Influence of formal techniques and design fixation on idea generation tasks in engineering practice

Abstract

The outcome of the idea generation process often lays the groundwork for the overall success of an engineering project, which highlights the need for an effective process. However, the factors that impact this stage of engineering problem solving are often not considered by practicing engineers, who generally do not often use formal idea generation techniques, and instead usually conform to what is considered best practice at their respective organizations. This thesis is structured to answer two research questions. Does a formal technique improve idea generation performance over the informal best practice in an engineering organization? Also, do example solutions hinder the idea generation process by artificially constraining the perceived design options, known as design fixation, when using either the formal or informal techniques? The formal technique used was a modified version of C-Sketch. The results of the experimental groups were compared across four metrics: quantity, variety, novelty, and quality of functional ideas. The results showed that using a formal idea generation technique statistically outperformed the defacto approach on all metrics, whereas the negative effect of design fixation was not seen. From experimental observation it is surmised that the formal approach was superior to the de-facto approach because it reduced social loafing, used time more efficiently, reduced the need for group consensus, mitigated premature idea evaluation, and increased the positive effects of peer evaluation.