Concept development of consumer goods utilizing strategic knowledge

This paper proposes that knowledge systems should have the layered structur e which consists of 'strategy', 'tactics', and 'physical world'. Based on t his structure, we propose a novel method for the computer aided strategic c oncept formation in the early conceptual stages of a product(1) development process. This method enables the construction of computer-aided representa tions of a product concept along with strategy and tactics, while it stimul ates a person to articulate his/her idea in mind. The system called BICSS h as 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 sim ple expert system is used for strategic knowledge. The interactive evolutio nary computing (IEC) including interactive Genetic Algorithms and inductive learning techniques is used for tactical knowledge. The proposed method ha s been qualitatively validated by a case study. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B .V. All rights reserved.