Concept convergence process: A framework for improving product concepts

Concept selection is one of the most important decisions in product development, since success of the final product depends on the selected concept. The exploration and evaluation of alternatives early in the product development (PD) process reduces the amount and magnitude of changes in later stages and increases the likelihood of success of new product development (NPD) projects. Though, currently available methods attempt to select the best concept from the available set of initial concepts, they do not help create an improved concept based on the learning and knowledge generated through the evaluation of initial concepts. The paper proposes a framework for selecting and/or evolving improved concepts through a rigorous concept evaluation and convergence process. The concept convergence process allows bringing together the best (desirable) traits from the initial set of concepts and creates a new set of hybrid concepts. The framework uses a fuzzy inference process for evaluating each initial concept against identified decision criteria, thus generating hybrid concepts to select the best feasible concept under given cost and technological constraints. The approach is demonstrated using a steering wheel concept generation example.