Hennigs Jan, Parker Alison, Collins Matt, Jiang Ying, Kolios Athanasios, McAdam Ewan, Williams Leon, Tyrrel Sean
Water Science Institute, Cranfield University, Cranfield, MK430AL, UK.
Freeform Design & Innovation Ltd., Flitwick, UK.
Gates Open Res. 2019 Aug 30;3:1532. doi: 10.12688/gatesopenres.13057.2. eCollection 2019.
Urban sanitation in growing cities of the Global South presents particular challenges. This led to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Reinvent The Toilet Challenge, which sparked the development of various non-sewered sanitation technologies like the Nano Membrane Toilet. Complex disruptive technologies like this entail an extensive product development process, including various types of prototype tests. While there is an abundance of literature discussing how to build prototypes, and the optimal number of tests, there has been little focus on how to plan and conduct tests, especially in a development endeavour of this complexity. Four approaches to testing are reviewed, and their strengths and weaknesses compared. A visualised testing strategy is proposed that encompasses the entire product development process and can be used to plan and communicate prototype tests for the Nano Membrane Toilet to ultimately achieve compliance with international standards.
全球南方发展中城市的城市卫生面临着特殊挑战。这催生了比尔及梅琳达·盖茨基金会的“重新发明厕所挑战”，该挑战推动了各种无下水道卫生技术的发展，比如纳米膜厕所。像这样复杂的颠覆性技术需要一个广泛的产品开发过程，包括各种类型的原型测试。虽然有大量文献讨论如何制造原型以及最佳测试次数，但很少有人关注如何规划和进行测试，尤其是在这种复杂的开发项目中。本文回顾了四种测试方法，并比较了它们的优缺点。提出了一种可视化测试策略，该策略涵盖整个产品开发过程，可用于规划和交流纳米膜厕所的原型测试，最终实现符合国际标准。
