Services

Gen5 carries out technology scouting both in support of product/process development and as a standalone service. Gen5’s approach to scouting does not rely on key word search or existing databases. We do not try to boil the ocean. Instead, we assess how value is created and determine what functions must be performed. Using a functional lens provides a roadmap for not only what to search for, but also where to look – often in other industries or technical domains that face “functionally similar” challenges.

Further, candidate technologies are typically assessed in terms of both performance capacity (“How well will this technology meet my goals?”) and adoption challenges (“How difficult will it be to implement this technology into my system?”). Stratifying results along these two dimensions helps to frame relative strengths/weaknesses of competing candidate technologies and facilitates decision-making.

An important prerequisite to problem solving is the vital step of problem framing. By reframing the problem, attention is shifted away from addressing surface-level problems, which are often just symptoms of something more intrinsic. Gen5’s unique expertise in system analysis focuses on uncovering the deeply rooted problems that must be solved. Gen5 deploys both qualitative and quantitative tools for problem framing.

Often, root-cause problems are expressed as contradictions – the sometimes-hidden barriers that exist within most engineered systems. Taking the time and care to unearth them, understand their nature, isolate/exacerbate specific requirements, and then resolve them – rather than optimizing against them – can spell the difference between average products and breakthrough innovations. Contradictions can be resolved using systematic tools and without compromise-based design methods. Gen5’s problem-framing and problem-solving skills are at the foundation of the firm’s service offering and are deployed in conceptual design, testing, and even prototyping stages of work.

Gen5 approaches each engagement with a focus on how value is created by a product or service. We use value markers called Main Parameters of Value [MPV’s], which are the features and functionality that drive customer buying decisions and should be the targets of innovation. Rather than trying to improve every aspect of a product, the idea is to spend R&D resources only on improving the performance of the parameters that matter most to customers – MPVs.

Of course, customers do not buy technologies and solutions – they buy products and services. Implicit in Gen5’s approach to conceptual design is the translation of technical solutions into practical and pragmatic product concepts. Gen5’s product portraits help clients to envision how a technology may be deployed and serve as a starting point for understanding the adaptation challenges that must be addressed in subsequent stages of development.

Gen5 deploys the latest methods and tools for mathematical modeling in the development of new designs or validation of concepts. Simulation models allow teams to run multiple iterations of a product or process design before moving to physical prototyping, thus shortening the overall development cycle time.

Gen5 has extensive experience in developing cutting edge models for various technical and bio-medical applications, leveraging its knowledge of digital design and simulation, computer and supercomputer engineering, computer optimization technologies and additive technologies. The firm’s FEA modeling experience includes models with large non-linear deformation, mesh destruction, and multi-disciplinary problems.

Gen5 has the resources and expertise to carry out proof of principle testing to assess feasibility and validate concepts. Through its in-house laboratory and its network of partners, Gen5 efficiently designs and carries out experiments in support of its conceptual design work.

Gen5 is particularly skilled in validating a newly applied action principle or a new idea for which no experimental protocols exist. In these cases, Gen5 regularly brings to the laboratory many of the same problem-solving tools used in the firm’s conceptual work to devise novel test methods. Gen5’s laboratory capabilities are noted for their efficiency and creativity, and for producing the compelling evidence needed to keep programs moving forward.

Technical solutions alone are not enough – they must be practical to implement and economically viable. Gen5 designs, builds, and tests product and process prototypes to demonstrate concept feasibility. Importantly, uncovering and addressing the adaptation challenges that can sometimes derail product development programs is a critical part of the prototyping process. By integrating modeling into an iterative design process, Gen5 streamlines the prototyping process and delivers results quickly.

Further, mitigating the broader set of implementation risks is essential for continued investment and commercialization. For example, prototyping programs can sometimes include identifying raw materials or components suppliers needed for a process to operate at scale – which is in many cases different from the supplier used for the prototype.