Optimizing Process for Improvement Design Using TRIZ and the Information Integration Method

Functional improvements and cost reductions are requested in products’ improvement design during its maturity stage from competitions in markets. Many engineers face several difficulties in satisfying both these expectations simultaneously. We propose a design process called Improvement Design Process (IDP) that compares different types of features by using TRIZ and the Information Integration Method (IIM). IIM is an evaluation method, based on Shannon's information theory, that lets designers compare different types of features by using a common measure of “information.” We apply this method to evaluate functions and costs and propose an optimizing process for improvement design so that the next target for improvement can be automatically selected without the requirement of any subjective inputs. We confirmed IDP's effectiveness in a case study involving an electric shaver's improvement design.