Teaching Innovative Conceptual Design of Systems in the Service Sector

Abstract

Faced with competitive pressures to modernize and innovate, the service sector requires tools for systems design and idea generation. This has motivated the development of a triple-faceted conceptual design methodology, which describes a system concept, in a given domain, as an interlinked set of nominal attributes and their qualitative values. These attributes encompass the circumstances in which the system is to operate (goals, designer intent, environment), and the structure of that system (configuration, organization, operations, control). They can further be categorized in terms of a generalized taxonomy, including customers, goals, inputs, outputs, processes, human enablers, physical enablers, environment, and informatics. New attributes are generated by several ideation mechanisms: browsing, relating to a generic set of system categories and attributes, and applying knowledge transmutations. Part of the methodology has been utilized in several engineering design classes, where students were required to develop concepts for service systems of their choice. Over 100 such designs were developed; and some of them have been incorporated into a repository of categories, attributes, and values that can serve as a knowledge or case base for service systems design. The complete methodology will be incorporated into future engineering design courses.