Toward New Methods and Tools to Foster Product/Process Innovation

This article presents the specifications and features of a new tool designed to co-ordinate the development of new solutions during the early phases of design projects. It is the result of 18 months of field work during which we played an active role in the development of an innovative solution. We were also able to closely analyze the activities of certain actors (called materials experts) who are often behind proposals for new materials and processes. The ID2 (Innovation Development and Diffusion) tool is geared on the one hand to help innovative solutions emerge, and on the other to consolidate these solutions by circulating them to the company’s different specialists on the other. The tool is based on a concepts/criteria table enabling the viewpoints of the different actors involved to be summarized during the design phase. In this article we shall show how functional features such as links, questions, alarms, information enquiries and the possibilities for exchanging information between actors can contribute to developing solutions for these different professionals. We will also see how the “innovative” solution proposed can be developed further by comparing and assessing it in relation to a list of criteria which is gradually drawn up by the actors involved in the project. This tool is designed to be managed by a specific actor (a coordinating actor), who may also, depending on his/her strategy, consolidate the proposal by involving an increasing number of people.