Transactional TRIZ, Theory, Application, and Execution, Part I: Theory

Jack Stuart

Jack.Stuart@BankofAmerica.com This series of articles will make the case for a version of TRIZ that applies for

transactional, service or business applications. The first article will address the relationship between intelligent problem analysis, creativity and components of creative problem solving. This analysis is appropriate for all philosophies of TRIZ. However, beyond philosophy, many non-manufacturing people often have a difficult time with the nomenclature associated with manufacturing techniques. And with that, they believe the tools and examples are not relevant to their workplace. The author has found this true in both Six Sigma and Lean training events. But when the material is changed ever so slightly to be put in terms of the business environment in which they serve, the users are quite adept at utilizing the same tools and examples with which they formerly had issues. The second article will present a case for a Transactional Triz matrix. The modification here will be much more than cosmetic. And the third article will offer a relatively cosmetic modification of ARIZ to convert the language to be more accessible to people who solve transactional problems.

The Jack Stuart Theory of Intelligence There are many models that describe intelligence, but this theory is aimed at being applied to gap analysis when a situation or process is not performing to standard. The Theory proposes that intelligence is the balance of Creativity, Perseverance, and timely Decision Making, as pictured in Figure 1. Koestler, in his book Act of Creation, points out that the Latin verb (cogito) for ‘to think’ etymologically means ‘to shake together,’ and intelligo means ‘to select among.’ What will be found upon reflection is that these three characteristics are required, the creation to be the defeat of habit, and the decision to go with the best pathway. If any of these three are overemphasized, there will occur an out of balance situation.

The Theory then proposes that if any of components are found in excess, the characteristics are given a different description as follows in Figure 2. Persons who “over-create” can be described as ‘Dreamers’, those who persevere beyond reasonable effort are called ‘Stubborn’ and those who make decisions prematurely are given an ‘Impulsive’ label.

Creativity

Perseverance

Decision Making

Figure 1: Components of Intelligence

Creativity

Perseverance

Decision Making

Figure 2: Too much of a good thing?

Dreamer

Stubborn

Impulsive

But not only excess of the trait but deficiency in it will be viewed with a less than favorable description as we see in Figure 3.

Here, the opposite of Impulsive is called ‘Indecisive,’ people who lack the ability to stay on task are considered ‘Flighty,’ and those who lack creativity are branded as ‘Dullards.’ But to apply the Theory to a useful end, we must go beyond description and find where this sort of model can be applied. It has been the author’s observation that the excessive characteristics are much less flaws than they are compensating characteristics. In fact, the Dreamer is responding to one or both of his flaws; that he is Flighty and/or Indecisive. And the Impulsive decision maker is compensating for a lack of imagination (Dullard) or inability to follow through on earlier decisions (Flightiness). And the Stubborn person is covering an Indecisive or un-Imaginative flaw. Picture this triad as corners of a triangle and the center of the triangle rests on a pin. The balanced triangle will indicate an intelligent approach and if a corner is raised, then another corner (Or perhaps even two for some unfortunate few) must logically be lower. So the point here is that the diagnosis will depend not on the excesses of these traits but on the deficiencies. And the cure for the shortfall in intelligence will depend on the tools used as the substitute for natural talent. So what do we have by way of tools?

Creativity

Perseverance

Decision Making

Figure 3. What if we fall short on a skill?

Dreamer

Stubborn (Psychological inertia)

Impulsive

Dullard

Flighty

Indecisive

Figure 4 shows some typical techniques that are used to substitute for natural or

intuitive actions. Milestones, tollgates and performance reviews will serve to keep people on track when their tendency might be to abandon a task prematurely. The typical business school techniques of Payback time and cost/benefit ratios aid in helping the manager to make prompt decisions. The Pugh matrix aids the mental organization when many choices seem to create analysis paralysis. And in Six Sigma the 95% confidence interval is able to help those normally wait until they are perfectly convinced in a decision; which, in our world of infinite possibilities, is a dysfunctional attitude. More Creativity is called to action when Impulsive Decision Making is seen (The person can’t seem to find a good choice to land on). Or it will be needed when Stubborn behavior is seen (No one will leave a serviceable choice unless they see a better one).

The need for Creativity

Humans are pattern seeking animals. Once we find these patterns we use them to predict actions in the future. These patterns are called stereotypes and they utilize a

Creativity

Perseverance

Decision Making

Figure 4. What Tools Do We Have When We Fall Short? How Do We Act Smart When We Aren’t

Cost Benefit Ratios 95% Confidence Interval Payback Time Pugh Matrix

Milestones Tollgates Performance reviews

Brainstorm sessions TRIZ

reduced model to predict a range of similar conditions. These patterns or paradigms, are often very useful and efficient. We cannot afford the time and effort to treat everything we see with new eyes.

However, often this pattern analysis works at an illogical level when applied in inappropriate conditions. A cat will never again sit on a hot stove once it gets singed. However, it usually won’t get anywhere near a cold one either. The cat has trouble breaking its paradigm. And so humans have paradigms that have been successful before, but won’t always work. This is also called psychological inertia, or stubbornness. To break this requires that we see things from a new perspective. And tools can help do that.

This brings the discussion to Creativity. Brainstorming and the many variations of the technique has been the traditional method of compensation in unimaginative situations, but Altshuller (1) suggests why this technique has limitations. He points out these limitations that his TRIZ approach overcomes:

1.) Brainstorming may not be cost efficient. There may be no evidence that 10 people thinking for a day on a problem will have any more ideas than 1 person thinking for 10 days.

2.) Brainstorming design restricts criticism to encourage new ideas. This might serve to abandon the germ of a perfect solution in favor of a more fleshed out and enticing alternative, but in the end, not the ideal.

3.) In order to minimize restrictions on the creative part of brainstorming, the process may generate a lot of ideas that never have a logical pathway to the ultimate solution. And in an infinite world, they may displace an opportunity to come upon the ideal solution.

4.) Success might breed lack of success. He identified 5 levels of problems and concludes that techniques that will work at the lowest levels have little chance at the highest. But yet, if the levels of difficulty aren’t addressed, this won’t be obvious. As creatures of habit, we go back to what has worked before. In particular, brainstorming is designed to liberate ideas that the group members have, but have suppressed. If the best ideas come from other fields with which the members are not familiar, no amount of brainstorming will find them.

One of his most popular tools, the contradiction matrix uses a list of 39 engineering

parameters to create a set of about 1600 (38x38) possible conflicts. So when one parameter is getting better, another one gets worse. From the resulting grid of conflicts, Altshuller applied his analysis of tens of thousands of inventive solutions and found they could be generalized into 40 solution principles.

This and the other tools were meant to apply a scientific approach to creativity. This is something that seems at odds with the idea that science is method and creativity is quite non-methodical. His set of creativity tools required:

1.) Stating the problem correctly 2.) Giving potential solutions a direction 3.) Using different tools for different levels of problems

Since TRIZ utilizes these concepts, it seems to work better than brainstorming, especially for complex problems. While theory without application is just a dream, execution without theory could be a nightmare. Therefore, it might be prudent to address two theoretical concepts underlying TRIZ application: A.) A comprehensive attack plan. Does TRIZ offer enough variation in approaches to aid the dullard to an adequate creative solution? B.) Validation that dilemma/contradiction identification is suitable to correct problem statements.

What does a Creative genius do, that we might not? Annette Moser-Wellman (2) describes five approaches to creativity and gives each approach a descriptive name.

• The Seer (Visualizes future) as represented by the question: What solutions do I see in my mind’s eye?

• The Observer (Sees present) asks What do I notice around me that leads to a solution?

• The Alchemist (Cross-functional leverage) looks for: What does this situation remind me of?

• While the Fool (Harvests chance)poses the questions: What happens if I invert the situation? Come up with an absurd conclusion? What if I persevered?

• And the Sage (Reduce problem to essence) offers: What simple solution could I create? What can I rekindle from the past?

The author has found in surveys of quite possibly biased audiences that everyone seems to use at least two faces in their approach to solving problems, and almost no one uses all five faces. Therefore any suite of creativity tools would be well served to design the tools to utilize all five faces and Altshuller’s TRIZ does just that. Analysis of that will be offered in the third article.

Why Two?

The last item of this article is a discussion on why TRIZ finds success in resolving contradictions by using such a small number of parameters to start to solve the problems that seem so difficult to solve. On the face of it, it is quite logical to assume that problems couldn’t be much simpler than a dilemma (two horns). So why not? Well, it would seem that if it was that simple, someone even as dumb as us should be able to figure it all out before now. But apparently, we haven’t. Goldratt, and his Evaporating Cloud Theory, proposes that all problems can, and must be, reduced to the two part conflict. He then proposes moving the problem up from that point to a referee point where the resolution is a matter of priority. So, for example, if Purchasing needs to reduce the contract price they are paying and Warranty needs to reduce rebates and fixes to customers for poor product, the resolution may lie in the mutual boss of both who might then insist on using a common measure of “Total cost of Ownership,” which will break the conflict caused by the independent metric systems of the two separate departments.

Koestler (3) proposes that creativity is the perceiving of a situation or idea in two self-consistent but habitually incompatible frames of reference which he calls “bisociation.” He goes to great lengths to point out that in all cases of art, humor, problem solving and what we could call cases of creativity, that the case not only allows

the unacceptable condition (Dullness, if you will) to be reduced to two elements, but requires it to be. What we think of as more complex problems can be distilled as a series of bisociative conditions. He describes the process Gutenberg went through to find a practical way to print the Bible. He had to concern himself with ink transfer, which he thought woodblock rubbing could solve. But he had a problem with transferring 1300 pages of the bible, for which woodcarving each letter was a cumbersome solution. Then he thought of something more repeatable, the seal, which could be used repeatedly, but the ink transfer would be more difficult than woodcut. When he saw a wine-press he was able to connect two self consistent but normally incompatible ideas, wine-presses and seals. But he had to solve aseries of these to get to his final solution. He had to move past writing entire bibles with quill and ink and merge block rubbing for ink transfer, coin punches for casting multiple copies of the same letters, reusable seals for flexible design of pages and wine press for consistent ink transfer.

It is upon this basis that we can fulfill the first step of re-engineering the presentation of TRIZ that manufacturing has used so successfully. “The first step to intelligent re-engineering is to save all the pieces.” In this case, we have to make sure what the pieces are. The contradiction, the problem statement, directional approach and a flexible multi-tier attack for different problem types are all elements that need to be retained to even hope to successfully claim a good translation to Transactional TRIZ.

In the next article, the discussion will center around the development of a Contradiction Matrix that is transactional based rather than manufacturing based. The final article will cover the approach of convert an ARIZ for transactional use and also deal with a common tendency to prefer simplicity over complexity in tool usage. References:

1.) Altshuller, Genrich (1999) The Innovation Algorithm, Technical Innovation Center, Inc. Worcester, MA

2.) Moser-Wellman, Annette (2001) The Five Faces of Genius, Viking press. NYC, New York

3.) Koestler, Arthur (1964) The Act of Creation, Penguin Group. London Jack Stuart was introduced to TRIZ in a seminar offered by Ellen Domb in 2001 and has had a, perhaps, unhealthy obsession for the contradiction matrix ever since. He was curious whether a transactional version was available and when he was told it wasn’t at the time, he set about trying to discover one. He has worked in Aerospace, Automotive, Educational and Financial institutions and served in both manufacturing and service sectors.

TRIZ Takes the Biscuit (and makes the Biscuit) Solving the RIGHT Problems with TRIZ - from Food to Aero-engines

Karen Gadd Oxford Creativity

karen.gadd@ triz.co.uk www.triz.co.uk

TRIZ was created by engineers for engineers, to help them problem-solve. One cry from those learning TRIZ is - please tell us about successfully solved problems, for processes as well as products. A TRIZ-solved problem frequently produces such an obvious answer that even when the TRIZ part was preceded by months of work and fruitless brainstorming sessions, there is still a tendency to shrug off the good TRIZ solutions as too self-evident to make a big fuss about. Sometimes we are asked to complicate the answer up a bit to justify all the pre-TRIZ weak options which were produced. Sometimes the answers are so obvious they seem more like common sense than TRIZ. Everyone understands the importance of solving the right problem – although sometimes teams get lost in the details of a problem and can’t see the wood for the trees – this is something TRIZ helps us put right. TRIZ tools help us understand the context of problems and what we want. The simplest and most powerful TRIZ Tool -Thinking in Time and Space- (often called the “System Operator” or “9 Windows”) helps us understand the many big issues related to a problem and particularly helps us see when prevention is better than cure - so we can deal with the problem not symptoms and again use our common sense. I hope it’s not sexist to say that female engineers are particularly good at this. Although it is too rare I really enjoy working with fellow (is this the right word?) women engineers on TRIZ. When I learned TRIZ from Ellen Domb in California in 1997 I remember one wonderful girl in the class (who I’ll call Jenny, not her real name) who had several industrial baking problems to solve for a very large company. It struck me then how much TRIZ was needed to get the much underrated female wisdom and knowledge from our mothers and grandmothers for process industries involved in food, cleaning products, laundry, organisational skills etc. Jenny told us a story about sharing problems, knowledge and solutions in her company. One problem in making biscuits was that the edges of large batches were burnt. The engineers involved in the process were at the final stages of approval for an edge trimming machine (to remove the burnt bits very neatly). They then used the fundamental route to TRIZ problem solving - the Prism of TRIZ. A simple route for problem solving to encourage us to look beyond our first solutions, as someone else has probably solved the problems before and found the best solutions, we need to access these. The Prism of TRIZ helps us look outside our area of expertise and our own ideas (we might want to stick to our imperfect solutions because they are ours) as the best solutions probably already exist, and are documented, but in other disciplines and industries, outside our experience.

General Problems Ask the right question

Your Solution

General Solutions

Your Problem Prism of TRIZ

The engineers never got their large, expensive, complex trimming machine because one of the female chemists from another department happened to hear about the problem and said all we need to do is change the flour, to one which won’t burn at this temperature, even at the edges – most good bakers (home and industrial) could have solved this with their knowledge. The engineers had a solution but it was far from ideal. Any amount of problem-solving time and brainstorming from the engineers for solutions would probably not have produced this good cost effective solution; as they were only using their own knowledge, and engineering approaches for solutions. Another problem we helped solve involved emptying of cake moulds without damaging the cake or leaving any behind. Two days of TRIZ function analysis showed the problem to be an insufficient action when removing the cake, which was solved using the TRIZ Standard Solutions which suggested adding a field – they chose vibration. I wonder if any of them noticed their mothers gently tapping the cake tins at home to get their cakes out intact. At a TRIZ meeting in Manchester a glass manufacturer talked about the problem of identifying one or two damaged rollers, in a large array, which scratch the glass they are supporting. A company which made photographic paper said they had solved this problem using TRIZ – their rollers support photographic paper and TRIZ function analysis had led them to look at the TRIZ Standard Solutions which list all the possible available fields. They needed to identify the best field to help them detect the occasional damaged roller, and their successful low-cost, effective solution was to use ultrasound detectors, a solution which the glass manufacturer then investigated and adopted. At one of our public TRIZ classes, a female engineer who was working on a small domestic product with a small engine had the problem of reducing its noise. She was the only one from her company but the class included aerospace engineers. When she drew up her problem the aerospace (male) engineers laughed and said the answer is easy, just look at the airflows – they had the relevant expertise – she did not. She was delighted with their solutions they worked on for her, and quite rightly was not embarrassed that they knew the answer, which was obvious in their industry, but not hers. The Prism of TRIZ encourages us to look outside our own industry and expertise because someone else probably has the answer. We have used TRIZ in many companies for process problems (including some major food companies) and once everyone understands what is wanted, and where and when the system does not deliver this, then the solutions are often a simple mix of

The right, relevant knowledge AND

TRIZ solution triggers** AND

Common sense **The TRIZ Solution Triggers TRIZ is the only problem-solving process and tool-kit which actually helps us problem solve. In the Prism of TRIZ above the can be General

Solutions

represented by the TRIZ simple lists of distilled knowledge. These are the very general lists of all the solutions to engineering and scientific problems as recorded in the world’s patent data base. There are four separate lists of TRIZ TRIGGERS for solutions available for helping to solve any problem.

1) 40 Inventive Principles for solving contradictions 2) 8 Trends of Evolution for system or process development (each with many lines of

evolution) 3) 76 Standard Solutions (how to deal with insufficiency, harm or excess in systems or

processes) 4) 2,500 TRIZ effects (concepts and scientific theories arranged in useful categories for

problem solving) {Editor’s note: The TRIZ Journal has had many articles on all these subjects, so rather than an extensive bibliography, we refer readers to the “Archive” page and our search engine.”} These are easy to understand and use provided we really understand what problem we are trying to solve (many problems can be defined as the gaps between what we want and what our system delivers) Hindsight in Problem Solving When a solution is simple and obvious, the telling of the problem story can make the problems look trivial in retrospect; however, before it is solved no problem appears easy – and the fun of problem solving, especially inventive problem solving (when we don’t know how to get to the best answer), is the challenge of uncovering really good solutions. We enjoy using our brains, our knowledge, and experience to come up with good answers. If we can come up with answers before anyone else, it’s even more fun. There are lots of good solutions in the world and it is not relevant whether these were originally arrived at through TRIZ because one of the purposes of TRIZ is to capture the routes to all good solutions, and the solutions themselves in their most general form for our future and repeated use. These are the TRIZ Triggers to help us access (remember) the relevant knowledge from our brains when we need it, and have the courage to go beyond what we know, to seek new knowledge and locate good solutions. Altshuller said solving problems was like solving a murder mystery – and he said the Sherlock Holmes approach was a very good one, with methodical, systematic searches to help isolate, recognise, and concentrate on the relevant facts. In an analysis of the UK’s favourite jokes the top one concerned this talent of Holmes. “One night Holmes and Watson were camping – and they both woke up in the middle of the night. Holmes asked Watson what he could see and what that made him think of … Watson looked at the stars and said they made him think of eternity. Holmes said when he looked at the stars he realised their tent had been stolen” Problems are solved once we can locate the relevant information, then the right TRIZ Triggers and processes take us to the right places to solve the problem. Our brains then can be creative about the right areas and find innovative solutions. For engineers particularly, TRIZ makes all the answers accessible – and helps any good engineer come up with the good answers fairly quickly – of which some will be new. All it requires is that they know their TRIZ and are well practised at it. Eventually with lots of problem solving, running through the TRIZ processes becomes almost

second nature and the answers sometimes seem to come spontaneously from nowhere. (This varies with everyone –Altshuller once said that TRIZ made the very creative people 3 times more creative but the non-creative people were made 10 times more creative.) TRIZ problem solving is like detective work, we need to isolate and recognise the relevant information and use great clarity of thought to find the right solutions from our TRIZ Triggers. Sugar Sprinkle (only on the biscuit - a sticky problem) Another biscuit problem was that after baking, and cutting, the round biscuits were sprinkled with sugar from above, when the sugar missed the biscuit there was a mess and cleaning the excess sugar from the conveyor belt and its surroundings was a sticky problem for the engineers. By this time the engineers had been TRIZ trained and they knew that they needed to use the right knowledge, the TRIZ solution triggers and common sense – and being engineers they wanted their solution from their brains quickly. Now one of the engineers had listened to one piece of advice we give everyone on training – if you want to find a quick, obvious solution its always worth trying one of the most used TRIZ Triggers, the TRIZ Principle 13 - the Other Way Round (I generally receive lots of rude suggestions from delegates in response to this) but I still suggest that everyone should know and try this principle on any problem in their life. TRIZ Inventive Principle 13. The other way round A. Invert the action – cool it instead of heat it Freeze dry instead of heat dry, B. Invert the parts - Make movable parts (or the external environment) fixed, and fixed parts movable Rowing or jogging machines, small swimming pool with moving water, Rolling road test C. Turn the object (or process) the other way round or upside down Tomato sauce bottle, Internet shopping, Garage pit One look at this Principle together with his problem and the engineer did the engineer’s equivalent of shouting EUREKA - he said quite quietly “how about turning THE BISCUITS THE OTHER WAY ROUND. We could have a bed of sugar on the conveyor belt and the biscuits could be face down to collect the sugar sprinkling– less mess, better sugar adhesion to the biscuit and a simple answer” I wish I could have a pound for everytime Principle 13 solves a problem. It is used far beyond process and food problems even for new engine problems at Rolls-Royce. The next example is not food but a software problem. After teaching hundreds of engineers in Rolls-Royce in Bristol and Derby –they started to take my advice that Principle 13 THE OTHER WAY ROUND is a good starting point for any problem.

The Other Way Round for Coffee – Zones of the Problem When problems are described to a fresh set of eyes and ears obvious solutions can sometimes be uncovered. Often however the problem situation is so complex when described, that it needs time, effort and the TRIZ process to understand all the problems and what is required and then we need to move it from a problem situation to a simple TRIZ problem list. Once we have a problem list we can prioritise the problems and solve them one at a time, having first understood exactly what causes the problem and where and when the problem occurs (TRIZ Problem Map) and where and when it can be solved (TRIZ Solution Map). The problem situation was that a new squishy squeezable coffee box had been designed to have all the advantages of a rigid package and a soft package. The functionality of a traditional tea tin was needed, in that it was rigid, re-useable, and easy to open and close and scoop out coffee with a large spoon. It also had to have the advantages of a soft coffee pack in that when in the supermarket - you could squeeze it to get the coffee aroma from a small one-way valve which was there to allow the coffee to de-gas. The package was simple cardboard and attractive. The problem was that the boxes were difficult to assemble - if the package was made more rigid to ease the assembly problem then it lost its squishiness / squeeziness. We were called in to help solve this problem, to have the advantages of both a rigid packet and a soft packet. (A classic TRIZ contradiction problem which needs the TRIZ contradiction solving tools – we used the contradiction matrix and the 40 Principles to find solutions) The essential problems were the where and when. It only needed to be squishy in the supermarket, and it only needed to be rigid in the home. Also it needed to be rigid in the lid area (the lid had to held on very firmly so that it could be opened and closed repeatedly but not lose its seal as air needed to be minimised) and it needed to be squishy where it was squeezed on the packet sides (but only in the supermarket) Before the coffee was inside the packet the sides were too flexible to attach the lid to it, after the coffee was inside the packet it was rigid enough to attach the lid, but we needed to attach the lid

Solid of the air in the passage with filleted edges

The Use of TRIZ in Rolls-Royce for Solving Throat Area Problem

An automated method for calculating turbine throat areas was developed but it would not work reliably due to the complex geometry. Despite much effort the problem was still not fixed after 6-8 months of development. After fruitless work it was decided that a new approach required and TRIZ was used. One afternoon the TRIZ 40 Principles were used as a stimulus for brainstorming with a group of engineers. The TRIZ Principle 13 “The Other Way Round” yielded idea of modelling air in passage rather than the metal itself. The problem was solved – the answer was very obvious in retrospect, very simple and very cost effective. (Dave Knott – Rolls-Royce Derby)

before putting in the coffee because of the glues and contamination. All the proposed solutions detrimentally affected the reliability of the re-useable lid. It was complicated but we needed get the lid on, without stressing the box, fill with coffee from the top and then seal the complex lid with the coffee in the pack and then activate the seal. The solution came from Principle 13 the Other Way Round which was one of several Principles suggested by the problem solving session. The problems stemmed from fitting a rigid top to a flexible box, before loading the coffee from the top, and from having the valve in place and active while filling. Give good engineers the right TRIZ Triggers for their problems which they understand and the results are often very quick and powerful. One designer looked at Principle 13 and said lets make the boxes with the lid assembled and sealed, and hold the sides in place during this operation, then load from the bottom (the bottom of the pack was a separate part), then attach a stiff bottom with an integral valve. The Problem was solved. Biscuits Breaking Problem – zones of the problem – where and when to solve it Another biscuit problem was that supermarkets were complaining about the percentage of broken biscuits in a packet (after normal handling) when they had finally been opened by the customer. There are lots of places to solve a problem like this and protecting the biscuits by good and bulky packaging is one, even if it is an expensive solution. So what do we want? A cost effective solution to protecting biscuits? Or …Biscuits that don’t break?– how can we get to the best solution? By asking the right question. The answer was similar to the burnt edges on biscuit batches and it needed the relevant specialist knowledge - Once this question was asked a clever young chemist found the answer which is…. Cool the biscuits very slowly and they will be much less vulnerable to breaking. Chicken and egg The approach of thinking in time is very powerful for problem solving. As we have never found a way of making egg shells less vulnerable we still protect them well with good packaging – and it was an automotive engineer looking at egg boxes in the 1940’s who used his analogous thinking skills to make cars safer – realising that we couldn’t reduce car accident fatalities by making humans tougher. A good solution involving fragile eggs was used in the second world war and thought up by the SOE (Special Operations Executive). It was not found by TRIZ but I thought it involved TRIZ

General Problems Ask the right question

How do we get biscuits that don’t break? And are not hard like ships biscuits

thinking and clever use of resources. The SOE had to solve problems fast and used great scientific brain power; the one below is more domestic than to do with much of their secret agent work. On the North West Frontier in India an isolated outpost asked for a supply of eggs to be dropped to them. Dropping eggs from low flying aircraft creates challenges – think about how you would do this before reading the answer below. TRIZ would take you to the excellent SOE solution through the tool of Thinking in Time and Space and the use of resources and in the case studies for next month we will cover these tools. OR *The solution was to put a chicken in a paper bag and drop it from the aircraft. The simple brown paper bag stayed on long enough to protect the chicken from the slipstream, the fluttering chicken having cast off the bag then safely reached the ground. (*Reference page 40 SOE - the scientific secrets by Frederic Boyce & Douglas Everett)

Protecting Eggs is difficult

Chickens lay eggs

Deliver goods by plane

Protect eggs to drop from plane

Undamaged eggs

Supply eggs to Remote

Frontier post

Finite supply of eggs

Drop goods from plane

Plane leaves

Protecting Eggs is difficult

Chickens lay eggs

Deliver goods by plane

Protect chickens with

paper bags

Undamaged chickens

Supply chickens to

Frontier post

Infinite supply of eggs

Drop goods from plane

Plane leaves

One other story from the same time concerned the German Enigma machine. The British had to break the code and put together top brains in a secret location – Bletchley Park. The code was broken in 1942 (completely by British endeavours and not because of USA intervention as recently portrayed in a Hollywood Blockbuster!) BUT no- one asked some really simple common sense questions upfront- and it turned out that the Enigma was patented in the London patent office in 1933 and we had in our possession at least 2 enigma machines in the UK. Knowledge sharing is difficult when intense secrecy is involved. Being English I like good stories from our clever scientists and in a month where we are celebrating the brilliant UK rescue of the Russian submariners the same day as the safe return of Discovery – we have much to be proud of in our scientific and engineering community. To be helping that community solve problems better, faster and cheaper with TRIZ has been a great joy and satisfaction in the seven years since Ellen Domb introduced me to TRIZ.

Express TRIZ Analysis of US Patents in

Non-volatile Phase Change Memory

Semyon D. Savransky a and Tz-Chin Wei b

a The TRIZ Experts,

6015 Pepper Tree Court, Newark, CA 94560, USA

E-mail: TRIZExperts@hotmail.com b 11F, #1, Lane 228, JungAn St., JungHe City, Taipei 235, Taiwan

E-mail: peterwei@ms9.hinet.net

Abstract

The results of express patents analysis for non-volatile phase change memory in the framework

of TRIZ are presented. The statistics shows that the development of non-volatile semiconductor

(electrical) phase change memory occurs now at the second stage of technique evolution.

1. Introduction

The famous paper S. R. Ovshinsky [1] created a new field of non-volatile phase change memory

(PCM) devices. We analyze development activities in PCM in the framework of TRIZ [2-5].

Results of express analysis of PCM evolution trends are reported here, more detail presentations for

specialists in non-volatile memory who are not familiar with TRIZ published in Ref. 6, 7.

2. US Patents in semiconductor non-volatile phase change memory field

We have analyzed US patents (from # 3,271,591 up to # 6,822,903) issued from 1966 up to

November 20041 for chalcogenide PCM. In this paper we report results for more than 300 patents

important for non-volatile electrical memory 2. Data shows that these patents legally issued only in

one country are quite representative because most of inventors and assignees have USA jurisdiction.

1 The last date coinsides with 36 anniversary of Ovshinsky’s paper [1] (it was published in November 1968). 2 List of the patents and Ref. 6,7 are available upon email request to the corresponding author (SDS).

Country # patents # assignee

United States 302 27

Japan 14 7

Netherlands 4 1

Italy 3 1

Taiwan 3 1

Israel 2 1

France 1 1

United Kingdom 2 2

Republic of Korea 1 1

Table 1. PCM patents geography. Only 30 patents (less than 10%) were issued for 15 non-US

assignees

The simple analysis of US patent numbers that can be performed on fly with any spreadsheet

software. The analysis consists of calculation of the differences between 2 closest patents numbers

for each patent under the examination. The X-axis presents linear numerical order of the patents.

There the oldest patent is marked as 1, next is marked as 2 and so on till the latest patent. Please

note that this order is chronological while a query to the official US patents database

(www.uspto.gov) gives patents in inverse chronological order from newest to oldest. In fact the X-

axis represents slightly uneven time scale. The “event” Y-axis shows the difference between 2

closest patent numbers in logarithmic scale (e.g., the difference between US patents 3,619,732 and

3,644,741 - which are next to each other in the field - is about 25000). The result of the analysis

shows that the speed for issue of PCM patents has recently increased in about 100 times (please see

the figure 1). This is indicates the transition to the second (growth) stage of the technique evolution

[2,4].

The figure 2 shows the recent explosion of activities in the field of chalcogenide phase change non-

volatile memory technology in more traditional for TRIZ coordinates [2,4]. The figure 3 illustrates

patent distribution according to the top (most frequent) classes of the International Patent

Classification. These 5 classes cover about 94% of all PCM patents issued in USA for the period of

time under the investigation. Both figures 2 and 3 confirm the conclusion about the current second

stage of technique evolution for semiconductor PCM.

The number of patent applications and the number of assignees (mostly companies participated in

PCM development) also grew up from one in 1964-1974 to three in 1984-1989 to about ten at the

turn of the XX century and to more than twenty in 2004. Both numbers are linearly related (figure

4). The assignee scrutiny [6,7] allows to make better decision about investing in a new technique.

1.E+00

1.E+01

1.E+02

1.E+03

1.E+04

1.E+05

1.E+06

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350

Figure 1. Frequency of US patents issued in chalcogenide PCM field.

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

1963-1965

1966-1968

1969-1971

1972-1974

1975-1977

1978-1980

1981-1983

1984-1986

1987-1989

1990-1992

1993-1995

1996-1998

1999-2001

2002-2004

3-Years Period

Num

ber o

f Pat

ents

Appl DateIssue Date

Figure 2. Chronological graph for number of issued US patents.

IPC Activity - Top 5 IPC Classes

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

1970

1971

1972

1973

1974

1975

1976

1977

1978

1979

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

Year (issued)

Freq

uenc

y

G06FH03KG11BG11CH01L

Figure 3. Top International Patent Classification classes distributions in time. Most activities are related to "Other Semiconductor Devices" (H01L) and "Static Information Storage" (G11C) classes.

19661971197219731975197619781979198019851986

1987198819891990199119921993

1994199519961997

199819992000

2001

2002

2003

2004

0102030405060708090

0 5 10 15 20 25

Number of Assignees

Num

ber o

f Iss

ued

Pate

nts

Figure 4. Correlation between numbers of patents and assignees.

We would like to stress that usually experts in a field become aware about TRIZ only at third or

later stages of a technique evolution. To the best of authors’ knowledge this study is the first

attempt to involve TRIZ toolbox for development of technique at early study of evolution. We hope

to receive fruitful results not only for phase-change memory but for TRIZ methodology itself

explore this opportunity.

3. Conclusion

We have analyzed few hundreds US patents selected in the field of PCM in the framework of

TRIZ. A new express method for analysis of the stage of technique evolution proposed. The

statistical results reported in this paper indicate that the semiconductor non-volatile PCM grows up

presently at the second stage of the technique evolution.

References

[1] S. R. Ovshinsky, Reversible Electrical Switching Phenomena in Disordered Structures, Phys. Rev. Lett., 21, 1450 (1968).

[2] G. S. Altshuller. Creativity as an Exact Science: The Theory of the Solution of Inventive Problems, New York: Gordon and Breach, 1984.

[3] S. D. Savransky, Engineering of Creativity: Introduction to TRIZ Methodology of Inventive Problem Solving, CRC Press, 2000, 408 pp.

[4] G. G. Doncean, Y.P. Salamatov, S.D. Savransky, Theoria Evolutiei Sistemelor Technice, RO-INI, 2003, 237 pp. (in Romanian).

[5] M. A. de Carvalho, S. D. Savransky, Tz-Chin Wei, 121 Heuristics for Solving Problems, LuLu, 2004, 346 pp. (ISBN: 1-4116-1689-8).

[6] S. D. Savransky and Tz-Chin Wei, Analysis of US patents (1966-Nov. 2004) in phase charge memory. 1st International Conference on Memory Technology and Design, ICMTD, France, May 2005, Paper EP-5.

[7] S. D. Savransky and Tz-Chin Wei, TRIZ analysis of US patents in Ovonic phase change memory, J. Ovonic Research, 2005, v.1 N3 (in press).

1

Similarity between TRIZ Principles He Cong, Loh Han Tong

he.cong@gmail.com

Developed during the initial patent research by Altshuller and his colleagues, the 40 Inventive Principles (IP) [1, 21] are one of the most important tools of TRIZ. As a basic tool of TRIZ, the IP were always introduced as the first concept to new comers to TRIZ. With the increasingly popular application of TRIZ in recent decades, experts have summarized numerous examples about application of IP in different technical and non-technical fields [3]. However, some criticisms have also been given upon the original list of Principles: they are too abstract and sometimes overlapped with each other [4]. In recent research, the relationship between IP has been analyzed. In 1998, Williams [5] analyzed the symmetry and asymmetry of IP and summarized several groups of Principles that are opposite to each other. In 2002, Mann [4] proposed a 5*3 matrix to group most of the Principles into five different strategies by the space-time-interface entities.

In [6], an automatic patent classification system based on 40 IP has been proposed and analyzed upon a small set of patent documents. Elaborating on the idea of automatic patent classification according to IP, this paper analyzes the similarity between Principles based on the text information in the descriptions of examples using the Principles. 6 of 40 Principles are defined as ‘Obscure Principles’, which are hard to be analyzed by automatic classification system. In addition, two kinds of similarities between Principles are defined in this paper: text similarity and meaning similarity.

1. Text analysis of IP

1.1 Obscure Principles vs. Distinct Principles As mentioned earlier, our analysis of Principles is based on the text information used in the descriptions of inventions. It is necessary for automatic patent classification according to IP in order to be able to assign the invention correctly. During our research, we found that for some Principles (34 of them), there are obvious descriptive text information, which hints at the Principles used. These Principles are defined as “Distinct Principles” in this paper. For instance, if an invention uses Principle 25, “self-service”, its patent description usually mentions the text information such as “self-”. However, for the other 6 Principles, there is little text information that points towards the Principles used and inventions using such Principles share few similar or common words. These Principles are defined as “obscure Principles” in this paper.

Table 1 Obscure Principles Obscure

Principles2 Analysis

2 If #32, extraction, is used, usually the descriptions only describe the extracted objects or systems, without specifying the relationship of extraction using obvious text information. e.g.

• Use the sound of a barking dog as a burglar alarm (the sound of the dog is extracted from a physical dog, thus we could get the benefit of the alarm without

1 Translated from the original works of Altshuller in Russian, different English versions of 40 Principles were compiled by different authors. Although the basis idea is the same, there is small difference such as the way to split one Principle to several sections. To be consistent, we choose these two lists, to which all descriptions about the Principles in this paper refer. The analysis on TRIZ Principles in this paper is only based on English descriptions. 2 Please refer to [1, 2] for details of descriptions of each Principle. 3 “#” represents Principles.

2

the difficulty of feeding, exercising, training, etc, but there is no clear text that describes this)

• Non-smoking areas 3 The general idea of #3 is to enable local parts of a system to perform locally different or

optimized functions. However, little distinct text information for this is contained in the example descriptions. e.g.

• Freezer compartment in refrigerator • Lunch box with special compartments for liquids.

12 This Principle emphasizes on changing the conditions to achieve a certain effect. However the example description usually describes the condition after being changed, with little obvious text information about the relationship of changing.

13 The general idea of #13, inversion, is to make an object or action upside down. However, the example descriptions seldom specify the “upside down” relationship between two objects or actions. They instead directly describe the object or action after being changed. E.g.

• Cool the inner part (instead of heating the outer part) 17 It is hard to cluster the examples using #17. To understand #17 needs deep analysis.

e.g.( It’s impossible to see from the examples text description itself that this principle is being applied.)

• Five-axis cutting tool • Infrared computer mouse • Cassette with 6 CD

24 Documents involving #24, intermediary, usually do not specify that an object is used as an intermediary. They instead describe the usage or functions of the object. (no obvious text information) Furthermore, the intermediaries used in different inventions are not supposed to be the same or similar. (no common or similar text information shared) e.g.

• Play a guitar with a plectrum; • Joining papers with a paper clip.

1.2 Text similarity The descriptions of inventions using some Principles share superficially similar text information which is distinctive to identify a group of Principles but is hard for an automatic classification system to differentiate among the group of Principles. For example, “pre-shrunk jeans” uses Principle 9 (prior counteraction); “pre-deposited blade in a surgery cast facilitates removal” uses Principle 10 (prior action) [2]. The descriptions of both examples, like many typical examples using these two Principles, share similar text information like “pre”, which is a typical descriptive text information for both Principles 9 and 10. However, deeper understanding is needed to differentiate between Principle 9 and 10. Groups of Principles like this are defined as “Principles with Text Similarity” in our paper. Other groups of Principles with text similarity are listed as in Table 2. As shown in Table 2, the same Principle might appear in different groups. E.g. Principle 7 has relationship of text similarity with Principle 31: when Principle 7b is used, i.e. “an object passes through a cavity of another object”, the description usually contains words like “cavity” or “pores” which are highly likely to appear in the description of a patent using Principle 31. However, another sub-Principle of Principle 7 is similar to Principle 30: when Principle 7a (an object is contained inside another one) is used, words like “inside”, “outside” or “wrap” are usually contained in the descriptions, which appears when Principle 30b (an object is isolated from outside environment) is used. Like

3

Principle 7, most IP are subdivided into several sub-Principles to describe different ways the IP is implemented. Although these sub-Principles share a common macroscopic idea of the Principle, each sub-Principle has its own particular emphasis and the sub-Principles have a subtle difference with one another within the same broad IP. Therefore, the similarity between Principles is not necessarily transitive. For example, #7b is similar to #31; #7a is similar to #30. But #30 is not similar to #31. In total, 19 different Principles are contained in the 10 groups of Principles with text similarity.

Table 2 The Principles with text similarity

Principles Similarity Examples of

similar text information4

1, 5, 6, 15b

#1 is about “segment”; #5 and #6 are about “merging”. The words like “multiple” are contained in many patents using the three Principles. e.g.

#1, Multi-pin electrical connectors (US Patent Number 6,139,373); #5, Multi-color multi-point recorder (US Patent Number 4,343,007); #6, Multi-purpose knife (US Patent Number 6,006,433)

“multiple”, “section”, “segment”

7, 31

#7, “make one part pass through a cavity in the other”; #31, “make an object porous”, “if an object is already porous, add something useful into the pores”. [2] It is highly possible that the words like “hole” are contained in the description of both Principles

“hole”, “cavity”

9, 10, 11

All of the Principles are about implementing some action in advance. E.g. #9, Pre-shrunk jeans #10, Pre-deposited blade in a surgery cast facilitates removal #11,Put an air-bag in a car in advance

“pre-”, “prior”, “in advance”

8, 29

#8b, use “aerodynamic or hydrodynamic forces”; #29, use “pneumatic or hydraulic construction”. [1] Both Principles involve something aerodynamic (or pneumatic) and hydraulic.

“aerodynamic”, “hydraulic”

35, 36, 37

#35, parameter change [2], emphasizes on the facts of phase change (35a), temperature change (35d) or other parameters change; #36 and #37 emphasize on using the effect of phase transition. All of them are about phase changing. Usually if #36 or #37 is used, #35 is involved. (Editor’s note: 37 involves change of dimensions as a function of temperature, usually without a structural phase change)

“temperature”, “freeze”, “thermal”

26, 28

#26b, replace an object, or action with an optical copy; #28a, replace an existing means with an optical system. [2] The “optical copy” involved by #26b is the copy of the “object”, while the “optical system” involved by #28a replaces “existing system” and is different in nature from the former system. Although the deep meaning of both Principles is different, the common words like “optical” appear in many descriptions using both Principles.

“optical”

27, 34

#27, cheap disposable; #34, discard and recover. [2] Both Principles involved the idea of disposing or discarding something after fulfilling its functions.

“reject”, “disposable”

7, 30

#7a, contain an object inside another, which in turn is placed inside the other; #30b, isolate an object from the outside environment with a thin film or fine membrane. [1]

“inside”, “outside”, “wrap”

4 The words listed here are only part of the similar text information. The words listed represent different word forms. E.g. “section”, “sections” and “sectional” are all represented as “section”. In our automatic classification experiment mentioned later, no phases are considered. Therefore, we only list the words here although similar phase

4

Both Principles involve the position relationship of several objects: one is outside and the other is inside. The similarity between them is not very strong.

29, 38, 39

#29, use air for inflation or cushions; #38, replace normal air with air, etc; #39, inert environment. [1] The words like “air” are contained in many descriptions of inventions using the three Principles.

“gas” “air”

1.3 Meaning Similarity Some Principles partly overlap with others. E.g. Principle 25b, “make use of waste material and energy” is similar in nature to Principle 22, “convert harm into benefit”. E.g. the main idea of the patent example, “waste heat conversion system” (US patent number 6,450,283), is to use waste heat energy and convert useless or harmful energy to benefit. Both Principle 22 and 25b can be used. We define such Principles as “Principles with similar meaning”. Another group of Principles with meaning similarity is 13.b and 15.c.

Principles Similarity

22, 25b Principle 22: convert harm into benefit; Principle 25b: make use of waste material and energy; Both Principles are about “converting harm or waste into benefit”.

13.b, 15c 13b, Make object a moving part, or make nonmoving part movable and outside environment immovable; 15c, if an object is immovable, make it movable or interchangeable; 13.b contains 15c

2 Conclusion In this paper, based on text description of inventions, we have divided 40 IPs into different categories. We have listed 6 ‘Obscure Principles’ and 34 ‘Distinct Principles’. Then similarity between ‘Distinct Principle’ is analyzed. In Table 1 and 2, we have summarized 10 groups of IP with text similarity and 2 groups of IP with meaning similarity. This work will contribute towards the possibility of automatically classifying patent documents according to IP: the documents using ‘Obscure Principles’ are hard to be identified using superficial text information, thus hard to be automatically classified; however, the documents using ‘Distinct Principles’ are usually described by clear and similar text information, thus they are relatively easier to be automatically classified. However, the similarity between IP makes classification between similar IP hard and IPs may need to be clustered into groups.

To achieve automatic classification, based on the work done here, it is possible to analyze the text description of an invention and broadly classify the invention into a group of possible IPs if the IPs involved are distinct ones. However, research needs to be done to realize how to do so to the level of individual IP as well as how to treat Obscure ones.

Acknowledge We would like to thank Mr. Teo Wei Kuan, Eddy for collecting and classifying patent documents.

5

Reference [1] Terninko J, Zusman A, Zlotin B. Systematic Innovation: An Introduction to TRIZ: St.Lucie Press, 1998. [2] 40 invention Principles with examples. Available on: http://www.oxfordcreativity.co.uk/. [3] Technical and Non-technical examples available on: http://www.triz-journal.com/matrix/index.htm [4] Mann D. Evolving the IP. The TRIZ Journal 2002; August Issues. [5] Williams T, Domb E. Reversability of the 40 Principles of Problem Solving. The TRIZ Journal 1998; May Issues. [6] Loh HT, He C, Shen LX. Automatic Classification of Patent Documents for TRIZ Users. (Submitted)

About the Authors He Cong is currently pursuing PhD in Department of Mechanical Engineering from the National University of Singapore, focusing on text mining and TRIZ. She has received her Bachelor in Engineering from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China. She can be reached at g0301107@nus.edu.sg.

Loh Han Tong received his Bachelor in Engineering from the University of Adelaide, his Master of Engineering from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and his Master of Science and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan. He is an Associate Professor and Deputy Head in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at NUS. He is also a Fellow of the Singapore-MIT Alliance, which is an innovative engineering education and research collaboration between MIT, NUS and the Nanyang Technological University, to promote global education and research in engineering. His research interests include data mining, rapid prototyping, robust design and computer aided design.

Seeking innovation in a Six-Sigma Project

by applying TRIZ theory Haiyan Ru, sindyru@hotmail.com

Haibo Ru, browruguard-register@yahoo.com.cn

HuangChao, huangchao7628@yahoo.com.cn

Six-Sigma is famous for its rigorous logic based on data, which is also the reason why R&D

engineers cast doubts on Six-Sigma: does data give birth to everything? For example, How to generate a good idea in the phase of Improvement? If data analysis shows that the key factor is the inappropriateness of parameters, adjusting them will be exactly the right solution. But if data doesn’t self-evidently show how to solve the problem although we have known what’s wrong, what can we do? Maybe brainstorming? Needless to say how inefficient brainstorming is without a definite target. “Well, what we need is inspiration”, says someone. What is “inspiration” then? That is, innovation.

The embodiment of innovation appears in the Analysis phase of DFSS as a kind of methodology called TRIZ. We cannot reconvert the acronym to a meaningful English phrase because of its Russian origin, and it’s seldom heard in China before. Its mystery arouses our attention. Owing to the Internet, which is always a good database to get to know up-to-date art, TRIZ not only uncovers its mysterious veil, but also leads us into a wonderful new world. What’s the TRIZ Theory? It is the evolutionary trend of the technological system summarized from 2.5 million technical patents all over the world. Its theoretical basis is that the evolution of technological system is not a random process, but conforms to some certain rule. Interestingly, this rule in technical world seems identical with the Natural Selection in biological world. The individual technologies also compete with one another for resource, and the evolutionary trend describes the winners’ typical features. That’s why TRIZ works well. What can make your enterprise outstanding from numerous rivals? It is to perfectly settle the conflicts competing for resource caused by different technologies while rivals cannot. Hereby, if there are conflicts in the technological system, that’s where TRIZ can play an important role, and it is a good opportunity for you to surpass the competitors as well. Classical TRIZ theory which is basically founded by Altshuller includes three parts: four tools for settling the conflicts, eight evolutionary laws of the technological system, and the algorithm called ARIZ for inventing. According to TRIZ, conflicts are abstracted as different models resolved by relevant tools. Say, if a conflict in the technological system is described as a contradiction of two parameters, Altshuller’s Matrix should be applied; if described as a contradiction of two characteristics of the same parameter, it’s the objective of Separation Rules; if depicted as the Su-Field model, it could be resolved with 76 Standard Solutions. At last, if conflicts cannot be described as the above well-structured models, you can turn to the Solution Base. The Eight Laws describe the evolutionary trend from different aspects. As other objective rules in the world, knowing these laws full well will enable people to forecast the right developing direction of the technological system and to make right choices so that their enterprises can save a great deal of time when competitors are oscillating. ARIZ is a method which integrates all of the

fore-cited tools. However, it is seldom applied as a full one due to its complexity. Figure 1 shows how to apply TRIZ in practice. The path from “Generic Problem” to “Generic Solution” has been well founded by TRIZ theory itself. The work left to engineers is translating the specific problems in the real world into TRIZ language, i.e., modeling them as accurately as possible, applying the fore-cited tools to get hints or cases patented which are provided by TRIZ, then brainstorming for optional solutions, screening out several feasible ones according to a certain evaluating rule, at last taking them on trial to confirm which is the optimal one.

Figure1. Applying TRIZ to solve practical problems

The thinking way above is pretty similar with one methodology in Six-Sigma, as shown by Figure 2. Not only the two diagrams are similar, but the intrinsic logic of TRIZ and Six-Sigma are alike as well. Both of theories analyze human’s existing experience and solutions that have been implemented already by statistical methods to provide human some help for learning the unknown world.

Figure2. One methodology of Six-Sigma

For this reason it is inevitable that TRIZ has been combined with Six-Sigma. A practical problem might be defined, measured and analyzed according to the Six-Sigma principles, but in the improving stage we absolutely can apply TRIZ to pursue breakthrough and validate that. For a newly designed product, we can certainly predict the developing path according to TRIZ and advance more rapidly by skipping some unnecessary phases to win the leading position in the industry. However, it is not justified that the solutions hinted by TRIZ are the best ones. TRIZ always stresses that its “optimal” is only meaningful in the sense of statistics because what it can provide

are the solutions that used to appear with the highest frequency but not perfectly the best ones. Besides the stuff that classical TRIZ theory offers, modern TRIZ theory has absorbed a lot of new ideas, such as more novel tools for better depicting problems and for thinking creatively. Among these, the Function Analysis is a special one that is more worthy of mention. This approach decomposes a complicated system hierarchically according to diverse models such as Components Model, Structured Model, Functional Model, Idealization Model, and focuses on the dominating functions of the technological system and the essential cause of its conflicts. Given the essential cause, TRIZ will make miracles true. This analyzing approach enables the technical staff to start understanding an issue from the qualitative angle of view, from functions and principles, but not only the data, so it is more acceptable for engineers. Data only play a secondary role when you cannot make sure what choice should be made. This approach is similar with another methodology of Six-Sigma, the funnel-like process of filtering the dubious causes stepwise, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure3. Another methodology of Six-Sigma

The following figure might be able to give us some enlightenment about how to solve

problems with the combination of TRIZ and Six-Sigma.

Figure 4 the diagram of combining TRIZ with Six-Sigma to solve problems

As follows, we’ll talk about a practical case which shows how TRIZ was applied to a 6-sigma project. When tracking the quality, we found that a kind of card presented an exceptionally high return rate. Therefore an investigation team came into existence for improving its quality. Analyzing the causes of its returns in recent months by applying Pareto Chart, we found that one cause accounted for about 85%. According to the designing principles, appearance of this cause is equivalent to the input power of one certain module, so we treated this input power as Y. During the measurement phase, after we analyzed the measuring system and made sure its reliability, statistics showed that the short-term capability of the input power was 2.65sigma. Hence we decided the improvement target was 4sigma. In order to find the root cause of the low input power, we started with the process chart of designing, manufacturing and installation. Listing all of the possible causes, team members selected four potential Key Process Input Variables by utilizing FMEA (Failure Mode and Effect Analysis):

1） Temperature of Module 1;

2） Output voltage of Module 2;

3） Strangulation voltage of Module 2;

4） Resistance of the adjusting resistor.

For the sake of confirming which the key variables were indeed, we took the full factorial experiment. Results indicated that only “Temperature of Module 1” had distinct influence on the input power.

Here, if according to 6 sigma, improvement could start from how to control Temperature of Module 1. We could carry out Response Surface test to make sure how the temperature affected the input power. Then we could control the input power in the effective range by adjusting the temperature. Certainly we should establish a long term scheme so as to observe and control the temperature for a long time during the controlling phase. However, TRIZ never stopped here but kept on going forward: in principles, why Temperature of Module 1 could result in large fluctuation of the input power? Utilizing Function Analysis Approach, we found that the temperature attribute turned worse when the circuit of that module executed its normal functions. And this resulted in interference of the input power so that the reliability of the whole card depressed. Thus we confirmed the root of the problem lay in the side effect of the temperature. After that we obtained four theoretical hints by searching the Altshuller’s Matrix:

22）Harmful in disguise；

35）Physical or chemical properties；

2）Separation or extraction；

24）Intermediary；

According to these hints, brainstorming was taken and hints 22, 35 and 24 fell into disuse one by one because of the practical property of the circuit. By referencing the thinking way of TRIZ and hint 2, we hoped to find a solution which could reserve the normal functions of Module 1 but not aroused the bad effects. Potential solutions were:

1）Redesign Module 1 to achieve the objective at the micro level or subsystem level;

2）Extract the useful functions of Module 1 and realize them in other components which will not

incur harmful effects;

3）Extract the useful functions of Module 1 and realize them in components of the super-system

which will not incur harmful effects; Considering the difficulty, cost and time of implementing the solutions, we chose solution 2 in the end. After experts’ evaluating this solution, we designed a new sub-card for it, and took an experiment for verifying. Results showed that the process capability reached 6sigma, which exceeded the former improvement target greatly. The pictures of the original card and the new sub-card are as figure 5:

Figure5 the left is the original card, the right is the new sub-card

In this project, after the defect component and its attributes were diagnosed with 6sigma tools, TRIZ was applied to analyzing and ascertaining the primary designing problem. Finally a feasible solution was found in this innovative way and it worked very well. As a concluding word, TRIZ is still quite a fresh thing for domestic industries of China. It needs more attention and more studying if you are expecting to build a leading role for your enterprise by applying this theory, whose miraculous effect has been attested in Russia. About the authors: Haiyan Ru: 6sigma Blackbelt, 8-year practical experience in product development and process improvement, certified as Level 2 of MA TRIZ; Haibo Ru: 5-year practical experience in mobile services operating and marketing. Master of Signal and Information Processing, Dept. Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University, and Bachelor of Wireless Communications Engineering, Beijing Univ. of Posts & Telecommunications Huang Chao: 6sigma Blackbelt, quality manager of ZiMax Company.

1

This paper was first published in Proceedings of the Eight World Conference on Integrated Design and

Process Technology, Beijing, China,2005

A Macro Process Model for Product Innovation Using TRIZ

Tan Runhua (rhtan@hebut.edu.cn) (Design Institute for Innovation, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin, 300130, China)

Abstract: The process of product innovation consists of three stages, which are fuzzy front

end (FFE), new product development (NPD) and commercialization (COM). Theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ) is a systematic approach to find innovative solutions for technical problems. The patterns and lines of TRIZ are applied to FFE to produce new ideas. The principles, standard solutions and effects of TRIZ are applied to develop concepts. The principles are applied to solve contradictions in both design and manufacture in NPD. A new macro-process model for product innovation is formed under an environment of digital technologies which a company has. Key words: Macro process model, Product innovation, TRIZ 1 Introduction

Contrary to ancient myths, successful innovation does not depend on a flash of inspiration, the lightbulb going on over the inventor’s head [1]. Following models of innovation step by step is key factor for success. The process of innovation is divided into three sub-process, fuzzy front end (FFE), new product development (NPD) and commercialization[2]. Many researchers have developed several models for a sub-process or the whole process of innovation in the past years. Rothwell developed models for five generation innovation process from the developing history of manufacturing companies[3]. Goldenberg et al found five patterns for innovation [4]in the point of view for improving the existing products. There are several models for FFE. Kochhar and Williems [5] describe a reference model, which can be used for the management of the FFE of the new product introduction process. Khurana and Rosenthal [6] also present a model for FFE. The model of Koen et al. [7] is called new concept development model (NCD). P&B’s model of comprehensive design methodology [8] and Suh’s model of axiomatic design [9] are famous for product design. Innovation and its sub-process are very complex in practice. There is no a single best model known in the world now which can guide all the activities for innovation of different kind of companies. New models of more suitable, more flexible, or more specific are general research topics. Theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ)[10-11] was developed by Altshuller in USSR and now is used in solving inventive problems of companies by many companies in the world[12]. In this research, TRIZ is applied to innovation and form a macro process model for all the activities of innovation. 2 Innovation Process

The process of innovation is divided into three sub-process, FFE, NPD and commercialization, as shown in Figure 1[2]. FFE is the front phase of the process which deal with new ideas for

2

innovations, takes place directly before the new product development (NPD). NDP includes all aspects, such as product design and manufacture processes. Commercialization makes profits for companies from the outputs of NPD, which are the new products of NPD. And Fig. 1 also shows that the number of ideas decreases quickly throughout the various steps of the innovation process. Of 3000 ideas generated, only 14 new product development projects are initiated and of 1.7 market launches only one successful product idea will survive up to market launch.

Figure 2 shows a process of innovation in a company. Several new ideas are first generated.

Two technologies, T1 and T11, are formed and two basic products, P1 and P11 are produced. Then

they are put into the market M1 and M2 and make profits for the company. Based on P1 and P11, alternative products P2, P3 and P12 are produced and are put into the market M1, M3 and M4.

Prep

arat

ion

for t

he

Idea

gen

erat

ion

Idea

gen

erat

ion

Idea

scre

enin

g

3000 Ideas 14 new product developments 1 Market success

Commercialization

Fuzzy front end New product development

Figure 1. The process of innovation

P1 P2 P3

P11 P12

P21

T1 T2

T11 T12

Products

Technologies

M5

ID1 ID2 ID3

ID4

ID5 ID6

… … … IDn

Ideas

Figure 2. The process of innovation in a company

M1 Markets M1 M2 M3 M4

3

Based on T1 and T11, alternative technologies T2 and T12 are formed and together with products P3 and P12 a new product P21 is produced. P21 is not only put into the new market M5 but also put into the old market M4. A model is a kind of abstraction for reality. A process model for innovation should describe the main activities and the relationship among them. The main activities in a process of innovation should include idea generation, concept development and solving contradictions. They are discussed in the following. 3 Idea Generation From Market

New market space is a source of idea generation. Companies often wish to find some better alternatives to their products in order to help them break free from the competition in the world market. The world market is the biggest opportunity of innovation for any company. The new ideas can be imported directly from another company of the world. The new ideas produced in a company can be exported to another company, which can help the company-self to do the best. Economic development always implies some big projects, such as “transport the natural gas from the west to the east of China”. They imply some opportunities for companies, such as the companies to produce steel pipes and valves in big diameters, to make innovation and sell their products to the projects. The needs of human change from low level to high level: physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualisation. Transformation from low level to high level of needs means opportunities for companies. For example, many persons will buy cars of different kinds in the following a few years because they have enough money to do so in China. The companies should produce cars of different kinds to meet the potential needs.

The market is equally available to every company. Some will fine new market space for their products but others can not. Many researchers have detected the patterns in companies who successfully create new markets. Based on these researches, Chan and Renee[13] have listed six basic approaches to create market spaces, which can help companies to expand market space. They are substitute industries, strategic groups within industries, chain of buyers, complementary product and service offerings, the functional or emotional appeal to buyers, time. From the new space some opportunities can be identified and ideas for new products can also be produced. Figure 3 shows the process of idea generation from markets. It is a process of market pull, in which opportunities come from different markets.

4 Idea Generation Using TRIZ

Patterns and lines of technological evolution belong to technological forecasting of TRIZ [1], which is a proactive approach to forecasting developed during the 1970s and now is also in development. Technological Forecasting reports the probabilities of certain design parameters

Markets Opportunities

Figure 3 Idea generation from market

Idea generation

4

falling within particular confidence intervals at some future time. Critical design advances for future products and processes can be identified by applying the patterns and lines. With these advances, the field of parameters is narrowed and a tighter range for confidence levels is defined.

There are 8 patterns and many lines under each pattern for the use of technological forecasting. Eight patterns are as following:

Stages of Evolution Evolution Toward Increased Ideality Non-Uniform Development of System Elements Evolution Toward Increased Dynamism and Controllability Evolution Toward Increased Complexity and then Simplification Evolution with Matching and Mismatching Elements Evolution Toward the Micro-Level and Increased Use of Fields Evolution Toward Decreased Human Involvement

Fig. 4 is a line under pattern: Evolution Toward Increased Dynamism and Controllability.

There are seven states shown in this line which are stiff system, one joint, many joints, elastomer, liquid, gas and field. The beginning state for this line is stiff system and the ending state is field.

The experiences of application of lines show the several new ideas are implied in the states of the lines. The line shown in Fig. 4 is analyzed as an example. If the technology of the product under study is in the state of “many joint”, the future states of technology evolution may be elastomer, liquid, gas, or field. Every future state may imply one or a few ideas for the future development of the technology. From the line a technology opportunity can be found and several new ideas can also be generated.

Figure 4. A line of technological Systems Evolution

Stiff system

One joint

Many joints

Elastomer

Liquid

Gas

Field

Current state

Potential states

Technology opportunity

New ideas

Beginning state

Ending state

5

Technology opportunities for the existing product under study can be found by searching different patterns and lines of evolution. First, a pattern is selected and a line under this pattern is also selected. Then, current state for the product is determined from the line selected. The distance between the ending state and the current state in that line is a technology opportunity. By above searching method one or a few technology opportunities can be determined.

Every technology opportunity includes one or several potential states, which are upper states from the current to the ending state. Every potential state implies one or a few new ideas of potential technologies to be used for the evolution of current technology in the future development. Fig. 5 shows the process to obtain new ideas from the technology opportunities selected.

From an opportunity many ideas may be generated by brainstorming, which is shown in Fig. 6(a). Some searching directions and redundant ideas are filtered using patterns and lines of TRIZ in Fig. 6(b). The fewer ideas are generated by searching patterns and lines but these ideas are near the best idea. So uncertainty for the ideas, which belongs to technological uncertainty, is reduced. Generally speaking, the best idea is difficult to find and a suitable one is the searching result.

Figure 7 shows the process of idea generation using TRIZ. It is a process of technical push. The opportunities come from the patterns and lines of TRIZ. Every evolution line has one or more

Opportunity The best idea Opportunity The best idea

(a) Brainstorming (b) Searching patterns and lines

Figure 6. The process of idea generation

A potential state A New idea

Tech

nolo

gy o

ppor

tuni

ty

Figure 5 The process to obtain new ideas

6

potential states, which form opportunities.

5 Concept Development Using TRIZ

The patterns and lines of technology system evolution are helpful in identification of new ideas, but which are not specific concepts of next-generation technologies. Concept development for the next-generation technologies should be carried out after the ideas are produced. There are two kinds of problems to be solved for concept development, which are as following:

The transition from one stage of evolution to a higher stage creates at lest a technical or

physical contradiction. The next-generation invention cannot be fully developed unless theses system contradictions are resolved.

The high-potential direction or ideas for the next-generation invention are recognized but the physics to realize that direction are missing.

The tools of TRIZ: inventive principles, standard solutions and effects are helpful to apply

into these situations. Figure 8 shows this. The ideas are analyzed first and decisions then should be made. If contradictions do exist the inventive principles or standard solutions are chosen in order to solve them. If there is no contradiction, which means that the physics to realize the ideas are missing, effects should be selected. The new concepts developed are evaluated. If one or two concepts are accepted they are input into the following design and manufacture process, or otherwise it should be returned to the idea analysis again.

There are two kinds of inventive principles for solving technical contradictions and physical contradictions. 39 engineering parameters and a matrix are used to select a few from 40 principles, which are relevant to solve a specific contradiction. There are four separation principles to solve physical contradictions. They are selected according to space, time, condition or parts and whole.

There are 75 standard solutions in TRIZ, which are divided into 5 classes. First, Substance-field models for the problem to be solved are developed. Then, a standard solution from the class1 to class 4 is selected by the Su-field model and to obtain a pre-solution. The class 5 is last be used to modify the pre-solution and the final solution is obtained.

Effects in TRIZ are helpful to make physics or working principles to realize the ideas produced in FFE. There are about 10,000 effects described in sciences, such as physics, mathematics, chemical, etc. Some of them may be used in the determination of the working principles in product design. An ordinary engineer usually knows about 100 effects. So a data base of effects is a kind of assistant tool for product designers. Some computer-aided innovation(CAI) software are needed as a tool or assistance.

Some CAI system have been developed such as, Techoptimizer[14] and InventionTool[15].

Opportunities

Figure 7 Idea generation from patterns and lines of TRIZ

Patterns and lines

Idea generation

7

They include data-base for evolution, principles, standard solutions and effects. Many companies in the developed world has applied them, for example GM, MADMAX, DARPA, UScom, REVEO,et al. They made benefits from the application.

6 Solving Contradictions of down Stream

After concept development the following sub-process for innovation is called down stream in this research, which includes embodiment and detailed design, manufacturing and sales. There are also some difficult problems to be solved in this sub-process, which imply the existence of contradictions. TRIZ is specific or stronger to solve them.

Bariani et al [16] combine TRIZ with DFMA (Design for manufacture and assembly) to reduce machine elements of a satellite antenna. The principles of TRIZ: local quality, flexible shell and thin film are used in their example. Mao and Tesng[17] apply TRIZ to produce a new concept of a piston reactor for bicycle hydraulic disc braking system. The principles of TRIZ: segmentation, mechanical vibration are used to solve the contradiction in their work. Edgardo et al [18] of Volkswagen of Mexico S.A. de C.V, a well-known German automotive industry, use TRIZ to solve contradictions of manufacturing process of steering knuckle, which is an important machine element for a car. These are all examples to apply TRIZ to solve contradictions for structure simplication or manufacture.

As to the sales, there are no research results for this field in TRIZ Journal [12]. But there are some research results for management using TRIZ in that journal. In the future there may be some results because the principles of TRIZ can also be applied to solve contradictions of sales.

Ideas analysis

Contradictions?

Ideas analysis

Separate principle

Standard solutions

Effects Inventive principle

Design and manufacture followed

Evaluation

Figure 8 Process of concept development using TRIZ

8

7 A Macro Process Model For Innovation There is a time/cost trade off or contradiction for innovation, in which development time is shortened but the development cost is increased. The relationship between development time and cost is like a U-shape as shown in figure 9 [3]. Rothwell [3] identified twenty-four factors in increasing development speed or efficiency or both. One factor is the use of CAD systems which

can increase development speed and efficiency while at the same time ensuring optimum manufacturability. Dodgson [19] suggested that the innovation process can be intensified as a result of the application of new digital technologies. The digital technologies used in innovation process are shown in table 1[19]. In many companies of developed counties, some technologies, such as six sigma and TRIZ are applied to increase the speed and reduce the cost for innovation.

In China, many companies have applied some technologies listed in table 1, such as CAD/CAM, CAE, PDM, ERP. But TRIZ is seldom applied up to now for some reasons, such as no designers really understand the meaning of TRIZ and no consulting agencies of TRIZ in China. There will be some applications of TRIZ in China companies in the following a few years for the following reasons:

Some universities in China begin to the course of TRIZ for under and post graduate students.

Some companies begin to make short training about TRIZ for their designers. The first commercial CAI system of TRIZ called InventionTool2.0 in China has been

developed. Innovation is becoming the most important activities then ever before for the successful

competition of companies. The product development relying on experiences should be transferred to a systematic

process guided by theories. The core of innovation is to find difficult problems, such as the problems with contradictions,

and to solve them quickly. The TRIZ is not only a specific technology for innovation but also the technology for software development of CAI. But successful innovation should be carried out in a environment of digital technologies in table 1. If a company has an environment of this kind a

Developm

ent cost

Development time

Figure 9 The trade off between development time and cost[3]

9

process model to apply TRIZ is also needed, especially for the companies of China. Figure 10 is a macro model of this kind.

Table 1. Technologies for design, production and co-ordination [19]

The model of figure 10 has two parts, innovation core and environment. The environment is all the digital technologies applied in a companies and market. The core is a process model based on TRIZ for product development. The supporting digital technology for the core is CAI. The idea generation in the core is a fusion of market opportunities, pattern, lines and the state of technologies in the lines, capability of the company. The idea development is supported by principles/effects/standard solutions. Design integration of configuration and manufacture are supported by environment but if there is any contradictions the principles of TRIZ can be used. Under the application of this model the designers with some knowledge of TRIZ of a company will increase the speed of product development and reduce the cost at same time.

Technologies of Design

Computer Aided Design

Computer Aided Engineering

Simulation and Electronic

Prototyping

Artificial Intelligence

Databases and Data-Mining

Expert Systems

Electronic exchanges of CAD

files

Optimisation tools

Technologies of Manufacturing

Computer Numerical Control

Machine Tools

Robots

Automated Transfer Systems

Flexible Manufacturing Cells

Flexible Manufacturing Systems

Computer Aided

Design/Computer Aided

Manufacture (CAD/CAM)

Computer Integrated

Manufacture (CIM)

Computer Integrated Production

(CIP)

Lasers for material processing

High speed machining

Near net shape technologies

Programmable logic controllers

Automated storage/retrieval

system

Supervisory Control and Data

Acquisition

(SCADA)

Digital or remote controlled

process plant

control

Knowledge-based software

Technologies of co-ordination

Materials Requirement

Planning (MRP)

Manufacturing Resource

Planning (MRPII)

Enterprise Resource Planning

(ERP)

Product Data Management

(PDM)

Project Management Systems

Total Quality Management

(TQM)

Just-in-time delivery systems

(JIT)

Internet/Intranet/Extranet

Electronic Data Interchange

(EDI) and

E-commerce

Local Area Networks (LANS)

10

8 Conclusions

The core of innovation is to find problems and solve them. TRIZ is specific for finding problems and solving contradictions. The patterns and lines of TRIZ are applied to forecast the evolution of technologies. The principles, effects and standard solutions are applied to concept development and design and manufacturing. CAI based on TRIZ include data-base for innovation. In the environment that a company has a macro process model for innovation is then formed.

The model is only a macro level. How to fuse the CAI with the environment is a problem needed to be solved.

Designers of companies, especial that of China, to understand the meaning of TRIZ, are important factor to apply this model. Mass training program is needed for them in order to increase the competitive ability of theses companies. Acknowledgment

The research is supported in part by Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Numbers

50375045 and Tianjin Natural Science Foundation key projects （043802211）. No part of this paper

represents the views and opinions of any of the sponsors mentioned above. References

Ideas development

New technology

Design integration

Manufacturing

Products

Markets

Forecasting Principles Standard solutions Effects

CAI: TechOptimizer, IWB, InventionTool

Identification

Ideas from markets Ideas from TRIZ

Ideas

Environment: Technologies of design, manufacturing and co-ordination

Figure 10 A macro-process model for innovation using TRIZ

11

1 Clausing D and Fey V, Effective innovation, ASME, New York, 2004 2 Stevens G A, Berley J, 2003 Piloting the rocket of radical innovation, Research Technology

Management 2003; 46(March-April):16-25 3 Rothwell R, Towards the fifth-generation innovation process, International Marketing Review,

1994, 11(1):7-31 4 Goldenberg J, Horowits R, Levav A, Finding your innovation sweet spot, Harvard business

review, 2003, 81(3):120-129 5 Kochhar A K, Williams M, Modeling the front end of the new product introduction process

for rapid product development track – product and process design, Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Conference of the Production and Operations Management Society, Orlando,Fl,2001

6 Khurana A, Rosenthal S R, Integrating the fuzzy front end of new product development, Sloan Management Review 1997; 103-120

7 Koen, P., Ajamian, G., Burkart, R., et al, Providing Clarity and a Common Language to The "Fuzzy Front End", Research Technology Management 2001; (March-April) : 46-55

8 Pahl G, Beitz W, Engineering design – a systematic approach, The 2nd Edition, London, Springer-Verlag, 2000

9 Suh N P, Axiomatic design – advances and applications, New York: Oxford University Press, 2001

10 Altshuller G, The Innovation Algorithm, TRIZ, Systematic Innovation and Technical creativity, Technical Innovation Center, INC, Worcester, 1999

11 Savransky S D, Engieering of Creativity, New York: CRC Press, 2000 12 TRIZ Journal, http://www.triz-journal.com 13 Chen W, Renee M, Creating new market space, Harvard business Review, 1999, 77(1):83-94 14 Computer aided innovation system: InventionTool 2.0, Chinese patent of software,

2003SR9983，2003

15 Tan Runhua, Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, Science Press (in Chinese), Beijing, 2004 16 Bariani P F, Berti G A, Luccetta G, A combined DFMA and TRIZ approach the simplication

of product structure, IMechE, J. Engineering Manufacturing, 2004, 218: 1203-1207 17 Mao Y J, Tesng C H, An innovative piston retractor for bicycle hydraulic disc braking

systems, IMechE, J. Automobile Engineering, 2004, 218: 295-303 18 Edgardo C, Germain L, Jean M, Use of Altshuller’s Matrix for Solving Slag Problems

Related to Steering Knuckle, TRIZ Journal, http://www.triz-journal.com, 2002.3 19 Dodgson M, The intensification of innovation, International Journal of Innovation

Management, 2002, 6(1):53-83

© CREAX n.v. 2000-2005 All Rights Reserved

������

������� �� ������������������������������� �����

������������

� � ��������������� �!��

������������

������ ��������������������������� �������������������� ������������������������������ !"�#

������������

��������������� � �����

���� ����������������� ��������������������� ������������� �����������

������ �������$�������������������������������������

������������ ����� ���������������%������� ����� ��������&����

'��������������������� �����(�� �������&��� ' ��������������������(�)�����

��� �������������������'���������(������'��&������(��������'������������(�

������'����������(������'������������(�� �&�����'������(����������&��������

��������������������&� ��������� ��������&�� ������� �����*&������������

��� �������������� �� �"�����

+��,�����-.///$.//0�������&

# ��� ���

1�� �������$%&$��������������������&2�341*5�������'6��.//0(�&����&��

���������,7�///���������&�����������&��.�///���8��������9����2�����

��������� ������������� ���%��2����������� ���&� �����������&�������������&�

��� �����&���' ���� ������:���&�����&����&�����&�����&�&���������&����&�

�&�������������&����&��&������� � ����&����&��&����������������&����&�� ��������

����������������*&������������&����,7�///�������������� �����&��;//

���8��� ���������*&���� ����������������� �������������&��&����������� ��

� �(��*&�,7�///������� ������� �����&��<//���8��������

© CREAX n.v. 2000-2005 All Rights Reserved

���)����� ������)��*��)�� �

*&� �������������������� ������ ���������� ���9���&��������������������

����� ���9������� ������=*&�������������&� ���������2%�����������������

'� ��������(�����������������������������'�����(�1������������������� ������

�������������������������������������������������+���������=�+�����

����&����&2��� ���� �������������&���&�)������*��)����,��&��&��������� ��

�������������������������

�

������� ����������������������������� ��� ����������5�&�����������������

����� ������������������������������������������������������������������

���������>���������������� ��������� ���� ��������"��&���&�&���������

��������������� �����������4���� ����������������������=�������2��������� �

������ � ������ �'����(����� �����&'� ��������(�=4������2������������������

����&���

���)����� ���-��������

������������������������������������'�(�+���������������� � ��� ���'�������

�������(�������&���������+����������������'�����(����8�� ��� ���'�������

�����(����������������������.�������������� ���'���������������(������

��������������������������� ����� ���'�������������������(�����������������

������������:����&�� ��������������������������������������������������5�&��

�������������� �����������������������������������������������������������������

���������:����&���&�����������������������?� ���&��������������������

�� ���� ������&���� ����*&�����������&��������������������&�������������

������������&�������������&�43!+� "��������

+���.����-��������������������������&����43!+� "41" *!3@

:����&�������������&�&����� =4������4����������2�5���������� �����������

�&������������������������� ���'���&�&�� �� �(��� ���������������������

�� ����������������� �������������� ��������'����������(�

�

© CREAX n.v. 2000-2005 All Rights Reserved

� ����� ����+��������

4�������������&���������=����������$������2�����?��������������%���������

������� ���&������� ����������&������:53:�����?��� ����&��������

����������6" *��"4���������&������&������������������

���&�����������A�����)�����+ ����������&������������&� ����������������

�����������������������������&���������&�������������� �8����������������

������������&����&���������������%�����&����?�������'���������(����������&�

����������������������*&������&������� ������ ����������� ��������������&��

����������������������������*&���������������&������������ ���������������

�����&����������&� ���������������&�������������������������������� ����

+��A�B����@������������&=����������� ���2�� �� ��������������������������&�������������������������������������!��&��4������ &���"�������������� ������-������������&��

��������/�������� �� �����

=��������� ������������ ������ �������� ������ ��� ����� ��������������� �

����������� ����2*&�������������� ��2����������������&������+�������������

���� �������������8�� �� ������������������������������������������

���8�� ��������8�� ������� �*&�����������&������������������� ����� ��

�&��������'�(�

���&������������������������������ ����������������������?���&�����3��

�������8�������������������� �������������&������������������������

���������������������'�����������������������������������(�����������������������

'���� ��������������������� �����(��&��&���&�&������� ���&��� �����&

�������������������������������������&������ ��������������&�

�������������������������'�&����� ������(�����&�������� ���������������

*&������������ ����������������������������C���?� ���&����������*&��������

������������ ��+���D�

© CREAX n.v. 2000-2005 All Rights Reserved

��

(�

�

+���D�&�����-������������������������������������&����������������������

�

�

�+������)�����

+���D��4�����������������&���� ���%��������&��������������&��������%�&��

������ ����������������'�(��&��&������������������� ����+��������������

����&����&���%��������&�����������&������������������������������

��?����������� ������

*&�������������������� �������� ����� ��������'���+���0(�+���D9�&����&�

�����������&� ����� �����������&����������+�����������&���������'���� (

�������������8���� ������� ��������������� ������������8�� ���&������

����������� �����&������������������������������������&���������

��������

1�������������������������������� ��������'�(���&���� ���%�������9������

�����������&���� ����� ��������'�(���&�� ����������� �����������?������

�������� ��&���&����������������� ��������������������� ����� ���?���

�������&���������������������&���� ���� �������������������&�������������&��

����������&����������

© CREAX n.v. 2000-2005 All Rights Reserved

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�+���0"���������&�����-������������� �������

�

+�����0������������������7��������������� ������� �� ����� ���&�����������

"������&��������������������������%����������������� ������������

����?��������� ������*&������������������������������������������

�

�

� �� ������+ �������+� . �)���

+�����7�&��������������&�����������&����������&�������������������?�������

�������������������������� ���� �+���������&�������������������������

��� ���������� C��8�� C���C���� ����������+���7�&����&���������������

*!�:41�!": E�*&������������� ��������������������' !"�#����������/AF/0(

�����������&��������������������?' !"�#����������/0F/0(������������

���?��������&�3��������������������*&��������������� ���������������������

������������

+���7����-��������� &������&��������������*!�:41�!": E

© CREAX n.v. 2000-2005 All Rights Reserved

���������

)&��������������������������������� �� ��������0��+�1�)��)��������?�

�&���������"������������&�� ���&�����&������������������������������������ ��

+���<��

����

��(�

+���<���*�������������������������������&����5!���&�������?�

9� ����������������� ��������������������������������'����(�� ������������'���&�(@��&������ ������� ������.�

���� ����������&���������������������������������������� '���&�����+���<9�

���&�����(������� ��������������� �����������&�����������������@�?����������

������������������������������ ���&�������5��&����&������&�� ���������� �������

������������&���������������������"������������&��������D������������������

���&������������������ �������������������������������� ������������ �����������

������������&�����&��*!�G��������������'�������&(�� ���9'����&�(�&���

��������'�������&(�� C9'���&�����&�(�

*&����������������������������������&�����&��� �������&���&�������������&

�� ���&�����&��'4������&�� ������&�������&����������&��� ���������&(�

������������������������&�������A����� ���������������������&�:�

���&�����&��:��������������:������������%�&��&���������&������&��������

������������������������

© CREAX n.v. 2000-2005 All Rights Reserved

����������

����������!����� � ��������������������&�������������������������������

��&� ��������*&�������������&�����������������&���� '�����������

���������������������� �����(�� �������&��� '�����������������������(�

5�����&�?������������������&������ ������������������������&� ��� ���

����� ������������'��� ����(���������� ���&� ��������������� ��������

'����������(��������������'���������(�1����������� ���������������&�����������

����������������1���.���&��������

1��������

4�����������������&���� ���%��������&��������������&��������%�&������

�� ����������������'�(��&��&������������������� ����

1������9�

4������ ����� �����������������&��������������������������������� ��������

���������&����������������&����������������������������� ����

������� ������������������� ����������������������������1���������������

����������������� ��������'�(���&���� �����������9�����������������&����

����� ��������'�(������������&������������������������������ ������������

���)��������&�)������*&�������������&��������������� �������� ������

�������&������������������������&�����������������������*&�������������������

����'�������������(����������� �����&�&����������������������'����������(�

�����&���&����������8���� ���&���&������������&�����������������������������

��� ����������� ����������)&���������������������������������������������'��&��(

��������������?��&���������

+��������������=������2�����?�������������������&������� ��&������

������������ �������������������������

������������ ������� ������������"����#�$%�����&'(�����)�$�������&'(���

4�����������@����������������� !"�#%����������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������&� ����������� ��� �������������������� ���������������������&����)��& ������ ���������-������ !"�#��������&��?���������������������������&����������������������������������9������������� �� ����������������9��������*��&�������� @��������� !"�#����������������� ������������&� �&�������������������&������&��� ������������������������� !"�#���?������?����� ����� ���������� ������������������������������ ���H�� �����1IH�4&����@�������� ������� �����4������� 9�?����� !"�#������9����� B�&������:�����?������@��&���@�������6�&��B��������?�B������� ��������:� ���!����B���������� �����������������*&�������������1��?�+�� ����?+����>�����*&�������?��+�� ����?��� �� ������&��� 4����������

Comparison of innovation methodologies and TRIZ

Gao Changqing1, Huang Kezheng1, Ma Fei2

(E-mail address: chq_gao@hotmail.com)

(1 School of Mechanical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan, 250061, P.R.China)

(2 Jinan Haina Railway Science and Technology Company.LTD, Jinan, 250022, P.R.China)

Abstract: Innovation is an eternal topic and has become more and more important in each domain. Many useful innovation methodologies are discussed and studied comprehensively. Based on the comparison and contrast of the strength and weakness between many common innovation methodologies and TRIZ, it is pointed that TRIZ is the most powerful systematic innovation methodology among them, especially in Mechatronics domain.

Keywords: Innovation methodology, TRIZ, Product design

1. Innovation thinking

Fig. 1 Innovation thinking process

Innovation thinking means a breakthrough action, which can re-structure the related knowledge and

experience to get a brand new and valuable achievement. Innovation thinking process can be shown in Fig. 1.

Generally speaking, innovation thinking process is in a circle model. Based on the knowledge and experience, ‘primary information input’ can be transformed into ‘information output’ with innovation action ‘I’. ‘Rs’ means the ‘Result status’ of thinking. Then, in a innovation thinking circle, the following formula can be gotten.

1−+= iii RsIRs

Different innovation methodologies have different ways to organise the knowledge and experience and different methods to deal with the information input. From 1930s to 1980s, more than 300 innovation methodologies had appeared. Until today, there are some common methods for innovation applied in different domains, such as BS, 5W1H, Bionic association and TRIZ, etc. Each innovation methodology has its strength and weakness. It is a meaningful thing to know the characteristics of each method. The common innovation methods are introduced in details in this paper. [1]

2. Innovation methodologies

2.1 BS (Brainstorming)

Brainstorming was put forward by Osborn. BS advocates that the persons in the symposium should express their ideas freely. BS points that tt is very helpful to break through psychological inertia to gain many valuable conceptions. There are four rules for BS, which are ‘Free association’, ‘Criticism-forbiddance’, ‘To improve quality by quantity’ and ‘To reform and improve the ideas continually’.By BS, the participators can exchange information and enlighten each other.

BS believes that innovation is a non-logical process. It depends on the participator’s intuition and inspiration. There is no essential rule for the inventing activities. The searching for the solutions to the problems depends on large quantity of possible ideas. The quantity of possible ideas is the premise for the possibility of gaining the solutions with good quality.

SOLUTION SPACE

Problem

Optimized Solution

Possible Solution

Fig. 2 Solution-searching by BS

The process of solution-searching by BS can be seen in Fig. 2. BS requires the participators from the different domains. It is easy to get various possible solutions because of free association. But Optimized Solution is hard to find. BS can usually get Local Optimized Solution. And there are always lots of un-useful solutions produced during the solution-searching process.

Since its birth, BS has been applied widely in many domains, such as technology innovation, management, market innovation and invention and so on because of its easy operation and science. The operation procedure of BS can be divided into five steps. It can be seen in Fig. 3. [2, 3]

Fig. 3 Operation procedure of BS

Example: Managers usually apply BS as an effective method to collect the employees’ valuable suggestions to reduce the cost.

2.2 5W1H (5W2H)

5W1H suggests that problem can be analyzed based on 6 aspects, which are Why, What, Who, When, Where and How. The essence of 5W1H is to analyze problem systematically, including the essence of the object (What), the essence of the subject (Who), the problem-existence ways in time and space (When, Where), the solution of the problem (How).

Basd on the improvement of 5W1H, ‘How’ can be divided into ‘How to’ and ‘How much’. ‘How to’ means the way to resolve the problem. ‘How much’ means the degree of the problem-resolving. Then it is called 5W2H. The meanings of 5W2H are listed in Table 1. [4]

Table 1 Meanings of 5W2H

The procedure of 5W2H can follow the steps:

1. Analyse the problem in 7 aspects

Why is innovation needed? [Why]

What is the object of the innovation? [Where]

Who undertakes the innovation task? [Who]

When to achieve the innovation? [When]

Where is the place to start the task? [Where]

How to deal with the problem? [How to]

How much to resolve the problem? [How much]

2. List the questions

3. Discuss the questions to search the solution

Example: There was a store on the second floor of an aviation company building. And its sale was bad. The manager used 5w1H to find that ‘Who’ and ‘Where’ were the reasons for bad sale status. Most clients of the store are the passengers. And most of them leave the aviation company by the gate on the first floor. The second floor is not a necessary place to pass. So the store moved to the first floor near the gate and the sale became better.

2.3 Bionic Association

Various organisms have evolved on the earth for about 5 billion years. They keep up changing their modality and function to meet the requirement of the nature to survive on the evolvement journey. In many aspects, organisms are very good examples to help human being to find a correct way to resolve the problems. [5]

As a kind of innovation methodology, bionic association means that human being observe the organisms’ behavior and use the organisms system as a reference to establish the artificial technology system to resolve the problems.

Bionic association can produce high-level innovation ideas. At present, the performance of most bionic-rtificial technology system can’t reach the level of the corresponding organisms system.

Bionic association can be achieved by the following steps:

Observe the organisms’ behavior carefully. Take the phenomena of the organisms as the association objects.

Analyse the mechanism of the phenomena of the organisms system.

Analyse the practical problem. Develop a bionic idea into a problem-solving method or product.

Example: Based on multi-eye of grasshopper, a special camera is developed, which can take thousands of pictures synchronously.

2.4 Combination Method

Combination innovation is to combine more than two technology elements together and get a new

product. Those technology elements are usually substance unit, technics, principles, structures, functions and so on.

Because the existing technology elements have been applied in different domains, combination of those technology elements is a method with large possibility. The idea from combination innovation is more feasible. According to the characteristics of combination innovation, it can be classified into 6 types. They are listed below. [6]

Technology combination. It means to combine the different technology elements to get a new performance of a product.

Material combination. Different materials are combined together to get a new material with new character. The new material always can meet the new engineering requirement.

Product combination. More than two products are combined to get a new product with more functions.

Suit combination. In order to get a new portable product, the products with different standards can be combined based on the structure re-design.

Function combination. Many different functions are combined together to get a new product with multi-function.

Structure combination. Based on the structure re-combination, a new product with compound function can be gotten.

Example: A special alloy with shape-memory function can be gotten with the combination of ‘titanium’ and ‘nickel’.

2.5 Reverse Innovation

Based on the analysis of existing product, a new product can be designed by improving the example product. This kind of innovation method is called reverse innovation.

Reverse innovation is employed widely in Japan and Korea. It is a very effective method sometimes.

Example: None.

2.6 Technology Transplant

Transplanting an advanced technology of one domain into the other domains or transplanting an advanced technology of one product into the other products to get a new product with wonderful performance. This kind of innovation method is called technology transplant. [7]

Example: Transplant laser technology of military use into the civil use. Laser cutting machine is a product by technology transplant.

3. TRIZ

TRIZ (the Russian acronym for the theory) is the knowledge-based, systematic approach to innovation. Developed in the former Soviet Union by Genrich S. Altshuller (1926-1998) and his school, TRIZ methods are drawn from analysis of the most innovative inventions in different industries, technologies, and fields of engineering.

It began in 1946 when the Russian engineer and scientist Genrich Altshuller discovered that the evolution of a technical system is not a random process, but is governed by certain objective laws. These laws can be used to consciously develop a system along its path of technical evolution.

TRIZ involves a systematic analysis of the system to be improved and the application of a series of guidelines for problem definition. TRIZ classifies innovative problems and offers corresponding problem-solving methods for each class of problem. It can provide some useful tools for us to analyze the problem, including Ideal Final Result, Laws of Engineering System Evolution, Altshuller's Matrix, Separation Principle, 76 standard solutions, Effects, etc. [8, 9, 10]

The general problem-resolving process is shown in Fig. 4.

TRIZGeneric Problem

TRIZGeneric Solution

Specific Problem Specific Solution

39 ParametersAltshuller's Matrix

S-F AnalysisARIZ

76 Standard SolutionPatterns of Evolution

TRANSFORMATION

40 Inventive PrincipleAltshuller's Matrix

76 Standard SolutionEffects and Examples

ARIZ

TRANSFORMATION

Effects and Examples

Analogical thinking based on Generic

Solution

TRANSFORMATION

Product AnalysisQFD

PDS …

Ideas Development

Taguchi …

Fig.4 General problem-resolving process by TRIZ

4. Comparison and contrast of different innovation methodologies

Through the comparison and contrast of different innovation methodologies, it is clear to see that TRIZ is a more systematic innovation methodology than others. Knowledge base support is a very important factor for the innovation process. As an innovation method, only TRIZ have systematic Effects library for inventing. And TRIZ provide systematic problem-analysis tools. Because its ideas for invention usually come from the analysis of patents and Effects, it is easy to translating an innovation idea into practise. [11]

Currently, TRIZ is widely applied in technology domain for product innovation, especially for mechanical, electronic and constructional domains. The application of TRIZ in management and economy is relatively weak.

The comparison and contrast of different innovation methodologies is shown in Table 2.

Table 2 Comparison and contrast of different innovation methodologies ASPECTS

METHOD

Innovation Power

Thinking Pattern

knowledge base

Support

Idea Generator

Quality of innovation

idea

Translating an idea into

practice Adept at

Brainstorming

Intuition and divergence thinking.

Think in all directions.

None Group thinking

Quantity produces quality.

Usually not easy.

Market, management, technology.

5W1H or

5W2H

Systematic question.

In 5W2H aspects of a problem.

None Fundamentally individual

Usually find the main conflicts.

Depend on the operator.

Market, management, technology.

Bionic Association

Intuition and inspiration.

Inspiration based on organisms’ behavior.

None Fundamentally individual

Usually can get a good idea.

Depend on the operator.

Mainly in technology domain.

Combination Method

Combination result.

Combining two things.

None Fundamentally individual

Usually can get a feasible idea.

Relatively easy to implement.

Mainly in technology domain.

Reverse Innovation

Ideas from the existing product.

Improving the existing product.

None Usually by a group

Usually can get a feasible idea.

Relatively easy to implement.

Mainly in technology domain.

Technology Transplant

Transplant the technology.

Apply the technology in other way

None Fundamentally individual

Usually can get a feasible idea.

Relatively easy to implement.

Technology domain.

TRIZ

Follow the rules for innovation.

By steps, scientific, logic, analogy

With powerful knowledge base.

Fundamentally individual

Usually can get a perfect idea based on the analysis of the patent or effects.

Easy to implement due to its scientific character.

Mainly in technology domain.

5. Conclusion

After more than 50-year-development, TRIZ is employed widely in the world. Contrary to other innovation methods, TRIZ is more practical with good operation.

Sometimes, other methods can be used with TRIZ together.

Reference

1. Wang Rui-fang, Chen Jian-ping, Zhou Gui-ying. The research on innovation design thinking of mechanical product. MECHANICAL RESEARCH & APPLICATION, 2004, 17 (4): 14~15

2. Wang Ji-qiang, Wen Zheng-zhong, Sun Hua-li. The comparison of innovation design methodologies—TRIZ and BS. Mechanical manufacturing, 2003, 41 (463): 7~9

3. Li Yan, Wang Jie, Li Xiang-long, et al. Creative Thinking and Computer Aided Product Innovation. Compter Integrated Manufacturing Systems, 2003, 9 (12): 1092~1096

4. Liu Ying, Ai Hong. The thinking and technology of innovation design. Beijing: CHINA MACHINE PRESS, January 2004.

5. Qiu Zhi-zhen. Future of mechanical engineering and bionics. J. of Anhui University of Technology, 2002, 19 (3): 230~232

6. Wang Wei, Ma Yi-wen. COMBINING INNOVATION FOR PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: THEORY AND CASE STUDY. Journal of Industrial Engineering/Engineering Management, 1997, 11 (Supp 1): 39~44

7. Yang Zong-de. Creative thinking methods for innovation design. MECHANICAL RESEARCH & APPLICATION, 2001, 14 (Supp), August: 52~54

8. Genrich Altshuller, The Innovation Algorithm, Technical Innovation Center, INC. WORCESTER, MA, 2000.

9. Terninko, J The QFD, TRIZ and Taguchi Connection: Customer-Driven Robust Innovation. The Ninth Symposium on Quality Function Deployment, June 10, 1997

10. Gao Changqing, Huang Kezheng, Zhang Yong. Creative conceptual design ideas can be gotten with TRIZ methodology. TRIZ Journal, http://www.triz-journal.com, June 2005

11. Yoshiki Nakamura. The effective use of TRIZ with Brainstorming. TRIZ Journal, http://www.triz-journal.com, February, 2001

Hierarchical TRIZ Algorithms5th Installment--Sept 2005

Hierarchical TRIZ Algorithms is a how-to TRIZ book. It is designed to assist both beginning and advanced users. Each month, the TRIZ-Journal will publish another chapter of the book. This month’s installment includes the fourth step of the 10 step algorithm (shown on the cover):

D. Identify the System Objects

Next month’s installation will cover the fifth process step:

E. Simplify the System

In all, there will be 12 installments. Should you decide to purchase the most current edition of the complete book contact the publisher at:

http://www.3mpub.com/TRIZ/

D 1

Introduction

Now that we know the physical phenomena which will deliver the main system function, it is necessary to identify the physical objects which will, in turn, deliver the physical phenomena. As in all other steps, the choices that are made in this step need to be as ideal as possible. If the function is really required, we would like to deliver it without the use of any substance. If the addition of a substance is necessary, then we would like to do it without the addition of any new elements. This leaves us to deliver the function with either elements that exist in the super-system (job or environment) or to use elements that we have already chosen for our system. The environment is usually full of objects with attending fields that can be used. Also, each new element that is introduced into the system can be a resource tool for other required functions.

Simply making a list of field and object resources that builds as we add objects will help a great deal.

DDIdentify Identify

the Systemthe SystemObjectsObjects

System Physical

Phenomena

Objects Which Deliver the Physical Phenomena

(and Function)

The first question that we need to make is: what objects in the super-system can deliver the main functions. Perhaps our system only needs to assist these other objects. If it is not possible to deliver the function with existing objects, we we need to consider creating a system to perform this main function.

In the previous section, we listed field and object resources in order to help us to determine what fields or physical phenomena were abundant and what could be used to perform our primary function. Now we can use some of these same objects to deliver the function that we require.

Additionally, each new object that is added gives us a new “abundant” field or resource.

The addition of each function and element should be treated in the same fashion as the system function was treated. We always ask: what is the ideal product, modification, effect and tool.

The system that we are creating must have four basic elements. An energy source, a transmission element, a working element and a control element. Without some form of each of these elements, the system cannot operate.

Suggestions are given for the addition of control elements. There is often a tendency to design complicated control systems. This is only necessary with more developed and differentiated systems in which we are running out of resources. For new systems, keep it simple. In general, the most ideal form of control is passive control. This is because the element which senses also actuates the working element, making the system simpler.

The output of this step are the physical objects and a baseline description of our system. It would not be unusual for this system to be highly flawed.

D 2

• If the system does not exist, brainstorm physical phenomena and objects which will deliver the required function. Consider the four possibilities from the 40 principles shown below.

Brainstorm Objects or Parts

Simplified

Add FeedbackActuatorController

Sensor

23

Identify a Baseline System

• If the system already exists, identify a baseline system that represents the situation. Be as specific as possible. (The system may already exist but in highly flawed form)

(OR)

Ideal Objects?

Ask HowSeveral Times

If you are creating a system for the first time, new elements must be considered to reach the desired outcome.

• Each new element that we add will need to be acted upon by other elements.

How?How?

How?How ?

How ?

D 3

Build the Rest of the System

1. Follow the rules for the Positive Cause-Effect Chainto capture most of the objects and functions which will be required.

Determine Objects

which will Deliver the

Physical Phenomena

Verify Crucial System Elements

1. Review the function chain to verify that all crucial elements are present.

2. Review the section on Control Elements for ideas on which type of control elements might be required.

Control Elements

TransmissionEnergy Source

Working Element

Identify a Baseline System

• Identify a Baselinesystem that represents the situation. Be as specific as possible. (The system may already exist but in highly flawed form)

• If you are not changing the system, then the existing system will serve as the baseline system

DetailedIdentify the Main

System Tool

• Go to the Appendix for Idealizing Systems and use the section on defining the ideal tool to deliver the main system modification.

Clothes Dryer Air

Moisture

Moves

An example of this is given on the following pages for a shoe dryer.

2. Add all objects according to the rules in the appendix which covers idealizing functions.

The market that I have chosen is people who are trying to dry their shoes after washing or after use in wet conditions.

The system function is move moisture

The Physical Phenomena that I have chosen is Evaporation.

Moisture

Moves

The Clothes dryer is handy. It performs an analogous function on clothes

The fan transmits the

energy to the air

The heatingcoil is a second energy source

The motor is an energy source

Air is Working Element

Dryer thermostat is the control element

The shoes are somehow dried in the clothes dryer

D 4

Location of Moisture is

Outside

Rules for “Positive Chains”

For Creating New Systems

Add Objects into functions to create the desired output Add objects according to the suggestions in Appendix K “Idealizing Functions”.

3

Begin with a desired Outcome

1

Each block contains only positive attributes and “sufficient”Functions

2

Air

Moves

Moisture

Water is inVapor state

Air movement is

High

Air

Vaporizes

Water

Shoes

Vaporize

Water

Dryer Fan

Move

OutsideAir

DryerFan

Moves

Air

Shoe Temperature

is high

Air Temperature

is high

Air Saturation is Low

Dryer /Coils

Heats

Air

Positive Chain for a Shoe

Dryer

Low

D 5

Different Control Philosophies

Open Loop Control

• Does the modification need to be more precise?

• Is the tool or product already adjustable?• Discrete positions=bang-bang

• Continuously adjustable?

• Are means provided to sense changing conditions

• Add Actuator to tool or product• Add Controller

Use of Closed Loop Control

• Does the modification need to be yet more precise?

• Add a sensor to sense the modified feature

• Increase the number of parameters sensed• Increase the order of the variable sensed

(first derivative, second derivative…)

ActuatorController ActuatorController

Sensor

Use of PassiveControl

• The highest form of control is passive control

• Does the system ideally use one field for operation and control?

• Provide for self-service operation (Ideal Tool / Effect)

• Identify the critical point at which small changes in input cause large changes in output

• Move the critical point to the desired control point.

MotorOff

MotorOn

Speed

Bang-Bang Speed Controller

Switch Point

Voltage

MotorSpeed

Reference

Error

+

-

Control Laws

Plant

Sensor

Critical Points• Sheer Strength• Ultimate Strength• Tip Angle• Static Friction• Adhesive Failure point• Zero Buoyancy• Triple point• Surface Tension• Resonant Frequency• Spark point• Freezing point• Boiling point• Curie Temperature

Editor’s note: This letter from Greg Yezersky was first published in the TRIZ Topica forum. The invitation is being extended to all readers of the TRIZ Journal. Formation of the Institute of Professional Innovators and first seminar and meeting: Dear Colleagues, With an assumption that the majority of participants of this forum are interested in the practical aspects of TRIZ, which is real-world innovation that results in entity’s (business or non-business) success, and with permission from Marco, as the moderator of this forum, I would like to post the following message containing a few of my thoughts for your consideration and an announcement with an invitation. Thus, here it is... First, let’s start with describing a problem. Lately, the participants of various prestigious TRIZ gatherings actively started discussing the fact that TRIZ experiences some difficulties in being deployed at major organizations throughout the world and being accepted as the basis for strategic decision-making by executives of various organizations (business and non-business). You can see the examples of this at http://www.osaka-gu.ac.jp/php/nakagawa/TRIZ/eTRIZ/eforum/eETRIACon2004/eETRIACon2004-041214.html or http://www.aitriz.org/2005/agenda.htm). Since this is indeed true, many tried to understand why this happens. There are many opinions. Let me present not only my understanding of the problem root cause but also a verified tested solution, which has been around since 1988. Also, I would like to propose a program of actions, including the next step to be taken, and invite you to participate in this program together with me. Based on the classical definition (e.g. from the Altshuller Institute for TRIZ Study http://www.aitriz.org/Downloads/40Ptriz.pdf or from the TRIZ Journal http://www.triz-journal.com/whatistriz_orig.htm), TRIZ, as a theory, concerns itself with evolution of technical systems. Without any intent to diminish significance and brilliance of TRIZ and genius of its father, Genrich Altshuller, this focus on technical systems is indeed the weakest point of TRIZ, which fundamentally restricts (and always will limit unless changed, but then it will become something else) its practical power. You see, according to the creator’s intent, TRIZ is supposed to control (as any scientific theory) the process of coming up with a new high-level technical idea, which it does well. What is not said though but only assumed is that this idea is the basis of an innovation (new product or process) that, in turn, must result in the entity’s success. The problem is that innovation in the marketplace is driven by the forces, nature of which is NOT technical. Therefore, TRIZ with its focus on technology cannot offer any help with achieving this Super-Goal of entity’s success. In other words, a good solution to a specific problem might have nothing to do with a competitive position of an enterprise. This fundamental conflict between the TRIZ focus on technology and the market’s non-technical nature, which indeed predetermines ultimate success or failure, automatically leads to the situation when TRIZ often fails to meet expectations and NEEDS of the corporate world. It is especially true when TRIZ is applied to the projects (even if a specific project deals with a technical system), results of which directly depend on proper understanding of the market’s requirements, e.g. system evolution forecasting and failure prevention. The matters are even worse when one has to deal with the systems and industries of non-technical nature (such as hospitality, retail, banking, education, etc.) or various business (non-technical) applications such as formulation of a corporate strategy, search for new markets and sources of revenue, generation of corporate growth, etc. These fundamental flaws result in the situation where the entities’ leaders cannot rely on TRIZ as the foundation for making strategic decisions. That is why it is so difficult (if at all possible) to successfully deploy TRIZ throughout REAL-WORLD organizations. One can blame foolish students, or inexperienced teachers, or bureaucratic corporate managers, or something else, but the blame should be, first of all, placed squarely with TRIZ itself. Despite all its beauty, successes, advances and advantages, today’s TRIZ is not in the position to consistently satisfy the needs of the decision makers (business or non-business) without a major re-design, which requires overcoming its fundamental self-restrictions.

So, what could be done to correct the situation and to advance the state of the art of practical innovation? First, TRIZ can be combined with other theories and techniques (e.g. FMEA for failure prevention, QFD, etc). Second, TRIZ can be re-designed to accommodate non-technical systems and applications. Third, TRIZ should be left alone in its intended niche (namely, solution of complex technical problems WHEN TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS ARE WELL KNOWN) where it performs so admirably, but then another theory needs to be created, which would satisfy all of the above mentioned applications and requirements. I personally have chosen the third way, starting in 1988, and proceeded to create a theory, which I call Systemology mentioned by me at this forum in the past. It was my attempt to create a TRIZ-like version of the General Theory of Systems (aka General System Theory): a theory, which would work effectively with any kind of a system without a need for adaptation. Through our correspondence, not only did Altshuller recognize it as a separate scientific theory, the need for which he repeatedly pointed out in his letters and the seminars, but he also supported its creation by directing and advising me. As a matter of fact, Systemology is an offspring of TRIZ (by Altshuller), Tectologia (by Bogdanov) and my own thinking. I have been successfully practicing Systemology in the US since 1992, taught multiple seminars for the corporate world (including dozens of seminars for the Society of Automotive Engineers from 1996 till 2002) on a variety of applications. Since 1999 I have been deploying it at the Chrysler Group of DaimlerChrysler where I continue working as a program manager. Here is a list of applications, which I have successfully tested under the real-world conditions and effectively taught.

1. System-related complex problem solving (usually two seminars of the 1st and the 2nd level); both seminars were also taught for the SAE

2. Cost reduction (as well as weight reduction; quality, reliability, productivity improvement) 3. Failure prevention; this seminar was also taught for the SAE 4. System evolution forecasting 5. Patent circumvention (and protection against circumvention) 6. Entity’s (typically corporate, but it can be any entity) strategy formulation

Recognizing the societal needs for a Unified Theory of Innovation (confirmed by our various discussions here at this forum; I especially want to thank Larry Ball, Noel Leon, Marco Aurellio de Carvalho, Joseph Theckeveetil, Ellen Domb, Sergio Lorenzi, and many others for this opportunity!), which would have the same theoretical and methodological apparatus that works equally effectively for any type of an entity producing any type of a system (product or service), and for a standard cohesive approach to the issues involving practical application of the above theory to various needs of the real business world, I have decided to found the Institute of Professional Innovators with the following purposes:

• Develop and continuously evolve the Unified Theory of Innovation, which would be capable to adequately respond to various needs of the real-world entities by the means of innovation

• Disseminate the Unified Theory of Innovation throughout the society starting with primary education • Work diligently toward the situation when the society will accept Innovator as a separate profession • Standardize materials for and methods of preparing specialists pursuing the goal to be proficient in a

variety of applications of the Unified Theory of Innovation • Introduce the process of certifying Professional Innovators, which would be analogous to the one of the

Black Belts’ certification. The certification process requires developing high standards of knowledge, practical and consulting skills that will have to be satisfied for becoming a Certified Professional Innovator.

My wife (Larisa Yezersky) and I are currently working on the creation of the Institute’s Website, which will spell out the Institute’s objectives and policies, while I contact other people close to me with solicitation of help. Besides informing you all about the fact of establishing the Institute and the reasoning behind my decision to do so, I want to invite you all to discuss the matter. Later, when the smoke clears and the Institute gets all the attributes of a normal organization, including finalized mission, objectives, memberships rules, benefits, etc. (I expect it to be achieved by the end of 2005), I will officially invite you to join the Institute and become a part of

this truly needed process of developing and disseminating the Unified Theory of Innovation toward the goals listed above. Until then you are welcome to join our team without any formalities. Let me emphasize a point of great importance, which I want to present as loud and clear as I can. Systemology and the Institute are NOT in competition with TRIZ and TRIZ-based organizations! Systemology and TRIZ are complementary theories! On one hand, Systemology, by being a theory of a greater rank, works on any application for any kind of a system and provides a uniform theoretical and methodological apparatus to achieve it, which TRIZ, being a specific theory, can’t accomplish. On another hand, while dealing with technical systems, Systemology does NOT have (and never will!!!) such tools as a library of effects (physical, chemical, geometrical -- too specific!) or such Principles as Oxidation or Transition from mechanical action to electrical, or many other tools developed within TRIZ. In other words, developments in one of them can and should bring respective changes in another theory. As of today, TRIZ can clearly adopt a lot of things (tools, rules, applications, etc.) from Systemology. As the very first step to disseminate the knowledge that I have been creating since 1988 and in the attempt to jump-start the Institute work, I am going to conduct one or two (depending on a number of people who decide to attend) comprehensive seminars on all the applications mentioned above (with possible exception of cost reduction, which I will explain during the seminar). The seminar approximate agenda looks as follows.

Problem Solving 1, including Introduction and Fundamentals (2 days) Problem Solving 2, including the Algorithm for Conflict Elimination (2 days) Failure Prevention 1 day Patent Circumvention 1 day Evolution Forecasting and Strategy Formulation 1 day Forum (discussion on a variety of topics, including The Institute) 1 day

The seminars tentative dates are December 2 -- December 9 and February 3 -- February 10, 2006 in Detroit, USA. These dates are chosen so that you would have enough time to make your decision and prepare for the trip. Additionally, all of you will be able to return to the loved ones for the holidays. Finally, those of you who are truly busy in December (e.g. university professors) might have another opportunity in February. The seminars are NOT free, but they are the very next thing to being free; namely, $900.00 US. Since it includes your one-year (for 2006) Institute membership ($500.00), the real tuition fee is $400.00, which is $50.00 per day comparing to $300.00 - $500.00 per day charged normally. The tuition fee is supposed to cover rent of the room, beverage and other professional services related to the Event. This price is intended for these two seminars only and will NOT become a new low-end standard in the field of professional education. The purpose of this low price is to facilitate your positive decision to get educated again, which is NOT easy, and to receive a feedback from you on the seminar and its materials for future Institute activities! Please take into the account that flight tickets, hotel, and meals are your expenses. Let me present the benefits of attendance, as currently perceived by me.

1. You will learn A LOT of new material. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of what you will learn is unique and unavailable from any other source. This includes the fundamental concepts (Equilibrium, Environment, Connection, etc.), tools (RelEvent Diagram, Templates, Algorithm for Conflict Elimination, etc.), applications (Patent Circumvention, Failure Prevention, Strategy Formulation, etc.) Even known concepts (such as Function, Resources, Contradictions, etc.) and applications (such as Problem Solving and Evolution forecasting) will be filled with new meaning, philosophy, tools and techniques.

2. One of the most important benefits, in my opinion, is an opportunity to learn a variety of tools and applications, which all have the same philosophical and theoretical foundation. By attending this long seminar, you will be able to see different applications of innovation as a whole system, rather than studying them by using a ‘piece meal’ approach.

3. It is my promise that NOTHING (no tool, principle, application, etc.) will be withheld: you will be

exposed to everything I know of as of this moment with an exception of the material that has not been thoroughly tested yet.

4. What you will learn has been rigorously tested under the real-world conditions and showed very good consistent results, which satisfied my customers, primarily Fortune 500 companies. Moreover, the seminars received great reviews from students who mostly included engineers and managers.

5. All the theoretical concepts will be accompanied with real-world examples; the majority of them are unknown.

6. You have a rare opportunity to join the movement, which is at the very beginning, and, thus, you can become one of the pioneers.

7. This new knowledge, which is available for you to acquire, will empower you, give you the edge in comparison with your uninformed peers and colleagues, raise your market value, and give you new business or professional opportunities.

8. Finally, the study will be accepted as a part of the process toward your future certification as a Certified Professional Innovator.

Those of you, who are interested in attending the seminars, please send me a personal message (in order not to clog this forum with private matters) to gyezersky@prodigy.net. Please indicate your interest in taking a part in the seminar, your affiliation, address, telephone and other means, which can be used if there is a need for communication. Also, throw at me any questions and concerns as well as inform me about your preferences regarding dates. Please keep in mind though that I am reserving the right to cancel any of the above dates or the seminar altogether if something unexpected occurs. As you all understand, not everything is up to us. However, I want to assure you that I am deeply committed to the goals I have stated here and to the events I announced in this note. Your deadline to making a decision is October 15, 2005. By this time, you are supposed to mail your payment in. The way to do it is through PayPal system via Internet. Other means can be discussed via e-mail exchange. Based on the number of people signed up for the seminar, I will book a hotel and the room for the Event. Please register as soon as possible; money will be refundable until October 15th. After this date, no cancellation is accepted, so, please, think twice. At the end, I want to express my sincere appreciation to Dr. John Terninko and Joe Miller, dear colleagues and personal friends, whose participation in discussing the idea of the Institute and the announced here Events was absolutely essential. Also, I would like to profoundly thank each of you for your time and patience needed to complete reading of this long letter. I am looking forward to working with you all toward realization of the noble goals discussed here and seeing you in snowy Detroit in December!" Best regards, Greg Yezersky

MATRIZ 2006 Meeting Announcement MATRIZ, the International TRIZ Organization, announces the initial planning for the 2006 meeting, to be held the week of October 15, 2006, to honor the 80th birthday of Genrich Saulovich Altshuller. The meeting will have technical papers on TRIZ and on the teaching of TRIZ, and historical papers on the development of TRIZ. The format of the 2005 meeting, with sessions presented in both Russian and English, will be used. See the August 2005 TRIZ Journal for an overview of this meeting. The TRIZ Journal Calendar will have details as they become available.

- III -

The International

TRIZ Association

resumes publication of TRIZ journal

published since 1990 The main purpose of the journal is the development and proliferation of TRIZ. The journal’s

aim, among other things, is development of new directions in TRIZ, development of TRIZ as science and technology for improvement of systems in various areas of human activity, specification of TRIZ terms, training standards, testing of the specialized creative techniques, etc. In addition, the journal should become an encyclopedia, a directory and a tutorial on TRIZ. In due time, the journal should reflect all newest currents in the field of TRIZ and promote its development.

The practical advantage of publication of journal will consist in increase of a level of knowledge of its readers, as alongside with theoretical basis the journal will contain practical recommendations. These recommendations will allow readers to reach their goals more effectively. It may be the business goals (increase company’s profit, improve process efficiency, or strengthen creative abilities of its employees), and personal goals (improve creative self-realization; find help with problem-solving). The journal will take into account the essential problems of the readers and organize a feedback through the questions stated in the journal.

The journal will be published in Russian and in English. The publications under the following headings are being planned for the next issue:

• TRIZ FORECASTS. F UTURE OF OUR PLANET • TASKS AND FORECASTS OF TRIZ DEVELOPMENT • FOR THOSE WHO STUDY TRIZ • METHODOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS • TRIZ OUTSIDE OF ENGINEERING • TRIZ AND SCIENCE FICTION

, Below you'll find our brief information

on certain materials, which are published in the issue.

The authors are from Russia, USA, and Korea.

- IIIIII -

IIINNNTTTRRROOODDDUUUCCCTTTIIIOOONNN K. A. Sklobovsky (editor of the Journal since 1991 till 1997)

AAAddd ddd rrreee sss sss ttt ooo ttt hhheee rrr eee aaa ddd eee rrr The first periodical in history, which is devoted to theory of inventive problem solving, - "TRIZ journal" … first rolled off the press in April 1991…The publishers set the goal of informing the reader about all events, which take place in TRIZ community, to coordinate the effort in the development of theory… The total number of the articles published is 297, written by 153 authors. A. V. Kislov (current editor of the Journal) TTTRRR IIIZZZ aaa sss aaa ttt hhheee ooo rrryyy aaa nnnddd aaa sss aaa ttt eee ccc hhh nnnooo lll ooo ggg yyy The journal will continue the traditions of the former publication, placing greater emphasis on tools and methodologies… The trends and problems of TRIZ evolution, new methodological developments and the analysis of using them both in engineering and outside it… The journal will try to reflect on the distinctive features of regional methodological schools.

M. S. Rubin PPPrrriiinnnccciiipppllleee ooofff iiinnnttteeegggrrraaatttiiiooonnn iiinnn

IIInnnttteeerrrnnnaaatttiiiooonnnaaalll TTTRRRIIIZZZ AAAssssssoooccciiiaaatttiiiooonnn

Is it essentially possible and is it necessary to unite the TRIZ specialists? …It is inadmissible that a TRIZ specialist from one continent should cease to understand a TRIZ specialist from another continent… Without claiming the unique character of this unification, IA TRIZ remains the most multi-sided and organized social organization within the frame of TRIZ movement.

TTTRRRIIIZZZ FFFOOORRREEECCCAAASSSTTTSSS... FFFUUUTTTUUURRREEE OOOFFF OOOUUURRR PPPLLLAAANNNEEETTT

G. I. Ivanov. III nnn hhhaaa rrr mmmooo nnn yyy www iii ttt hhh nnnaaa ttt uuu rrreee

… We don't yet understand clearly that the trends of self-organization and self-development are all-pervading and indestructible. An example is the natural phenomenon "Self-synchronizing of revolving bodies" (rotors)”. It appears that if the revolving bodies are installed on one and the same base, they begin to get mutually self-attuned (synchronized) and do it without any auxiliary devices. Based on this phenomenon, an entire class of new vibration devices has been developed – conveyers, feeders, mills, flotation machines … Salvador Dali advised his disciples: “Don't be afraid of perfection, you'll never be able to attain it”. …The following conclusion can be drawn from the above: the trend of increasing ideality is the way of approaching nature… The more effectively humanity will use its creative potential for the development of technology and equipment, the quicker it will be destroyed by humanity.

The system of personnel

certification and personnel training

in the field of TRIZ

TRIZ-based System of quality control at

the enterprises

TRIZ-based system of scientific

activities

TRIZ-THEORY OF CREATIVITY

( h )

TRIZ -ideology

Development of TRIZ as a social movement

- IIIIIIIII -

TTTAAASSSKKKSSS AAANNNDDD FFFOOORRREEECCCAAASSSTTTSSS OOOFFF TTTRRRIIIZZZ DDDEEEVVVEEELLLOOOPPPMMMEEENNNTTT

FFFOOORRR TTTHHHOOOSSSEEE WWWHHHOOO SSSTTTUUUDDDYYY TTTRRRIIIZZZ V. B. Kryachko

RRReee aaa ddd iiinnn ggg AAA lll ttt ssshhh uuu lll lll eee rrr … 9. G. Altov. And suddenly the inventor appeared. M: Children's literature publishers, 1st ed. 1984, 2nd ed. 1986, 3rd ed., 1989, 4th ed. 2001. 142p. The book was translated into: Hungarian, 1987; Moldavian – "Lumina"

publishing house, 1987; Latvian – Riga, "Zvaigne" publishing house, 1988; Armenian – 1990; English – USA. Technical Innovation Center Inc., 1996, Japanese – Japan UNI Agency Inc., Tokyo, 1997; Spanish - Translated from the English-language version by Lose M. Vicente Gomila,1997; Korean - With Technical Center Inc., trough DRT International, Seoul,1998; French - Paris, 2002. This is also a book written by Altshuller under the pen-name, which G. Altshuller used publishing his science fiction books. The book was written based on the materials of the newspaper "Pionerskaya Pravda", in which the author ran a regular column for 15 years. The author intended this book

for the adolescents; however the experience of teachers of initial classes shows that this book can be adapted primary schools. It is useful for the engineers because of a great number of inventive problems analyzed in greater detail. One should begin studying TRIZ from reading a newest written-by-an-author book. "To Find an Idea" is a book that meets this requirement [12]. In the process of TRIZ studying one would need certain tools and information collections - namely, ARIZ-85-V, SU field, Standards 76, and techniques for the elimination of engineering contradictions. The first two sources (i.e. ARIZ and SU fields) are described in this book. However, SU fields are described in this book for an experienced user…

CCCooo uuu rrr ssseee ooo fff sss ttt uuuddd yyy We begin publication of a curriculum for a course of lectures approved by G.S. Altshuller in 1997-1998

AAA ccclllaaassssss iiinnnTTTRRRIIIZZZ

Logistic curve of published monographies of G.S.Altshuller

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

1952

1956

1960

1964

1968

1972

1976

1980

1984

1988

1992

1996

years

Ord

er a

nd n

umbe

rs o

f pub

lishe

d bo

oks

Yu. P. Salamatov. TTTRRRIIIZZZ ttt ooo ddd aaa yyy aaa nnnddd iii nnn ttt hhheee fff uuu tttuuu rrreee

What is TRIZ created for? Let us characterize TRIZ according to the main criteria of scientific nature of theories… A number of questions appear during the attentive study of TRIZ… How to formulate the problem accurately?... How to correctly construct the conflict scheme?.. Why are there eleven methods for solving physical contradictions (PC)?.. How to treat the so-called "Theory of creativity"? Is it in any way related to engineering systems evolution? What is the future of Creative imagination development (CID) – this "substrate" of TRIZ ?

Opinions of TRIZ specialists on the following issues… … What is the most necessary thing in IA TRIZ required for the development of TRIZ?

- The journal, of course (S. Kukalev ). - If IA resumes the publication of the journal, it will be a great step to the restoration of the organization (А. Torgashev )

Your forecast of TRIZ development? - To be brief, TRIZ in its methodological aspect (I mean the methodology of problem solving) will logically, and therefore, inevitably dissolve in some more general engineering subject. Probably, in the subject, which I called "Engineering design" or most probably - "Design of systems". (A.Gassanov)….

- IIIVVV -

MMMEEETTTHHHOOODDDOOOLLLOOOGGGIIICCCAAALLL DDDEEEVVVEEELLLOOOPPPMMMEEENNNTTTSSS A. T. Kynin

"""EEEmmmppp ttt iii nnneee sss sss """ iii nnn MMMaaa ttt eee rrr iii aaa lll sss A classification of production processes for porophores and foaming agents plus examples of main methods for producing "emptiness" in materials are proposed for the purpose of enhancing the convenience of "emptiness introduction" into engineering systems (ES). This information could be useful for specialists who solve problems on development of new products… Table 3. Properties of Porophores and Foaming Agents.

Name, abbreviation Formula, molecular weight

Russian trademark

Foreign trademark

Produced as Decomposition temperature, °C

Gas composition

Gas number, cm3/g

Density, kg/m3

2,2 - Azo-bis-isobutyronitrile, (ABIN) (CH3)2C(CN)-N=N-

(CN)C(CH3)2, Mol. weight - 164.22

Porophor ChHZ-57 Porophor N

Finely crystalline powder of bluish color

90-100

130-150 1110

Diamide of azodicarboxylic acid AZODICARBONAMIDE, Porophore-57 (AZDN). Azodicarbonamide

C2H4N4O2, H2NCON=NCONH2, Mol. weight - 116.08

Porophor ChHZ-21, DADK

Zhenithrone AC, Tsellogene AZ

Finely crystalline powder of yellowish-orange color or of canary color

170-180

N2 - 65 %, CO - 31.5% , CO2 - 3.6%. 200-250 1660

- - - - - - - - -

RRRaaannnkkk CCCaaauuussseee---EEEffffffeeecccttt SSSccchhheeemmmeee ooofff IIInnnttteeerrraaaccctttiiiooonnn aaasss aaa TTToooooolll fffooorrr SSSiiitttuuuaaatttiiiooonnn AAAnnnaaalllyyysssiiisss aaannnddd PPPrrrooobbbllleeemmm SSStttaaattteeemmmeeennnttt B. M. Axelrod The universal methodology of function analysis is further developed, which raises function analysis efficiency and decreases labor input in function analysis performance. The methodology operates with a small number of monosemantically defined types of interactions. Basic innovations 1. Construction of cause-effect scheme of interactions (actions) - cause-effect interaction (CEI) instead of standard function model (or in addition to function model). Functional relations between ES components are thus included in the CEI structure. 2. Identification of functional principle of operation (FPO) of ES. 3. Use of the following set of factors as a basis for ranking interactions: a) correlation of interaction with FPO of a system; b) cause-effect chains between interactions; c) variation (or absence of variation) of a parameter of interaction object as a result of interaction performance. 4. Trimming rules are formulated in relation to interactions. Main consequences. 1. CEI may serve as an effective tool not only for function analysis, but also for other types of analyses in TRIZ…

Construction of CEI and Ranking Rules Main interactions in ES are identified based on the structural model of this ES or matrix of interactions in this ES. It is convenient to present the main interactions by rectangles thus forming a basis for future scheme. The only requirement to formulation of interaction (action) consists in concise, but precise reflection of interaction

(action) essence. Often the formulation includes an action, action subject and action object ("Oxidizer diffuses into tooth"). However, other structures are admissible and, moreover, useful plus effective: formulation of action using a reflexive verb ("Toothpaste is sorbed to teeth dirt", "Oxidation of pigment is slowed down"). See also a comment in the section "Example 1. Toothbrush")...

Toothbrush washes teeth dirt and tooth paste away (with

water) Rank: a1P1

Toothbrush separates teeth dirt from tooth

Rank: P1

Toothbrush mixes teeth dirt with

toothpaste Rank: p2a1P1

Relation with supersystem:

Toothpaste deg-rades adhesion of teeth dirt to tooth

Toothbrush retains water

Rank: p3a1P1

Relation with supersystem:

Water is applied onto toothbrush Rank:: n1p3a1P1

Toothbrush applies water onto teeth

Rank: p2a1P1

Fig. 2. Simplified rank cause-effect scheme of actions for a toothbrush (FRAGMENT).

Toothbrush mixes teeth dirt and tooth-

paste with water Rank: p1a1P1

Breakthrough in "one step" - there is something to be learned from P&G:“In the United States, Whitestrips have annual sales of about $300 million, making it the No. 1 tooth-whitening product” http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2003/10/27/daily47.html)

HHHooowww tttooo fffiiinnnddd sssuuuccchhh sssooollluuutttiiiooonnnsss???

- VVV -

A.A.Friedland. III nnnccc rrreee aaa ssseee ooo fff fff iii eee lll ddd ooo fff TTT RRR IIIZZZ aaa ppp ppp lll iii ccc aaa ttt iii ooo nnn uuu sss iii nnnggg ggg eee nnneee rrraaa lll iii zzz eee ddd ttt eee ccc hhh nnn iii qqq uuueee sss

...New areas are rather various and their objects can function in conventional "spaces", which are in no way like the Euclidean three-dimensional space of the real world. As an example, it is possible to name such areas as advertising, circuitry engineering, pedagogic and informatics... Generalized techniques can be compared to orthogonal basis. A technique, which is often used, can be included in the composition of several generalized techniques in the same way as a vector can have projections on different axes. Hierarchical arrangement of the techniques corresponds to the hierarchy of sub-spaces.

Table 1 Paired generalized techniques for solving engineering contradictions TECHNIQUES ANTI-TECHNIQUES

0а ES improvement through increase of quantity and quality of performed functions.

0b ES improvement through decrease of expenses and harmful actions on environment and human.

1а Autonomization (increase of independence of ES from SS and the environment).

1b Transition to SS.

---- ---- 1а2 Principle of universality 6. (Multi-functionality). # Universal drill for boring holes of several diameters in a sheet-like material (the diameter increases in stages throughout the length).

1b2 Specialization of ES. (Selection of required specialized ES - function performed by SS). # Table wear.

---- ---- The following succession of events is recommended for the use of TRIZ techniques in some specific area...

TTTRRRIIIZZZ OOOUUUTTTSSSIIIDDDEEE EEENNNGGGIIINNNEEEEEERRRIIINNNGGG

G. A. Archangelsky. NNNooonnn---ppprrrooojjjeeeccctttiiivvveee aaapppppprrroooaaaccchhh tttooo ttthhheee ooorrrgggaaannniiizzzaaatttiiiooonnn ooofff aaaccctttiiivvviiitttyyy

We would like to attract the attention of the readers to some interesting

opportunities, which are opening to the specialist on strategic management in case of addressing classical Chinese strategy, as well as TRIZ methodology.. Attention to the trends in the evolution of the situation. When the foisting of the project upon the situation is rejected, the natural consequence of it is the increased attention given to the study of the situation proper. The logic of Chinese strategist is based on an evident assumption that any river starts with a narrow rivulet and any ravine - with a hardly noticeable crack. Therefore the art of strategist is first of all to see, to feel, ?? , to grasp the "embryos", the "germs" of would-be events, to predict

he long-term consequences of these events, to join the commencing hardly visible movement and to use it for the strategist's own purposes.

The European thought did not neglect the concept of occasion, the most suitable moment for performance of the action, the duty of the strategist being "to capture" this moment. The Greeks opposed "cronos" - linear and homogenous time to "kairos" - advantageous time, most appropriate moment. However, while the Greeks stop here, the Chinese, paying attention to the germs, the sources make this "kairos" not incidental, but preconditioned and anticipated, as well as known to the strategist in advance. Hence the understanding of a persistently repeated thought: a good commander wins the battles long before they begin, his victory is preconditioned in advance.

It has its own meaning that TRIZ is based on such trends of engineering systems evolution (TESE). At that, the inventor does not become much of a creator, the "architect" of a new system; he rather becomes a "midwife" helping a new system "to be born" from the depths of old system; at that it is not born in the form, in which the inventor would like to see it, but takes the form, in which it should be embodied according to objective laws.

M. B. Rosenthal... OOO nnn ttt hhheee uuu ssseee ooo fff TTTRRR IIIZZZ fffooo rrr sssooo lll vvv iiinnn ggg nnnooo nnn --- eee nnnggg iii nnneee eee rrr iii nnnggg ppp rrrooo bbb lll eee mmmsss ...

...The scientific ground for increase of the area of TRIZ application is the fact that actually this theory is a branch of theory of systems. It was always implied, however, the intensive advanced development of the branch or rather TRIZ branches in the area of solving semi-structured problems, mass character of use and impressive results led to self-development of TRIZ. The time has come to look back at the theory of systems and to implant the elite seedlings of TRIZ on its weakest branches.

Projective - developing according to a plan (preliminary project) Non-projective - following the internal logics of self-development

- VVVIII -

TTTRRRIIIZZZ AAANNNDDD SSSCCCIIIEEENNNCCCEEE FFFIIICCCTTTIIIOOONNN

V. M. Gerasimov. TTTooo aaa ddd mmm iii ttt ttt hhheee iii nnn aaa ddd mmm iii sss sss iii bbb lll eee ((( aaa nnn iii nnnvvv eee nnnttt ooo rrr ''' sss aaa nnneee ccc ddd ooo ttt eee )))

Well, let’s be logical… If we assume that the speed of this fish is - VERY HIGH!.. I understand that it can't happen… I tell you, don't interrupt me! Then A LARGE FLOW of water will pass through the gills and this flow will contain A LOT of oxygen... It's interesting. And how do you know that this flow will be sufficient for the fish to become warm-blooded? Oh, you have a gut feeling?.. No, my dear, it is not enough to have gut feelings, you have to calculate it... Though, if we go deeper into it, maybe that will be quite enough... Yes, evidently it should be sufficient! All right, and what next?.. What are you saying, there is a technique in inventive problem-solving?.. "ADMIT THE INADMISSIBLE"... Well... Never heard of that. And what comes next?.. To trace the consequences of the "solved" problem, as if it was really sold?.. Well... Evaluating these consequences not pitch-by-pitch? Well, well, in which year were you, when they taught you this? Oh, optional classes... Then I understand. I had no time for rubbish like that.

WWWhhhaaattt tttkkkiiinnnddd ooofff iiinnn vvv aaa ddd eee rrr sss fff rrrooo mmm ooo ttthhh eee rrr ppp lll aaannn eee ttt sss vvv iii sss iii ttt TTT RRRIII ZZZ sssppp eee ccc iii aaa lll iii sss ttt sss (from home assignments of TRIZ students)

Late at night, when my family went to bed I went to the kitchen to do my home work in TRIZ. Having reached Homework 5/3, I went deeply into my thoughts and closed my eyes in order to concentrate better. When I opened them a small green man not higher than 1.5 meters was sitting in front of me.

– An alien... – muttered I… JJJooouuurrrnnnaaalll EEEdddiiitttooorrriiiaaalll SSStttaaaffffff iiisss ttthhhaaannnkkkfffuuulll tttooo GGGeeennn333PPPaaarrrtttnnneeerrrsss,,, IIInnnccc... (((BBBooossstttooonnn,,, UUUSSSAAA))) fffooorrr sssiiigggnnniiifffiiicccaaannnttt fffiiinnnaaannnccciiiaaalll sssuuuppppppooorrrttt

SSS---PPPeeettteeerrrsssbbbuuurrrggg,,, RRRuuussssssiiiaaa PPPhhhooonnneee 000000777 (((888111222))) 333222444---444111000555 FFFaaaxxx 000000777 (((888111222))) 333222444---999888111000

TTTooo sssuuubbbssscccrrriiibbbeee cccooonnntttaaacccttt uuusss::: JJJooouuurrrnnnaaalll___ooofff___tttrrriiizzz@@@mmmaaaiiilll...rrruuu

Our correspondent (and author) Gao Changqing has sent this report on the conference held in July in China: The First Senior Conference on TRIZ Researching of China was held successfully in Hebei University of Technology on July 24, 2005. Professor Tan Runhua presided the Conference. Professor Li Yan from Sichuan University and Professor Niu Zhanwen from Tianjin University attended the Conference. Many scholars or Ph.D. candidates from different Universities introduced their TRIZ Researching Development and exchanged their viewpoints on the Conference. The Conference will give a great impulse on the research and application of TRIZ in China. Professor Tan Runhua is the vice-president of Hebei University of Technology and the director of TRIZ Reserch Center of China. He has continued TRIZ researching for many years. In this year, about 20 papers have been contributed by TRIZ Reserch Center of China. The papers will be published on TRIZ-Journal, Chinese Journal of Mechanical Engineering, Journal of Integrated design and process and some other famous journals. The deputies attended the Conference are listed below: DEPUTY AFFILIATION Ding Junwu Nanjing University of Science & Technology Huang Feihua University of Science and Technology of China Wang Hao Shanghai Jiao Tong University Li Yan Sichuan University Lv Chunmei Northeastern University Li Te Northeastern University Niu Zhanwen Tianjin University Zhang Fuying Tianjin University of Science & Technology Gao Changqing Shandong University

Tan Runhua （compere of the Conference） Hebei University of Technology