Product Development

Product Development is a specialized application of Pretium’s Methodology that quickly and efficiently produces a large number of value-added, differentiated product concepts.

With Product Development, you can:

Identify true customer need – Function models reveal how customers use your product and uncover opportunities for innovation.
Compress Time Required – Concept development is done in days or weeks instead of months.
Create substantial ROI - Concepts with high market potential are developed through resolution of hidden contradictions in the way customers use the product.
Gain competitive advantage – Innovative product concepts that meet current and anticipated customer needs make your offerings the products of choice.

Pretium’s Product Development method combines the power of Function Modeling and Guided Brainstorming™. A function model is initially built to determine “market acceptance” of your product. This model reveals the hidden compromises that your customers are making in order to use your product. Guided Brainstorming™ is used next to generate ideas that resolve contradictions and take your product functionality to a new level. Pretium’s Product Development method is applied by conducting facilitated workshops with an experienced Pretium facilitator, Guided Innovation Toolkit™ software and your Subject Matter Experts. This combination is highly synergistic and results in dramatic increases in the number and quality of ideas generated.

Zipper Seal Plastic Bag Executive Case Study

Situation

To demonstrate how the Pretium Methodology can work to quickly generate new product ideas, consider the following hypothetical case. Let’s suppose that we are in the plastic bag business and it is 1975. Below is our product, a state-of-the-art, zipper seal bag. Our job is to come up with product development ideas that will enhance our product, meet customer requirements and enhance our sales.

Pretium Process

The Pretium Process combines the skills of experienced facilitators, the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ) and Function Modeling in the following process:

Step 1 – Define Objectives

The first thing we will do is analyze the situation and define the Ideal Vision of our product. We use the following guidelines:

Imagine that you can create any conceivable alternatives. What would you ask for?
Introduce the following restriction: Everything remains unchanged or simplified, while a desirable result appears.

We formulate the following Ideal Vision zipper seal bag: Reduce difficulty of use of the zipper seal bag without increasing the cost

Step 2 – Formulate Opportunities

Function modeling is a process of depicting the ideal vision by building a diagram of the relationship between useful and harmful functions. We do this with Pretium software. To build a diagram we ask what we first do when using our plastic bag. The answer is: we first grasp the tabs at the zipper seal. Next we would ask “why” you grasp the tabs. The answer is to separate the tabs. Next, we would ask “why” you want to separate the tabs. The answer might be we separate the tabs so we can open the zipper seal. Continuing to ask “why”, we open the zipper seal so we can insert food into the bag, we insert food into the bag so we can put the food into the freezer, and we insert food into the freezer to preserve the food. We can verify the model by working in the opposite direction and asking “how”. How do we preserve the food by putting it in the freezer, how do we put it in the freezer, by first putting it into the plastic bag, etc. The resulting functional model looks like this.

Notice that we have built a functional model and not a process flow diagram. There may also be more than one cause/effect relationship in the model.

But at this point this is simply our opinion. So, once the function model is built, ask how they exactly use our product. Often there is a difference in the way the customer uses a product and the way the supplier believes it is being used. Once we understand how the customer uses the product, we can update the function model as appropriate. We ask the customer what problems or difficulties they experienced in using the zipper seal bag and what deficiencies they experienced. The customer tells us the following things:

Sometimes the bag is not sealed and this can cause the food to spoil.
They have to check to see if the bag is sealed and, while useful, this is an extra step.
It is difficult to see whether or not the bag is actually sealed.
When sealing the bag, the profiles get misaligned and the bag does not seal.
The tabs tend to stick together when opening the bag.

The problems identified by the customer are now incorporated into the function model as “harmful” functions. These harmful functions define contradictions in the system. The harmful functions actually represent what the customer currently accepts or tolerates in the marketplace. The harmful functions are clearly undesirable, but they are what the customer is used to. If a new product effectively and economically resolves the contradictions in the current paradigm, then a shift in customer preference can occur. Our function model including “harmful” functions, looks like this.

Now we can begin to look for opportunities to innovate.

Step 3 – Guided Brainstorming

Let’s begin by considering the problem our customers face regarding the need to check to see if the bag is sealed. Examining the model, we see this relationship.

Based on this relationship, we select the function “Check to see if sealed” and use Pretium software to automatically formulate an opportunity: Find a way to improve Check to see if sealed that counteracts Bag Not Sealed.

This opportunity is related to Directions to Improve a Useful Function. There are six Directions: Match, Invert, Separate, Integrate, Dynamism and Control. Each direction contains several Inventive Principles.

“Build a bi-system” is one of seven (7) inventive principles in the direction called “Integrate”. Examination of Inventive Principles produces the following idea: “Can we build a bi-system that will improve our ability to “check to see if the bag is sealed”? We have many resources available for this idea. One available resource is the profiles actually seal the bag. Another derived resource is color. Building a bi-system using the profiles and color leads to the idea of a two color seal. In fact, this product is well known.

Below we see an example of a two color seal and a patent from First Brands Corporation. The patent describes a color changing seal. The patent was issued in 1987, some ten years after zipper seal bags appeared.

Returning to our function model, we next examine one of the contradictions in the model. In this case, our customers tell us of difficulty separating the tabs to open the bag. The contradiction is that separating the tabs should produce opening the zipper seal but should not result in the tabs sticking together.

Software formulates an opportunity: Resolve the contradiction: Separate tabs should produce Open zipper seal, and should not produce Tabs Stick Together.

In this case, an examination of the Directions might suggest a Separation in Space. The six Inventive Principles contained in the Direction, Separation in Space. The inventive principle Passing Through suggests having one object pass through the space occupied by another object. This principle can be used to resolve the contradiction in the following way. A separating leg can be employed to travel through the space occupied by the two profiles thus opening the zipper seal without grasping the tabs.

We can examine one more opportunity. Resolve the contradiction: Slide fingers along zipper seal should produce Seal bag, and should not produce Misaligned Profiles.

In this case, an examination of the Inventive Principles might also suggest a Nesting. Nesting suggests placing one object inside another. This principle can be used to resolve the contradiction in the following way. The two profiles can be tightly contained inside a hollow tube or box. The box keeps the profiles aligned and it can slide along the profiles to effectively close the seal.

The last two ideas, Passing Through to open the seal and Nesting to close the seal, can be combined into a product improvement concept as shown below. A zipper mechanism employs a separating leg passing through the profiles on one end and viewed from the other end we see the profiles nested in the zipper slide. The patent shown below describes a re-closable fastener assembly developed by Dow Brands, now part of S. C. Johnson. The patent is dated 1996.

Results

The conclusion here is that combining the analytical power of function models with the TRIZ system of inventive principles and the use of available resources can lead to rapid development of new product ideas. The development of the two zipper seal bag product concepts occurred over a period of twenty odd years. TRIZ offers the opportunity to significantly shorten development time.