Supporting Design Problem-exploring with Emergent Technologies

• Published in: Procedia CIRP 2020, Vol.91, p.373-381
• Main Authors: Obieke, Chijioke, Milisavljevic-Syed, Jelena, Han, Ji
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Creativity; Design Process; Industry 4.0; Problem-exploring
• ISSN: 2212-8271; 2212-8271
• DOI: 10.1016/j.procir.2020.02.189

The goal in this study is to highlight the value of using emergent technologies to support human effort in identifying creative design problems. First, we explore the relationship between design and creativity - a popular concept and an important requirement in engineering design process. A search is conducted across repositories. This includes search in Google, Google Scholar and Google Books databases in addition to others. Findings show that the extent to which the design process requires creativity is somewhat obscure and not generally perceptible. We observe that creativity consists of two aspects: problem-solving and problem-exploring. We also observe that creativity drives the design process, not by the way of problem-solving but by the way of problem-exploring. However, currently, focus is on problem-solving than the equally important problem-exploring. For every 135 studies on problem-solving, there is only one on problem-exploring. Study on problem-exploring is limited. We research further and identify some determinants of the neglect in problem-exploring in design. These determinants are lack of motivation, significant level of difficulty and the presence of many problems yet unsolved. Using the X-Design Process model and Problem-dependent Solution model we show the importance and benefits of problem-exploring in design and why it deserves attention. Consequently, we illustrate the use of emergent technologies to support problem-exploring in design and give reasons why this is possible in Industry 4.0. These technologies include data mining, natural language processing, machine learning, duplication recognition, and so on. We indicate that these technologies will only play subordinate role to humans towards inspiring problem-exploring in design. Also, we state that a precondition to applying these technologies is a study of the human problem-exploring cognition process for subsequent simulation. Success in computational problem-exploring would lead to breakthroughs in global problem-exploring and trigger more creative solutions in coming years.