with means of characterization for a graphical representation to be relevant and a decision to be engaged. A test procedure of our proposals has been conducted in two industrial case studies; one in a steel maker company and a second in an automotive supplier.

CONVERGING IN PROBLEM FORMULATION : A DIFFERENT PATH IN DESIGN

The efficiency of the design process in companies today is largely dependent on the skills of individual members of project teams, the capacity of the software available on the market and any assistance provided by the tools and methods found scattered around the industrial world. Within this context, there have been myriad attempts to optimize the different stages in the design process by using computerization, but a growing proportion of current research work on design tends to agree that the crucial point in the act of designing lies in the phase where inventive ideas are sought and that without such ideas being generated, there is no successful future for the product. In the framework of a large number of research activities it has been proven that the TRIZ (the Russian acronym of Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) contribution to the science of design has a promising potential [1–2–3–4]. On the other hand, the added value and spectrum of problem typology where TRIZ could help remains unclear for most researchers for various reasons. Originally, since the theory has penetrated the so-called occidental world, every individual took from TRIZ what he thought was right according to his own knowledge about design, problem solving process, creativity or needs forgetting that 95% of scientific literature about TRIZ’s fundamentals was written either in Cyrillic or in unpublished manuscripts. In most cases, theses multitudes of uses did not see that the original idea of TRIZ was to formulate a theory as strong basement for building methods and tools to satisfy designers expectations. This fact led nowadays TRIZ’s image to fuzziness since available literature on the subject only presents case studies and uses of tools (mostly the matrix) although TRIZ’s scope is much wider. To avoid further aggravation of this fact, this paper aims at presenting the first axiom describing TRIZ’s objectives as a basement for our research activities. Two methodological approaches are then presented : the “trial and error” type approach, which is still very much in use everywhere in industry and which aims to explore an area of solution-seeking, following a structural approach or not, through a series of attempts, which often end up in failure. The second approach is the “convergent” approach proposed by the TRIZ body of knowledge and developed as a contribution to design activity’s efficiency in our research center. This approach aims at limiting the sphere of research during a larger and longer problem statement stage to converge towards a small number of solutions in opposition to traditional approaches which consists in generating a large amount of ideas and select the best suitable ones to be implemented. A case study on the internal ventilation of a car will also be presented to illustrate the quality of the results that could be obtained when applying this convergent approach.Copyright

Intuitive Design Method (IDM): A New Framework For Design Method Integration

Nowadays, the act of designing appears to be at the center of interest for many companies whose aim is to reduce the deadlines between the need and marketing the product. The approach which we present in this article is the result of thesis work in our research laboratory /1 / and proposes to develop the design activity within companies by using both active and latent skills and a synthesis of state-of-the-art design methods which are the subject of academic and industrial research work. K e y w o r d s : Design process, Design Methods, Intuitive Design Method, Integration.

Inventive Design Applied to Injection Molding

Increasing competition forces companies to put products on the market as soon as possible, hence the need for research in concurrent engineering. Invention is the second main issue: since today products must be cheaper and better than the competition’s. This requires technological invention, which in turn necessitates research in creativity and problem solving theories. Our research interests are within these two academic domains: concurrent engineering processes and inventive solutions to technical problems. Starting from the specific situation of injection molding design, we identified the need to develop a new modeling approach for product and manufacturing molds that could link the powerful OTSM-TRIZ theory with concurrent engineering. We build our contribution on the parametric design model and cause-effect relationships; we propose guidelines to analyze and synthesize the resulting complex contradiction network in a single inventive redesign task. A plastic valve stem design is used for validation of the proposed approach.