Incorporating Patent Analysis in Axiomatic Design for New Product Development

Axiomatic design theory is widely used in new product development by providing design solutions through mapping between functional requirements and design parameters. However, the theory does not provide a method to help designer obtain and select design parameters. To this end, this paper introduces patent analysis to overcome the deficiency. Firstly, functional requirements are transformed into patent search terms, and design parameters are obtained from patents. Secondly, morphological matrix is used to represent the relationships between target function and multiple design parameters. Thirdly, design parameters with higher patent frequency are chose and combined into a new scheme. Finally, the scheme is evaluated by the independent axiom of Axiomatic Design theory. The methodology is demonstrated and validated with a case study of spa shower.