Early feasibility evaluation of Solution Concepts in an Inventive Design Method Framework: Approach and support tool

•Context of Solution Concepts increases the difficulty in evaluating and selecting.•SME approach aims to assist designers in augmenting confidence in a Solution Concept.•CSC-Modeler is a tool to bridge the knowledge gap in early stage of design.

The concept evaluation and selection process in the early stage of the Inventive Design Method (IDM) faces immediate reactions on the part of decision makers that usually exert a strong degree of influence and appear invariably to be negative when confronted with implementing an original solution that is subject to time restrictions in the design cycle. An obvious reaction to this is to abandon Solution Concepts that are considered unfeasible or overly risky. In parallel, computer support in this stage is still largely absent. In this paper we propose a method and tool to support evaluating and selecting a Solution Concept derived from the IDM framework. Our main objective is to determine how to prevent the rejection of good Solution Concepts and screen out unfeasible ones as early as possible. The proposed framework should be used as a decision-making aid and tool. Its purpose is to assist designers in increasing confidence in a Solution Concept by providing a rapid estimate or by exploring the feasibility of a tested Solution Concept. We submit a case study at the end of the paper to demonstrate the viability of the proposed framework.