Faster time to market-key to communications equipment manufacturing success in the global marketplace

Early stage of engineering design still remains a very chaotic and time consuming process in new product development cycle. At the same time it is the most important stage because all major conceptual innovations and inventions are generated at this stage. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the results of the multiyear research work focused on the following problem: how to develop a step-by-step computer-based approach to solving inventive problems and to managing innovative process, in order to significantly reduce problem solving cycle while increasing the quality of design concepts