The science underlying frugal innovations should not be frugal

• Main Author: Balkrishna C. Rao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 2019-05-01
• Series: Royal Society Open Science
• Subjects: factor of safety; factor of frugality; advanced frugal innovation; sustainable development
• Online Access: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.180421

In recent years, frugal products of the grassroots and advanced types are being widely used due to their sustainable nature and also affordability. However, despite the origins of frugality at grassroots level, grassroots innovations continue to be fabricated in an ad hoc manner that precludes application of science and are thus susceptible to premature failure. This work advocates the use of scientific principles for developing frugal products in general with emphasis on classical and new design methodologies that are rooted in science to save resources, and hence lower costs, while aiming for robust product functionality. This paper sheds light on the importance of the safety factor in frugal designs and the need, from here onwards, of a factor of frugality for the systematic realization of both grassroots and advanced frugal products. In particular, adoption of the factor of frugality, that was developed recently, has been supported in this effort with a numerical example to display the effectiveness of applying science for designing from scratch frugal products that are both streamlined and robust in their functionality.