INNOVATION notice things that a design engineer won ’ t . It can be a lot of work . It might take a team of 6 or 8 , working together , several hours to compile . But those hours will be extremely well-spent , for they provide the platform to discover ideas by asking a simple question : “ How might [ this ] be different ?”
Open-ended exploration
An example : suppose the description of the current product includes :
• [ This component ] is made of [ this material ].
• The product is formed form [ this number ] of components .
• The product has [ this component ] located [ here ].
Asking : “ How might [ this ] be different ?” of the first item triggers the question “ Suppose [ this component ] were made of a different material . What might that be ?” That carries no ‘ baggage ’, for there is no implication that the current material is faulty , not up to the job , or deficient . Rather , it ’ s an open-ended exploration , opening up new possibilities – for example , a different material might now be available that was not on the market when the product was originally designed . And since the current material is not causing a problem , there has been no incentive to seek anything else . Likewise , asking questions like “ how might this product – or a product with the same functionality – be made with only one-half of the current number of parts ?” can lead to a radical redesign ; as can questions like “ suppose [ this component ] were positioned somewhere else …”.
These questions might lead nowhere interesting , which is not a problem , for this confirms that the current materials , parts lists , configurations etc continue to be fit for purpose . However , asking “ How might [ this ] be different ?” can lead to many good incremental ideas and some absolute blockbusters too . Just the job to keep those disruptors at bay …
How unhappy cows in Kansas triggered an innovative valve design
A real example of asking “ How might [ this ] be different ?” resulted in the invention of IMI Critical Engineering ’ s highly innovative dBX SHIELD TM valve . This invention had a surprising start , when an IMI field service engineer was talking to a Kansas farmer . He complained that the milk yield from a herd of cows was falling . “ It ’ s because of all that noise ,” the farmer said . Intrigued , the field engineer walked into the field where the cows were grazing and noticed that a nearby long-distance gas pipeline was resonating in response to the vibration of a control valve . How might a ball valve be re-designed to reduce vibration ? Across the IMI Group , “ a growth mindset open to innovation and learning ” is one of our four core values , so we relish solving such problems . And noise in valves is something we know a lot about : in 1967 , Dick Self , the founder of one of our subsidiary companies , IMI CCI , based in California , took out a patent on a totally novel valve , the DRAG ® valve . So by combining some features of the DRAG ® valve with a conventional ball valve , we invented the dBX SHIELDTM , which reduced the noise to a comfortable 60 dB . Asking “ How might [ this ] be different ?” worked ! www . valve-world . net Valve World August 2023
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