Innovation in the tension of change and reuse

Most new products in engineering are designed by modification from existing products for sound economical reasons. Yet most discussions of innovation in the literature take a totally fresh look at the design problem. This paper investigates the vital role of core-requirements in identifying suitable areas of innovation and analyses how innovation can be integrated with design by modification. It proposes a combination in a two stage approach where techniques are used to identify a set of starting-requirements and to map out the solution space. An analysis of the possible changes to the existing product and their impact is used to reduce the number of possible solutions and to carry out a trade-off between fulfilling requirements and the impact the changes will have on the product.     «

Most new products in engineering are designed by modification from existing products for sound economical reasons. Yet most discussions of innovation in the literature take a totally fresh look at the design problem. This paper investigates the vital role of core-requirements in identifying suitable areas of innovation and analyses how innovation can be integrated with design by modification. It proposes a combination in a two stage approach where techniques are used to identify a set of startin...     »