A preliminary design innovation aid methodology based on energy analysis and TRIZ tools exploitation

Abstract

One of the most important aspects of a product design project is innovation and creativity. Therefore the future designer’s ability to be creative and produce innovative and original ideas is inevitable. Training programs are the principle element to help improving ideation spirit in the product design activity. In this issue the paper proposes a design methodology supported by selected innovation tools of the TRIZ theory (an abbreviation of a Russian acronym “Teoriya Resheniya Izobretatelskikh Zadatch” meaning theory of inventive problem solving), subsequently aiming to the development of an interactive design approach. In this work innovation aspect emphasize the preliminary design phase supporting its conceptual design stage with scientific effects to generate ideas in the concept research activity, then the embodiment design stage with TRIZ physical and technical contradictions to resolve an innovative design problem. The proposed methodology adopts an energy vision mainly based on the TRIZ law of completeness of system parts. Results of the proposed methodology exploitation by engineering students in a didactical context are presented in two different case studies for the two preliminary design phases.