Concept development of consumer goods utilizing strategic knowledge

This paper proposes that knowledge systems should have the layered structure which consists of 'strategy', 'tactics', and 'physical world'. Based on this structure, we propose a novel method for the computer aided strategic concept formation in the early conceptual stages of a product(1) development process. This method enables the construction of computer-aided representations of a product concept along with strategy and tactics, while it stimulates a person to articulate his/her idea in mind. The system called BICSS has been developed based on this method. The basic ideas of the system are: (1) to treat the strategic knowledge and tactical knowledge independently; and (2) to repeat the interactive cycle between humans and computers. A simple expert system is used for strategic knowledge. The interactive evolutionary computing (IEC) including interactive Genetic Algorithms and inductive learning techniques is used for tactical knowledge. The proposed method has been qualitatively validated by a case study. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.