Concept Development—From Academia to Industry: A Journey Motivated by the Design of Portable Thermal Slippers

摘要

Concept design is an early and crucial phase in product development where the generalconcept of a product is created. In this stage, various aspects of the product are considered, such asusability and technical performance, among others. Product design and development are currentlya well-established area of knowledge, and academia is increasingly including its fundamentals inregular curricula, especially in the areas of engineering, design, and marketing. At the same time,industrial players recognize the potential of the method for i. responding successfully to marketuncertainty and speed; ii. improving the knowledge available and the systematization of creativeprocesses; and iii. ensuring that the decision process is explicit and well documented. Nevertheless,only a few studies demonstrating the concept design procedure in detail are available in the literature.In this paper, we thus present a detailed case study concerning the design of portable thermalslippers, so as to demonstrate the application of structured procedures and systematic approaches toconcept design, and providing a pedagogical review of methods and tools to support the analysisand decisions along the several steps of the concept design procedure. The particular case study hereaddressed resulted from the collaboration between an academic institution and a company operatingin the home footwear industry, with the design team including elements from both sides.