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By Chuck Frey
 New product development is the lifeblood of many companies today. But many firms don’t have a process in place to keep the pipeline full of new product ideas. A new software tool called Goldfire Innovator from Invention Machine can help to overcome these challenges. It enables R&D and engineering managers to methodically analyze, conceive, research and validate new product concepts, as well as enhancements to existing products and production processes.
Goldfire Innovator consists of three modules:
The Optimizer
The Optimizer module of Goldfire Innovator contains a number of tools that utilize value engineering and the TRIZ problem-solving methodology to help users clearly define problems and perform value analysis on them. The Optimizer includes several pre-built workflows (structured sets of common tasks), including improving existing systems, new device analysis and system benchmarking (used to compare competing systems or technologies within a company and how to combine the best elements of them into a single solution). You can also use the Optimizer to create your own customized workflows.
The Optimizer enables engineers to do value engineering by creating functional diagrams of a system or process. In this method of visual diagramming, boxes represent components within the system, while the lines between them represent functions or effects. For each function, the user can enter appropriate metrics or values, including costs, percentage of uptime or mean time between failures (MTBF).
Ultimately, what value engineering does is tells engineers which components of a system may contain the greatest opportunities for increased efficiency or cost savings -- or, conversely, where the greatest cost or problems are concentrated. In short, Goldfire Innovator's value engineering tools enable engineers to determine where they should focus their R&D efforts for the greatest possible benefit.
The Researcher
Once the problem is clearly defined in the Optimizer, the Researcher module enables engineers to perform semantic searches of a number of powerful databases to find relevant solutions and concepts, which can be used to generate new product ideas. Specific tools included in the Researcher module include:
- Knowledge bases, which may include corporate and personal knowledge bases
- A collection of over 15 million patents worldwide
- Invention Machine’s Scientific Effects database, a proprietary collection of over 9,000 cross-disciplinary scientific effects and their practical industry applications.
- Inventive principles: A database of laws and generic rules for solving product design problems, based on TRIZ. This pictorial database lists the general principle, followed by the most common solutions and advantages, along with references to patents and additional resources, including a picture of the affected in motion, which can help engineers to visualize how it may be applied to the problem they're working on. The scientific effects database is a great tool for across industry and across disciplinary ideas and solutions.
The Researcher module also provides access to over 2,000 technical web sites across a variety of industries and scientific disciplines – industry journals, conference proceedings and other technical web sites that are not readily available by searching the popular Web search engines.
One powerful capability of the Researcher module is the ability to do dynamic summarization of patents, based on a semantic analysis of their contents. In other words, Goldfire Innovator can analyze a lengthy patent, and extract the key themes into a convenient executive summary. This capability enables engineers to review hundreds of patents in only a few hours, a process that would take days or weeks if performed by hand.
Innovation Trend Analysis
The third module of Goldfire Innovator, Innovation Trend Analysis, contains this powerful set of tools:
- Company profile: Create detailed innovation activity profiles of other companies, to identify their valuable, patented technologies and inventors.
- Competitive analysis: Compare the innovation activity of up to five competitors side-by-side. If a company has patents on a particular technology, its engineers can conduct periodic keyword searches on those technologies to see what other companies are developing in an area, and to determine if any of these efforts may infringe on its existing patents.
- Technology analysis: Engineers can use this tool to identify important technology trends, including potential next-generation innovations, as well as the key players involved in their development.
- Patent citation: This tool enables users to assess the value of a patented technology by identifying the backward and forward citation activity for a specific patent. In other words, it helps engineers to quickly draw together groups of related patents, which may provide hints on the direction a new technology is likely to take.
These capabilities can help manufacturers to protect their intellectual property (IP) assets in ways never before possible, and to obtain valuable early warnings on emerging technologies that it may be able to leverage in its product development strategies.
Target audience
Goldfire Innovator is currently targeted at the global 5,000 manufacturing companies – firms that have substantial product development and IP needs. The system is typically deployed in new product development, product renovation (sustaining engineering and new product line extensions) and business process development functions within these companies.
Goldfire Innovator is priced at $5,000 per seat and requires an annual maintenance and content subscription fee. There are nominal additional fees for a server, to support team collaboration.
Conclusion
In this age of discontinuity, companies must make new product development a major priority. Goldfire Innovator looks like a very promising tool that can help companies to focus and direct their innovation efforts and leverage a greater return on their R&D investment. It enables engineers to use formal scientific disciplines to help them formulate problem definitions effectively, to perform rigorous analyses of the existing problem or situation, and the ability to search a selection of deep databases filled with potentially relevant ideas and solutions.
While Goldfire Innovator can’t come up with new product ideas for you, it certainly puts a wealth of resources and ideas at your fingertips, which you can use as a catalyst to brainstorm new products and services for your company. I’m also impressed with how this application helps companies to develop products more strategically, by helping them to better understand technology trends and the competitive landscape -- which ultimately enables them to innovate faster.
Related Web site: http://www.invention-machine.com/prodserv/GFIN.cfm
6/29/2004
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