Abstract: Innovating comprises generating offers that make the preexisting ones obsolete. It implies in the creation or recognition of new forms of differentiation, the Opportunities Identification (OI). These may be due, among others, to new solutions or new problems to be solved, the latter a less explored path in the Product Development Process. There are studies aimed at systematizing OI, but present a discreet behavior in front of intuitive approaches. These rely on individual talent, a non-unanimous resource. As innovation is time-sensitive, there is room for artificial stimuli to intuition, which relies on the need for a close understanding of the phenomenon. This paper presents the descriptive research outcomes from a broader prescriptive study, which adopted the Design Research Methodology structure. Because OI is primarily a cognitive process and difficult to observe by a third party, one of the researchers submitted himself to the experience and recording of the phenomenon. The experience constitutes a unique case of OI accompanied during 2590 days. During this time, the study recorded 137 potential opportunities (units of analysis) by serendipity. Through the interpretation of the experienced phenomenon, the results comprise three perspectives: i/to the interaction of influence factors pointed out in the literature; ii/to the opportunities emergence; and, iii/to the opportunities identification. It is evident the challenge of considering opportunities as problems by its tendency of incubation. The work presents new research questions, hypotheses, and explanations valid to the case that potentially stimulate new exploratory or confirmatory researches or both.

The quest for product with unique attributes and added value, along with the shortening of product life cycle are directly related to the degree of competitiveness of organizations. The identification of innovation opportunities in the early stages of the product development process is seen as a means for increasing competitiveness. Among those stages that have relevant impacts during the design process, is conceptual design, when many important decisions related to the degree of novelty of a design solution are taken. This study aims at identifying elements connected to innovation issues that can contribute to the selection of conceptual proposals that have potential to be transformed into novel and successful products. To map these elements, a literature review was conducted in parallel with a reverse analysis of a set of so called innovative products. From the recognition and grouping of these elements that can induce innovation, a field research was conducted with professional designers in order to identify if they recognized the set of elements as representing vectors of innovation, as well as, their relative importance. Next, a descriptive application was run, considering a real design situation extracted from literature, illustrating how to select a conceptual design solution that presents the greater potential for innovation, from the set of elements identified. Thus, this study provides the identification and determination of degrees of importance for inducing elements innovation in order to demonstrate the possibility of assessing potential for innovation in the early stages of the product development process.

As demandas junto aos diferentes setores de manufatura têm crescido em termos de qualidade e prazos. Todavia, estas demandas sofrem forte impacto de etapas anteriores, mais notadamente, do estágio de desenvolvimento do produto. Nesta fase, importantes decisões são tomadas, sendo que, em muitos casos, estas são fortemente influenciadas pela experiência ou preferência das pessoas envolvidas na atividade. Outra constatação bastante evidente é a de que, na maioria das vezes, produtos dependem de processos de montagem, que podem assumir diferentes configurações (e.g., uniões fixas ou móveis; reversíveis ou irreversíveis; entre outras). Considerando, principalmente as pressões ambientais, as uniões do tipo "desmontáveis" assumem papel fundamental no desenvolvimento de produtos. Estas podem ser de diferentes tipos, sendo que sua escolha ocorre na etapa de projeto. Assim, o objetivo deste artigo é apresentar o desenvolvimento de um modelo para facilitar a tomada de decisão quanto ao emprego de sistemas de fixação desmontáveis, considerando aspectos econômicos envolvidos nos processos examinados. Os dados de entrada e estruturação do modelo são representativos da realidade industrial, de parâmetros oriundos de literatura e de dados obtidos a partir de experimentos em ambiente controlado. O modelo contempla as considerações de custos nas etapas de: i) aquisição e estocagem; ii) manufatura; iii) montagem; e iv) manutenção; que são etapas principais do ciclo de vida do componente. O conjunto de equações que dá sustentação ao modelo é apresentado em anexo. Um teste preliminar do uso do modelo ilustra que este é capaz de capturar as diferenças de custos entre os sistemas de fixação considerados para determinada montagem, a partir de parâmetros definidos nas etapas iniciais de projeto.

The demands for quality and delivery time have been growing in the majority of manufacturing sectors. However, these demands are strongly dependent on previous stages decisions, mostly those related to the product development process. Several of these decisions are influenced by the experience or personal preferences from the design team. Additionally, most products depend on the assembly processes, which can assume different configurations (e.g. permanent (riveting) or non-permanent (fastening) joining solutions). From the environment point of view, the reversible systems perform a fundamental role during the product development process. The choice for a fastening system occurs during the design stage. Thus, this paper aims at the development of a model that supports the decision making process when choosing reversible fastening systems, based on the economic aspects of the manufacturing/assembling process examined. The entry data and model structure are well adhered to the industrial reality, theoretical parameters, and data from the experiments. The model considers the costs factors originated from: i/ purchasing and storage; ii/ manufacturing; iii/ assembling; and iv/ maintenance; which are the main stages of a component life cycle. The set of equations that support the model is also presented. A preliminary model test illustrates its capabilities for capturing the cost differences amongst fastening systems for a specific assembly, from parameters defined at early stages of the design process.