Research on the Innovation Process Modeling for the Integration of DCC and Function Trimming

Function trimming is an important tool for designers to carry out innovative design. The traditional function trimming follows the established function trimming rules, but ignores the determination and resolution of the complexity after trimming, which results in the trimmed system not meeting the user's needs. Design-centric complexity (DCC) is an important basis for system complexity determination. Therefore, this paper combines DCC and function trimming, which proposes an innovation process modeling for the integration of DCC and function trimming. The process model has the following main steps. First, the total function is obtained according to the needs of different stakeholders. The total function is then decomposed into sub-functions and functional elements. And the designer applies DCC theory to determine the complexity in the system. Second, the designer combines the three-stream principle and function element to establish the functional structure. Third, according to the correlation between function and flow in the functional structure, the similar system corresponding to the functional element is obtained. Fourth, the function trimming tool is used to trimmed similar systems to obtain the functional principle understanding. Fifth, a complexity analysis is performed on the trimmed system, and the parts with complexity are transformed and solved by applying TRIZ. By introducing DCC theory, the proposed method solves the complexity problem of the system after trimming, and improves the efficiency of innovative product design. Finally, the scientific validity and feasibility of the proposed method is verified by an innovative design of a natural wind dust removal system.