Obtaining globally optimum solutions to mechanical product design problems is often difficult due to the number of characteristics and the complex interrelationships of design variables. An additional difficulty that design engineers face is the development of breakthrough solutions for existing optimum solutions. This research presents a system design optimization strategy based on hierarchical optimization methods that facilitates the creation of new design ideas for breakthrough design solutions. Additionally, we focus on how to quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of the created new design ideas. An applied example of free-fixed beam optimization problem is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed method.