Invention is a very intricate process, perhaps more so in the design of medical devices than in most other fields because there are so many factors that must be considered. The Yellow Team, the 2012-2013 Tufts ECE senior design group that served as a case study for this article, faced the added complexities and challenges involved in designing a medical device for their project, which was to digitize an outdated device utilized in assessing glaucoma. Thomas Edison’s patent drawing and application for an improvement in electric lamps, Records of the Patent and Trademark Office Record Group 241 National Archives. Obviously, the concept that was settled on stuck, because well over 100 years later, commercially available light bulbs are omnipresent. Before finding a stable material for the first successful light bulb, his lab tried and failed with thousands of different filaments (Zenios, et al., 2010). Edison understood that trying a large quantity of ideas was extremely important, because failure is inevitable. What it boils down to is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration” (Newton, 1989). I see a worthwhile need to be met and I make trial after trial until it comes. Famous inventor Thomas Edison once said, “None of my inventions came by accident. The invention of the light bulb highlights the importance of the concept generation process. The common theme: patience and open-mindedness are vital to successful concept generation. To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.” While many have proposed their own specific theories, approaches, and metrics regarding concept development and, in particular, generation, there are a few general guidelines and postulates that are echoed in each specific method. As Einstein and Infeld (1938) wrote in The Evolution of Physics, the “formulation of a problem is often more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill. This step requires a more abstract style of thinking than perhaps most engineers are used to. Concept generation is a procedure that begins with a set of customer needs and target specifications and results in an array of product concept design alternatives from which a final design will be selected. A concept can be defined as both an “approximate description of the technology, working principles, and form of the product” as well as a “concise description of how the product will satisfy customer needs” (Ulrich & Eppinger, 2012). IntroductionĬoncept generation, which is when a product development team comes up with the ideas, is the most critical step in the engineering design process – without it, there is no design. This article reviews and critiques these different perspectives within the context of successfully developing an electronic medical product that is innovative in design and customer appeal. There are multiple steps involved in the generic concept generation process, as well as various approaches. ![]() Starting with a set of customer needs and target specifications, the process concludes with an array of product alternatives from which a final design is selected. Concept generation, getting the ideas, is the most critical step in the engineering design process.
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