Exploring Product Innovation Design Based on the Systematic Design Method and TRIZ Theory

The systematic design approach is widely used in academia and is a standard in most engineering courses. Despite this, the systems design approach lacks a description of innovative design details in the conceptual design phase. In the relevant literature, it has been suggested that several innovation-enhancing tools can be combined with the systematic design approach. Some scholars have at-tempted to fill this gap by combining TRIZ with systems design methods, but have not applied TRIZ methods to systematic design approach in a comprehensive way. This study exploits the problem-solving strengths of TRIZ and combines the functional definitions of system inputs and outputs in the systematic design approach with the three detailed definitions of problems (subject-mission problem, performance problem, harmful effect problem) and the definition of functions (subject-action-object) in the TRIZ model to propose the INS conceptual design model to fill the gap of the systematic design approach in the conceptual design process that does not allow for comprehensive innovation design. Three application examples (chopstick holder, hoover and straw) are used to describe and validate each of the three problems mentioned above and to derive the corresponding innovative solutions for improvement. The results demonstrate that the INS model proposed in this study can provide a practical and workable theoretical basis for product concept design.