New tools for the early stages of eco-innovation: an evaluation of simplified TRIZ tools Online publication date: Mon, 29-Oct-2007
by Elies Dekoninck, David Harrison, Neville A. Stanton
J. of Design Research (JDR), Vol. 6, No. 1/2, 2007
Abstract: Eco-innovation is a design approach for reducing the environmental impact of products, processes and services. It aims to decrease the environmental impact of products whilst maximising customer and business value. Integrating design-led environmental approaches at the earliest stages of product development is critical to their effectiveness. This paper reports on a controlled workshop experiment to test a structured method – TRIZ (the theory of inventive problem solving) – for enhancing eco-innovation, particularly in the early stages of team design. The quantitative and qualitative data suggest that TRIZ tools are not best suited to the team design activities at the earliest stages of innovation. The teams' outputs did include interesting new technology developments. The information provided to designers in early-stage workshops plays a bigger role than expected in innovation.
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the J. of Design Research (JDR):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:
Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.
If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com