Structuring knowledge in inventive design of complex problems

Current Research and Development activities in enterprises built on research findings of design engineering studies postulate that complex systems need to be decomposed for an -a priori- useful complexity reduction. However, this assumption and some engaged work have not answered to the problematic of linking problem formulation, problem resolving stages and existing knowledge. In response to this concern, we postulate that in a context aiming at assuming inventive challenges, specific knowledge decomposition and structuring has to be organized for an appropriate and efficient problem solving process to be engaged. This article focuses in particular on the gathering stage of a generic framework for knowledge representation and reorganization. These representations use several grounding hypothesis of TRIZ and OTSM-TRIZ combined with acknowledged rules of artificial intelligence and graph theory. Furthermore, a procedure aiming at conducting the gathering stage of a complex situation's investigation is described.