New product identification and design through super-system trimming

- New product identification and concept design strategy.
- Component Trimming at super-system level.
- Systematic and objective way of product integration strategy.

TRIZ device trimming has been used when components within a system are trimmed. This research proposes a novel trimming strategy and process for identifying new product concept by trimming and integrating various systems at super-system level using affinity index and Dendrogram. The 9/12-window and Scenario Analysis were used to identify potential relevant systems to form a large “virtual” system. Then components of the virtual system are transformed into an integrated system. The affinity relationship matrix is built to manifest the affinity between components in 6 different aspects. Dendrograms are then built to determine the best component set for integration through trimming. The final integrated system will have fewer components than the sum of the components within the original systems while maintaining the cumulative main functions.The contributions include: (1) Proposing an integration process to identify multiple systems to be integrated into a more functional system yet with less components; (2) Proposing a mathematical technique to assess the likelihood for integration of component groups, assisting users in identifying the priority for trimming. This will also make the trimming process more objective instead of relying on human individual judgement; (3) Extending the traditional scope of TRIZ trimming from within system to super-system integration.