Comparing The Classical and New Contradiction Matrix Part 1- Zooming Out

Darrell Mann Director

CREAX UK +44 7980 864028

darrell.mann@creax.com Introduction

This article represents the first of a pair examining the differences between the original Contradiction Matrix of Classical TRIZ (Reference 1) and the new version based on the analysis of 150,000 patents issued between 1985-2003 published in ‘Matrix 2003’ (Reference 2). In this first article, we examine the differences from a system-level perspective, while in the second part, the focus shifts to a more detailed examination of how the two matrices compare when we analyze patents published since the Matrix 2003 book was completed. The aims of that second article are to explore the stability of the new Matrix and to provide quantified data on how well the two matrices predict the Inventive Principles being used by recent inventors. The aim of this article is primarily to explore the differences between the two matrices in terms of the overall prioritized sequence of Inventive Principles recommended by the Matrix.

Frequency Sequence Of The Inventive Principles

There are many different ways of using the Inventive Principles. At the two ends of the spectrum of possibilities are users that like to use all 40 Principles versus those that use tools like the Contradiction Matrix in order to focus onto a smaller number of ‘most likely’ Principle recommendations. This flexibility of use is one of the great strengths of the Principles.

One of the points along the spectrum of possibilities is to use a list of Principles based on their frequency of use. Reference 3 for example contains a list of Inventive Principles ordered by their frequency of occurrence in the original Contradiction Matrix. Such a list allows users to focus their problem solution generation activities on a globally averaged level. There are dangers in adopting this kind of approach of course, but nevertheless it can be a valid way of approaching problems under some circumstances.

This article reports an equivalent prioritized list of Inventive Principles based on the content of the 2003 version of the Matrix. Based on the frequency of occurrence in the new Matrix, then, the sequence of Principles is (most likely first):- 35, 3, 13, 28, 2, 24, 1, 10, 17, 4, 19, 5, 25, 15, 31, 7, 40, 12, 37 32, 30, 26, 9, 18, 29, 6, 16, 39, 36, 34, 21, 23, 38, 27, 22, 8, 33, 11, 20 The list is reproduced in the third column of Table 1 below.

Inventive Principle

Classical TRIZ Ranking

Matrix 2003 Ranking

Change

1 3 7 -4 2 5 5 - 3 12 2 +10 4 24 10 +14 5 33 12 +21 6 20 27 -7 7 34 17 +17 8 32 37 -5 9 39 24 +15 10 2 8 -6 11 29 39 -10 12 37 19 +18 13 10 3 +7 14 21 15 +6 15 6 14 -8 16 16 28 -12 17 19 9 +10 18 8 25 -17 19 7 11 -4 20 40 40 - 21 35 32 +3 22 22 36 -14 23 36 33 +3 24 18 6 +12 25 28 13 +15 26 11 23 -12 27 13 35 -22 28 4 4 - 29 14 26 -12 30 25 22 +3 31 30 16 +14 32 9 21 -12 33 38 38 - 34 15 31 -16 35 1 1 - 36 27 30 -3 37 26 20 +6 38 31 34 -3 39 23 29 -6 40 17 18 -1

Figure 1: Comparison Of Classical and New Matrix

The numbers in the table represent the prioritized sequence of Principles based on frequency of occurrence in the Matrix. Thus we can see that Principle 1 is the 7th most frequently occurring, Principle 2 is the 5th most frequent, and so on. The second column of the table records the equivalent prioritized sequence based on Reference 3. Column 4 then records the differences between the two sequences. This column indicates that there

have been some quite significant shifts that have taken place between the two matrices. It is these differences that are the subject of the remainder of the article.

Biggest Risers

The basis upon which patent information was interpreted into the original Matrix has not been published in any detail (in English at least) and hence direct comparison between what was done in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s and what was done during the preparation of Matrix 2003 has not been possible. Consequently, any interpretation of the differences between the two is inevitably going to contain a degree of uncertainty.

Nevertheless, it is worth discussing some of the changes that have taken place with respect to, first, the Inventive Principles that feature more frequently in the new Matrix than they did in the original version.

The top ten biggest rising Inventive Principles in decreasing order of change are:-

5, 12, 7, 25, 9, 31, 24, 3, 17, 13

It is worth highlighting some of the differences that this list describes:

Principle 5, Merging, is the biggest single riser in the new list. It has climbed from 33rd place in the original list to 12th place in the new Matrix; a rise of 21 places. One implication of this shift that emerges from consideration of the system complexity trend – Figure 2 – is that inventors are increasingly deploying strategies consistent with the reducing complexity half of the characteristic. This may mean that the world in general has shifted towards more integration of systems, but it may also be a reflection that the influence of established tools like Design for Manufacture and Assembly are having an impact on the way in which designers think about the systems they are configuring.

Figure 2: System Complexity Characteristic and Connection To Principle 5

While it is probably too soon to imply that the TRIZ Trimming tools are also having an impact on the shift towards inventions that are using Merging as a source of invention, it is worth noting that the rising frequency of Principle 5 is highly consistent with this part of the TRIZ toolkit.

Another rising Principle is 25, Self-Service. This one again is highly consistent with the TRIZ trend direction towards better use of existing resources and trying to get systems to deliver useful functions ‘by themselves’. The rise of this Principle is consistent with the self-x theme discussed in Reference 4.

Closer examination of the 1985-2003 patents analyzed for the Matrix 2003 research reveals large numbers of patents resulting from improvements made possible by design

Time

SystemComplexity X

Point of maximum viable complexity

Period of ‘Trimming’Merging of Components/Sub-systems

drafting and manufacturing technologies. Most notably the shift towards multi-axis machine tools, rapid prototyping and casting technology means that designers can increasingly take advantage of increases in use of all of the dimensions of the artifacts they specify. This characteristic appears to be particularly significant in the aerospace sector in general and the design of aerodynamic components in particular. Increased manufacturing capability and the consequent shift towards highly three-dimensional forms is consistent with the rises of Principles 3, Local Quality and 17, Another Dimension as inventive strategies.

Biggest Fallers

By definition, the number of Principles rising up the frequency of occurrence list must be matched by an equivalent number of Principles dropping down the list. Examination of Figure 1 reveals the top ten biggest fallers to be Inventive Principles:-

27, 18, 34, 22, 16, 26, 29, 32, 11, 15

Again, the list is presented in descending order of change. Thus Principle 27, Cheap Disposable is the inventive strategy that has dropped furthest – going from 13 th place in the original Matrix to 35th in the new version. Again also, it is difficult to definitively explain how and why such a shift might have occurred due to the lack of data on how the original Matrix was compiled. Nevertheless, there is perhaps likely to be a correlation with the increased emphasis on sustainable solutions on the one hand and the marked rise of manufacture of disposable goods in the Far East, and the reduced emphasis on patenting of design solutions in the countries in that part of the world. In other words, Principle 27 may still be being used as frequently as ever, but that designers using it as a strategy are patenting such solutions far less frequently.

Related arguments may also be made regarding the drop in significance of Principles 22, Blessing-in-Disguise and 34, Discard-and-Recover: while it may well be that these strategies are being used as frequently as they ever were, analysis of the patent database from recent years clearly shows that solutions generated through such strategies are not often being patented.

Perhaps the most surprising faller on the top-ten list is Principle 15, Dynamics. Detailed examination of the possible reasons why this Principle has dropped down to 14 th on the frequency list reveals two main contributing factors:-

1) The sharply increase in patents relating to software, electronics and bio -sciences compared to mechanical systems means that there are proportionally less mechanical patents. Principle 15 is a strategy used much more frequently as an inventive strategy in mechanical design than it appears to be in software or bioscience applications. In software design, for example, although the concept of dynamization is commonly observed, it is more likely to be something that is automatically assumed rather than being used as an inventive step per se. Certainly, the patent database contains very few software patents in which Principle 15 has been used to make an inventive step.

2) The TRIZ Dynamization trend – Figure 3 – suggests that mechanical means of delivering movement functions will also tend towards increasing use of electrical systems. A sharp rise in ‘control-by-wire’ and ‘control-by-light’ actuation methods in recent years is evident.

Figure 3: Dynamization Trend The Dynamization trend may also help to explain the decline in the frequency of Principle 29, Pneumatics and Hydraulics in the new Matrix.

The other interesting faller on the list is Principle 11, Beforehand Cushioning. Coupled with the rise in Principle 9, Prior Counter-Action, the drop in frequency of use of Principle 11 may well be explained by the increased use of FMEA and other risk assessment techniques since the 1970s. Designers, in other words, are more likely to produce designs that do not need potentially expensive back-ups to be included. This is also consistent with the preceding discussion of the increased use of Principle 5, Merging as an inventive strategy. As an alternative sugges tion, it may also be the case that inventors are simply not patenting (or the Patent Office is increasingly unlikely to grant) solutions that involve the incorporation of emergency back-ups.

Conclusions

The frequency with which Inventive Principles occur in the new Matrix compared to the original matrix is both similar and different. The main similarity is that 5 of the top 8 most commonly used Principles – 35, 28, 10, 1 and 2 are the same in both matrices. On the other hand, as shown in Figure 1, there have also been some significant shifts.

The main value of having a prioritized list of Inventive Principles is for those people that don’t wish to worry about the details of defining contradictions, but simply want to start using the Principles to help generate ideas. To those people, the new Matrix offers a revised list of Principles ‘most likely’ to help them generate inventive solutions. This article represents the first place in which such a list has been published.

Any attempt to use a globally averaged ‘most likely’ list is inevitably skipping a lot of relevant information. Hence in the second part of this article, the focus shifts towards a more detailed analysis of the content of the new Matrix. Specifically this means establishing the likelihood that the Inventive Principles suggested for a given pair of conflict parameters are going to be the ‘best’ ones. References

1) http://www.triz-journal.com/matrix/index.htm 2) Mann, D.L., Dewulf, S., Zlotin, B., Zusman, A., ‘Matrix 2003: Updating The TRIZ

Contradiction Matrix’, CREAX Press, July 2003. 3) Terninko, J., Zusman, A., Zlotin, B., ‘Step-By-Step TRIZ: Creating Innovative Solution

Concepts’, Responsible Management Inc, Nottingham, NH, 3rd Edition, 1996. 4) Mann, D.L., ‘Ideality and Self-X’, paper presented at ETRIA TRIZ Future conference,

Bath, November 2001. 2004, D.L.Mann, all rights reserved.

ImmobileSystem

JointedSystem

FullyFlexibleSystem

Fluid orPneumatic

System

FieldBasedSystem

© 2004 Anatoly Guin

Serious changes in the educational system are waiting for us (Essay on the new function of education).

by Anatoly Guin, master TRIZ, manager of the Laboratory ‘Universal solver’, www.trizway.com

What to teach? From the very beginning the main function of education was to reproduce the society’s

culture and to hand down the culture to the next generation. Culture is the total of the stereotypes of behaviour, accepted in the society, main scientific and everyday life notions and paradigms, stationary technologies and method of solving problems. The habit of washing everyday, the criminal code, cheese-making technology, Viet theorem about the roots of a square equation – all of them are elements of culture.

The main contradiction of modern education connected with that function is the contradiction between the high rate of storing knowledge of the humanity and the low rate of storing knowledge of a certain person.

The total volume of the humanity’s total knowledge is growing geometrically, at least. And the technology of teaching a certain person remains practically unchanged and don’t provide proper growth of knowledge mastering. What to do?

Until now the growth of education was reached mainly in an extensive way: by increasing the time of studying. Modern education knows also a series of the methods of intensifying the educational process, but they don’t solve the whole problem.

There is also a strong (but not developed technologically) idea: to teach firstly not the concrete knowledge but the methods of the fast and efficient mastering of the knowledge (skill of studying). To develop this idea technologically is one of the problems of modern education. And a lot of educational inventions must be made on that way.

But the content of the 21st century education will be determined by one more function that grew ripe in the informational boom of the 20th century. What one? Let us make it clear.

A known physicist Leo Szillard suggested a simple image: let us depict all the humanity’s knowledge as a globe. Then all the space outside the globe is the field of the unknown. The surface of the globe symbolizes the border with the unknown. But the more the knowledge volume is, the more is the area of the touch with the unknown. And every point of that area is a new problem.

(To the picture: Field of the touch with the unknown – field of new problems) The number of the problems, which the people have to collide with, has grown sharply.

And the responsibility for solving new problems has grown, too. A good solution of the problem means new possibilities. A bad one means new troubles, right up to ecological catastrophes. For

the first time in the humanity’s history there arose a need in the purposeful and mass (!) training of Solvers.

Let us say: the profession of a Solver is needed. Not simply physicist or engineer, chemist or biologist, psychologist or sociologist, but just Solver. Because the present more and more often knocks us together with complicated problems with many factors, and those problems are much wider then any concrete specialty. Somebody must bind the ends into a single knot; somebody must understand the language and interests of the representatives of different specialties. And if the creation itself may be studied and has its laws, somebody must be able to use them.

Now let us make a digression. Let us imagine that the time machine has already been invented. Let a usual boy of 13 from a secondary school take this machine and go to Pisa University in the 13th century, where the best European mathematicians got together in order to compete in dividing the great numbers. It’s a hard job, it needs great experience and intuition, because the numbers are written in the Roman tradition (Arabic figures have come to Europe much later), and the methods of division simply don’t exist – the answer is guessed and checked by the reverse operation… The competition ends with a knockout won by our boy. Is he a genius? No, but he has got a simple method – division ‘in column’.

Maybe, it is a prompt for resolving the contradiction? We can’t make everybody a genius,

but we can equip many people with strong methods of solving complicated problems. Can we? In any case, let us fix the conclusion: to prepare for meeting new problems that have not

been met earlier is the second main function of education; that function has arisen as a result of the scientific and technical revolution. And that function becomes a chief one.

There remains an intricate question: how to build the educational course, the purpose of which will be the training of strong Solvers. Let us mark the main directions of such a course.

Teaching of a Solver The purpose is the forming of the temper and thinking of a Solver ready to meet the new

problems. The reaching of the purpose supposes working out the educational system we call now

TRIZ-education. Contents of TRIZ-education will be determined to a great extent with such directions:

Let us discuss the content of each direction in detail. 1. Developing the creative intuition It’s said, that a famous designer of planes A. Tupolev needed only a glance at a draft of a

plane in order to draw a conclusion whether it would fly.

Bringing up a Solver

Developing the creative

intuition

Teaching the methods of solving creative problems

Teaching how to organize the creative labour

Developed intuition is the result of a great number of solved problems. The developing of the solver’s creative intuition supposes that there must be a wide base of the creative training problems1 in the educational course.

2. Teaching the methods of solving creative problems Naturally, TRIZ-education is based upon the methods developed in the inventive problems

solving theory: operators of taking away the stereotypes, methods of resolving the contradictions, algorithms of solving the creative problems and other solving mechanisms of TRIZ. At the same time TRIZ-education doesn’t neglect other methods2, using them as auxiliary ones.

The experience of teaching various age groups (from children of pre-school age to grown-up specialists) the methods of solving creative problems (naturally, on the adequate examples and problems). The effective mastering of the special methods of inventing activity is based on the strong thinking. Its main properties are such skills:

• find and mark the regularities in a heap of facts; • see the features of objects and phenomena that are not given explicitly and the

hidden resources for solving the problem; • build the cause-and-effect resources including the branching ones with a necessary

extent of details, master the apparatus of formal logic in the condition of insufficient knowledge;

• mark the main ideas and ask the questions that discover the essence of the matter (to people or to nature – when an experiment is conducted);

• make (generate consciously) hypotheses and build the system of checking experiments;

• operate with contradictions; 3. Teaching how to organize the creative labour One may be a very gifted person but have no time for doing anything in his life. There will

be no musician- virtuoso without hard work on the etudes. Fruitful work of a Solver mayn’t be imagined without the skill of organizing the labour.

The labour organization includes3:

• planning the scientific work; • skill of working with data bases and organizing one’s own data bases; • making abstracts; • mastering the rapid summarizing, skill of ‘reducing’ the information into the

laconic ‘supporting signals’ (images); • skills of rapid reading; • planning the working time; • …

The skills necessary for organizing the collective intellectual work seem to be as well

important: • skill of conducting the scientific discussion and exact argumentation; • skill of making the report about one’s achievements orally and in written form; • skill of editing, reviewing and adding the colleague’s (other student’s) work; • …

1 It may be divided into two parts: problems that don’t need any special knowledge and ‘subject’ ones – problems on physics, chemistry, biology, art and literature… The greatest of the data bases of creative (including inventive and research) problems we know is accumulated in the editions, manuscripts and computer programs on TRIZ. 2 For example, brainstorming, morphological analysis, synectics. 3 Of course, this list is approximate

Conclusions At the beginning of the third millennium the customary educational technologies that got

ripe in the 17th-18th centuries4 began to ‘skid’. We’d like to realize the essence of the changes and not to remain behind the demands of time. Join us.

About the Author:

Anatoly Guin, master TRIZ, the manager of the Laboratory ‘Universal solver’,

www.trizway.com .

4 On that topic we recommend the article ‘School-Factory Will Die. What’s on?’

© 2004 Anatoly Guin

School-factory will die. What’s on? (Education during the change of civilizations)

by Anatoly Guin, master TRIZ, manager of the Laboratory ‘Universal solver’, www.trizway.com

Why is the traditional school arranged just so and not in another way? Why is just this system of teaching so claimed and firm?

Nature is not sparing of variety. We all are so various – even those of us who live close by. There are plenty of races, nations, and religions in the world. Then why is the public school all over the civilized world arranged in the same way? The rare exclusions, such as “authors’ schools” only confirm this uniformity. For all their appeal they don’t spread so wide to compete with the traditional education.

Why is the school just such? The 18th century has brought an unprecedented movement to Europe. Everything was being

broken: secular traditions of governmental arrangement, family foundations and moral principles, ways of travelling, of getting and serving food – tremendous masses of people were changing the way of their life. The 18th century has brought a mercury thermometer and a lightning rod, smallpox inoculation and electric experiments, discovered the probability theory and differential calculus. The ancient dreams of flying have come true – Mongolfiers flew up with the help of a balloon with hot air in it. But the main thing was the inventing of a steam engine invented by James Watt.

Genie did not get out from a bottle – he came from a boiler with hot water. But he had got the main property of the fairy-tale creature – his power. ‘Take the steam engines out off Britain– and you’ll destroy its wealth and abolish its power’- said S. Carnoti, whose name one can read in the modern school text-books too.

There the demiurge’s work had begun. Genie had got an army: thousands of bright minds and millions of hands. Some people were inventing, others were selling, applying, using. The new demiurge was cunning. Having invented the steam engine, he spread it into all the possible branches of activity. Having thought out a factory – the collective form of labour, he didn’t put a modest air, too.

Factory – that was another name of the genie. Factory is the symbol of the industrial age. Even the most traditional farmers’ work acquired the properties and rhythm of the factory labour. The mechanical devices, produced by factories, raised the efficiency of agricultural labour very sharply. As a result, a lot of hands at the farms became free. These hands have moved to the quickly growing towns and came to the factories at last. Just in 30 years after the Watt’s invention the number of industrial and trade workers became greater then that of the farmers.

After the farming, the commerce began to look like factory. If before that a customer was buying the goods just from their owner, now the specially rented salesmen (the same workers, essentially) appeared. The salesmen were selling the goods according to the fixed rules and prices; they were working ‘from whistle to whistle’ as if it were factory. But the changes in the social sphere did not stop.

‘The inventors in the social sphere, who considered that the plant or the factory was the most progressive and efficient economic organization, tried to introduce their principle in other organizations too. So schools (italicised by A. Guin), hospitals, prisons, governmental institutions

and other organizations have many features of the factory, with its division of labour, with its hierarchy and total facelessnessii.

So, school. The only reason can’t explain its birth. But there is a common base, the original cause and at the same time the background, against which the birth and the evolution of the public school were taking place. It’s that school, that is the origin of the modern traditional school. That school was generated by industrialization.

The school appeared to resolve the social contradiction: the factory-owners had to rent people, who were brought up in the pre-industrial age (for there were no other workers), but they didn’t want to do that, for ‘the people, who had gone through the period of pubescence and were working in agriculture or some trade before, can’t be turned into useful industrial workers’iii.

The industrialization made new demands to workers. Literacy began to spread among the common townsfolk of the third estate. Thus, by the end of the 18th century 47% of men and 26% of women in France were literate.4 The educational problems began to trouble the society seriously. The best minds were fighting in this walk of life. Voltaire was frankly against the education of the ‘mob’. Diderot was speaking for the school, free of charge and available to all the levels of people. The brilliant works of humanistic philosophers were describing the school-dream, school-festival.

But the course of events was predetermined. The fruit of a lemon-tree is a lemon, so the industrial society produced a school-factory5. Its goals were clear: to teach people to listen and to remember, to act according to an instruction, to carry out the orders obediently, to accord one’s own actions with that of the collective. To teach reading and counting, to teach punctuality and accuracy in doing the monotonous job. Children became the raw material, which had to be treated according to a certain technology, in order to obtain ‘Homo industrialis’.

While the production grows more complicated, the volume of necessary education becomes greater. Children begin to go to school in a younger age; the school day and the school year become longer. Arithmetic and natural sciences take more and more place in the school education. In the 19th and 20th centuries the school became more complicated, the advances of science and the changes of culture, technology and everyday life have had an effect on it. But nevertheless the school remained mainly the school-factory.

However, some people’s intentions did not always coincide with the motion of all the society. There were teachers, resisting the educational conveyor, in any historical age6. The most gifted children were falling out of the stream, too7. The lack of correspondence between the school program and educational technology, from one hand, and the demands of gifted people, from the other, resulted in the myths about the stupidity of the classical scientists (such as C. Darwin, B. Pascal, A. Einstein etc.) in school.

The more complicated the cultural environment is, the more loopholes appears for gifted students and prominent teachers, and the more chances they have to avoid the ‘general equalization’. It’s expected, for the industrial society both working hands, and managers, engineers, scientists. And the attempts to solve this problem at the early stages of industrialization by teaching only the children of higher estates failed.

Nowdays the school-factory is alive yet, but it is in a great fever. This fact really has a cause. We’ll analyse the cause in detail. For that let us clear up three stages of the civilization.8

Stage 1 – pre -industrial: till the beginning of the 18th century. In this stage the child’s ideology is formed mainly under his family influence. The child is in his family practically all the time, so no influence from outside can appear. The majority of common people never go further then the nearest village during all their life.

Stage 2 –industrial: relatively three last centuries. Great numbers of people move to towns, where the density of population is much greater. The post for common population appears.9 Railways and steamers make the world visible, if not frankly little. Telegraph, radio, TV… Now the information can come from anywhere in any short time (to tell the truth, mainly in one direction – from the ruling elite to the common people). The main role in forming the ideology passes from the family to the government. The state radio and TV can interpret the events and

affect the citizens’ opinions in any way. One can’t oppose anything so efficient to it, because nursery schools and schools are state institutions too.

Stage 3 – informational: from nowdays and on – now it’s difficult to understand, how long. Information becomes the most important, profitable and mass goods – for the first time in the history. There appear informational technologies that allow great masses of people to communicate, to see one another, to argue and to affect each other, being at the opposite sides of the planet. In theory, soon there will appear personal TV channels – as many, as you like, even one channel per each person living on the Earth. Everybody will be able to make films and TV broadcasts or speak to the whole world over Internet – only the listeners will be needed. In this cosmos (or chaos) of information it will be more difficult to affect the ideology of a growing person. And it is said both about the state mass media and about school. Teachers in Russia have already noticed that it became more difficult to control children’s opinions and disposition, especially in cities, where the informational space has grown much wider since the Soviet Union collapsed.

We are entering the new stage of civilization – the world is changing by leaps and bounds. So, the fever of the school is expected. Here is the curious fact: poor level of the American school students in mathematics and natural sciences ‘is a serious menace to the USA’s position in the world society’. That’s said in the report prepared by the officials of the Knowledge Checking Centre in Princeton University.10

However, one can gather as many troubled politicians’ and scientists’ quotations, as he likes. It’s more difficult to find the quotations that show the satisfaction with education in any civilized country.

New tasks for education 15 or so years ago I was lecturing in the town of N-sk. A grey industrial town. Mud,

rubbish, sunflower seeds everywhere. An old school building, the paint on its walls has peeled off. The WC smell is felt in any place of the school. The most ardent dispute among the primary school teachers was caused by the problem of calligraphy.

‘It develops culture and neatness!’ – they exclaimed. ‘Look through the window’- I answered. I can agree that calligraphy is useful to a certain extent. Or, at least, it was useful, when the

main task of primary school was to teach children mere diligence, to teach by any ways. To tell the truth, that time has already passed. But the inertia of thinking and the educational traditions and stereotypes have remained.

To our teachers’ credit, such disputes grow weaker and weaker, calligraphy has fewer and fewer adherents, because the psychologist have discovered that a good handwriting is more the result of one’s character then the result of lessons, and because the writing people in the whole world had replaced pens for keyboards.

The problem of calligraphy is very particular. I show it to you as an example. Here is another example, a brighter one. ‘Is literacy the purpose of education? If so, than what does the word ‘literacy’ mean? The

skill of reading and writing? A well-known anthropologist Edmund Leach asserts in his daring article written for the Prognostic Centre in Edinburgh, that reading is easier and more useful than writing; and generally it’s no use for one to have writing skills. The technical means that recognize speech clear vast space to us’.11

Even a few years ago I would consider these words to be fantastic, and now I am dictating this article to my computer.

The ‘clever’ technical equipment is developing quickly. The life perception is changing. Sometimes it’s enough to meet a person or a book or simply stop, look around and think. Let’s not be afraid of thinking, even if the conclusions will turn to be unusual.

What problems does the modern school teach to solve? And what problems does the life raise before the young people? We see even without analysing that these problems are of different kinds.

To teach reading and writing, to acquaint with the principles of sciences is an evident purpose of the school. To teach submitting oneself to the senior’s will, to obey the rules and instructions – this purpose is not mentioned aloud, but it is not less significant to the modern school. Probably, it’s even more significant. School’s attitude to the discipline violation is much more sensitive, then that to the student’s poor progress in studying, even if it is the violation of the rules that are out of date. School allows the change in the substance of education, than breaking of the traditional method of teaching.

I am not going to assert that this purpose is wrong. I think that the accents must be changed, that some other discipline is needed. The school is so keen on the factory discipline that it did not notice the change of social needs. Now only 10% of the population of the developed countries works in the mass line production. But the necessity in people who are able to make decisions themselves, of initiative and ingenious ones is constantly increasing. I say that the mass school is not working purposefully on the development of these quite necessary features. In other words, the school tries to ignore a new central task for itself: teaching children to live in a dynamic, quickly changing world. It’s hard to live, and it will be harder, to those, who have not learned to make their choice.

Does one have much mind to get married? Formerly there was not much to choose, and a young man did not make that choice himself.12 Due to today's density of the population and the development of the media the choice is endless. Some people are choosing in such a way all the life.

…He and she have got acquainted over Internet; they were in correspondence for some time, then they met each other and got married. That’s only one of the possible scripts. All the borders are washed away. Different countries, languages, nations, and races – nothing stops the choice. It is so already, and it will be so – the further, the more.

Now it has become a real opened problem13. To choose the profession and the place of studying, to change the place of residence or find a new job, even simply to buy something – everything becomes an opened problem, because a wide space of choice has appeared. It’s necessary to learn how to live in this space. And one has a choice even here.

One may shut one’s eyes and ears hysterically and give oneself to the mercy of anybody who wants to have power over him. One may give somebody a right to choose for him. A psychiatrist H.A. Sackdeo from the New Jersey Medical School, having talked to the people who had survived after the mass suicide in Georgetown, drew a conclusion: ‘People have so many opportunities to choose, that they can’t make decisions efficiently. They want somebody to make a decision, and they would follow it’.14

And one may learn (and teach, if we are speaking about school) to live in this space, to accept new realities to orient oneself and study quickly, to make the decisions on one’s own.

There is one more nuance, as large, as happiness: if one does not cope with the problems that are falling upon him constantly, his character grows worse. It’s well known: he, who sows the character, will reap a fate. If you want to see good, successful and happy children, teach them in a correct way, in correspondence with their real needs and social realities. By the way, in such a case children don’t make any resistance to studying (common mass school feels such a resistance now).

How to turn the education to a proper direction? That’s really a question! I offer you a few principles from a book: ‘Technique of teaching’.15 These principles are like a bridge from the present into the future. They can be realized in the today’s school, are already realized in the best schools and will be actual, though realized in other technical ways, in future.

Technique of teaching: principles PRINCIPLE OF FREE CHOICE

In any teaching or ruling action, where it’s possible, give the right of choice to a student. An important condition: the right of choice is always balanced by realized responsibility for the choice made.

That may be done within the limits of the modern educational system. Here are a few examples of the free choice. Victor Shatalov (a teacher of Mathematic s) gives his students plenty of problems and the students choose themselves, which of the problems to solve. Sophia Lysenkova (a teacher of primary school) allows the children to choose what difficult words the teacher must write down on the blackboard. Ivan Volkov (the teacher of Handicrafts) gives his students only the topic, and they decide themselves what thing and of what material they will make…16

PRINCIPLE OF OPENNESS Use opened problems in teaching; not only give the knowledge to your students, but also

show them the limits of the knowledge; let your students meet the problems, the solution of which are lying beyond the bounds of the course being studied.

A student of secondary school (and even of the University) imagines the limits of his knowledge very vaguely, and the limits of the scientific knowledge as a whole are in the fog at all. Then where to take inquisitiveness, without which any teaching is no more than the training of executors!

In school the ‘closed’ problems (from point A to point B) are solved, and life gives you opened problems! And the students’ interest and, as a result, our educational efforts, often fall into this gap between the closed school problems and the open problems of the life.

PRINCIPLE OF ACTIVITY Students must master the knowledge, skills and habits mainly in the form of activity. While the students’ knowledge is checked in the form of a quick rendering in the tape-

recorder regime, while studying and reviewing are realized in the form of learning by heart, school is working idle for 90% of time.

If a student wants his knowledge to be a tool and not a heap of old staff at the backyards of his brains, he must work with it. What does it mean ‘to work with the knowledge’? In common words that means: to use it, to look for the conditions and limits of its applicability, to transform, expand and amplify it, to find new connections and correlations, to consider in different models and contexts…

PRINCIPLE OF THE BACK COMMUNICATION The process of teaching must be controlled with the developed system of feedback. The more developed the system (technical, economic, social or educational) is, the more

mechanisms of feedback it has. A pilot follows a set of parameters using the instruments during the flight: from the temperature overboard to the level of fuel in the tanks. A successful flight can’t be imagined without it. Neither a successful lesson. Only a teacher follows other parameters during the lesson: Students’ mood, their interest, level of understanding…

PRINCIPLE OF IDEALITY Use the abilities, knowledge, and interest of the students themselves maximally in order to

raise the results and reduce the energy spent in the educational process. The greater the students’ activity and self-organization is, the more ideal the teaching or

ruling action is. If we accord the substance and forms of education with the students’ interests competently, they will try to learn ‘What’s on?’ THEMSELVES. If we accord the rate, rhythm and complexity of teaching with the students’ capabilities, they will feel their success and will want to support it THEMSELVES. The principle supposes the active involvement of the students into the ruling of their collective, and they begin to teach each other THEMSELVES. The teacher does not get tired while efficiency of his work is very high! It was low ideality that caused the fact that many methods of teaching were rejected in spite of their use: they required from the teacher either much power or too rare features.

The principles of teaching themselves are declarative. They become tools in the certain methods and technologies. Bet even the best technique of teaching is only half the work. The other half is the substance of teaching. What to teach?

What to teach? The education is based on the knowledge delivering, which often is out of date even before

they are included into the school curriculum. How to catch up with science? We have a paradox: we must teach the children to live in the world that we don’t know yet –

in the world of future. This paradox has appeared not long ago, when the technological and scientific paradigms began to change within one generation.17

The particularly specialized education does not satisfy the rate of life, too. The more particular the specialist is, the more difficult it is for him to learn again, to orient himself in the adjoining branches of knowledge. And the solving of the modern problems requires more and more system approach, skill of seeing far consequences. A problem, solved well, causes new opportunities, a badly solved one causes new troubles. And this concerns not only scientific or other professional activity, but the common life, too.

Neither higher nor secondary education satisfies these demands in the present time. Large companies more and more often try (not always successfully) to solve this problem for themselves. Here is a typical example: the American company ‘Bell telephone system’ has organized the Humanitarian institute for promising managers as a remedy from particular specialization.18

Mastering of knowledge by the students of today’s school is divided into separate subjects. I give a problem at the lesson of physics to a strong group of students. In order to solve the problem one must use his knowledge of chemistry. The results are poor. We begin to analyse. And the students say ‘Well, why didn’t you say that we should use chemistry? We would solve the problem!’

It’s hard to expect that after many years of education divided into subjects the system thinking should appear itself. Constantine Ushinsky said about it figuratively: ‘Concepts and even ideas lies in the head in dead rows, like swallows, benumbed by frost, do according to a legend. One row is lying close to another, knowing nothing about each other, and two ideas, which are allied with each other, may live in such really benighted head for decades without seeing each other.19

A well-known physicist Leo Szillard proposed a simple image: let us imagine all the humanity’s knowledge to be a ball. Then the space outside the ball is the field of unknown. The surface of the sphere symbolizes the border between the known and the unknown. But the greater the knowledge volume, the more is the area of contact with the unknown. And every point of this area is an opened problem.

In principle, nothing prevents from filling the school education with opened problems. The regular collision with the creative, research problems, including those the answers for which is not known yet, is necessary for the forming mind, as well as vitamins are necessary for the growing organism. And there are such problems in every school subject and between the subjects. And they are responsible for developing the creative intuition. As for the intuition, it is not only the Gift of the Heaven. It is the creative experience, organized in a special way. It’s the experience of solving the non-typical problems, built into the subconsciousness.

The methods of training the imagination and inventive thinking have already come to the education. For example the patent department of the USA has worked out a special programme PROJECT XL that is urged to support the development of inventive thinking skills at all the level of studying: the department has also worked out the ‘Handbook of the inventive thinking resources’ for teachersiv.

But we shall go still further. ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge’ – said Albert Einstein. We shall agree with this, but with a reservation: knowledge how to think in a non-standard way, that is to imagine, is just more important. Such knowledge and, above all, the skill

of solving non-standard problems, is developed by the theory of solving the inventive problems. And in spite of the fact that this theory has become world property already, the most interesting experimental sites of using it in the field of education are situated in Russia. Certainly, they are tiny sparks in the awaking volcano of new education. But a spark may give the birth to flame.

To tell the truth, the developed inventive thinking isn’t yet enough for success. In order to be productive, one must have at least one more skill – to organize the creative work. This includes planning the work and the working time calculation, skill of working with data bases, mastering the estimation of scientific work and much else. And certainly, discipline. Not stupid executive discipline but conscious creative one. It’s possible.

Conclusion Ideal didactics is its absence. A student strives for knowledge HIMSELF in such a way that

nothing can prevent him from that. Let the light go out – he will read with candles! We have the Ideal ruling when there are no ruling actions but their function is carried out.

Everyone knows what he must do. And everyone does it because he wants it HIMSELF! The future of the school is determined not by the president of a separate country, not by the

minister of education and even not by the teacher. But every participant of the educational process decides himself whether he wants to keep step with future or to march with his heels forward.

About the Author:

Anatoly Guin, master TRIZ, the manager of the Laboratory ‘Universal solver’,

www.trizway.com .

1 French engineer and scientist. Quoted after “Ideas and our world”/ under general editorship of R. Stewart. 2 E. Toffler. “The third wave”. 3 E. Use wrote this in 1935. Quoted after E. Toffler. “The third wave”. 4 Data from A.N. Dzhurinsky. “History of pedagogics”. 5 The author does not give any appreciative sense to this image. The school-factory is neither good nor bad in this context. It is just a fact. 6 The nature of this resistance was not always progressive. 7 American psychologists have studied the biographies of 400 prominent people. It turned to be that 60% of them had serious problems at school in respect of adaptability to school conditions. The fact taken from Yu.Z Gilbukh. “Attention! Gifted children”. 8 Here we use the model of dividing the history of society into stages, suggested by E. Toffler. 9 The new mailing system was based upon the principle of preliminary paying. The first postage stamp – ‘the Black Penny’ appeared in England in 1840. 10 The fact taken from the “Yuny tekhnik” magazine, No. 1, 1990. 11 E. Toffler. “The third wave”. 12 We say nothing about the girl. 13 An opened problem is characterized by the fact that it has neither correctly formulated terms nor previously known algorithm of solving and the only correct answer. 14 Quoted after E. Toffler. “The third wave”. 15 A.A.Guin. “Technique of teaching” 16 See “Basis of the pedagogical mastery”, edited by I.A. Zyazyun. 17 For example, the technological paradigms of radio construction have changed 4 times within a generation: electrovacuum devices – transistors – microcircuits − large-scale integration circuits. 18 The fact taken from M. and E. de Liu. “How to study to read quickly”.

19 Quoted after V.S. Rottenberg, S.M. Bondarenko. “Brain. Studying. Health”. 20 World Patent Information, Vol. 12, No 2, pp. 81–82, 1990.

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40 Inventive Principles with Applications in Education

Dana G. MARSH / Heidelberg Digital L.L.C. Rochester, N.Y. e-mail: dana.marsh@heidelberg.com

Faith H. WATERS / East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania

e-mail: fwaters@po-box.esu.edu

Tabor D. MARSH/ Macedon Elementary School, Wayne County, New York e-mail: tmarsh5931@aol.com

Introduction Recent TRIZ research has resulted in extending TRIZ applications into non-technical areas. The Contradiction Matrix and corresponding 40 Principles have found applications in several areas, for example business (Mann & Domb, 1999) and (Mann, 1999), service operations management (Zhang, J. et al., 2003), quality management (Retseptor, 2003), and education (Marsh, Waters, & Mann, 2002). Marsh, et al., discussed potential solution concepts generated by doctoral students in education using the Contradiction Matrix for Business and Management developed by Mann. The Contradiction Matrix was first modified for use in resolving education related technical conflicts. The 31 business features of the Business Matrix were redefined and equivalents for higher education, and K through 12 grades developed. These redefinitions enabled educators and education students to interpret the business features in educational concepts and terms with which they are familiar. This paper provides educational examples of the 40 inventive principles. The examples address both administration (A) and classroom teaching (C), or both (A/C). These examples are intended to act as concept triggers for users who wish to use the Educational Contradiction Matrix and Educational 40 Principles to resolve conflicts and contradictions in the educational field.

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Educational 40 Principles 1 - SEGMENTATION

a. Divide an object or event into independent persons or parts.

• Conduct site-based management. (A) • Offer separate programs to meet the diverse needs of students. (A) • Utilize task analyses when planning instruction. (C)

b. Make an object or event easy to assemble or disassemble. Make an object sectional.

• Create flexible class scheduling that supports student choice of classes. (A) • Create project teams. (A) • Create review boards. (A) • Use partitions to create sectional classrooms. (A) • Utilize flexible grouping. (A) • Use block scheduling. (A) (See also Principle 30) • Create homogeneous (track) or heterogeneous (un-track) grouping. (A) • Use curricular modules/units. (C)

c. Increase the degree of fragmentation or segmentation.

• Identify key areas of concern in conducting teacher contract negotiations. (A) • Set short-term and long-term goals for successful reform efforts. (A) • Employ mass customization - each student is a market. (A) • Break down teaching goals (objectives) into sub-goals. (A) • Condense a full year course into one semester or quarter. (A) • Create individual standards-based modules. (A)

2- TAKING OUT

a. Separate an interfering component or property from an object or event, or single out the only

necessary component (or property) of an object or event. • Create needs-based professional development plans / programs that meets staff needs accordingly. (A) • Create virtual educational programs. (A) (Take out the classroom) (See also Principle 26) • Offer clinical supervision to teachers requiring remediation. (A) • Create or single out remedial programs. (A) • Create or single out alternative programs. (A) • Utilize online searches for books, periodicals, etc., in libraries. (A) • Eliminate non-purposeful physical and psychological barriers. (A/C) • Utilize data to make decisions. (Take out the emotion) (A/C) • Enable auditing or testing out for students who believe they have met course requirements. (A/C) • Make use of time-outs. (C)

b. Extract the only necessary part (or property) of an object.

• Set up a mentoring / peer coaching program for teachers. (A) • Use data -driven budgeting process. (A) • Match new programming and curricula to AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress). (A) • Separate 'troubled' students from the general student population. (A) • Match curricula and instruction to ‘high stakes’ tests. (A) • Use matrices to identify key skills to be taught. (A/C) • Teach to the curricula or test. (C) • Use College Outline Series books. (C)

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3- LOCAL QUALITY

a. Change an object's structure from uniform to non-uniform. (Homogeneous to Heterogeneous) • Set up class scheduling to avoid student tracking. (A) • Provide handicapped entry to schools and classrooms. (A) • Create differentiated professional development programs. (A) • Use differentiated supervision models. (A) • Provide choices and options in curricula, schedule, and auxiliary services. (A)

b. Change an external environment (or external influence) from uniform to non-uniform.

• Create multiple ways that parents can interact with the school. (A) • Lobby for flexibility in funding streams. (A) • Establish strong, ongoing, wide-ranging relationships with the community. (A) • Organize the classroom with worktables, movable seats, and resource centers versus podiums, lecterns,

and raised platforms at the front of the room. (A/C)

c. Make each part of an object or system function in conditions most suitably for its operation. • Utilize flexible grouping to meet individual student needs. (A) • Employ schools without walls. (A) • Locate schools in heavily populated areas to maximize tax revenues. (A) • Locate continuing education centers in locations near to customers. (A) • Use multiple times for parent training programs. (A) • Utilize summer school, weekend, and evenings. (Year-round schooling) (A) • Create varying time schedules for classes and school. (A) • Create educational modules different in content and duration for different organizational levels. (A/C)

d. Make each part of an object or system fulfill a different and useful function.

• Allocate time, money, materials, space, and staff to achieve desired ends. (A) • Create a comprehensive program to provide community members opportunities to foster learning. (A) • Create differentiated staffing programs. (A) • Use individual accountability in instructional methodology. (C)

4- ASYMMETRY

a. Change the shape of an object, system, or event from symmetrical to asymmetrical form.

• Utilize portfolio assessment to represent a running record of students' intellectual progress versus a standardized report card. (A)

• Offer asynchronous opportunities to learn. (A) (See also Principles 19 and 35) • Utilize flexible seating in classrooms. (C) • Use differentiated instruction. (C) • Create interest in learning through unexpected events. (C) Asymmetrical with respect to the normal

schedule. • Use cognitive dissonance strategies to create student interest and higher level thinking. (C)

b. Change the shape of an object, system, or event to suit external asymmetries (e.g. ergonomics)

• Start classes for secondary education later in the day. (A) • Create incentives and support for non-traditional stakeholders. (A) • Create an engaging and welcoming environment. (A/C) • Create a warm atmosphere in classroom and school. (Colors, design, furniture) (A)

c. If an object, system, or event is asymmetrical, increase its degre e of asymmetry.

• Provide student differentiation by offering advanced placement classes. (A) • Use asymmetrical body language when dealing with classroom management problems. (C)

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• Increase the randomness of student response. (C) • For disaffected students increase emphasis of student-based relevance. (C)

5- MERGING (COMBINING)

a. Bring closer together (or merge) identical or similar objects, or assemble identical or similar parts to perform parallel operations. • Hire paraprofessionals to assist classroom teachers in meeting the diverse needs of students. (A) • Structure staffing assignments to support team teaching initiatives. (A) • Engage in instructional team planning and teaching. (A) • Employ multi-purpose classrooms. (A) • Create a cafeteria /auditorium (A) • In universities and private schools locate the Registrar and Bursar offices close together. (A) • Encourage collaboration between teachers and parents. (A) • Organize action research groups to study influences, practices, and results of curriculum design. (A/C) • Combine skill based experiences within fundraiser activities. (A/C) (See also Principle 7)

b. Make objects or operations contiguous or parallel; bring them together in time. • Use team teaching to capitalize on teacher expertise. (A) • Create inclusive classrooms with a co-teaching structure. (A) • Coordinate library and media centers. (A) • Incorporate interdisciplinary curricula and instruction. (A) • Offer internships, shadowing, and cooperative education opportunities. (A) • Locate computers in classrooms. (A/C)

6- UNIVERSALITY

a. Make a person/system/event perform multiple functions; eliminate the need for other persons. • Recruit and employ teachers with dual/multiple areas of certification. (A) • Break down barriers between departments. (W. E. Deming) (A) • Create multidisciplinary teams. (A) • Use data collected for accreditation purposes for continuous school improvement. (A) • Merge and standardize accreditation processes. (A) • Employ "Lunch and Learn" events. (A/C) • Utilize test scores for regulatory statistics as well as student grading. (Program evaluation as well as

individual student evaluation) (See also Principle 23) (A/C)

b. Use standardized features. • Use multidisciplinary teams to develop standardized tests. (A) • Create computerized templates. (A) • Consider using department and grade level examinations. (A/C) • Use state testing standards and curricula as district standards and lesson plan objectives. (C) • Use rubrics, checklists, and other scoring tools to standardize expectations. (C) • Use parallel tasks and experiences to match state standards and examinations. (C) • Use common lesson elements. (C)

7- "'NESTED DOLL" (MATRESHKA)

a. Place one event inside another; place each event, in turn, inside the other. • Write curriculum with K-12 faculty versus by grade or school level ensuring a seamless set of teaching

and learning experiences. (A) • Include CD's inside textbooks. (A) • Align national, state, and local educational standards. (A/C)

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• Combine skill based experiences within fundraiser activities. (A/C) (See also Principle 5) • Use practice, homework, and assessment techniques to make students accountable. (C) • Create purpose for learning through communicating authentic real world experiences. (C) • Provide cognitive dissonance during classroom teaching. (C)

b. Make one person/system pass (dynamically) through a cavity in the other. • Operations in the Main (Principal's) Office should not be isolated from the classrooms. School

receptionists should know the operational status of classrooms. (A) • Create channels that allow direct communication throughout the line and staff organization. (A) • Create professional development schools and internships. (A) • Consider differentiated staffing including apprenticeship periods. (A) • Create meaningful parent-teacher organizations. (A) • Articulate the desired ends of the School Board through the Superintendent and building principal to

the classroom teacher for implementation. (A/C)

8- ANTI-WEIGHT (COUNTERWEIGHT)

a. To compensate for the weight (downward tendency) of an event, merge it with other events that provide lift. • Group students with mixed abilities. (A) • Invite consulting firms to identify and enable development activities. (A) • Merge classes and curricula to combine unique strengths. (A) • Create special events to reward student effort. (A) • Adopt inclusion to integrate special education with regular education. (A) • Create flex professional development programs that allow for individual choice. (A) • Support learning experiences that incorporate peer tutoring. (A/C) • Use special events to showcase student talents. (A/C)

b. To compensate for the weight (downward tendency) of an event, make it interact with the environment (e.g. use global lift forces). • Group students to learn academic content. (A) • Encourage cooperation between traditional and charter schools. (A) • Use technology to create interest and to minimize non-essential tasks. (A/C) • Create interesting homework assignments. (C)

9- PRELIMINARY ANTI-ACTION (PRIOR COUNTER-ACTION)

a. If it will be necessary to do an action with both harmful and useful effects, this action should be replaced with anti-actions to control harmful effects. • Conduct random drug searches to ensure safety and commitment to laws and regulations. (A) • Use innovative instructional media to satisfy both academic and safety requirements. (A) • Use virtual modules to test out of annual professional development requirements. (A) (See also

Principle 27)

b. Create beforehand stresses in an object that will oppose known undesirable working stresses later on. • Identify focus areas for teacher observations/evaluations. (A) • Engage in open, active communication to avoid future misunderstanding. (A) • Understand, respond to, and influence the political, social, economic, legal, and cultural contexts of the

larger community. (A) • Maintain student records. (A/C) • Build/present a rubric to be used to assess student work prior to creation/submission of product. (A/C) • Separate and pre-locate challenging students. (C)

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• Use quizzes before major examinations. (C) • Share scoring rubric when assigning projects, papers, etc. (C) • Use parallel tasks to prepare for ‘high stakes’ testing. (C) • Create needs-based learning. (C) • Use diagnostic assessment. (C) • Use best practice theory to determine developmentally appropriate times and ways to teach content. (C)

10- PRELIMINARY ACTION

a. Perform, before it is needed, the required change of an object or event (either fully or partially). • Model desired behaviors throughout the building/organization. (A) • Create and utilize emergency preparedness plans. (A) • Create long-range as well as annual plans (NCLB – No Child Left Behind) (A) • Establish a proactive rather than reactive process for decision-making. (Strategic planning) (A/C) • Prepare lesson plans for substitute teachers. (C)

b. Pre -arrange objects such that they can come into action from the most convenient place and without losing time for their delivery. • Provide sign posters and route maps as directions for students and parents. (A) • Ensure that there is sufficient lead-time for demands made on families and the community. (A) • Create a common calendar. (A) • Create a climate for learning that is collaborative, supportive, challenging, and fair. (C) • Have students express concerns/ pose questions/offer potential solutions prior to learning. (C)

11- BEFOREHAND CUSHIONING (CUSHION IN ADVANCE)

a. Prepare emergency means beforehand to compensate for the relatively low reliability of an event. • Develop an emergency management plan. (A) • Create ongoing communication tools to allow for continuous update. (A) • Train faculty and staff in use of emergency equipment. (Automatic External Defibrillator) (A) • Identify emergency resources needed and method of accessibility. (A) • Create a safe drop-off and pickup plan for students at beginning and end of day. (A) • Use metal detectors and guards to maintain safe learning environment. (A) • Have students conduct peer assessments prior to submission of work for grading. (C) • Identify areas of assessment at the onset of learning. (C)

12- EQUIPOTENTIALITY

a. In a potential field, limit position changes (e.g. change operating conditions to eliminate the need to raise or lower object or events to match requirements). • Utilize flexible bleacher seating for assemblies. (A) • Utilize satellite campuses for "Lifelong Learning". (A) • Structure so students stay put, teachers move between classrooms. (A) • Purchase equipment that can be adapted to meet varying student needs. (A)

13- THE OTHER WAY ROUND (INVERSION)

a. Invert the action(s) used to solve the problem (e.g., instead of cooling an event, heat it). • Provide for student feedback for course and teacher evaluations. (A) • Blame the process rather than the teacher. (A) • Students assess their own and other student’s examinations and homework assignments. (C) • Allow students to choose preferred learning experiences within course requirements. (C) • Let the students teach and the teachers learn. (C)

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b. Make movable persons /systems (or the external environment) fixed, and fixed persons / systems/ movable. • Try teachers moving between classes vs. students moving between classes. (A) • Implement home visits to provide teaching for homebound students. (A) • Incorporate Management by Walking Around. (A) • Conduct PTA and PTO meetings in the community rather than in the school. (A)

c. Turn the event (or process) "upside down." • Develop outcome-based rather than education-based structure. (A) • Have students teach classes. (C) • Incorporate independent learning experiences and contract learning. (C) • Have students assess themselves. (C) • Have students help develop classroom rules. (C) • Create cognitive dissonance with classroom instruction. (C)

14- SPHEROIDALITY - CURVATURE

a. Instead of using rectilinear parts, surfaces, or forms, use curvilinear ones; move from flat surfaces to spherical ones; from parts shaped as a cube (parallelepiped) to ball-shaped structures. • Use rounded personalities as interface to parents. (A/C) • Use smoothing techniques for conflict resolution - encourage joint problem solving opportunities.

(A/C) • Establish deviation request protocols as a formal method for circumventing the rules. (A/C) • Use educational globes rather than maps for instruction. (C) • Use 3D virtual computer models rather than 2D equations. (C) • Use ‘manipulatives’ in teaching mathematics. (C)

• Use 'hands-on' activities. (C)

b. Use rollers, balls, spirals, and domes. • Employ quality circles. (A) • Build the curriculum in a spiral manner that enables students to continually build on what they have

already learned. (A/C) • Use biosphere environmental enclosures rather than terrariums. (A/C) • Use Bloom’s taxonomy to emphasize creative and reflective thinking. (C) Adapted from: Bloom, B.S.

(Ed.) (1956) Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals: Handbook I, cognitive domain. New York ; Toronto: Longmans, Green.

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c. Go from linear to rotary motion, use centrifugal forces. • Use site-based management. (A) • Encourage lateral or pattern (Out of the Box) thinking rather than linear thinking. (A/C) • Build a collaborative context for learning that stimulates the construction of knowledge, reflection, and

social awareness to shape individual and collective growth. (C) • Use constructivism as an instructional approach. (C)

15- DYNAMICS

a. Allow (or design) the characteristics of an object, external env ironment, or process to change to be

optimal or to find an optimal operating condition. • Make creative use of all resources - people, time, and money - to support school improvement. (A) • Create alternative programs. (A) • Adopt a participatory change process. (A) • Use self -paced learning. (C)

b. Divide an event into persons / systems capable of movement relative to each other.

• Utilize site-based management teams for decision-making. (A) • Use cross-functional and cross-department teaching, and offer interdisciplinary degree programs. (A) • Employ team-teaching and co-teaching models and methodologies. (A)

c. If an object (or process) is rigid or inflexible, make it movable or adaptive.

• Provide learning opportunities for teacher and students via technology-based, asynchronous systems designed to deliver education and training programs. (A)

• Create flexible curricula (Chaocracy). (A) • Employ permanent substitute teachers. (A) • Utilize flex and comp time as well as stipends to compensate teachers. (A) • Provide inter, intra, and interscholastic co-curricular programs. (A) • Modify written curriculum to accommodate learners with special needs. (A/C)

d. Increase the degree of free motion.

• Offer Advanced Placement or Regents programs. (A) • Enable asynchronous distance learning. (A) • Have students only attend school during class time. (A) • Create an open campus. (A) • Create an individualized education plan for each student. (A/C) • Use interactive teleconferencing to distant museums, classrooms, etc. (C)

16- PARTIAL OR EXCESSIVE ACTIONS

a. If 100 percent of an event is hard to achieve using a given solution method then, by using "slightly

less" or "slightly more" of the same method, the problem may be considerably easier to solve. • Use retirement incentives to complement anticipated teacher attrition. (A) • Create study halls. (A) • Utilize teacher aides. (A) • Recruit ten (10) volunteers, then use only the five (5) best. (A/C) • Offer enrichment and remedial opportunities to meet individual learning needs. (C) • Grade all questions then average the top scores on examinations. (C) • Teach to the test. (C) • Work to contract. (C) • Give no homework assignments. (C) • Re-teach students who do not achieve mastery. (C)

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• Schedule extra practice sessions. (C) • Inspect every head in classroom for head lice. (C) • Provide extra test time for students who need it. (C)

17- ANOTHER DIMENSION

a. To move an event into two - or three-dimensional space.

• Offer instructional programming that is delivered via the Internet or computer linkages to students receiving instruction in locations outside a classroom supervised by physically present teachers. (A)

• Celebrate special events in other cultures (e.g., Cinco de Mayo, Hannuhka) (C) • Use experiential learning rather than theoretical learning. (C) • Incorporate field trips. (C) • Utilize guest speakers. (C)

b. If an object continues to moves in a plane, consider use of dimensions or movement outside the

current plane. • Use multi-dimensional parent satisfaction surveys. (A) • Open facilities during evenings and weekends. (A) • Create homework hotlines and virtual support beyond school day. (A/C) • Vary teaching for different learning styles. (C)

c. Use a multi-story arrangement of events instead of a single -story arrangement.

• Differentiate and segment students on the basis of their needs, behaviors, ages, etc. (A/C) • Use cooperative learning and constructivism. (C) • Use multiple examples and practice opportunities. (C)

d. Tilt or re -orient the event, lay it on its side.

• Create grade level or interdisciplinary teams. (A) • Assign classroom instructional responsibilities to the building principal. (A/C) • Encourage horizontal communication among teachers. (A/C) • Use “Library on a Cart” concept. (C)

e. Use "another side" of a given area.

• Work with parents, school board members, and other interested groups to share and interpret achievement results about what students are learning, areas that need improvement, and plans for improvement efforts. (A)

• View school from other side by use of external consultants for school or program assessment. (A) • Establish two-way communication among teachers, parents, doctors, etc. (A) • Coordinate use of facilities between school and community needs. (A) • Use peer tutoring among buildings and grade levels. (C)

18- MECHANICAL VIBRATION

a. Cause an object or event to oscillate or vibrate. (Shake things up)

• Utilize mid-term interim report cards. (A) • Re-assign teachers to different grade levels. (A) • Re-organize classroom seating assignments. (C) • Utilize ‘anticipatory set’ in instruction. (C) • Use cooperative learning, hands-on activities, stations, and centers for classroom instruction. (C)

b. Increase its frequency (even to the ultrasonic).

• Communicate frequently in multiple modes - newsletters, telephone, report cards, etc. (A/C) • Reorganize classroom-seating assignments periodically. (C)

10

c. Use an event's resonant frequency.

• Have outside consultants work in harmony with school administrators. (A) • Coordinate scheduling to avoid conflicts and overload. (A) • Instruct to different learning styles. (C)

d. Use piezoelectric vibrators instead of mechanical ones.

• Use a variety of motivational techniques. (C)

e. Use external elements to create oscillation / vibration. • Utilize third party external assessments. (A) • Utilize data-driven decision-making. (A) • Embrace accountability models. (A/C)

19 - PERIODIC ACTION

a. Instead of continuous action, use periodic or pulsating actions.

• Monitor periodically the impact of the curriculum on teaching and learning. (A) • Offer evening or weekend classes for continuing education students. (A) • Monitor and evaluate the daily processes of teaching and learning. (A) • Offer asynchronous opportunities to learn. (A) (See also Principles 4 and 35) • Use randomized questioning techniques. (C)

b. If an action is already periodic, change the periodic magnitude or frequency.

• Conduct quarterly teacher assessment reviews instead of annually. (A) • Use adjustable reporting, IEP, requisitions, inventories, and other paperwork frequencies. (A)

c. Uses pauses between actions to perform a different action.

• Offer teacher training during pauses in teaching. (A) • Offer enrichment/remediation activities during vacations or off-periods in year-round scheduling. (A) • Conduct preventative maintenance on school facilities during vacations. (A) • Conduct quick reviews of basic skills while waiting in line. (C) • Employ reflective thinking strategies. (C)

20 - CONTINUITY OF USEFUL ACTION

a. Carry on work continuously, make all persons / systems of an event work at full load or optimum

efficiency, all the time. • Maintain class size. (A) • Bring the services for special education students to the classroom rather than have students go

elsewhere for services. (A) • Utilize retired teachers and staff for student teacher evaluations. (A) • Reduce paperwork load. (A)

b. Eliminate all idle or intermittent actions or work.

• Use mobile phones. (A) • Use intercoms. (A) • Create life-long learning opportunities. (A) • Institute12-month school schedules or varied year-round models. (A) • Increase length of teacher workday to allow time to do extra tasks that take away from student time.(A)

21 - SKIPPING (RUSHING THROUGH)

a. Conduct a process, or certain stages (e.g. destructive, harmful or hazardous operations) at high speed.

11

• Create efficient procedures for routine activities, e.g., (avoid diesel fuel vapors, fire drills, etc.) (A/C) • Listen to intuitive sense when making decisions. (A/C) • Utilize formative assessment e.g., fail fast - learn fast. (C) • Use brainstorming as an instructional technique. (C) • 'Cram' (conduct intense review) for exams. (C) • Answer questions quickly to avoid psychological inertia. (C)

22 - "BLESSING IN DISGUISE" (TURN LEMONS INTO LEMONADE)

a. Use harmful factors (particularly, harmful effects of the environment or surrounding s) to achieve a

positive effect. • Use parents’ complaints to improve the quality of educational delivery. (Parents whose complaints are

handled properly are more loyal than parents without complaints.) (A) • Employ rapid re-grading of faulty, inaccurate ‘high stakes’ examinations. (A) • Establish policies that allow students to revise work to improve grades. (A/C)

b. Eliminate the primary harmful action by adding it to another harmful action to resolve the

problem. • Eliminate fear of change by substituting fear of competition. (A/C) • Recognize that the accountability demands of State and Federal mandates have led to acceptance of

district policies. (A/C)

c. Amplify a harmful factor to such a degree that it is no longer harmful. • Realize that the greater the cost for consultants, the greater the perception of value. (A)

23 - FEEDBACK

a. Introduce feedback (referring back, cross-checking) to improve a process or action.

• Provide opportunities for educators to work together on issues of teaching and learning, enabling colleagues to give and receive feedback on teaching performances. (A)

• Collect and use data from a variety of sources to inform school improvement decisions. (A) • Use RFID technology in school bookstores. (A) • Use comprehensive assessment – diagnostic, formative, and summative. (C) • Study student work samples and reflect on how improvements might occur. (C) • Utilize test scores for regulatory statistics as well as student grading. (Program evaluation as well as

individual student evaluation) (A/C) (See also Principle 6)

b. If feedback is already used, change its magnitude or influence. • Anticipate potential obstacles to school reform efforts by including stakeholders from various positions

in the planning / implementation process. (A) • Increase frequency of report cards. (A) • Utilize five-week interim notices. (A) • Vary length of report card periods. (A) • Move from letter and number grades to standards-based reporting. (A) • Create a sense of urgency about improving learning for students and teachers. (C)

24 - "INTERMEDIARY"

a. Use an intermediary carrier article or intermediary process.

• Encourage satisfied parents to be emissaries of educational programs. (A) • Recruit and nurture parents to be active members of Parent-Teacher Associations. (A) • Use arbitrators for sensitive discussions. (A) • Accept advocates as part of the IEP process. (A) • Use facilitators at group, brainstorming, and problem solving sessions. (A/C)

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b. Merge one object temporarily with another (which can be easily removed).

• Utilize temporary aides. (A) • Utilize support staff. (A) • Hire consultants. (A) • Train substitute teachers. (A) • Create interdisciplinary teams. (A) • Create a core group of volunteers. (A)

25 - SELF-SERVICE

a. Make an event serve itself by performing auxiliary helpful functions.

• Conduct self-assessment of teaching practices by previewing videotapes of classroom activities. (A) • Employ faculty self-evaluations. (A) • Utilize self-directed work teams. (A) • Combine classroom and program assessment. (A/C) • Utilize rubrics quantifiable scoring systems. Heidi Goodrich, a rubrics expert, defines a rubric as "a

scoring tool that lists the criteria for a piece of work or 'what counts.'" (A/C) • Build in reflective experiences for students. (C)

b. Use waste (or lost) resources, energy, or substances.

• Analyze poor teacher evaluations to improve performance. (A) • Evaluate recurrence of negative behaviors by expelled students to measure "waste" remediation

efforts. (A) • Conduct exit interviews with teachers leaving the profession. (A) • Conduct exit interviews of students who drop out. (A) • Recycle books. (A)

26 - COPYING

a. Instead of an unavailable, expensive, fragile object, use simpler and inexpensive copies.

• Benchmark competitors, e.g. charter schools. (A) • Benchmark similar projects/proposals to identify improvement opportunities. (A) • Create virtual educational programs. (A) (See also Principle 2) • Borrow images or 3D simulations of items from local museums, corporations, etc. (A/C) • Use local resources (e.g., town historians, government officials as speakers). (A/C) • Utilize teacher-made worksheets. (C)

b. Replace an event or process with optical copies.

• Offer professional coursework on-line. (A) • Use an electronic database rather than paper records. (A/C) • Provide learning syllabi in CD format. (A/C) • Use electronic course management software. (A/C) • Use projectors and transparency copies in lecturing. (C) • Use visuals to support lectures. (C)

c. If visible optical copies are already used, move to IR or UV copies. (Use an appropriate out-of-the-

ordinary illumination and viewing situation). • Evaluate student and parent satisfaction using multiple techniques. (A) • Use black lights for demonstrating fluorescent and phosphorescent phenomena. (C) • Use simulations, case studies and games instead of lecture-style training. (C) • Import graphical and visual representations in information-giving segments. (C)

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27 - CHEAP SHORT-LIVING OBJECTS

a. Replace an expensive event / object with a multiple of inexpensive objects / events, compromising certain qualities, such as service life. • Develop early retirement incentives to replace expensive staff with less expensive staff. (A) • Hire back retired staff at lower salaries. (A) • Use disposable cutlery and plates during influenza outbreaks. (A) • Consider differentiated staffing models. (A) • Use virtual modules to test out of annual professional development requirements. (A) (See also

Principle 9) • Use trial software for the trial period or limited times for free. (A/C) • Use volunteers in place of paid staff. (A/C) • Use the Internet for virtual field trips. (C)

28 - MECHANICS SUBSTITUTION

a. Replace a mechanical means with a sensory (optical, acoustic, taste or smell) means. • Use distance learning. (A) • Videotape lectures and CD recordings as a substitute for physical attendance. (A) • Use electronic communication. (A/C) • Develop multi-sensory experiences in science. (C) • Use learning style responsive activities rather than lectures. (C) • Attach a sensory response to an educational concept or practice. (C)

b. Use electric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields to interact with the object. • Create problem-solving teams for site-based management. (A) • Substitute electronic communication for physical travel (e.g., learning through online classes, or video

conferences). (A/C) • Use online physical education courses. (A/C) • Use cooperative learning groups. (C)

c. Change from static to movable fields, from unstructured fields to those having structure. • Enable real-time communication with visual images through Internet technologies. (A/C) • Create opportunities for older students to teach /tutor younger ones. (High school students teach/tutor

elementary students.) (C)

d. Use fields in conjunction with field activated (e.g. ferromagnetic) particles. • Utilize new teacher mentoring programs. The new teacher is activated by the aura of the mentor. (A)

29 - PNEUMATICS AND HYDRAULICS (INTANGIBILITY)

a. Use gas and liquid parts of an event / system instead of solid parts (e.g. inflatable, filled with liquids, air cushion, hydrostatic, hydro-reactive). Use intangible parts of an object / system instead of tangible parts. • Utilize flexible (fluid) organizational structures vs. fixed hierarchical structures. (A) • View competitors as collaborators (Charter Schools / Traditional Schools). (A) • Introduce binding arbitration into contracts. (A) • Share teachers between schools and school districts. (A) • Consider benefits of traditional vs. virtual education. (A) • Introduce breathing spaces into contracts. (Buyer's remorse clauses) (A) • Encourage peripheral stakeholders’ positive perception of schools. (A) • Encourage high school students to take college courses. (A/C)

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30 - FLEXIBLE SHELLS AND THIN FILMS

a. Use flexible shells and thin films instead of three-dimensional structures. • Have students mentor other students. (A) • Have administrators make themselves available to students during non-instructional periods. (A) • Have principals develop open door policy. (A) • Allow parents direct access to teachers to deal with educator most directly involved. (A/C) • Have teachers participate in after-school clubs and activities. (C)

b. Isolate the object from the external environment using flexible shells and thin films. • Employ block scheduling. (A) (See also principle 1) • Use breakout areas for students. (A) • Facilitate home schooling. (A) • Use multiple locations and structures for study hall. (A) • Use one-on-one teaching (teaching aides). (C)

31 - POROUS MATERIALS

a. Make an object porous or add porous elements (insets, coatings, etc.). • Improve communications by providing for Internet and intranet accessibility. (A) • Set up and maintain web site. (A)

b. If an event is already porous, use the pores to introduce a useful substance or function.

• Set up faculty profiles on school web site. (A/C) • Create community and business partnerships to enhance classroom instruction. (A/C) • Create advanced assignments for students who already understand the basic concepts. (C) • Create online tutorials to support classroom instruction. (C) • Use high school students as technology resource people in elementary school classes. (C)

32 - COLOR CHANGES a. Change the color of an event or its external environment.

• Increase student diversity in the classroom. (A) • Use school colors to increase student spirit or solidarity. (A) • Foster employee diversity. (A) • Develop community and business partnerships to enhance diversity. (A) • Utilize lighting effects to change the mood in the classroom. (A/C)

b. Change the transparency of an event or its external environment.

• Provide clear and concise vision and mission statements for parents. (A) • Provide visibility to school cafeterias, auto shops, etc. (A) • Pre-group students to work in activity centers. (C)

c. In order to improve observability of th ings that are difficult to see, use colored additives or

luminescent elements. • Use desktop or graphic presentations. (C) • Use temporarily colored glue that dries clear. (C) • Match color in materials to desired effect. (C)

d. Change the emissivity properties of an object subject to radiant heating.

• Develop behavioral and environmental modifications to meet the needs of challenged students. (C)

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33 - HOMOGENEITY

a. Make events interact with a given event of the same material (or material with identical properties). • Provide for common planning time for teachers. (A) • Use students to talk with visiting students and parents to improve enrollment and retention rates. (A) • Treat teachers and staff as external parents (customers). (A) • Create different center activities leading to common unit goals. (A) • Use external guidance/professional standards to direct curriculum design. (A/C) • Develop peer-tutoring opportunities. (C) • Use cooperative learning strategies. (C)

34 - DISCARDING AND RECOVERING (REJECTING AND REGENERATING PARTS)

a. Make portions of an event that have fulfilled their functions go away (discard by dissolving,

evaporating, etc.) or modify them directly during operation. • Conduct clinical supervisory practices and/or counsel ineffective teachers out of the profession. (A) • Eliminate redundant, duplicated, and non-value added activities, programs, and classes. (A/C) • Change instructional activities to maintain student interest. (C) • Develop activities and assessments congruent with standards. (C)

b. Restore consumable parts / events of a system during operation.

• Introduce periodic re-training. (A) • Periodically re-energize and refocus continuous improvement initiatives. (A) • Implement cyclical development programs. (A) • Encourage revising and sharing lesson plans. (A/C)

35 - PARAMETER CHANGES (TRANSFORMATION OF PROPERTIES)

a. Change an event's physical state (e.g., to a gas, liquid, or solid).

• Create an organizational culture that embraces and supports change. (A) • Turn brick-and-mortar schools into virtual schools. (A) • Convert paper tasks to online systems. (A/C)

b. Change the concentration or consistency.

• Focus on specialties to be more efficient and competitive. (e.g., Schools of music, technology, culinary institutes, etc.) (A)

• Change team structures. (A) • Encourage charter schools. (A) • Change length of day, week, course, and school year to meet student needs. (A)

c. Change the degree of flexibility.

• Engage staff in shaping the content and conditions of personal learning needs. (A) • Provide flexible variable-sized teams. (A) • Periodically review standard practices to determine relevance. (A/C) • Provide multiple remediation structures. (C) • Provide (individual) teaching approach for different student sectors. (C)

d. Change the atmosphe re to an optimal setting (e.g., temperature, pressure, other parameters).

• Offer asynchronous opportunities to learn. (A) (See also Principles 4 and 19) • Motivate students by providing them honors degrees and certificates. (A/C) • Provide alternative classroom designs. (A/C) • Encourage student excitement by providing ownership of change. (C)

16

36 - PHASE TRANSITIONS

a. Use phenomena occurring during phase transitions (Awareness of macro -scale business phenomena). • Use hall monitors for supervision of students going from homeroom to other subject classrooms. (A) • Develop transitional support programs between attendance unit levels. (A) • Develop effective procedures that allow adequate time for moving between classrooms. (A) • Develop protocol for field trips. (A/C) • Employ "Stages of learning - unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious

competence, unconscious competence" (W. E. Deming) (A/C) • Provide transition events for students moving from elementary to secondary education. (A/C) • Attempt to convert empty minds to open minds. (C)

37 - THERMAL EXPANSION (EXPANSION OF EVENTS OR PROCESSES) a. Use thermal expansion, or contraction, of materials.

• Consider year-round schooling. (A) • Offer summer programs. (A) • Employ self-paced studies. (A/C) • Provide academic enrichment for students. (A/C) • Provide differentiated instruction. (A/C) • Utilize methods to encourage students to be excited about their subjects. (C)

b. If thermal expansion is being used, use multiple materials with different coefficients of thermal

expansion. • Encourage empowerment - share authority and responsibility with students, teachers, and parents. (A) • Expand or contract curricula depending on the student’s interest and academic ability. (A/C) • Develop differentiated materials. (C) • Get synergy by mixing motivated students (mentors) with less motivated students. (C)

38 - STRONG OXIDANTS (BOOSTED INTERACTIONS)

a. Replace common air with oxygen-enriched air (enrich value added for students). • Create and articulate a vision of high standards for learning for all to share and support. (A) • Continually address and improve customer (student and parent) perceived quality of schools. (A) • Create an interactive learning environment. (C)

b. Replace enriched air with pure oxygen (increas e customer participation in education delivery). • Delegate responsibility and develop leadership in others to monitor strategic planning processes. (A) • Ensure total commitment to vision and mission statements. (A) • Implement site-based management. (A) • Allow students to become teachers. (C)

c. Expose air or oxygen to ionizing radiation (employ external influences). • Encourage and support the attendance of staff members at professional conferences and meetings. • Revise vision based on effective research. (A)

d. Use ionized oxygen

e. Replace ozonized (or ionized) oxygen with ozone (extreme or radical activities). • Consider radical reorganization. (A) • Support charter school development. (A) • Facilitate home schooling. (A)

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39 - INERT ATMOSPHERE

a. Replace a normal environment with an inert one. • Develop an emergency management plan. (A) • Encourage alternative passive systems for educating disaffected students. (A) • Maintain atmosphere free of judgment and criticism at brainstorming sessions. (A/C) • Encourage multi-cultural acceptance. (A/C)

b. Add neutral parts, or inert additives to an object.

• Use neutral third parties during difficult negotiations. (A) • Introduce 'quiet areas' into the school environment. (A/C) • Use time-out during negotiations. (A/C) • Encourage reflection on the part of all stakeholders. (A/C)

40 - COMPOSITE MATERIALS

a. Change from uniform to composite (multiple) structures. (Awareness and utilization of combinations of different skills and capabilities). • Develop interdisciplinary teams for teaching and learning. (A) • Consider differentiated staffing. (A) • Send follow-up notes as physical reminders of telephone conversations, etc. (A) • Utilize multiple modes (newsletter, intranet, staff meetings, etc.) for effective communications. (A) • Use multi-disciplinary, cross-functional teams. (A) • Introduce training/teaching with a combination of lecture, simulations, on-line learning, etc. (A/C) • Use multi-media for instruction - lecture with music and video. (C) • Combine high risk and low risk teaching methodologies and strategies. (C)

References [1] Mann, D. & Domb, E., (1999, September). "40 Inventive (Business) Principles with Examples, "The TRIZ Journal, Available FTP: http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/1999/09/a/index.htm [2] Mann, D., (2002, May). " Systematic Win-Win Problem Solving in a Business Environment," The TRIZ Journal, Available FTP: http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/2002/05/f/index.htm [3] Zhang, J., et al., (2003, December). "40 Inventive Principles with Applications in Service Operations Management," The TRIZ Journal, Available FTP: http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/2003/12/d/04.pdf [4] Retseptor, G. (2003, March). "40 Inventive Principles in Quality Management," The TRIZ Journal, Available FTP: http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/2003/03/a/01.pdf [5] Marsh, D ., Waters, F., & Mann, D. (2002, , November). "Using TRIZ to Resolve Educational Delivery Conflicts Inherent to Expelled Students in Pennsylvania," The TRIZ Journal, Available FTP: http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/2002/11/c/03.pdf

First presented at the European TRIZ Association meeting TRIZFutures 2003

TRIZ-BASED TECHNOLOGY INTELLIGENCE

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dipl.-Wirt. Ing. Günther Schuh Dipl.-Ing. Markus Grawatsch

Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT

Steinbachstrasse 17 52074 Aachen, Germany

www.ipt.fraunhofer.de

markus.grawatsch@ipt.fraunhofer.de

Abstract: “The intensified technological Darwinism demands new thinking!”

Technologies are the central and success-determining factors of every technology-oriented company. To ensure a solid and sustainable technological base that also withstands rapidly changing market requirements, an early focus on high-potential and forward-looking technologies is advised.

TRIZ -based Technology Intelligence is a method that assists tec hnology managers in identifying competing technologies in order to forecast their development and to determine their potential. The development of the primarily technological but also customer-related surrounding is also taken into account to guarantee a holistic and simultaneously focused view.

To reach this objective, the Technology Intelligence method incorporates different tools of the TRIZ -methodology (the theory of inventive problem solving) such as the Trends of Technological Evolution and TRIZ-related methods. These related methods include, for instance, systems theory and morphology. The different methods are combined into a process comprising of four stages. Firstly, the relevant surroundings (super- and subsystems) with the competing technologies (alternative systems) are defined. After this the main parameters and functions that are relevant for the success of the systems are identified. On this basis, the future of the different systems can be anticipated and their potential can be estimated. Finally, the results are documented in a technology roadmap.

The outcomes of the TRIZ -based Technology Intelligence can be used to determine the threats and opportunities of competing technologies. On this basis, the critical technologies can be further monitored or used for an individual company’s strategy. Hence, existing business areas can be expanded by technological optimisations and new business areas can be built up by generating new knowledge.

Keywords: TRIZ, technology, product, intelligence, foresight, forecasting, evolution, morphology, function, system, roadmap

Introduction

Focusing on the right technological basis on time It is a well known fact and has been shown throughout history, that new technologies can change the competitive situation in manifold ways (Zahn 1995), and that the early detection of changes in the technological surrounding is an important factor for the success of every technology-oriented company (Zweck 2002). This is true especially against the background of reduced product life cycles. An assumption of this paper is that while older products are substituted by newer products with increasing speed, in comparison, the technological basis develops much more slowly. Therefore, a lasting corporate success can be assured by a long-term strategy focusing on the right technological basis.

Companies have the possibility of short-term reactions to precise customer requirements and short-term shifts of the market. They can also try to anticipate future market developments. These market pull strategies are normally directed to the near future. The technology management as technology push approach can be used for long-term strategies, as technologies are long-lasting compared to market requirements (figure 1). At this point it has to be clarified that the demand for the fulfilment of primary functions also stays stable for a long time whereas the requirements of secondary functions and their characteristics change very quickly (Eversheim 2003).

Planning horizon

n Short-Term:React to precise customerrequirementsand short-termshifts of the markets.

n Medium -Term:Align product developmentwith shiftsof the marketsand future market requirements.

n Long-Term:Establish the technologicalbasis for lasting corporatesuccess.

Product

Market

Technology

TechnologyPush

MarketPull

InnovationManagement

TechnologyManagement

Short-Term Medium-Term Long-Term

Figure 1: Planning long-term corporate success with technology management

Nowadays, companies use technology management to build up a solid technological basis. With this basis they can react to rapidly changing market requirements. Thereby, technology management is seen as the entirety of all planning activities that are necessary to ensure the company’s success and to strengthen the market position by strategic changes of product and production technologies (Binder and Kantowsky 1996, Spur 1998), as well as information and material technologies.

The methodology

Identifying the appropriate technological basis with Technology Intelligence Within the framework of technology management Technology Intelligence is used to identify promising (or dangerous) technological approaches, to show its potential as well as its limits and to prepare appropriate arrangements for the development of these technologies (Zweck 2002, Servatius 1992). In the relevant literature, this activity is described by different expressions (e.g. Technology Forecasting, Foresight, Monitoring, Scanning, Watch) without a single explicit definition or common understanding (Moehrle 2002). For this paper, Technology Intelligence is defined in accordance to Savioz as “activities that support decision-making of technological and general management concerns by taking advantages of a well timed preparation of relevant information on technological facts and trends (opportunities and threats) of the organisation’s environment by means of collection, analysis and dissemination” (Savioz 2002). These are especially activities that anticipate technological development including technological potentials and limits in a defined framework. The Technology Intelligence is especially refined to all activities with the intention of anticipating market changes, like for example Scenario Techniques (Gausemeier 2001, Eversheim 2003) or Kondratieff Waves (Nefiodow 2001).

Unlike Technology Forecasting or Foresight and especially with the support of TRIZ (Moehrle 2002, Stelzner 2002, Kowalick 1997), Technology Intelligence is seen as an approach that takes the relevant technological surrounding and the correlation between different technological systems into account. Therefore, the framework of the TRIZ -based Technology Intelligence is defined according to Porter’s Five Forces (Porter 1998) (figure 2).

Suppliers‘technologies

Suppliers‘power

Buyers‘power

Buyers‘technologies

Barriers toentry

Customers

Suppliers

Alternativetechnologies

Technologicalknow-how

Degree ofrivalry

n Focus on technological aspects- Product technologies- Production technologies- Material technologies- Information technologies

n Focus on product technologies

Val

ue

chai

nSubstitutes

New Entrants

CompetitiveindustrySubstitutes

New Entrants

Competitiveindustry

How can the potential of product technologies which accomplish the same primary function be evaluated from

the perspective of a technology owner?

Figure 2: Framework of the TRIZ-based Technology Intelligence

Along the value chain suppliers technologies, alternative technologies and buyers’ technologies are listed. In the middle of this framework is a specific technology. For the TRIZ -based Technology Intelligence, this technology has to be a product technology. It has to be taken into account that after the focus on product technologies aspects like production, material and information technologies, market development and competences of companies also have to be considered. The results of the TRIZ-based Technology Intelligence can be evaluated in accordance with these aspects and offer a basis to gain additional information.

Within the described framework and with the focus on product technologies, the main question the TRIZ -based Technology Intelligence will answer is how the potential of different product technologies which accomplish the same primary function can be evaluated from the perspective of a technology owner.

Therefore, a definition of the product technology, the relevant technological surrounding and the need for information has to be given as an input for the methodology. The output can be an Explorative TechnologyRoadMap describing the anticipated development of a technology and its surrounding. This also includes critical factors which on the one hand could influence the development of technologies and on the other hand directly influence a technology owner’s decisions (figure 3). It is then the task of the technology owner to identify opportunities and threats on the basis of this RoadMap on a regular basis, to react to technological changes and to plan the corporate-specific TechnologyRoadM ap.

Filter & Format FocusFind

Assess need for information

Investigate information

Communicate information

Evaluate information

TECHNOLOGYPLANNING

React to information andutilise it

ExplorativeTechnologyRoadMap

Corporate-specificTechnologyRoadMap

TECHNOLOGYINTELLIGENCE

Identify andforecast

Opportunities &

Threats

n Potentials of technologies

n Limits of technologies

Figure 3: Technology Intelligence – basis for an active Technology Planning

Approaches and scientific background of TRIZ-based Technology Intelligence For a better understanding of the TRIZ -based Technology Intelligence, three groups of existing approaches have to be explained. These are single methods used for forecasting, for the proceedings of Technology Intelligence, and methods from other fields. The latter ones have been adapted for the described methodology.

There are several methods that can be used to forecast the development of technologies. One way to categorise these methods is the differentiation between normative techniques and technology growth patterns. The latter ones are based on an analysis of past data that is extrapolated into the future using one of many techniques such as Trend-Extrapolation, the S-curve-technique etc. (Porter 1991). The objective of normative techniques is to achieve qualitative statements regarding future discontinuities. Examples are Delphi (Millet and Honton 1991), Relevance Trees (Twiss 1992), the morphological analysis (Twiss 1992, Ayres 1969) or Technology Impact Forecasting (Mavris 1999).

However, connections between these methods or an ability to choose the appropriate method in a specific situation are missing.

On the other hand, there are proceedings describing how to forecast the future of technologies (Klopp and Hartmann 1999, Lang 1998, Peiffer 1992). In general, they all describe the path, shown in figure 3. What is missing is a detailed description of which methods have to be used in what situation and how exactly they have to be used. TRIZ -based Technology Intelligence is a proceeding including several methods. This methodology can be used if the future of a product technology and it’s surrounding is to be anticipated. It helps to identify opportunities and threats of technological developments.

The methods themselves are described only briefly, as there is enough TRIZ-literature (e.g. Altschuller 1984, Mann 2002, Terniko et al. 1998) available. It shouldn’t be difficult for a TRIZ-expert to adapt to the described methodology. As the TRIZ -methodology uses patterns of excellence, mainly to develop inventive solutions, a few of the TRIZ -methods also exist in other methodologies. These are for example systems theory (Bruns 1991, Patzak 1982, Haberfellner 1999) and design systematic (German: “Konstruktionssystematik”) (Koller 1994, VDI 1993, Pahl and Beitz 1997).

Basis of TRIZ-based Technology Intelligence Figure 4 shows the main approaches used for the TRIZ-based Technology Intelligence to gain the basis for an explorative and system-specific TechnologyRoadMap. These are systems theory, morphology and Technical Evolution. These approaches are more or less part of the TRIZ -philosophy but not exclusively part of TRIZ.

TRIZ-Philosophy

Val

ue C

hain

System

Super-System

System

Vertical Intelligence

Hor

izon

tal I

ntel

ligen

ce

Alternatives

Sub-System

System

Technical

System

Super-System

Sub-System

Super-System

Sub-System

System

Super-System

Sub-System

Super-System

Sub-System

System Theory Morphology

Function

Function

Function

System System

X X

X

X

Explorative andsystem-specific

TechnologyRoadMapEvolution

Figure 4: Approach of TRIZ-based Technology Intelligence

Systems theory includes the TRIZ -tools Function/ Attribute Analysis (Mann 2002) and System Operator (9-Windows) (Mann 2002). It is mainly used to define the surroundings to be analysed in order to identify relevant super- and subsystems. In this article, morphology is defined as the search for alternative systems. TRIZ offers, for example, effect databases (Invention Machine 1998) for the identification of alternative systems. For some applications, the effect databases (Koller and Kastrup 1998) or design catalogues (Beitz 1990) related to the design systematic seem more appropriate. Nevertheless, the implicit knowledge of experts or patent and internet research should be used. The third element of the methodology is Technical Evolution. This includes S-Curve Analysis (Mann 2002), Ideality (Mann 2002) and Trends of Technological Evolution, which are also called Patterns of Evolution (Salamatov 1999, Terninko 1998). As S-Curves are used in different approaches (Foster 1986, Krubasik 1982, Twiss 1992), the last two methods are a unique features of TRIZ. These three tools are used to anticipate the future of the relevant systems and to illustrate the assessed potential of alternative systems. Procedure of the TRIZ -based Technology Intelligence

The TRIZ -based Technology Intelligence followes the procedure described in figure 3: First the need for information has to be assessed. Then the required information has to be investigated. To focus on the relevant information and to make the right decisions, the information has to be evaluated. This should happen at several stages in the procedure to reduce the quantity of information. Finally, the results have to be documented and communicated. The procedure described in this article focuses on the first two phases “assess need for information” and “investigate information”. Assess need for information The first phase starts with the definition of a product technology. For a clearer understanding, a TFT/LCD-display-unit is chosen as an example of such a product technology (figure 5). The primary function of the technology has also been defined (to show variable images).

Sub-System(Component) Liquid crystalSupporter

(glass, plastics)Thin-filmtransistor

Sub-System(Component) Liquid crystalSupporter

(glass, plastics)Thin-filmtransistor

System(screen)Function:Commuteelectric signal tooptical signal

Polaroidglasses and

liquid crystalschange

optical signals

Impinging electron beam

producesoptical signals

Plasmadischargeproduces

opticalsignal

System(screen)Function:Commuteelectric signal tooptical signal

Polaroidglasses and

liquid crystalschange

optical signals

Impinging electron beam

producesoptical signals

Plasmadischargeproduces

opticalsignal

Super² -System(Application) Mobile phoneTelevision Car dashboard

Super² -System(Application) Mobile phoneTelevision Car dashboard

Super-System(display unit)Function:Show variableimage

Option IIOption I

TFT/LCD-displayplus control

Braun tubeplus control

Plasma-displayplus control

Super-System(display unit)Function:Show variableimage

Option IIOption I

TFT/LCD-displayplus control

Braun tubeplus control

Plasma-displayplus control

n Align super- and subsystemsalong value chain(supplier and customer)

n Identify alternative systems via main function(competitive product)

n Develop relationships betweensystems(components)

Figure 5: An example of how to analyse the system environment and the alternative

technologies

In the next stage, the sub-functions (e.g. to generate light) and the components to fulfil these sub-functions (e.g. neon glow lamp) have to be identified. In practice, intermediate steps may become necessary or some components may fulfil several functions. Therefore, it is quite important that the level of the subsystem is defined appropriately.

This stage was a step back in the value line. The next stage will go forward: Now all supersystems (e.g. mobile phone) have to be identified. This stage can be supported by the marketing of a company.

After these three stages, the system tree as shown in figure 5 can be drawn. The system tree shows the actual state of a company. The approach used until now was the systems theory. Investigate information The next stages will expand this system tree by alternative technologies (systems, sub- and supersystems). These include already realised and possible technologies. It is suggested to start the identification of the alternatives on the systems level, to continue with the supersystem and to end with the subsystem. The methods that can be used were mentioned under morphology. To identify additional sub- and supersystems, the systems can be connected between the different levels. An alternative technology probably has other applications (customers), which could become interesting for the company and their technology in future.

Evaluate information With these results a quite complex system net can be generated, which will prevent overlooking relevant technologies. Practice showed that it is very difficult to draw the system net and keep everything in view. Therefore, it is advised to reduce the system net to the relevant systems that could become interesting or critical for the company. Similar systems/ technologies can probably be clustered. After a reduction, the investigation can be continued. Investigate information Now the future of the different systems, sub- and supersystems has to be anticipated. A promising approach is the S-Curve Analysis. If the performance of a technology over the relevant time follows a S-curve and the position of the technology can be defined, the limit and potential of a technology can be derived. This would significantly support the decision to optimise an owned technology or to change the technology (figure 6).

TRIZ offers a method to define the position on the S-curve by patent analysis. Altschuller (1984) found that the number of inventions (applied patents), and the level of inventions followed special curves over the recorded time. These curves are related to the S-curve of a technology and its profitability (figure 5). If it is possible to draw a part of both curves on the basis of patent analysis and probably also to draw the profitability-curve, the position on the S-curve can be derived (Altschuller 1984). This could lead to the assumption that the position on the S-curve can be defined with mathematical accuracy (Clapp 2000, Gibson 1999, Mann 1999, Slocum 1999).

However, as practice has shown, the method is not so easy to handle and as universally valid as expected. The first problem is gathering the data, because patent descriptions are encoded, terms are not used precisely, precise allocation of patents to technologies is complex and obtaining sales data is not feasible for every technology. The second problem is analysing the data, because standardised definition of the amount of inventions is difficult, the determination of the amount of inventions for every patent is a very complex task and the determination of the current position on the S-curve and of the technological limits can only be done qualitatively.

Time

Performance

Profitability

Level of inventions

Number of inventions

The success respectively the profitability of a system follows the course of the S-curve. The graph is displaced into the negative area at the beginning due to investments.

The highest level of inventions always lies at the beginning of each lifecycle. Before stepping into the long run the level of invention increases.

During the transition of the system into the period of growth the number of inventions (patents) reaches a first culmination. The step-up in the phase of aging keeps the system competitive.

Limit of technology

Potential of technology

Position on S-curve

Figure 6: Defining the position on the S-curve by patent analysis

Nevertheless, S-curves are very useful to show the potential and limitations of a technology qualitatively, and patent analysis can deliver useful insights into the position on the S-curve. Additional indicators can be used for positioning on the S-curve. Intensified cost reduction is e.g. an indicator that a technology approaches the end of an S-curve. Additional information that can be used for positioning on the S-curve are for example:

u date of first patent application u date of market entry u dates of significant patent applications and technological breakthroughs u technological limits of individual parameters u indirect determination of sales volume u focus of patent application over course of time

(e.g. increase of performance, increase of effic iency, ...) The future of a technology and its surrounding can be anticipated by two other methods:

Ideality and Trends of Technological Evolution. With the imagination of the “Ideal Product” the technology owner defines the product of the

distant future that would satisfy the customer (supersystem) completely. This Ideal Product is not limited to one customer. It would fulfil the requirements of several supersystems. As systems develop towards Ideality (Altschuller 1984), this trick helps to imagine the development path of a technology. From this point of view, relevant parameters which will indicate the success of a technology can be derived. The question now becomes which technology has the highest potential to get closest to the “Ideal Product” (to fulfil the relevant parameters) and which technology is limited.

As the Trends of Technological Evolution are patterns of development which were observed by many different technological systems, they can be used to anticipate the future of other technologies. Within TRIZ this method is mainly used to generate ideas for future product developments (Terninko 1998). Within the TRIZ -based Technology Intelligence this method can be used to generate ideas for the future of a system and its technological surrounding. It is important to notice, that the Trends will not predict the future of a system, but can help to generate likely visions of the future. Therefore, the Trends have to be applied to the system, the sub- and supersystems and the relevant alternatives.

Figure 7 shows the application of the trend “Dynamisation and use of fields” on the display and one of its supersystems - a computer. The results of this final step are a vision of the technological development of the system, sub- and supersystems and their alternatives.

n Deduction of development

directions of super- and sub-systems

n Analysis of the developmentpotential of systems

n Finding of ideas in order to derive future development projects

Stiffsystem

Simplejoint

Multiplejoint

Completelyelastic

Liquid,aerosol Field

Dynamisation and use of fields

FF

Developmental options

Inflexiblecomputer

Flexiblecomputer

(sheet of paper)

Projectedcomputer

(keyboard,display)

Inflexibledisplay

Flexible/elasticdisplay

Projection one.g. windshield,

glasses, retina

Figure 7: An example of how to anticipate the future of systems via evolutionary patterns

Evaluate and communicate information When the visions of the future of systems, sub- and supersystems have been developed, these ideas have to be evaluated, documented and communicated. How this has to be done depends heavily on the specific situation.

Regarding the evaluation for example, it will be interesting how likely a vision will become reality and when it will happen, what will be the causes for this and what will be the effects. This knowledge will help to assume the potentials and the limitations of technologies. It will probably also lead to new ideas for product developments.

To gain the full use of this work it is important to realise that Technology Intelligence started at this point. The results have to be documented in a RoadMap – probably by S-curves. Missing information has to be collected. Opportunities and threats have to be derived. The results have to be communicated. Projects have to be initiated. Last but not least, the RoadMap has to be checked frequently and has to be kept up to date.

Summary and conclusion

It has been shown how important it is to provide the technological basis on time in order to secure a lasting corporate success. With this basis it is possible to react to rapidly changing market requirements. To build up the technological basis TRIZ-based Technology Intelligence helps to identify the promising product technologies.

Thereby, this methodology is based on three approaches: systems theory, morphology and technical evolution. Within this framework several methods of TRIZ and related methodologies are used. These are, most importantly, Function/ Attribute Analysis and System Operator (9-Windows), effect databases and design catalogues, Ideality and Trends of Technological Evolution.

It was demonstrated in this article, that TRIZ is an useful methodology to assess the need for information and to investigate these information. Furthermore, it was shown, that the different TRIZ -tools fit perfectly in the process of Technology Intelligence.

References

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http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/1999/07/g/index.htm u Mann, D. (2002). Hands-On. Systematic Innovation. Creax, Belgium u Mavris, D. N., D. S. Soban and M. C. Largent (1999). An Application of a Technology Impact Forecasting Method to an

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37 u Servatius, H.-G. (1992). Sicherung der technologischen Wettbewerbsfähigkeit Europas – Von der Technologie-

Frühaufklärung zur visionären Erschließung von Innovationspotenzialen. In: Technologiefrühaufklärung (VDI Technologiezentrum), pp. 17-42, Schaeffer-Poeschel, Stuttgart

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Limiting Contradictions In A Photographic Paper Manufacturing Process

Darrell Mann Director, CREAX

Phone: +44 (7980) 864028 E-mail: darrell.mann@creax.com

Ian Mitchell Continuous Improvement Engineering

Ilford Imaging, Mobberley, UK Phone: +44 (1565) 623528

E-mail: Ian.Mitchell@ilford.com

Tom Pellereau Innovation Engineer, CREAX Belgium

Narendra Nadha Reddy Graphics Team Leader, CREAX India

Introductions

Engineering systems, and particularly their associated production manufacture operations, are subject to limits in their fundamental capability. Understanding how and why these limits occur is an essential precursor to overcoming them. This article builds on previous work examining the limiting contradictions phenomenon and provides a graphic illustration of the dynamics of system evolution in action.

The focus of the article is the film coating process employed in the large-scale manufacture of photographic printing paper. The article plots the historical evolution of the process from its inception to the present day. Figure 1 provides a simplified summary of the overall process.

Figure 1: Paper Coating Process Summary

The process is described in more detail in Reference 1. The theme of that paper was to describe the evolution of this paper coating process through the lens of contradiction emergence and resolution. Rather than repeat the content of that work here, we merely need to review the idea that improving the output capability of the process happens through a series of different design generations. As suggested by Figure 2, these generations may be observed as a series of s -curves. The Figure 2 image – reproduced

Coating Drying WebHandling

from Reference 1 – hides a considerable amount of detail. The aim of this paper is to expand the story of the evolution of the process by providing a more detailed analysis of how the system has changed since its initial inception.

Figure 2: Paper Coating Process Summary

One of the main ideas of Reference 1 was that the evolution of the system happened through the resolution of a progression of different contradictions in which new ones emerge as existing ones become resolved. The story is complicated by the presence of the three different stages in the manufacture process. As is suggested by the history shown in the following table, it is possible to identify the speeds at which different parts of the process hit their respective limits. Process Speed (m/min)

Coating Drying Web Handling

5 Air Blade Festoon Manual joins 6 Air blade Festoon Manual Joins

Contradiction 6 Air Blade Festoon Twin Turret

Contradiction solved 8 Air Blade Festoon

Contradiction Twin Turret

8 Air Blade Spiral Contradiction solved

Twin Turret

10 Air Blade Contradiction

Spiral

Twin Turret

10 Slot Coating Contradiction solved

Spiral

Twin Turret

15 Slot Coating

Spiral Contradiction

Twin Turret

15 Slot Coating

Flat Bed Air Impingement Contradiction Solved

Twin Turret

20 Slot Coating

Flat Bed Air Impingement

Twin Turret Contradiction

20 Slot Coating

Flat Bed Air Impingement

Semi Auto Join Contradiction solved

PaperOutputSpeed(m/s)

Time

1st Gen

2nd Gen

3rd Gen

25 Slot Coating Contradiction

Flat Bed Air Impingement

Semi Auto Join

25 Cascade Coating Contradiction solved

Flat Bed Air Impingement

Semi Auto Join

60 Cascade Coating

Flat Bed Air Impingement

Semi Auto Join Contradiction

70 Cascade Coating

Flat Bed Air Impingement

Automated Join Contradiction solved

120 Cascade Coating

Flat Bed Air Impingement Contradiction

Automated Join

150 Cascade Coating

Air Impingement Folded Contradiction Solved

Automated Join

200 Cascade Coating Contradiction

Air Impingement Folded

Automated Join

250 Curtain Coating Contradiction solved

Air Impingement Folded

Automated Join

280 Curtain Coating

Air Impingement Folded Contradiction

Automated Join

300 Curtain Coating

Air Flotation Folded Contradiction Solved

Automated Join

330 Curtain Coating

Air Flotation Folded

Automated Join Contradiction

350 Curtain Coating

Air Flotation Folded

Moving Web Contradiction solved

400 Curtain Coating

Air Flotation Folded Contradiction

Moving Web

The table highlights the fact that each of the three different parts of the process has at one time prevented further increases in the speed of the process due to the emergence of a conflict – there was a desire to increase the s peed of the process, but something fundamental prevented that increase. In each case, further overall process speed increases only became possible once the emergent contradiction had been solved.

As reported in Reference 1, by way of example, when the process hit its limit at 8m/min, the drying process had hit its limiting contradiction as the length of building required to hold the festoons of paper became insufficient. The only way to obtain further increases in speed was if the contradiction could be solved. As shown in Figure 3, the contradiction was solved by evolving a spiral-form dryer arrangement.

Figure 3: Emergence And Resolution Of The Festoon Dryer Contradiction

Festoon drierThing we are trying to improve – SPEED

Thing that gets worse – LENGTH

Matrix recommends –

Result – Spiral Drier

In order to better illustrate the dynamics of the evolution of the manufacture process it is helpful to see the process via an animation.

Illustrations can be observed at the end of this paper.

Essentially, the animation shows how different technologies reached their fundamental limits (reached the top of their s-curve), and how a new s -curve emerged once the limiting contradiction was resolved. This animation illustrates and provides the main purpose of this article.

As suggested by the final entry in the table, the current limit on the system is again back with the drying part of the process. Again also, the limiting contradiction is related to the length of the facility required to accommodate the current folded air-flotation design style. Anyone interested in examining possible next evolution steps may wish to explore some of the Inventive Principles illustrated in Figure 3. References 1) Mitchell, I., Mann, D.L., ‘Overcoming Limiting Contradictions In a Continuous

Manufacturing Process’, ETRIA TRIZ Future conference, Strasbourg, November 2002 (copies available from D.L .Mann upon request).

2004, D.L.Mann, all rights reserved.

ASIT Case Study: The Bicycle I-Lock By Pascal Jarry, Pascal@Jarry.Biz

Editor’s note: Dr. Roni Horowitz, author of the ASIT newsletter, and a frequent contributor to the TRIZ Journal, asked his newsletter readers to contribute their case studies. Then, more than a thousand readers voted on the best cases. The TRIZ Journal has asked the winners to let us reprint their case studies. For more information on ASIT, see the August, September, and November 2001 issues of the TRIZ Journal, or the on-line ASIT class, in the Products and Services section of this issue. I-Lock is a soon to be sold solution for bicycle users: Problem : Bicycle saddles are easily adjusted in height, thanks to the clever system used to fix them to the frame. Unfortunately, when one parks his bike, a thief can use this system to take the saddle away in no time. The problem is double then for the user of a bicycle when he parks: Secure the bike AND the saddle. Some lock their saddle with a second lock; some take the saddle away with them. This second category carries a lock half of the time, a saddle the other half. (Not the best use of a back bag!) The challenge was to reduce both risks an easy and elegant way. Solution : Taking away the locking system from the lock and fixing it on the saddle tube is the solution (discarding the rest of the lock, usually some kind of chain, cable or U shaped bar). Equipped with such a small locking device, the saddle tube becomes the bicycle lock. To install use it, you have to: 1) Remove the saddle tube from the frame. 2) Insert it across the rear wheel, blocking its rotation. 3) Lock it to a tube from the back of the frame, with the locking device, so it cannot move. 4) The saddle (and its tube) is no more a thief target; it became the lock for the whole bike!

A locking device re-arranged on a saddle tube

The saddle tube blocks the rotation of the wheel, and is maintained on the frame by the locking device.

ASIT analysis: PROBLEM WORLD OBJECTS: - Bicycle - Saddle and its tube - Bicycle lock UNWANTED ACTION: - Move the bicycle and/or take the saddle (and its tube) away. WANTED ACTION: - Immobilise the bicycle and avoid the saddle (and its tube) to be taken away UNIFICATION: - The tube of the saddle will immobilise the bicycle and avoid the saddle (and its tube) to be

taken away APPLICATION (USING DIVISION): - Separation of the locking device from the lock. - The tube and locking device are re-arranged together. Simple, isn’t it? U shaped lockers being called U-Lock, I called this one I-Lock. See www.I-Lock.net for a video showing how quickly the rider can park and lock the bicycle, then unlock it and ride away. ©Pascal Jarry, 2004. Pascal@Jarry.Biz www.Jarry.Biz

Is TRIZ Useful For Generating Ecological Mitigation Solutions?

Frances Stuart Education Manager

Somerset Wildlife Trust fs@ifrc.co.uk

Darrell Mann Director, CREAX

Dr David J Hill Department of Biological Sciences

University of Bristol

1. INTRODUCTION

This investigation evaluates the use of TRIZ as a tool for generating ecological mitigation solutions. Prior to the study, no UK ecologists had either heard of or were using TRIZ. The main theme and purpose of the research, therefore, was to answer the question posed in the title; ‘is TRIZ useful for generating ecological mitigation solutions?’ The article presented here represents a summary of a dissertation submitted to the University of Bristol as a Masters dissertation in the subject of Ecology and Management of the Natural Environment.

1.1 What Is Ecological Mitigation? Mitigation in its strictest sense refers to practices that reduce or remove damage caused to the natural environment through the actions of man (English Nature, 2001). In ecological contexts mitigation usually encompasses the idea of compensation (practices designed to offset damage), with the desired outcome being that of no overall loss in ecological value. Bradshaw (1997) describes mitigation as being “any restoration, rehabilitation or reclamation, even of a different ecosystem, used to moderate the effects of a degrading action”. Ecological mitigation is usually carried out with the aim of maintaining the status of particular species or the extent and functioning of a particular habitat that may have been affected by, for example, the construction of roads, settlements or artificial waterways. Mitigation actions are required for all instances where species and habitats are protected by law, are nationally important or are deemed locally important. Whilst the primary aim of mitigation is to ensure that there is no net loss of nature conservation value it is preferable that there is actually net gain in terms of nature conservation. The historic approach to development of no net loss “has, at best, been a rear-guard action over the last 50 years with dramatic losses still occurring throughout that period” (Oxford 2000). By adopting a mitigation approach of net gain rather than no net

loss development should be possible whilst allowing for an increase in nature conservation resources. This gain can be either qualitative or quantitative, with a resulting a win-win situation where there are both development and ecological gains. Ecological mitigation solutions employ a wide range of techniques. Established techniques include creation of artificial structures for breeding or hibernation purposes, adapted road underpasses and river culverts, exclusion/inclusion fencing, habitat creation and species translocation. Figure 1 illustrates the range of mitigation techniques that are involved with large-scale developments such as the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

Figure 1: Examples of mitigation works undertaken during construction of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

1.2 When Is Mitigation Required?

Many consultant ecologists find themselves in the position of advising developers on the requirements and methods of mitigation. Following the collection of baseline data relating to the development site, potential impacts are identified and their significance assessed. Proposals are then made to remove or mitigate against any impacts considered to have

By completion o f the first section of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link the following

work will have been completed:

§ 255 hectares of mixed broadleaved woodland, of which about 26 hectares will

be on translocated ancient woodland soils, and 29 hectares on low nutrient

soils

§ Approximately 30km of new hedgerow

§ 200 hectares of grassland seeding including 46 hectares of wildflower

grassland

§ 3 hectares of reedbeds, alder carr and wet grassland and more than 1km of

ditches specifically designed for Water Voles

§ 8 new ponds for amphibians

§ 6 new artificial Badger setts and appropriately designed track crossing points

§ 78 new artificial roosts for bats, including a bat cave

§ new habitat for the nationally rare flower, Grey Mouse-Ear

§ reintroduction of over 100 Hazel Dormice from Kent in two other UK

woodlands as part of the species recovery programme

§ trapping and translocation of Great Crested Newts, Slow Worms and

Common Lizards from affected sites to suitable unaffected or newly created

habitats

§ development and implementation of m itigation for Water Vole populations

Source: www.ctrl.co.uk/ecology

potentially significant effects. These proposals may be needed to comply with current legislation designed to protect wildlife, or as part of the planning process.

1.2.1 Legislation

Protection of species and habitats under both UK and EU legislation means that in many cases there is a legal requirement for mitigation work to be included within development plans. UK legislation giving protection to a range of species and habitats includes The Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981), The Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations (1994) and The Countryside and Rights of Way Act (2000). There is also legislation protecting named species or habitats, such as The Protection of Badgers Act (1992) and The Hedgerow Regulations (1997). For animal species protected in this way it is usually an offence to disturb as well as to injure or kill. For example regulation 39 of the 1994 Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations states that for animals protected under the act “ it is an offence to damage or destroy a breeding site or resting place of such an animal”(Anon, 1994). This will mean that to comply with the law important habitat components present on the site of a proposed development, such as bird breeding sites, bat roosts and badger setts, need to be taken into consideration when assessing potential impacts, and appropriate mitigation measures devised.

Species and habitats considered of national or local importance, e.g. those listed in national and local Biodiversity Action Plans (BAPs), are given protection under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act (2000). Section 74(3) states that “…it is the duty of the listing authority to take, or promote the taking by others, of such steps as appear to the authority to be reasonably practicable to further the conservation of the living organisms and types of habitat included in any list published by the authority…”(Anon, 2000). The Act also defines conservation as including “the restoration or enhancement of a population or habitat” (section 74(7)).

1.3 Is Mitigation Effective?

Much mitigation work centres on recreating essential habitat components, such as badger setts and great crested newt breeding ponds. Mitigation techniques are devised using existing knowledge and understanding of the ecology and behaviour of the species in question. As current levels of knowledge often limit this type of information some mitigation solutions will in effect be trial-and-error exercises, with improvements made as our understanding deepens.

Mitigation solutions that are used with successful outcomes can become adopted as standard techniques, often seen as best practice and applied as general solutions in a wide variety of situations. Documents describing mitigation solutions for individual species or animal groups have become standard references on the subject and are the first port of call for both professional ecologists and volunteer conservation workers. These works include “Problems With Badgers” (Harris et al, 1994), “Bat Workers Manual” (Mitchell-Jones & McLiesh, 1999), and “Great crested newt mitigation guidelines” (English Nature, 2001).

This approach, of using a single standard solution to solve a specific problem, has been shown to be unsuccessful in many situations. Altringham (2003) reports that of 20 or more purpose built bat hibernacula “most have been used by few bats and some have yet to

record a single bat.” A recent study assessing the outcome of English Nature advice on bat colony mitigation (Moore et al, 2003) found that in 33% of cases where the advice related to building work bats did not subsequently return to the roost. In many situations the effectiveness of the mitigation techniques employed may in fact be unknown as long term monitoring of sites is not automatically undertaken, and indeed some sites may not be monitored at all. There must be the assumption in these cases that a solution appropriate to the problem has been chosen, and that it has been successfully implemented. This assumption may not always be fully justified.

It is clear that a more flexible approach to mitigation is required. Whilst it is possible to make generalisations about situations where mitigation is required, it is “unlikely that one mitigation technique will be suitable, reliable and cost-effective for all scenarios” (Dean, 2003). There will be important differences between sites that need to be taken into consideration, including both ecological factors and development constraints. “Every site needs to be examined carefully and a unique solution devised.” (Altringham, 2003). In his work on water vole mitigation techniques Dean (2003) concluded that “producing a ‘decision-making tree’ may be the most appropriate option, to allow for the various alternatives to be considered within the practicalities of the development, and to prevent unfavourable options being considered for individual sites.”

In summary, the science of mitigation may be seen to be very much in its early infancy.

1.4 TRIZ and Ecology

The development of TRIZ was initially based on the study of engineering patents, expanding to become a study of excellence in many other areas of science. More recently study of social science, business, politics and the arts has been included, but the large majority of applications are currently in the technology arena in commercial organisations.

The use of TRIZ in biological sciences has so far been limited to how nature solves biological problems (Timokhov, 2002) rather than how we can solve biological problems. Work in the field of Biomimetics is investigating the application of biological solutions in engineering contexts and a biological database is currently being assembled to facilitate this (Bogatyreva et al, 2003).

Although no formal study has yet to be made of the potential for the use of TRIZ in ecology there do seem to be some obvious parallels between the philosophy of TRIZ, as described in Mann (2002), and ecological principles and mitigation. Key among the parallels are the concepts of Ideality, Resources, Functionality, Contradictions and the importance of temporal and spacial thinking.

Within the concept of Ideality is the idea that systems evolve towards their Ideal Final Result, defined as “that state where the useful function (benefit) is delivered without cost or harm”. This end result should be achieved by the system itself. The obvious parallel here is ecological succession, where the system moves towards a self-sustaining climax community. Similarly the ideal solution to a mitigation problem will be one that eliminates cost and harm and is delivered by the system itself.

Resources are a very important component in the solution of ecological problems. Using existing resources is important to retain ecological integrity, for example the use of seed collected from a site and retained for later use to re-establish the local flora. Dead wood, previously removed after tree felling, is now retained within habitats to encourage

saproxylic invertebrates, an example of transforming a ‘bad’ component of a system into something useful.

Many ecological mitigation solutions are based on the idea of functionality. A culvert for otters is only successful if it fulfils its function by allowing the animals to travel under the road at all levels of river flow. If the culvert is impassable at particular levels of flood the otters will cross over the road rather than under it. The culvert no longer performs its function and the mitigation solution is unsuccessful.

Most mitigation solutions are required because contradictions emerge through the actions of man, i.e. development vs. nature conservation. Effective mitigation, based on net-gain rather than no-net-loss, eliminates trade-offs and compromises so that both the development and nature conservation are winners. Conflict is removed in this type of win-win scenario.

Psychological inertia and the ability to think in Space, Time and Interface is a concept central to ecology. Ecosystems would not function if there were not interfaces between their components and these interfaces change with location and time. Living things do not respect man-made boundaries, an important factor when designing mitigation solutions. Time (seasonality) is a constraint understood by ecologists but unfortunately not by all developers. Seasonal differences in behaviour of animals may mean that an action lawful at one time of the year may not be lawful at another. Similarly, mitigation techniques may be effective when used at one time of the year but not at others.

These are just a few of the more obvious examples of commonality between the philosophy of TRIZ and the principles of ecological mitigation. With the need for improvements in the success rate of mitigation techniques it seems likely that using a problem solving technique such as TRIZ, with its wide variety of problem solving methods and tools, to generate solutions to mitigation problems would be beneficial. It is this supposition that the investigation set out to test.

1.5 Aims and Objectives

The aim of the investigation was to evaluate the use of TRIZ as a means of generating ecological mitigation solutions.

The objectives of the investigation were: - OBJECTIVE 1 - To establish whether TRIZ can be used to generate ecological

mitigation solutions. - OBJECTIVE 2 - To evaluate the originality and potential for success of any TRIZ-

generated mitigation solutions. - OBJECTIVE 3 - To establish which aspects of the TRIZ methodology and tool-kit can

be used in the process of generating mitigation solutions.

2. METHODOLOGY

A range of species for which mitigation is commonly required was first selected. For each of these species a list of frequently occurring problems was produced and these problems,

with background ecological information for the relevant species, were given to a non-ecologist trained in the use of TRIZ. Solutions generated by the TRIZ specialist were than circulated to ecological consultants with experience in mitigation work for evaluation and comparison against pre-existing mitigation techniques.

2.1 Species selection Given the large range of species for which mitigation solutions are sought it was decided to confine this investigation to those animals to the species most commonly associated with planning applications. A recent survey of local planning authorities commissioned by English Nature (Gillespie & Rasey, 2003) identified bats, badgers and great crested newts (Figure 1) as being the protected species most frequently discovered during the planning process. Of the protected species identified on a site by a third party prior to the determination of the application 30% were bats, 26% were badgers and 17% were great crested newts. The total for these three groups (73%) constitutes almost three quarters of all the reported species.

Figure 1: Badger, Horseshoe Bat and Great-Crested Newt

These species were considered different enough in their ecology, behaviour and habitat requirements to provide a suitable range of mitigation problems for the investigation. Additionally they form a well-studied group with easily accessible background biological information and relatively well documented mitigation techniques.

2.2 Selection of Mitigation Problems It was decided to limit the range of problems requiring mitigation solutions to those types of situation most commonly encountered by ecologists during developments. The problems were sourced from published literature giving common problems and standard solutions for each of the selected species. The following documents were found to contain the broadest range of problems and mitigation advice: - “Problems With Badgers” (Harris et al, 1994), - “Bat Workers Manual” (Mitchell-Jones & McLiesh, 1999), - “Great crested newt mitigation guidelines” (English Nature, 2001).

General problems from these commonly used sources were used for several reasons. Firstly, as was discussed in section 1.3, standard mitigation solutions such as those described in these sources are often used without complete success. By using generalised problems rather than site-specific case studies the solutions generated by applying TRIZ can be compared to a greater range of existing solutions. Evaluation of the TRIZ generated solutions will have greater validity if a range of solutions are evaluated by several ecologists than if individual solutions are evaluated by single ecologists.

This general approach is also more consistent with TRIZ methodology. TRIZ seeks to generate a broad range of general solutions that can then be adapted to specific situations in the future. Specific problems requiring mitigation solutions, as described in the literature, were converted to a list of generic problems upon which the methods of TRIZ

could be applied. This generates generic TRIZ solutions from which future specific mitigation solutions can be sought.

Lists of general problems were compiled for each species, and put in context with an introduction to the conservation status, ecology and legal protection of the species. The information for the badger problem is given in Figure 3 for illustrative purposes:

Figure 3: General problem posed for badgers.

2.3 Application of TRIZ The information prepared for each of the three chosen species, with a range of background texts, was passed on to a specialist trained in the use of TRIZ but with no specific ecological background. The complete process used when applying TRIZ to the three problems is shown below in Figure 4.

Figure 4: The complete process used when applying TRIZ

(Source: Mann & Dewulf, 2002)

DEFINE

SELECTTOOL

SOLVE

EVALUATE

-Problem Explorer-Function and Attribute Analysis-Maturity Analysis-(Ideal Final Result Analysis)

I know which tool(s) to useI don’t know which tool(s) to use

Contradictions, Trends, S-FieldsSubversion Analysis, Trimming,PI Tools, IFR, etc

ARIZ

I have generated solutions

MCDAPughAxiomatic Design

I have no solutions

System OperatorPI Tools

Badger Problem The problems that seem most difficult to resolve effectively using current

mitigation techniques are those related to road deaths. Badgers seem difficult

to deter using reflectors, and do not always co-operate with attempts to re-

route them, preferring to dig under fencing in order to use their existing

tracks and routes. This may be linked to territorial behaviour, especially

where the tracks mark the boundary of the territory. Information relating to

peak periods of badger road kills may show a link with the breeding seasons

(Feb-April & Sept-Oct) when territorial behaviour amongst males is at its peak.

During the initial function and attribute analysis part of the problem definition stage, it quickly became apparent that the ability to perform ‘atttract’ and ‘repel’ functions was a crucial element. For example being able to perform the functions ‘attract badger’ or ‘repel badger’ would permit solutions that encouraged badgers to move away from places they were not desired to places where they would be protected. Soon after making these function links it became apparent that this type of thinking was not common practice among ecologists. Typically, mitigation actions have been performed on a trial and error basis, and solutions are published in the form of high level design instructions. In order to progress sensibly with the TRIZ analysis, therefore, it was necessary to construct function databases for the ‘attract’ and ‘repel’ functions. Based on a desire to segment the database construction issue, it was decided to divide the databases into categories for the five basic senses – visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory and gustatory – plus a miscellaneous ‘other’ category for solutions that were either combinations of others or not yet fully understood by the biology community. The databases were populated through a comprehensive search of the biological literature. In all, databases were constructed for badgers, bats and newts. The badger database is given in Table 1 as an example of the format used. ATTRACTS REPELS

Visual Low-level light intensity

Strong sunlight Flashing lights Reflectors (legal issues?) Plastic flags (movement of) Unfamiliar silhouettes B+W facial stripes with aggressive signals.

Auditory ‘Whickering’ of excited cubs, ‘Whinnying purr’ of adults, warning sounds of sow to attract cubs,

Sound associated with fear & disturbance e.g. muffled growling noises, screams, barking. Unexpected sounds close by Stomping of cattle around sett

Kinesthetic Digging (well-drained soil e.g. sand & chalk) Sloping ground – sett drainage Regular routes & tracks

Heavy wet soils e.g. clay Steep (vertical) surfaces Sudden gusts of wind

Olfactory Scent of members of same social group e.g.Musking from anal glands (Composite musking – community), Urine, Sweat, Dung pits & latrines (near territorial boundaries & features/roads), navigational scent trails. Aniseed Soil from sett spoil heaps

Aluminium ammonium sulphate products e.g. ‘Scoot’, ‘Stay off’

Gustatory Earthworms Syrup Peanuts

Other Territorial Cover close to sett Light rain/damp humid conditions (better foraging conditions for earthworms)

Electrified wire Open tracks Tree felling Heavy rain Clear plastic bottles w/water

Table 1: Functional database for badgers.

(Sources: Harris et al 1994, Neal 1981, Neal & Cheeseman 1996)

Once these databases had been constructed, they were used as the basis for generating ideas on how to solve the three problems.

2.4 Solution Evaluation The mitigation solutions generated using TRIZ were analysed by professional ecologists with working experience of ecological mitigation. Ecological consultancy firms were approached early on in the investigation and those responding positively were contacted again once solutions were available for evaluation. The solutions, along with the general problems that had been posed, were presented in the form of a simple evaluative questionnaire. Respondents were asked to use a simple coding system to indicate whether each solution was, in their opinion, either an existing solution or a new solution. Solutions were also coded on the basis of either their actual or their predicted success. This system allowed each solution to be assessed in terms of its originality and to be assigned a successfulness score.

3. RESULTS

3.1 Generation of Mitigation Solutions Mitigation solutions were produced for each of the three problems posed. Having used the functional database approach, as described in section 2.3, solutions were generated from the sensory ‘attracts’ and ‘repels’ information assembled for each of the problem situations. The solutions are presented in a format consistent with this approach. As the aim of the investigation was to evaluate TRIZ as a method of generating solutions, and the production of the solutions was a tool to allow this to be done, the full set of solutions are given only in the full dissertation report. The solutions generated for the badger problem, however, are given in Table 2 as an illustration of the format and range of solutions generated. Sense Possible Solution Ideas Visual • Flashing lights/reflectors/plastic flags (further knowledge required to understand how to

improve the effectiveness of existing designs) • Luminescent paint on road margins • Motion sensing lights • ‘Scarecrow’ figures at side of road – possibly incorporating cloth or equivalent that moves

due to wind action • Black and white face images at side of road

Auditory • Distress noises (is there some way of making the motion of the cars generate a fear & disturbance type noise? Or have approaching cars trigger the noise?)

• Motion sensors trigger tape recordings? • Noise reflectors – re-direct traffic noise towards side of the road • Under-road sensors trigger unpleasant noises at the side of the road (position the

sensors away from the expected crossing area so that there is a delay between car triggering the noise and when the car reaches the expected crossing area – to give badgers time to move away from noise)

• ‘Rumble strips’ on road – noise will repel badgers and also encourage drivers to drive more slowly

Kinesthetic • Loose /unstable sharp-edged gravel at the edge of the road • Dig steep-sided channels that badgers find difficult to climb out of onto the road

Olfactory • Anethol (possibly time-release capsules in order to reduce effort to maintain active smell component; possibly integrated into road line paint)

• Smelly detergents (time-release?) • Time-release Scoot/Renardine close to the side of the road • (Simulated/actual) scent of dominant male – time release or sprayed from road-cleaning

vehicle or equivalent on edges of road – essentially leaving badgers with the impression that long stretches of road are the territory of dominant aggressive badgers

Gustatory • Place food sources distant from the roads

Other • Electric fence • Felled trees at the side of the road • Rows of water-filled clear-plastic bottles

Table 2: Solutions to badger problem generated using TRIZ methodology.

The use of the ‘attracts’ and ‘repels’ databases generated 20 solutions for the badger problem, 29 for the bat problem and 18 for the great crested newt problem. Three further, more detailed, solutions were also produced for the great crested newt problem. The combined total of solutions generated to the three problems was 70.

3.2 Evaluation of Mitigation Solutions 12 specialist ecology consultants/consultancy firms participated in the evaluation of the TRIZ generated solutions.

The coding system used in the evaluative questionnaires allowed each solution to be assessed in terms of its originality and potential success.

3.2.1 Originality Indices.

An originality index was calculated for each solution by determining the proportion of the responses that categorised the solution as a new one, expressed as values between 0 and 1. Hence a score of 0 represents a solution rated as ‘existing’ by all respondents, with a score of 1 indicating that all respondents were of the opinion that the solution was new. The range of originality indices calculated for each set of solutions are summarised in Tables 3 to 5.

Originality Index

0 0.25 0.50 0.75 1

Frequency

2 2 1 3 12

Table 3: Summary of originality indices calculated for solutions to badger problem.

Originality Index

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

Frequency

0 4 1 8 8 8

Table 4: Summary of originality indices calculated for solutions to bat problem.

Originality Index

0 0.25 0.50 0.75 1

Frequency

0 0 0 4 17

Table 5: Summary of originality indices calculated for solutions to great crested newt problem.

Only two solutions, both for the badger problem, were considered by all respondents to be an existing solution. The remaining 68 solutions were considered by at least one respondent as being new solutions, with 37 solutions (53%) categorised as new by all the respondents.

The solutions generated for the great crested newt problem received the greatest proportion of high originality index scores, with 17 of the 21 solutions (81%) scoring 1, and the remaining 4 solutions scoring 0.8. The solutions to the badger problem also scored highly for originality with 12 out of 20 (60%) of solutions scoring 1. The bat solutions showed the greatest range in originality scores with just 8 of the 29 solutions (28%) scoring 1. The trend here was still towards solutions being seen as new with 83% of the solutions scoring 0.6 or above.

3.2.2 Potential Success Ratings.

The second assessment criterion related to how successful questionnaire respondents believed the generated solutions were likely to be. A bespoke 0-5 rating system was used, in which a 0 score indicated a zero likelihood that the solution would be effective and a 5 that it would be very highly likely to succeed.

All three sets of solutions had mean success ratings ranging from 1 to 4 or above, with peak frequencies between 2 and 3. The solutions to the badger problem tended to be rated most highly with just 3 of the solutions having mean scores of 2 or under, compared to 7 solutions for the bat problem and 8 for great crested newts. 63% of the badger solutions scored 3 or above, compared to 28% of the bat solutions and 33% of the great crested newt solutions. A summary of the results for the badger problem are reproduced in Figure 5.

0

1

2

3

4

0 1 2 3 4 5

Fre

quen

cy

Mean Success Rating

Figure 5: Graph to show frequency distribution of mean success ratings for solutions to badger problem.

4. DISCUSSION

4.1.1 Solution Originality.

The investigation had 3 objectives. The first of these, to establish whether TRIZ can be used to generate ecological mitigation solutions, has clearly been met as 70 solutions were produced to the 3 ecological problems that were posed.

The evaluation of these 70 solutions by the use of the questionnaire was undertaken in response to the second objective of the investigation, to evaluate the originality and potential for success of any TRIZ-generated mitigation solutions.

Analysis of the questionnaire responses showed the ecological mitigation solutions generated during this investigation to be mostly original in nature with 53% of the solutions coded as new by all the respondents, and 68 out of 70 were viewed as ‘original’ by at least one respondent. The idea of using motion sensors to trigger tape recordings of sounds found to deter badgers, for example, was coded as an existing solution by two of the respondents whilst two other respondents coded this solution as a novel one. Several other solutions had similar sets of responses. Different mitigation strategies are clearly being used by different ecologists, suggesting that mitigation ideas are not being readily shared between ecological professionals.

At the very least, then, TRIZ appears to offer the potential – via the construction of the sorts of databases shown in Table 1 – to act as the framework and repository for ecological solutions so that ecologists are able to quickly and reliably identify the strategies being used by other ecologists. This alone makes TRIZ a potentially valuable tool for professional ecologists. Currently there is no easy method of sourcing information on existing mitigation solutions and it can be time consuming, and therefore expensive, to search for published reports of mitigation work. Beyond that, TRIZ is able to source completely novel solutions from wider fields than just that of ecology, as illustrated in this investigation by a solution suggesting that Atomic Dielectric Resonance (ADR) technology could be used to detect hibernating great crested newts. This widens the range of potential solutions available for consideration for each specific mitigation problem. Using TRIZ as a method of generating lists of possible mitigation solutions, either existing or new, should produce a broader range of solutions in a less time than by using more conventional literature search based methods.

4.1.2 Solution Effectiveness. There were many mixed responses with the allocation of success ratings. The introduction of a humidity difference between the two sides of a building as a solution to encourage bats to roost in only part of the building, for example, is a solution that had been used by two of the respondents. One respondent rated the solution as ‘1’ (Not possible e.g. no success record to date ) whilst the other rated it as ‘4’ (‘Successful in some but not all cases’). Similar patterns of response were found with solutions scored as being completely original. The use of ADR technology to detect hibernating great crested newts, as described in the previous section, was rated 2 (Difficult e.g. predicted to be rarely successful) by one respondent and 5 (High e.g. predicted to be successful in most cases) by another.

Given the great number of variable components within ecological systems and development proposals it is not surprising the mitigation solutions do not fit into a ‘one size fits all’ category. Indeed, as discussed earlier in this investigation (section 1.3,) using the same mitigation technique in different situations has been shown to be unsuccessful. The ecologists responding to the solutions generated by this investigation will have a range of different experiences upon which to judge the actual or predicted effectiveness of the solutions. In his evaluation of the effectiveness of ‘displacement’ as a mitigation technique for water voles, Dean (2003) concluded that “The variety of situations and ways in which water voles may be affected, the large number of constraints which generally accompany developments ……makes it unlikely that one mitigation technique will be suitable, reliable

and cost effective for all scenarios.” This reinforces the need for an approach such as TRIZ that will produce as wide a range of solutions as possible. The greater the number and type of mitigation problem solutions available, the more likely it is that one of the solutions will turn out to be the right one for a given specific situation. Perhaps more importantly, the creation of a database of generic ‘attracts’ and ‘repels’ function delivery solutions offers the potential for a wide variety of mix-and-match solutions. In the fullness of time, the same knowledge structure may be expected to grow and evolve as ecologists acquire more field data relating to which techniques work and which do not in given situations.

Cost was not taken into account as a specific consideration during either the generation or the evaluation of the effectiveness of the solutions. Some of the solutions could involve the use of costly equipment and as such would be viewed with scepticism unless there was convincing evidence of their reliability. As one of the respondents observed the solutions “need corroboration, and therefore time and money”. The same respondent continued stating that there is a “need for a novel approach as we have problems mitigating, but it must be cheap. Some of the suggestions won’t be and would require the co-operation of too many organisations.” A common comment on the questionnaires was “needs research”.

Another issue that was not taken into account with all the solutions was that of legality. As previously discussed (Section 1.2) mitigation is frequently required for legal compliance during a development. This will include preventing operations that will disturb or harm the protected organisms. Responses to some of the solutions in the questionnaire raised concerns over the legality of the solutions. Olfactory solution ideas for bats and badgers received the following comments “You would have to be very careful with olfactory solutions e.g. I think that if you use a substance such as Bitumen for a purpose for which it is not intended it is illegal” and “Illegal to use a substance for a purpose for which it is not intended? (e.g. use of creosote in gardens to deter badgers)”. In addition the use of ultrasound to deter bats received the comment “legal problem as it causes distress”. It is, however, difficult to judge what would constitute disturbance to a particular species without a detailed understanding of the biology of the species. Taking all of these factors into consideration, however, one thing that appears clear is that a non-biologist, trained in the use of TRIZ rather than ecology, produced a large number of solution ideas that had at least the potential to deliver practically viable solutions. The investigation really serves to identify the need for future exercises to be conducted through a combination of TRIZ plus domain-specialist experts. This is discussed further in the final section, below:

4.1.3 Further Application of TRIZ Methodology and Tools. Some of the comments made by respondents to the questionnaire could be used to further progress the use of TRIZ with the general problems set. For example the comment, made in response to the kinesthetic solution to the problem of badger road casualties suggesting the digging of steep-sided channels that badgers find difficult to climb out of onto the road, “How do you stop them falling in? Whereas typically this kind of ‘yes, but’ response could be used to eliminate a potential solution from further consideration, TRIZ would encourage further consideration of the possibilities. In this case, for example, we might chose to tackle the badgers-falling-in-ditch problem as a contradiction (I want a ditch and I don’t want a ditch’; which may in turn lead to a solution involving, say, Asymmetry – whereby the ditch is steep on the road-side and more

shallowly inclined on the non-road side. The investigation, of course, was not designed to develop such detailed solutions since these would entail using a greater range of TRIZ methodologies and tools than were used at the initial stage of producing the lists of general solutions. The application of TRIZ during this investigation was carried out in a simple way that would allow analysis of the procedure. The TRIZ specialist worked alone with supplied information and literature to generate the lists of general mitigation solutions. This is not the usual method of using TRIZ. A more collaborative process would normally take place, with the TRIZ specialist(s) and the subject specialist(s) working together. This allows the process to be taken beyond the first stage, the production of generic TRIZ solutions, to generate solutions to specific problems (Figure 6). During this progression a greater range of TRIZ methodologies and tools would be employed.

Figure 6: Diagram summarising the use of the TRIZ process used in the generation of mitigation solutions. Only the first three stages were undertaken during this investigation. (Source: Mann,

2002)

The use of more specific problems and collaboration with ecological professionals would allow the complete TRIZ process to be undertaken. This would in turn allow a more detailed analysis of which components of the TRIZ methodology and tool kit are of use in an ecological context.

Ecologists frequently deal with contradictions and conflicts. The conflict between nature conservation and development is the primary reason for the development of most ecological mitigation techniques. Analysis of which of the 40 inventive principles is useful when applied in this ecological context could prove to be a valuable exercise.

This process has to a limited extent begun in the research at the University of Bath. Further analysis of the usefulness of the 40 inventive principles and other components of the TRIZ toolkit, with consideration of their limits and conditions, could potentially “facilitate ecologically sound management of biological systems” (Bogatyrev & Bogatyreva, 2003).

4.2 Future Practical Applications of TRIZ. The extension of the investigation to include the application of the complete TRIZ process to specific problems to produce specific, rather than generic, solutions as described in the

SPECIFICPROBLEM

TRIZGENERICPROBLEM

TRIZGENERICSOLUTION

SPECIFICSOLUTION

TRIZ Specialist

TRIZ Specialist

TRIZ Specialist +Domain Specialist

previous section would allow for the production of a specialist version of TRIZ for use by ecologists. This process has already been undertaken for other fields such as bespoke business, software and social variants of TRIZ. As TRIZ is applied more widely in the field of ecology the number and range of mitigation solutions developed should be increased. At this stage a collaborative project, involving organisations such as English Nature as well as consultants and other ecological professionals, could be undertaken to collect these solutions and evaluate the circumstances in which they have been effectively used. Collation of information in this way may help make it more easily accessible to other ecological professionals. Gillespie and Rasey (2003) identified in their research report for English Nature the need for the development of “one stop shops” to provide data on p rotected species. This data could be used to produce mitigation decision-making trees “to allow for the various alternatives to be considered within the practicalities of the development, and to prevent unfavourable options being considered for individual sites” (Dean, 2003).

Applications of TRIZ such as those conducted for the dissertation will help to improve success rates within the field of ecological mitigation. We hope that the work performed during the study has demonstrated to ecologists that there is definite merit in combining their domain skills with the structured knowledge-classification and problem solving processes of TRIZ.

5. REFERENCES Altringham. J. (2003). British Bats. Harper Collins, London. New Naturalist Series.

Anon (1994). The Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations. HMSO

Bogatyreva, O. Pahl, A-K. Bowyer, A. & Vincent, J. (2003) Data Gathering for Putting Biology in TRIZ. Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Conference of the Altshuller Institute for TRIZ Studies. Worcester, MA, USA.

Bradshaw, A.D. (1997) What do we mean by restoration? In Restoration Ecology and sustainable Development. (Urbanska,K.M. Webb,N.R. & Edwards,P.J. - eds) pp.8-14. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.

Dean,M. (2003) Development Mitigation fo r Water Voles: A research project into the effectiveness of ‘displacement ‘ as a mitigation technique. In Practice 39: 10-14. Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management, Winchester, Hampshire.

English Nature (2001) Great crested newt mitigation guidelines. English Nature, Peterborough.

Gillespie,J. & Rasey,A. (2003) Development control, local authorites and protected species surveys. English Nature Research Report number 479. English Nature, Peterborough.

Harris,S, Jefferies,D, Cheeseman.C, and Booty, C. (1994) Problems With Badgers? Third revised edition. RSPCA, Horsham.

Mann,D. (2002) Hands-On Systematic Innovation. Creax Press, Ieper, Belgium.

Mann,D. & Dewulf,S. (2002) TRIZ Companion. Creax Press, Ieper, Belgium.

Mitchell-Jones,A.J. & McLeish,A.P.(Eds) (1999) Bat Workers Manual. JNCC, Peterborough.

Moore,N.P, Jones,S. Hutson,A.M. & Garthwaite,D. (2003) Assessing the outcome of English Nature advice on bat colony management and mitigation works. English Nature Research Report number 517. English Nature, Peterborough.

Neal,E. & Cheeseman,C. (1996) Badgers . T.&A.D. Poyser, London. Poyser Natural History Series.

Oxford. M (2000) Developing Naturally: A Handbook For Incorporating The Natural Environment Into Planning And Development. The association of Local Government Ecologists, Bristol.

Timokhov, V.I. (2002) Natural Innovation: Examples of Creative Problem Solving in Biology, Ecology and TRIZ . Creax press, Ieper, Belgium. 2004, F Stuart, D.L.Mann, all rights reserved.

©2004 TriSolver - www.trisolver.com Pavel Livotov. The undervalued innovation potential. 1

The undervalued innovation potential Industrial application of TRIZ delivers more breakthroughs to less cost - if the right tools are applied at the right time and place. Pavel Livotov, Ph. D. TriSolver oHG, Hanover, Germany, www.trisolver.com livotov@trisolver.com Despite best efforts of the last decade, 60 to 70 percent of all initiatives pursued by the European companies to integrate TRIZ into their innovation process are abandoned or fail, resulting in wasted expenditures and disappointment. Of those initiatives that do succeed, most end in products that deliver sustainable or incremental improvements while less than 10% result in breakthrough solutions. As a consequence the innovation potential of TRIZ still remains undervalued within the companies. To analyze the situation more deeply we used our TriSolver software for innovation management that enables companies to document automatically the origin of each idea at every stage of the product development process. With less effort one can evaluate what TRIZ tools are more effective and what innovation methods often help to achieve breakthrough solutions. Analyzing numerous industrial projects, TriSolver has discovered the factors that lead to low process yields in TRIZ application and developed recommendations for optimization of the well known practices and tools. Diagram 1 Diagram 2 Following statistics (see diagram 1) demonstrates the frequency of application of the TRIZ tools in the industrial innovation or problem solving projects. Although formulated about 30 years ago, the 40 Altshuller’s Innovation Principles [1] have remained till now the most popular TRIZ tool, used in 98% of all projects. The reason for this fact is obvious: principles are simple to use or modify and can be easily integrated in brainstorming or daily engineer’s work. In general the 40 principles are good to enhance technical creativity but only scratch the surface of the problem in complicated situations [2]. No less effective are the 12 double general principles for solving both technical and non-technical tasks [3, 5]. Application experience of the Contradiction Matrix over the years demonstrates however no considerable advantages in quality of solutions in comparison with the direct use of the 40 principles. As not the Matrix but the Principles remain crucial for problem solving, also the best and fullest matrix does not guarantee the solution of difficult problem.

©2004 TriSolver - www.trisolver.com Pavel Livotov. The undervalued innovation potential. 2

To identify the best practices in problem solving with TRIZ, TriSolver offered a method of idea or patent portfolio that easily helps to define the market potential of ideas and their risk or costs as well in only four levels: low, middle, high and very high. The ideas with high to very high market potentials and low to average costs can be obviously selected as candidates for the breakthrough solutions (see Fig 1). The diagram No.2 illustrates from this position, which TRIZ tools are less effective and what methods help to achieve “strong” ideas. In other words it shows how frequent the utilization of definite TRIZ tools resulted in breakthrough ideas or concepts. The winner of this statistical analysis are predictably the ARIZ based TriSolver-Method from one hand and surprisingly the Method of the Anticipatory Failure Identification (also know as a “subversive” analysis) from the other hand. Comparing both diagrams 1 and 2 one can prove that companies undervalue the ARIZ and the Method of the Anticipatory Failure Identification using them groundless seldom. Fig. 1: Example of idea evaluation within the TriSolver software

The high potential of ARIZ-approach in the practice was indirectly conformed by a separate investigation [4], where the extremely high composite score of solutions was achieved in application both of innovation and separation principles for resolving technical and physical contradictions respectively in the same problems. In the Method of the Anticipatory Failure Identification the failures are “invented” in a subversive manner, as it is well known. Once a list of “invented” failure scenarios is completed, the problem must be re-inverted and the failures must be prevented from ever happening. This approach leads in the praxis very frequently to new product concepts with higher reliability and less cost. The utilization of the TRIZ methods and tools, selected for our analysis, was performed within more than 30 innovation projects, which can be described as a 5-step process that includes

1. Defining the innovation tasks (see fig. 2) 2. Analyzing initial situation and technical system 3. Idea generation and problem solving 4. Evaluating ideas 5. Developing and evaluating concepts

©2004 TriSolver - www.trisolver.com Pavel Livotov. The undervalued innovation potential. 3

The figure 2 demonstrates three types of task levels in accordance to problem difficulty, wherein on task level C (partial system improvement) the satisfactory solution could be found in 2 days, and on the levels B (improvement of entire system) and A (development of totally new products) the projects were completed successfully in 4 and 12 weeks respectively. Fig. 2: Three typical levels of TRIZ support of the innovation tasks.

In our next publication we plan to present some real case studies and application examples of the Anticipatory Failure Identification and of the comprehensive search for solution with the TriSolver innovation approach. Professional exploitation of these tools enables companies to make dramatic improvements in time to market as it aligns the marketing and development efforts. Product and service concepts that have a 90% chance of success are typically delivered in less than 3 months. Design prototypes and intellectual property evaluations are run in parallel and are completed soon thereafter.

References 1. Altshuller G. (1979): Creativity as an exact science, 1979 Moscow (rus.), 1984 Gordon &

Breach NY. 2. Livotov P. (2003): Modeling 40 Innovation Principles with «Moving Little People», TRIZ-

Journal, July 2003. 3. Livotov P., Petrov V. (2002): TRIZ innovation technology: product development and problem

solving. Handbook. 302 p., TriSolver Edition, Hanover, 2002 (germ.). 4. Slocum M.S., Domb E., Lundberg C. (2003): Solution Dynamics as a Function of Resolution

Method. Physical Contradiction v. Technical Contradiction. TRIZ-Journal, January 2003. 5. TriSolver «Idea Generator & Manager», V.2.2, professional edition, English/German, Hanover,

1998-2004.

Author Pavel Livotov, Ph. D., author of more than 70 patented inventions, began his work with TRIZ in the 1980’s in St. Petersburg, Russia. As CEO of TriSolver Group Europe (www.trisolver.com), he is sharing his experience of the past 10 years through the introduction, training and integration of TRIZ in more than 100 German and Swiss companies.

A. New product development

A - 16%

C - 25% B - 59% C. Modification of system components

B. Improvement of entire system

TRIZ diaries Graham Rawlinson

Graham@dagr.demon.co.uk

As the end of year approached it was time yet again to think about next year’s diary. Still an advocate of the little book rather than electronic wizardry, I looked around for a 2004 diary and became a little disappointed at what I saw, Nothing new there. So I thought why not use TRIZ to make a diary of my own. So here again, not quite ‘everyday TRIZ’, is a TRIZ evaluation and invention of a diary 2004. Function First, I corrected myself on thinking the diary is there to ‘store information’. Change is of course the key word in TRIZ, so what change does a diary produce, when, where, how and to whom? The main agent changed of course will be me. The diary is there to change my behaviour. A key feature of this change process is date related. The usual access system which ties in this function is a storage of information in a sequence of dates, with some variations as to whether the view pages are for a single day, or a week, starting at the weekend or Monday. TRIZ would of course suggest there is a lot of underutilised resource given such a uniform system, and indeed most people’s diaries will have lots of blank spaces and maybe some pages where you can’t hold enough information. Of course a comparison with other data storage systems like computers suggests a much more flexible arrangement, basically making stacks as the information comes in. Easier to do on a computer maybe, but maybe it is possible with paper/book format? Some information is not date related, so there are some phone numbers of family and close friends, bank details, and other stuff. The primary function is retrieval, but of course for retrieval to occur I need to put information in, so I have to consider this unless I employ a personal secretary, which is hardly the solution in this exercise! Any Contradictions here? Of course, yes. I would like to just write information on the next clean page. And I would like the information I need to be on the first page of the diary, or perhaps on whatever page I open the diary on (a lovely magic solution idea). TRIZZERs will of course happily offer Segmentation as an option to consider, so let’s examine that one first. My first page could be an index of where all the information is throughout the diary. The remaining pages could then have information added as it is received. The end of the diary could, like many diaries, have the non-date related information. One problem with this might be that I would quite like related information to be in one section, so that for a series of training courses all the information is in that section. Segmentation occurs again as a good option. So my dairy has several

segments, a front page or two for an index, sections for different ‘jobs’, a general set of notes as and when diary information is added and a final section for non-date related stuff. All this seems fairly standard so far, so let’s explore a few more TRIZ options. Colour – yes, a good idea to colour code sections for easy access and make it look nice! Move to a new dimension – maybe the notes should be in landscape not portrait? Inexpensive short life – maybe I can just remove pages that are past there use by date? Harm to benefit – if I am to remove pages which are out of date, then I am probably only going to use one side, so the other side could be for fun, pictures, doodles, I might even sell them! Local quality – on reflection this tells me that the key page is the first one, the index, so I should pay special attention to that page to make the whole system work. I should also consider trends of evolution in design of course. At the moment all my pages have straight edges so I could cut corners, shape edges, just be playful with the pages prior to use and after use. Index Page Key functions of the index page are: To pass information to me on page numbers of notes made To provide a summary of activity levels over all time periods (week to view etc.), to include activity type, maybe location, company Contradictions: Extent of information (amount of substance - 26) and ease/convenience of use (33) – in storing and retrieving – which gives Principles 39 (Inert Environment), 29 (Pneumatics), 25 (Self Service), 10 (Prior Action) TRIZ and information I find requires a more thorough review of the Principles that work with physical objects. So why does an inert environment resolve a contradiction between amount and convenience of use? And pneumatics, how does that work? Prior Action is easy to see for information, because how you encrypt information makes storage easier or more compact, and self service should be an easy concept, with a coding system which delivers more than one function – e.g. if I call a task an elephant task I am telling myself that it is both large and can involves a lot of work. So, for my index, I will invent a coding which is self serving, and the style and choice of how to do the layout will be a Prior Action requirement maybe some experiments. But Pneumatics and Inertness? I can see how pneumatics works with physical substances, from a hydrogen balloon being used to carry large loads to an air flow being used to move tonnes of powder. So the Principle works because of the other

Principle, Segmentation. For my data I am not trying to move it, just to store it and have it easy to locate, large amounts of it all on one page. Interestingly Volume of Non Moving Object and Convenience of Use does not have any Principles labelled, so in one sense maybe I need to Invent my way round this? Pneumatics does give me the idea of blowing something up in size, so this leads to the idea of magnification! I have a sheet map magnifier so I will try this. Segmentation also gives me the idea of coloured dots, so I will apply a work planner concept with a magnification concept and see how that works. I am keen to think through the idea of Inert Environment though, as I find the Principles you have trouble applying often eventually give you the best ideas. An Inert Environment works for a large quantity of materials and ease of use I guess because you can do things to the materials and they are not damaged even if you do bad things to them, like move them around quickly, which in other environments might set them alight. Can I think of my page as being inert, so that I can do things without damage? If I write in ink this is high damage to the page, and I can’t ‘move’ the information around. But if I had a set of pencils from very soft to fairly hard I could manage the movement of data better. To avoid loss of information I will also apply the Principle, Thin Films, and put a sheet in my diary to cover up the pencil entries when I am not ‘moving’ them! Summary As with many innovations, the newness in itself is not so staggering, but the process of evaluating what it is you want will in itself lead to change. This year my diary has been a passive agent, not dynamically linked to my record keeping, its purpose and Function! Next year my diary will form part of my thinking and reflecting process, it will perform more than one Function, which is surely good TRIZ! Happy New Year! Graham

Book Review: Effective Innovation: The Development of Winning Technologies by Don Clausing and Victor Fey.

Reviewed by Ellen Domb, Michael Slocum, and Joe Miller, editor@triz-journal.com

ISBN 0-7918-0203-5 Hard cover, 247 pages, with index Cost: $69 ($55 for ASME members) or £56.00 Published simultaneously by ASME Press (US) http://www.asme.org and Professional Engineering Publishing (UK) http://www.pepublishing.com We are borrowing The American Society for Training and Development book review scale—this gives readers a quick look at the conclusion of the book review, and helps them decide if they even want to read the review. The reviewers make no claim at all that this is an “unbiased” review—all the reviewers know both authors from extensive work together in TRIZ and in Quality Function Deployment. Both Fey and Clausing have appeared in the TRIZ Journal, with popular articles that have been valued (measured by number of downloads!) by our readers. We would welcome their book, Effective Innovation: The Development of Winning Technologies, to the small library of TRIZ books available in English, but this is not specifically a TRIZ book. It is a collection of stories about the product development process, and a model for development that is derived from those stories. There are 2 chapters specifically on TRIZ that present an excellent introduction to the subject. Readers of the earlier book by Victor Fey and Eugene Rivin, The Science of Innovation: A Managerial Overview of the TRIZ Methodology, will recognize many of the examples, but new ones have also been added. Later chapters on Failure Mode Analysis and Robust Engineering point out the opportunity to use TRIZ for problem solving, but don’t have actual TRIZ case studies. The book is organized based on the classic TRIZ principle of nesting. Introductory and summary chapters surround six chapters that elaborate a six-step effective innovation process. The core and leading portions of that process are TRIZ techniques. These techniques are structured in a four-stage process called “TechNav” – a “comprehensive process for conceptual development of next-generation technology candidates…” Many of the topics are illustrated with features of the paper feed mechanism on the Xerox 1075 copier. This is not surprising, given Clausing’s history with the Xerox Company, but it is an old case (1981) and, although the TRIZ illustrations are clear, many readers would prefer more current cases, where TRIZ was actually used. Many short but more

BUY BORROW PASS

recent examples actually developed with TRIZ are included to illustrate specific tools and techniques: those examples are likely more relevant to today’s technologists. Effective Innovation provides an informative discussion of the laws of technological system evolution, with good examples from diverse areas. There is excellent presentation of how the laws were developed, with an acknowledgement of the subjective nature of data review decisions leading to them. The authors emphasize that S curves and the laws of technological system evolution operate in a dynamic and changing environment. This important aspect is well presented and vital to today’s rapidly churning technological business arena. Both experienced readers and those getting started in TRIZ will find the chapter on the laws of evolution useful and interesting. The section on guiding technology evolution (applying TechNav) is particularly descriptive. This Four Phase approach outlines the steps necessary to conceptually develop next-generation technology candidates:

• Phase 1: Analysis of the Past and Current System's Evolution • Phase 2: Determination of Strategic Opportunities • Phase 3: Problem Formulation and Concept Development • Phase 4: Concept Selection.

An S-curve based assessment of a system past and current evolution leads the TechNav process. The laws and lines of technological system evolution are then utilized to establish strategic directions for development. TRIZ Principles for overcoming system conflicts, substance-field analysis and the standard approaches to solving problems are then integrated into the Algorithm for Inventive problem Solving. Specific TRIZ tools are clearly and concisely presented and discussed with examples throughout this structured elaboration of the proposed methodology. As an adjunct to the TechNav process, Pugh Concept Selection is presented to help select the highest potential concepts for further development. The methodology is strongly advocated for gaining a common understanding among team members, for developing deeper insight into the workings of proposed concepts, and for drawing out “better insights into the type of conceptual features that are strongly responsive to the requirements.” Surprisingly, Clausing and Fey present limited approaches to help achieve innovation in the sales, marketing, supply chain and infrastructure arenas, i.e. “other enterprise processes,” even though innovations in these process are mentioned as “critical”. They emphasize the value of “ technology integration” at the subsystems and components level of technological systems, and urge readers to “exercise your influence to the maximum…for collateral innovations…” in other parts of their business. It is easy for reviewers to pick on specific faults in the book—the preponderance of mechanical engineering examples, the reference to the 76 Standards in a book that hasn’t been published yet, a few confusing examples where the roles of the tool and object

change multiple times (it won’t confuse experts, but the experts probably won’t read the examples in detail anyhow. Beginners need very clear examples!) During Clausing’s tenure at Xerox and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he participated in the introduction of Quality Function Deployment and a number of other methodologies into commerce and academia. It is quite surprising that he does not include a QFD-style, “voice of the customer” focus in the development of the criteria used in the Pugh method. But, a few flaws don’t change our overall recommendation—Buy this book. If you “Pass” you’ll miss Fey and Clausing’s clarity of thought and systematic presentation of the Effective Innovation method. If you “Borrow” you won’t have the book when you need it to improve your own applications of TRIZ and other methods to your system of innovation. Don Clausing has been a consistent and dependable advocate of managing technology and innovation to serve the customer and the business. Victor Fey, with his history as a TRIZ Master and a TRIZ innovator, offers valuable insights and understanding deep into the origins of TRIZ, and continues to advance the field. We appreciate their contributions and the sharing of their knowledge through Effective Innovation: The Development of Winning Technologies.

1

March 12, 2004

Information letter #8/2004 International TRIZ Association announces with deep regret the death of Valentina N.

Zhuravleva who was the wife and associate of TRIZ author – Henry S. Altshuller. Valentina Zhuravleva dedicated her whole life to work of assisting H.S. Altshuller in his

activity. Together with H.S. Altshuller she is numbered among the best fantasts of the 60s in the world.

Our children will read her fantastic stories many years after her death. We present our condolences to relatives of V.N. Zhuravleva – Y. Komarcheva and L.

Komarcheva. We will always remember Valentina N. Zhuravleva. Presidium of the International TRIZ Association

ALTSHULLER INSTITUTE for TRIZ Studies *** With deepest sorrow... *** Valentina Nikolaevna Zhuravleva, Genrick Altshuller's widow, passed away last Friday (March 12) in a Russian hospital. I know that you are as saddened by this news as we are. I do not have anymore news at this time. As more information is available, we will post it to our web site. http://www.aitriz.org Get more information... http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=piymozn6.qizjnwn6.9ufamtn6.vca8tsn6.453&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aitriz.org The Altshuller Institute offers condolences and sympathies to Larisa and Yuna. Valentina will be missed but not forgotten. Sincerely, RICHARD LANGEVIN ALTSHULLER INSTITUTE for TRIZ Studies ------------------------------------------------

Readers who would like to add their names to this tribute may go to http://www.altshuller.ru

In memory of Valentina Nikolaevna: There are women that devoted their entire lives to their husbands – there are a few of

them. There are women who live for their children – there are very many of them. But only very few women give all their energy and their entire lives to an idea – there are not many of them and the number is getting smaller and smaller.

Valentina Nikolaevna lived for the ideas of her husband, for his cause that became a cause

of hers too. When he passed away she lived for his memory – women like Valentina Nikolaevna Zhuravleva are very rare on this planet. It was lucky for Genrikh Saulovich Altshuller, the creator of TRIZ, to have met specifically her in their young days and have lived his life specifically with her and left her the result of his creative work – the science of powerful thinking

For us, who are “in TRIZ”, who have known Valentina Nikolaevna for many years it was

a sheer joy to be in touch with her and it was a double pleasure when we had a chance spend some time together with this wonderful couple – Genrikh Saulovich and Valentina Nikolaevna.

She was the wife of the creator of TRIZ, but she also had a totally independent and self-

sufficient personality (it is enough to read any of the science-fiction stories of Valentina Zhuravleva to be immediately convinced in that) - and if it had been otherwise there would not have been that TRIZ community worldwide, informal, without any bureaucratic structure or limitations.

Those who are “in TRIZ” is a united family and the role of Valentina Nikolaevna in

defining this family is huge. TRIZ is a science, a dynamic and evolving science that has been recognized by more and more researchers and Valentina Nikolaevna contributed a lot to make it happen.

Valentina Nikolaevna lived her life according to the Life Strategy of the Creative Person –

she always chose the right moves in this game for creative life, she always did the right things never compromising her principles, the principles of the Creative Person.

We, for whom TRIZ has become a part of our lives, will always remember Valentina

Nikolaevna and when we are no longer here the memory of Valentina Nikolaevna will continue living in the hearts of those who will come after us.

First gathering of the SIT Innovation Community in the Netherlands From the ASIT newsletter, http://www.start2think.com * * * * A Special Message for our Dutch readers * * * * Based in the Netherlands? Interested in systematic innovation? On June 22nd , in Antropia, Driebergen, you are invited to participate in "Using SIT for Results", the first gathering of the SIT Innovation Community in the Netherlands. (Details on place, content and registration at http://www.sit-netherlands.com) * * Important! All ASIT techniques newsletter readers are entitled to 10% off the early bird price until March 28th. Just state clearly that you are an ASIT reader and you'll get the discount. The meeting will be centered around SIT - Systematic Inventive Thinking(tm) (which is the same as ASIT), a non-brainstorming approach to creativity and innovation, that is being used in hundreds of companies, in over 25 countries around the world, achieving real results. (More about the uses of SIT in http://www.sitsite.com) . This meeting is the foundation of a COMMUNITY. Dozens of individuals, companies and consultants in the Netherlands are already using SIT to make themselves more innovative. We will all share this experience in the meeting to help each other achieve practical results. (Read the day's agenda, and find how you can take part in http://www.sit-netherlands.com) And finally - we absolutely promise 2 things: a) Everything will be designed so that you can go out and do something practical; b) We - SIT - share all we can with you, and encourage the creation of an Innovation (Seekers) Community. Join us at http://www.sit-netherlands.com , and write to us with your thoughts. See you there Amnon Levav SIT International http://www.sitsite.com * * * I really hope to see you in this special one-of-a-kind event. Don't forget to claim your 10% discount (hey, I worked hard to get it for you...-:).

Editor’s note: This item is also listed in the Calendar section of the TRIZ Journal.

Information Letter

As TRIZ is getting more and more widely and actively used by the leading industrial corporations, prominent educational institutions and engineering community all over the world, it is very important to prepare and educate TRIZ experts that serve as nuclei in propagation TRIZ and mentors for TRIZ practitioners.

International TRIZ Association (MA TRIZ) is announcing a TRIZ Workshop for Advanced

TRIZ Users that will take place in St. Petersburg, Russia on May 11 – 13, 2004. The Workshop will be dedicated to advanced TRIZ topics that have not been published or described well enough in languages other than Russian.

The material of the Workshop includes “TRIZ ++” methodology, Functional Synthesis of

Engineering Systems, Inverse Analysis, Development of the Creative Imagination, TRIZ in Arts Systems and other advanced topics (a tentative agenda is attached) The unique topics will be presented by the leading TRIZ researchers worldwide.

The participants of the event will have an opportunity to meet the most prominent TRIZ

Masters such as Voluslav Mitrofanov and others as well as have personal discussions with the members of MA TRIZ Board (Presidium). TRIZ champions from leading companies worldwide are expected to take part in the workshop.

The Workshop will take place in St. Petersburg – one of the most beautiful and amazing

cities in the world, “Venice of the North”. In addition to getting valuable knowledge in advanced TRIZ, networking with TRIZ colleagues from different continents, meeting the most experienced and oldest TRIZ Masters, the attendees will enjoy the fascination of old St. Petersburg with its palaces, canals, drawbridges and the famous Hermitage – the Winter Palace of Russian Tsars. Warm May weather is the best time for visiting St. Petersburg.

The Workshop will be run in English (or with the translation into English). The organizers

would like the Workshop to be very interactive, that is why the number of participants is relatively limited – up to 15 (maximum). The registration is on “first come, first served basis”. The fee for three days of the Workshop is 1,500 USD (includes hand-outs, Certificates of Completion, lunches every day and one dinner – sampling Russian cuisine).

MA TRIZ can arrange letters of invitation, help with information on obtaining Russian visa and hotel reservation.

For registration and/or additional information, please contact Dr. Sergei Ikovenko, MA TRIZ VP for International Development at:

sergeiikovenko@aol.com Ikovenko@triz.ru

phone: + 1-617-642-2511 + 1-617-305-9250, ext. 229

Advanced TRIZ User Workshop in St. Petersburg May 11-13, 2004

Agenda

Day 1. Welcome

1. TRIZ ++ ™ Methodology.

“TRIZ ++” is an advanced TRIZ-based Innovation Methodology. However TRIZ & “TRIZ++” have different problem-solving philosophies: while classical TRIZ focuses on generating a totally new inventive solution, “TRIZ ++” concentrates on how to adapt an existing technology for solving the problem. “TRIZ++” can handle large-scale technology-related business problems that traditional TRIZ cannot. “TRIZ++” uses an extensive set of tools like “TRIZ++ Benchmarking”, Cause-Effect Chain Analysis, Flow Analysis and others). This part of the workshop is presented by Gen3Partners, the creator of “TRIZ ++” Methodology of Innovative Consulting.

2. Benchmarking of Engineering Systems using TRIZ.

Benchmarking – is a procedure of selecting the best existing engineering systems as the base one for further analysis and improvement. Some traditional engineering criteria can be used for this purpose as well as so called Maximum Potential Criterion that is connected with the limits of the system development from S-Curve Analysis. Besides the base system, the Benchmarking Techniques allow to determine “champion” systems on specific parameters that will be further used for Feature Transfer part of the project

3. Functional Synthesis of Engineering Systems.

Functional Synthesis of Technological Processes is designed for radical changes/improvement of the processes. It focuses on the total redesign of an existing process and creation of an new “cause-effect” structure. The method is based on identifying value-added productive functions at the top hierarchal level, their recombining and building a new model of the technological process with the further problem identification for the model implementation.

4. An important part of TRIZ – Development of Creative Imagination. There is a part of TRIZ that does not have an immediate problem-solving output and because of that it has been neglected in recent TRIZ publications in the USA and Europe. There is not much have been translated into English and other languages either. However. G. Altshuller paid a lot of attention to this area – Development of Creative Imagination and its methods. This part of the workshop is dedicated to the Development of Creative Imagination part of TRIZ. Q & A Day 2

1. Trends of Engineering System Evolution – a detailed guide.

Laws and Trends of Engineering System Evolution is an interrelated collection of statistically proven evolutionary algorithms/lines that describe the sequential transitions of engineering systems from one state to another and these generic lines are true for a big number of engineering systems or large groups of

engineering systems. The Laws are statistically derived and are a result of a kind of “natural selection”, “survival of the fittest” in the technical world. Because various engineering systems have very similar problems in the process of their evolution, the problem solving approaches are stereotypical as well. The Laws of evolution are well-organized and structured list of these strong moves of winning engineering systems, because of which the winners get a competitive advantage in comparison to others. The Laws and Trends form a hierarchal structure and work as mechanisms of each other. This part of the material presents a detailed guide for using the Laws for Evolutionary Analysis.

2. “Supereffect” Approach.

Supereffect is an additional advantageous consequence/feature that can be achieved as a result of some changes, introduced into the system, in addition to a major useful effect for which the abovementioned changes were performed. The differences between the supereffects of the first order and the supereffects of the second order are discussed.

3. Inverse Analysis.

Inverse Analysis is a method of searching new applications of the existing technologies (including device and materials). Inverse Analysis is based on a procedure of identifying the functions of the engineering system, their generalization and outlining areas of application where similar functions are needed. The method includes function analysis and composition of morphological matrices. 4. Presentations of the participants, discussions. Q & A Day 3

1. Laws of Evolution in Arts System. TRIZ and arts This part of the workshop (half a day) is dedicated to a fascinating and not well-known abroad topic – Laws of evolution in arts. The material is developed and will be presented by the leading TRIZ researcher in this area worldwide, Mr. Julii Murashkovski.

2. Function -oriented information search.

Function-Oriented Search is a method for searching ready engineering solutions that can be used for performing (or improving) a necessary function. The method includes function identification for action, object and the conditions of performance as well as identification of the leading branches of science and technology where the function in question is supposed to be performed best. The final part of the method is a search for existing solutions and formulation of problem statements on adaptation of the existing solutions to the analyzed engineering system.

3. Meeting with members of MA TRIZ Board and prominent TRIZ Masters Conclusion