Integrating CAD, TRIZ, and Customer Needs

This study addresses the integration of Computer-Aided Design (CAD), Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ), and Customer Needs for the sake of product development. TRIZ can generate plausible product alternatives, while CAD can produce the digital data for those alternatives. Thus, the TRIZ-CAD outcomes can be organized to produce a questionnaire. When the questionnaire is disclosed to potential customers (respondents), the individual preferences of the respondents can be obtained. However, aggregating the diverse preferences of all respondents and making decisive conclusions based on these is difficult. In this study, we introduce statements regarding the nine fundamental human needs (subsistence, protection, affection, understanding, participation, leisure, creation, identity, and freedom) and TRIZ-CAD outcomes in a questionnaire. As the respondent is human, the product exemplified by the TRIZ-CAD outcomes should fulfill one or more of the fundamental human need. Responses regarding statements of the nine fundamental human needs can be used to aggregate the diverse opinions of all respondents and thereby make a decisive conclusion. We have shown the effectiveness of the abovementioned approach by using a product development case in which the problem is the determination of a car's external shape. Field data is discussed showing the applicability of the proposed approach.