Easy-to-Use Ideation Technique Based on Five Cross-Industry Analogies Enhances Engineering Creativity of Students and Specialists

Abstract

Cross-Industry Innovation is commonly understood as identification of analogies and interdisciplinary transfer or copying of technologies, processes, technical solutions, working principles or models between industrial sectors. In general, creative thinking in analogies belongs to the efficient ideation techniques. However, engineering graduates and specialists frequently lack the skills to think across the industry boundaries systematically. To overcome this drawback an easy-to-use method based on five analogies has been evaluated through its applications by students and engineers in numerous experiments and industrial case studies. The proposed analogies help to identify and resolve engineering contradictions and apply approaches of the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving TRIZ and biomimetics. The paper analyses the outcomes of the systematized analogies-based ideation and outlines that its performance continuously grows with the engineering experience. It defines metrics for ideation efficiency and ideation performance function. Finally, a comparison with other TRIZ inventive techniques, such as nine fields of the Substance-Field Analysis and 40 Inventive Principles is presented.