Introduction
to TRIZ (TRIZ Papers)  |
   |
| TRIZ: Theory of Inventive Problem Solving -- Understanding and Introducing It -- | |
| Toru Nakagawa
(Osaka Gakuin University)
May 17, 1998 (in Japanese) Published in the Bulletin of Cultural and Natural Sciences in Osaka Gakuin University, No. 37, September 1998, pp. 1-12. (in Japanese) |
|
| Published
in the home page of Mitsubishi Research Institute on May 29, 1998
Published in this "TRIZ Home Page in Japan" on Nov. 1, 1998 (in Japanese) English translation by Toru Nakagawa and published here on Feb. 18, 1999. |
|
Preface for the English version (Toru Nakagawa, Feb. 18, 1999)
This paper
was originary written in Japanese last May and published soon on a WWW
page
of MRI even
before the formal printing for the purpose of introducing TRIZ in Japan.
It has been
welcomed by people who are seriously trying to introduce TRIZ and its software
tools in their
industry practice in Japan. Thus, this paper has become the basis
of all my
later activities
which lead to the opening of "TRIZ Home Page in Japan". It is my
pleasure
to publish
it in English here for readers world wide. Some comments in
the paper, especially
on "current
situations", are already old but are translated without updating,
because readers
may now find
"current" situations in various other places including those in "TRIZ Home
Page in Japan".
I wish to
thank Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd., where I was working for 18 years until
March 1998;
all the materials
described in this paper have its basis on my experience of the trial
of
introducing
TRIZ at the industry labs during my last year there.
| Top | Introduction | Historry | Philosophy & scheme | Software tools | Introducing into industry | Education & research | References |
"Theory of
Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ)" has been developed and systematized
since 1946
in ex-USSR and has become known to the western countries after the end
of
the Cold War
as a new methodology for technological innovation. It is based on
the
philosophy:
"Improvements, innovations, and evolutions of technologies share
some
common aspects
across their fields and their eras. Thus, by extracting such shared
essences out
of a large number of excellent cases, and by making them easy to retrieve
after classification,
we may reuse them for facilitating new development of technologies.
Especially,
excellent cases of technology innovation can be understood in a number
of
patterns of
breaking through the contradictions in the problem; such patterns provide
us hints for
our own creative innovation."
The followings
have already been established as a methodology system and applied
in real parctice:
(a)
Trends of evolution of technical systems
(b)
Inverted database of science and technology which are retrievable from
technical
goals to various
candidates of technical means
(c)
40 "Principles of Invention"
(d)
"Contradiction Solving Matrix": corresponding to each element of
a problem matrix
of 39 improving
aspects versus 39 worsening aspects, top four most-frequently-used
Principles
of Invention are quoted on the basis of an ellaborate analysis of world
patents
Recently in
USA, the TRIZ methodology has been implemented in software tools and
rapidly become
known to industries. In Japan, TRIZ has been introduced and promoted
in a significant
scale since last year.
The present
paper describes an overview of TRIZ and points out the possible large
impact of
TRIZ on the future of world's technologies, industries, and education.
It discusses
how to introduce TRIZ to the practice of industries, and also discusses
the necessity
of introducing the TRIZ philosophy in education.
As the global competition of technologies
is becoming severe more and more, there is
a great demand of creative ability
in technology development. How can we generate
creative ideas and innovative technologies?
How can we obtain higher ability in our
own creativity? These are
serious problems. So far, however, the experienced
processes of having reached creative
ideas have been described simply as
"enlightenment" by scientists at
some uninteded moments after intensive thinking or as
"by-products" of trial-and-error
processes of experiments. Since these processes
depend on luck, they give us only
spiritual advices.
Lately, however, it became known
to the western countries that a method formed in
ex-USSR and called TRIZ, pronounced
as /tri:z/, have had given much clearer
solutions to these problems.
TRIZ is the English spelling of Russian abbreviation of
"Theory of Inventive Problem Solving".
It claims that creative ability can be increased
by extracting, systematizing, and
learning the essences of real cases of creative
technological innovations, and it
actually have developed such a system. TRIZ
already has a history of 50 years
of research and wide-ranged application practices in
Russia; it became known to the western
countries after the end of the Cold War, and
has started new phases of development
for these few years. The methodology has
reorganized the whole system of
science and technology from a practical, yet having
deep insight, stand point for achieving
desired technological goals. It will give, in the
near future, a great impact on the
technology and industry of the world, and will urge
serious reconsideration of the ways
of education of science and technology.
The present author heard about TRIZ
at the end of last May, 1997, for the first time in
a lecture given in Tokyo by Dr.
Mats Nordlund of MIT, and for these twelve months he
has been endeavoring to study and
introduce TRIZ, especially in Fujitsu Laboratories,
where he was a staff until the end
of March 1998. In the present paper, TRIZ is
introduced to novice readers by
describing how to understand it and introduce it in
industrial practice.
2.
History of TRIZ and its current situations
2.1 History of TRIZ
In 1946, Genrich Altshuller, who
was at the age of 20 and engaged in patent reviewing,
recognized typical thinking patterns
in inventions and obtained the fundamental
initial idea of the TRIZ theory.
He sent a proposal to Stalin, but was rather sent to a
camp in Ciberia, where he continued
developing his ideas. Being released after 5
years, he published his work of
TRIZ, and opened a number of TRIZ schools at various
locations in USSR. His activities
were prohibited again since 1974, but were allowed
open in the years of the Perestroika.
During these 50 years of development, a few
thousands of researchers/engineers
have got involved in the study and development of
TRIZ, to analyse patents of the
world, i.e. 2.5 million patents in total as sometimes
being claimed, in its technological
semantics and to establish the system of the TRIZ
methodology.
Since 1980s, especially after the
end of the Cold War, a number of ex-USSR TRIZ
specialists emmigrated to the western
countries and brought in TRIZ. Sweden, USA,
and Israel were active in receiving
them. Particularly in the United States, some
companies have started developing
software tools of TRIZ, many consultant firms their
activities of promoting TRIZ, and
manufacturing companies their trial introduction of
it. In Japan, introduction/promotion
activities have been started in a significant scale
only since 1997.
2.2 Textbooks, References, and WWW information on TRIZ
Textbooks of TRIZ are very limited
in languages other than Russian. In English,
published are two Altshuller's textbooks
[1,2], an introductory textbook [3],
and a
training material
[4], and maybe some others. Under this situation, one should
note
information offered through WWW
[5-8].
In particular, a monthly electric journal,
named "The TRIZ Journal"[5],
was established in 1996 and has been publishing every
month about five papers and articles,
including case studies. In conferences in the
field of quality control, TRIZ sessions
have started; it is announced that the first
international conference of TRIZ
will be held in coming November 1998 in USA.
Introduction of TRIZ in Japanese
was recently initiated by the article [9]
in the April
1996 issue of a monthly journal,
"Nikkei Mechanical". Near the end of 1997, three
introductory TRIZ textbooks
[10-12] were published in Japanese. Among these,
[11]
is the easiest to read. This
is a Japanese translation of the textbook [1],
which
Altshuller wrote about TRIZ ideas
readable even for highschool students
(technological examples are dated
only up to 1960s). Reading [10] next
is
recommended. It explains the
overview of TRIZ in a more detailed and systematic
way. Some parts of it are
easy to read, but some others are difficult mostly because the
materials are condensed too much.
In the TRIZ theory, there are some core parts
which are unfamiliar and rather
contradictory to the common sense, just like Zen
communications; this point is related
to the fact that one can achieve any breakthrough
only after breaking one's own conventional
ways of thinking.
Textbook [12]
by Hatamura et al is introductory but rather unique in containing
appropriate criticisms of TRIZ.
The part explaining TRIZ in [12] is a Japanese
translation of the textbook by Fey
and Rivin [3], which is written in a style
similar to
[10].
Their demonstration examples, however, are rather old (mostly describing
the
technologies used before 1970),
and there are a number of patent cases which were
apparently recorded as new ideas
without engineering/commercial examinations.
Hatamura and his group discuss and
criticize these points in detail. Besides, Hatamura
et al describe their own "Creative
Designing Principles", which has some aspects
similar to TRIZ but has been built
up independently. Since [12] contains
all these
related but conflicting parts together,
it seems very difficult for TRIZ novices to
understand the book, or at least
to realize the merits of TRIZ. After studying TRIZ for
some time, one should read this
[12]
again to fully understand its messages.
2.3 Current situations of TRIZ software tools
Some TRIZ specialists of ex-USSR
moved to USA and started implementing the TRIZ
methodology into software tools;
Invention Machine Corporation [13] is the
leading
company. IMC has developed
and is marketing software packages, TechOptimizer
and IM Phenomenon, which work smoothly
on PCs with practical usefulness. Ideation
International, Inc. [14]
has also implemented their TRIZ training course into a
software package. In Japan,
Mitsubishi Research Institute [15] has been
working as
the general agency for IMC, forming
a consortium to making a Japanese version of the
software tool, and taking the leadership
for introducing TRIZ to Japan.
3.
Philosophy and Scheme of TRIZ
Since TRIZ has already formed a large
system of methodology, it is difficult to
introduce its whole aspects.
Essence of its philosophy and scheme may be understood
as follows:
3.1 Technology-oriented: concrete and yet abstract thinking
TRIZ deals with a very wide range
of science and technology. Its philosophy is not
based on academic approaches like
"science" nor "engineering", but rather on a
practical approach of "technology".
By fully utilizing the well-established system of
science and technology, we want
to solve problems in technology and create
innovative technologies; that's
the goal for us to use the TRIZ methodology.
For this purpose, the way of thinking
in TRIZ is concrete, practical, and widely
spreaded. For example, the
states of substances listed up in TRIZ include not only the
typical three states (i.e. gas,
liquid, and solid) but also a large number of in-between
and compound states (such as aerosol,
foam, powder, porous, and void (i.e. vacuum)
states) and the states having special
characteristics in thermal, electric, magnetic, and
optical aspects. TRIZ takes
all these states of substances into consideration in its
problem solving. In opposite
to the substances, TRIZ considers physical fields, forces,
and interactions (these are sometimes
called simply as "Fields" in TRIZ); they include
mechanical, electrical, magnetic,
thermal, and optical "Fields", as the main
categories.
To handle all these wide variety
of substances and "Fields" in a well classified,
ordered, generic, and unified way,
TRIZ fully uses abstract thinking. For example, in
handling the five main "Fields"
mentioned above, TRIZ discusses inter-conversion of
the "Fields" by using some characteristic
substance system, "structuring" of the
"Fields" (i.e. increasing/decreasing,
reflection, transmission, refraction, difraction,
etc. of the "Fields"), accumulation
of the "Fields" (e.g. accumulation of mechanical
energies), etc. Such
introduction of concreteness and abstractness at the same time
has made the TRIZ methodology unique
and extraordinary. This feature of TRIZ is
evident in all the following subsections.
3.2 Trends of evolution of technical systems
One of the insights by Altshuller
is that all technical systems (or artifact systems) have
a number of trends of evolution
which are common across the fields and eras.
One of such trends is that one part,
such as a functional part, in a system evolves into
two parts, then into multiple parts,
into many parts, and finally into one part at a
higher level. An example of
this type of evolution can be seen in the speaker system of
a radio; a single speaker equipment
evolved into a stereo system of two speakers, then
a surrounding sound system of multiple
speakers, and finally into a 3D sound system.
Similarly, a gun with one bullet
evolved into a double channel gun with two bullets,
then a revolver pistol with several
bullets, and finally into a machine gun with a large
number of bullets in a belt.
Another common trend is the segementation
of a working part of a system; a solid
working part of a system (e.g. a
metal ball in a ball bearing) evolved to divided solid
parts (e.g. balls in a two-row ball
bearing), then to many smaller parts (e.g. a micro-
ball bearing), further to molecular
scale parts (e.g. a gas bearing), and finally to the
extreme of the parts using non-substance,
i.e. a "Field" (e.g. a magnetic bearing
system).
Adding further the trends of increasing
flexibility, dynamization of time
characteristics, etc., over a dozen
of such trends of system's evolution have been
recognized. TRIZ teaches us
these common trends in technical system evolution at a
highly abstract level, together
with illustrations of concrete practical examples. It
guides us to think along these courses
of trends and to find futuristic technical
innovations right now.
3.3 Inverted database of science and technology for finding means from goals
"Technology-orientedness" means that
we want to achieve some technical goal by
solving technical problems in front
of us. Engineers wish to solve some problem or
want to achieve some goal.
They are struggling to find how to achive it; namely they
are seeking for any means to achieve
a goal. If the goal is achievable by some means
which they know well and use often,
the problem is easy. If the goal is inreachable by
currently available means, or if
a new task is given, engineers want to find new or
higher-level means. They often
meet problems which can not be solved by their
personal knowlege nor even
by the technologies currently known to their field of
industry.
The system of science and technology
should certainly be expected to give them the
guiding principles for solving such
technical problems; nevertheless, it is not easy for
the engineers to effectively use
it at the present situations. One fundamental reason for
this difficulty is that the principles
and theories in science and technology are stated in
the basic scheme that "setting up
a situation then comes the result", and their practical
applications are also shown in the
scheme of "from means to effects". Statements in
these schemes have been accumulated
in huge scales in each field of finely divided
areas of sciences and technologies.
For an engineer to find some suitable means to
achive his goal, he has to learn
the relevant fields of science and technology, and has
to apply the knowledge to find any
means (or rather a set of means) which can achieve
his goal; thus during the process
of his search he has to invert the knowledge scheme
into "from a goal to means".
Consequently, any engineer can think of means in
relatively narrow fields of science
and technology, and does not know whether the
means he has found is appropriate
for the solution in a wider scope. Thus technology
innovation has been requiring difficult
re-search work in trial-and-error.
For improving this situation, TRIZ
has been building up an inverted database of whole
science and technology, so as to
be able to retrieve in a scheme of "from a goal to
means 1, means 2, ...". The
TRIZ approach was built not at a level of retrieval
function of indeces to encyclopedias
and to conventional scientific/technological
databases, but at a level of much
essential reorganization of the
scientific/technological information.
TRIZ has first classified various technical goals
into a hierarchical system.
The goal categories at the top level are:
| substances (as object): | obtaining, holding, protecting,
eliminating,
moving, separating, measuring properties of, and changing properties of. |
| "Fields" (as object): | generating, accumulating, absorbing,
changing in space arrangement of, measuring properties of, and changing properties of. |
Representations of goals are further
classified into lower level categories, such as
"changing surface properties of
a substance" and "separating a component in liquid
mixture"; 283 categories are listed
as goals. For each category of goal, applicable
principles of science and technology
and their practical examples have been compiled
in an already-sorted scheme for
easy access.
By using this inverted database,
an engineer can easily find many technical means
which he hardly think of from his
own knowledge and speciality, and can use them as
hints for his poblem solving.
Not being limited by conventional thinking in one's
speciality, but flexibly introducing
knowledge and technologies of other fileds is a
most important key for opening the
door to technical innovations.
3.4 "40 Principles of invention"
Altshuller has extracted 40 "Principles
of invention" through his semantic analysis of
patents world-wide. Some example
of them are:
| Principle of invention, No. 1: | Segmentation (dividing
an object, assembling of parts,
and segmentation to the extreme) |
| Principle of invention, No. 2: | Extraction (taking our harmful
parts, and
extracting useful parts) |
| Principle of invention, No. 4: | Asymmetry (making an object asymmetric) |
| Principle of invention, No. 40: | Compound materials |
These principles were extracted and
formalized by Altshuller with his sense; they form
one of the essence in TRIZ.
Among the principles of invention,
some are seemingly natural and in common sense,
but some others are unexpected.
The principle of "Asymmetry" is an example of
unexpected antitheses. Principles
in science and technology often advise us to make
symmetry of objects higher for better
functioning; on the contrary, this principle in
TRIZ points out that making objects
asymmetic can be the key to a breakthrough. The
primary barrier against technology
innovation is the psycological inertia (e.g.,
preference to higher symmetry which
is deeply installed in one's mind); this is the
insight in TRIZ. Principles
of invention are stated in abstract terms in order to be
applicable to problem solving accross
fields and eras. The most basic way for
understanding TRIZ is to read the
explanations and practical application examples of
the 40 principles of invention,
thouroughly to understand its implications. These
principles of invention demonstrate
their real usefulness in the "Contradiction Solving
Matrix", as discussed in the next
subsection.
3.5 Solving technical contradictions: "Contradiction Solving Matrix"
It is often the situation in technical
problems that if one tries to improve an aspect of
the system, one causes to worsen
another aspect. Most typical solution in this kind of
situation is to regard the problem
as a trade-off between the two (or more) aspects and
to take a compromise which chooses
some acceptable but not satisfactory point in both
aspects. A more sophisticated
solution may be obtained by the "optimization"
technique. Optimization requests
the engineer to clarify the constraints of the given
problem, to set up an objective
function as the criterion for evaluating solutions, and to
find out some means which makes
the value of the objective function highest under the
given constraints. Mathematical
models and techniques are used in expressing the
solution models in a form of function
containing various parameters and in finding the
model which gives highest value
(in a practical sense) of the objective function. Even
though the "optimization" technique
is highly sophisticated with these mathematical
representations, it often has fatal
pit-holes in the setting up of the constraint conditions
and in the representation of model
functions as feasible solutions. These
representations usually reflect
the current technical system and the optimization
searches a solution within such
a current framework; thus optimization rarely proposes
real breakthroughs.
TRIZ, on the other hand, regards
such a technical problem as "technical
contradiction". It tries to
make the contradiction even clearer, and to find a break-
through solution by really breaking
the barrier posed by the contradiction. Not
detouring but eliminating the contradiction
is the key to new technical innovation; this
is the fundamental standpoint of
TRIZ. Such technical innovations have been realized
many times in the history of science
and technology. TRIZ has paid special attention
to patents as the records of such
technical innovations. By analyzing a huge number of
patents, TRIZ has extracted typical
solutions to "technical contradiction" problems,
and has formalized in the following
way:
First, for expressing technical problems,
one is urged to describe which aspect of the
current system he wants to improve
and which other aspect becomes worse by such an
improvement and causes an contradictory
situation. To describe these aspects, TRIZ
uses 39 standardized aspects, including
weight of movable object, loss of energy, easy
to use, reliability, etc.
The matrix thus formed by 39 improving aspects and 39
worsening aspects is regarded as
the ground for representing technical contradictions.
Altshuller and his followers have
analyzed the cases of technology innovation recorded
in the patents; they classified
the problem of each case on the 39 x 39 matrix and
expressed the essence of the patent
solution in terms of the 40 principles of invention.
Accumulation of these analyses of
patents has lead to find frequently-used principles of
invention for each section of the
matrix; top four principles have been listed for each
section. The table of frequently-used
principles of invention on the 39x39 matrix, thus
obtained from such an ellaborate
work, is called "Contradiction Matrix" or
"Contradiction Solving Matrix".
This forms a part of core results uniquely obtained in
the TRIZ methodology.
Engineers who want to solve their
own technical problems are advised first to describe
the problem in the scheme of improving
aspect versus worsening aspect on the
Contradiction Solving Matrix.
Then the Matrix readily shows the engineer up-to-four
principles of invention which were
most frequently used in inventively solving such a
type of problems. Engineers
thus can use the principles and their application
examples as valuable suggestions
for solving their own problems.
The "Contradiction Solving Matrix"
has offered us a method of "re-using" cases of
innovations and breakthroughs achieved
by preceeding pioneers, for the purpose of
solving our current problems.
Simple accumulation of those cases in the innovators'
own words (i.e. original patent
documents) does not allow easy retrieval or re-use for
solving new problems. TRIZ
has enforced, in describing the problems and their
solutions, to use a fixed framework
of such a set of abstract terminology, i.e.
contradictions among the 39 aspects
for the problems and the 40 principles for
solutions. This enforcement
has allowed to represent and classify a huge number of
patents in a standard way, and has
resulted in a very condensed set of know-hows in a
form easy to reuse.
3.6 Standard menthods for improving systems
For innovatively improving a technical
system, TRIZ advises engineers to functionally
analyze the system and to focus
the attention onto the essencial part of the system.
The essencial part is represented
in either of the following two simple schemes:
(a) Object 1
---- (Action) ----> Object 2
(b) Object ----->
Property to be measured
For each of these simplified systems,
standard methods of problem solving have been
classified and shown in abstract
schemes. At the top level, the standard methods are:
| For solving (a): | Methods by use of interactions with
additives
(either substances or "Fields") |
| Methods of generating/eliminating/multiplying "Fields" | |
| For solving (b): | Methods of using marks for measurment |
| Methods for detouring |
These methods are further classified
into 76 standard methods in total. The standard
methods are explained with shematic
figures and many examples.
3.7 Algorithm for solving inventive problems (ARIZ)
TRIZ has developed many more techniques for problem solving. They include:
Consideration
of Final Ideal Result: To consider an extreme ideal system satisfying
the objective, to think of barriers
prohibiting the realization of it, and to clarify the
technical contradictions.
Substance-Field Analysis
(or Su-Field Analysis): To represent the function of the
current object system in a symplified
scheme of "substances" and "Fields", and to
consider ways of system improvement
by using transformations of the scheme
representation. (Related to
the method discussed in the subsection 3.6.)
Physical Contradiction
and its solution: The problem of the technical system may
further be analyzed to reach a logical
dilemma (or called "Physical Contradiction" in
TRIZ), such as "seen" and yet "not
seen". For these "Physical Contradictions", TRIZ
has already found a number of standard
ways of solution; they typically include spatial
separation and time separation of
the contradictory states.
Furthermore, containing all the methods
described above in sections 3.1 through 3.7,
an overall method for problem solving
in TRIZ has been presented and named
"ARIZ"
(i.e. "Algorithm for Inventive Problem
Solving"). It is a complex method having
many iterative steps. ARIZ
has several versions which have been modified and
transformed little by little during
its history of development. The present author is
wondering whether these ARIZ algorithms
are indeed effective and whether such
complex systematization and formalization
is appropriate for real applications; thus
the author will not discuss here
on them any further.
3.8 Summary of the TRIZ methodology of problem solving
Summarizing the above discussion
of problem solving methods in TRIZ, the overall
structure of the TRIZ methodology
can be illustrated by the scheme shown in Fig. 1.
The upper row in the figure shows
the world of information formed by the whole
system of science and technology
in the traditional way. The world accumulates a
huge amount of information (or databases)
of the principles, expressed in the scheme
of "from settings to effects",
in a wide range of fields of science and technology. It
also accumulates a huge volume of
individual records of technical
improvement/innovation, which are
described in the scheme of "from a problem to a
solution"; they typically include
patent databases and paper reference databases.
The bottom row, on the other hand,
represents the world of an individual engineer
facing his own technical problem.
The engineer has his specific problem which he
wants to solve. The first
task for him is to describe his system in the problem and to
clarify the problem itself.
Then he wants to find appropriate solutions for his problem;
how can he proceed?
For this situation, TRIZ has offered
several important methods as the keys to the
problem solving, as shown in the
middle row of Fig. 1. They include:
- recognition of the
trends of technology evolution,
- inverse retrieval
of technological means from goals,
- expressing the problem
as the contradiction between two aspects and obtaining
principles of invention as hints by using "Contradiction Solving Matrix",
and
- principles of invention
and practical examples of their applications.
TRIZ also offers methods to support
the engineer to make his own problem clearer and
to guide him to the world of the
TRIZ methodology. By offering all these methods,
TRIZ encourages the engineers to
solve their own technical problems by fully utilizing
the information of the world of
science and technology.
4.1 Invention Machine's TechOptimizer
The present author have used and
mastered a software tool, TechOptimizer
Professional Edition Version 2.51
developed by Invention Machine Corporation. This
software works smoothly under Windows95
on a notebook PC, and implements all the
features of TRIZ discussed in the
subsections 3.1 through 3.6. Its component modules
are listed below with brief description
of their functions:
| Prediction Module: | trends of evolution of technical
systems (see sections 3.1 and 3.2),
standard methods for improving a system (see section 3.6) |
| Effects Module: | inverted database of principles
(or "effects" in TRIZ) in science and
technology and their application examples (see section 3.3) |
| Principles Module: | principles of invention and their
application examples (see section 3.4),
Contradiction Solving Matrix (see section 3.5) |
| TechOptimizer Module: | functional analysis of a system,
management of problem solving process, and reporting |
| Feature Transfer Module: | tranferring features between systems |
This software implements principles
and application examples in a wide range of field
in science and technology; they
include: geometrical, mechanical, thermal, optical
and electoro-magnetic wave, electrical,
magnetic and electro-magnetic, substances
and materials, interaction between
substances and "Fields", chemical, and elemental
particles. The examples of
technical application mostly describe those in old days
before 1970, but in the field of
micro-electronics a large number of examples of up-to-
date techniques have been newly
added to the Version 2.51. Oldness of the examples
in TRIZ documents has been criticized
very often; in commercial software tools,
however, the examples have recently
been and is now being made up-to-date
ellaborately. (IMC's new software,
i.e. IM Phenomenon, should also be noted in this
context.)
TechOptimizer works so smoothly that
users do not need to wait in retrieving various
information. Each principle,
effect, or example contains a color illustration and is
explained in a plain and concise
way. (The software now uses English language; a
Japanese version is scheduled to
be on sale at the end of this year 1998 [15].) Users
may feel the contents of the databases
unsatisfactory in the fields of their own
speciality, but can learn very much
from those in the fields beyond their speciality.
4.2 Experiences of trials and applications
The present author learned this software
tool by himself for about a month, trying
various functions and reading the
contents of databases, and then tried to apply it to
solve a real problem. One
problem was chosen from several real problems suggested
by a number of research groups for
their possible trials. "How to cool a heat-
generating component connected with
a hinge" was the problem. This was not in the
field of the author's speciality.
Actually working on the problem on the tool for full
one day, I found good and widely
applicable solutions, which I suppose would contain
some patentable ideas. And
after spending half a day for writing, I handed a proposal
report to the manager of the relevant
research group. In this actual experience, the
TRIZ software contributed to me
especially in the following three ways:
- it guides me
to the essence of the problem through the functional analysis of the
system,
- it teaches
me the principles and application examples of the heat-pipe cooling
method (which I was not so familiar) through the databases, and
- it stimulated me
to reach a solution by reading a large number of principles and
examples even though most of them are not so much relevant to the present
problem.
Through this actual experience of
application, I definitely realized that the TRIZ
software tool, i.e. TechOptimizer,
was indeed useful in real applications and that the
TRIZ methodology was offering us
a solid base for technical problem solving.
5.
Introducing TRIZ into industry
As discussed so far, TRIZ offers
us a new and important methodology for technology
development and technological innovation.
However, if we try to introduce it into
industry, we meet much difficulties
mostly because TRIZ is hardly known yet in
Japan. Questions and skepticisms
which we often meet in the actual fields in industries
are listed below, together with
some advices for overcoming them.
(a) Though being upraised as
"super-invention method", isn't it just a propaganda
without
any real usefulness? ---
TRIZ is not a trick. For resolving
this kind of skepticisms, we need to show such
people introductory articles and
basic textbooks and to achieve steady penitration of
basic ideas of TRIZ.
(b) Isn't an technique developed
in USSR during the days of the Cold War too old to
be
of any use today?! --
The fundamental idea of TRIZ is important
and useful as a framework of methodology.
Since no practical means have been
established in the western countries for improving
technical creativeness, the TRIZ
methodology is fresh and unique. It is important even
now to understand and introduce
the essence of TRIZ.
(c) If the databases do not
contain the descriptions and examples of up-to-date
techniques
in our own speciality field, they will not be useful for ourselves.
--
The main purpose of using TRIZ is
not learning new technologies but obtaining or
generating new ideas for solving
our own technical problems. Examples in other
fields, especially basic and typical
examples, are valuable for this purpose. It is of
course desirable and necessary to
make the technology explanations up-to-date in the
whole area ; this improvement should
be achieved not only by the developers of TRIZ
software tools but also by the user
industries.
(d) We have rarely seen reports
of successful applications of TRIZ to real problems.
Has
TRIZ been verified? --
Since the experiences of TRIZ are
still short in the western countries, and since the
firms do not like to publicize their
proprietary technical innovations, good case-studies
are reported very rarely.
Nonetheless, there appeared some reports in TRIZ user
meetings and conferences.
For example, the case-study paper reported by Ford Mortor
Company [16] is excellent to learn.
In this case, they eliminated the noise (i.e.,
squeeking and buzzing noises) at
the moldings (or sealing) of the windshield glass of
an automobile. This problem
remained unsolvable for several years, and was finally
solved by applying TRIZ. This
paper describes in detail the overview of the project
and the thinking processes for the
problem solving.
(e) Does TRIZ work without a software tool? --
Understanding the essence of TRIZ
is more important than using a software tool. If
you master the ideas of TRIZ, you
can actively use it without a software tool and
without being restricted to the
formal process. A software tool is of course helpful and
effective, as discussed in section
4.2.
(f) Even though a software
tool is installed in our company environment, we do not
have
time to learn how to use it effectively. --
It is more appropriate to train people
to understand the essence of the TRIZ
methodology first. Good textbooks
and manuals of the tools are necessary. And, from
a more practical view, the existence
of pioneer(s) in the same company is most helpful
for reducing this kind of barrier.
(g) In the daily development
activities, we are too busy to introduce new technical
methodology.
--
It is important and necessary to
bring up a few core members in a company, as
pioneers for introducing new technology.
These members should challenge to solve
some suitably selected real problems
with TRIZ; such an experience of success is most
convincing in the company.
(h) Is TRIZ useful in research laboratories or in manufacturing departments? --
It can be and should be used at any
place where people want to solve technical
problems. TRIZ can be useful
at various phases of R&D including
- initial planning stage
of a technical project,
- design generation stage,
- the stage of problem solving
for fixing any technical trouble,
- patent application preparation
stage for making the patent wider and stronger.
For these different stages, TRIZ
should be used with some proper adjustment in
practice.
(i) Is TRIZ really helpful? --
Yes, helpful! The people who
ask this kind of question after lengthy discussions,
however, will not believe TRIZ unless
they really experience it by themselves. The
present author listened and read
about TRIZ to understand it, and actually tried to
apply it, and now believes in the
effectiveness of TRIZ. If you feel some interest in
TRIZ, why don't you listen and read
about TRIZ, and try to apply it by yourself? The
firms should set up proper trial
environments.
Reviewing the questions and difficulties
discussed above, the present author notices
that they are not the problems for
individual persons or companies who are going to
introduce TRIZ. We should
solve them in a wider scope.
The TRIZ methodology offers a powerful
method and guiding principles for the
technology innovations in the future.
The movement of introducing and promoting
TRIZ will give as great an impact
on the technology and industry as the quality control
movement have given so far for these
several decades. A part of big industries in USA
already have a few years of
experiences of introducing TRIZ, and have begun to
generate successful applications.
(In Ford Motor Company, for example, its quality
control team have the experiences
of four years of using TRIZ, and by forming a
project team joint with object technology
specialists have solved real problems [16].)
Now, in Japan, we should also bring
up pioneers, make textbooks, make good software
tools, form good real application
projects, make successful real cases, and set up open
forums of information exchange;
as an overall effect of all these endeavors we should
make the general understanding of
TRIZ higher.
6.
Education/Research and TRIZ
TRIZ is also going to give an important
impact on the education and research in
science and technology. The
target of education of science must not only for
students/pupils to understand what
they are taught but rather for them to observe the
world, think and generate ideas,
and do experiments and trials for themselves. The
education should guide them to use
science and technology for solving problems
around them, for challenging new
tasks, and for creating something new by
overcoming contradictions.
The "technology-oriented" philosophy of TRIZ is indeed
suitable for the students and pupils
to build up such attitude and to master such ways of
thinking.
One point of warning should be worthwhile
in applying TRIZ. It is not an intention of
TRIZ to apply tables and software
tools of TRIZ for problem solving in a 'mechanical'
way. If one regards the results
of TRIZ achieved so far in the history as solid,
unchangeable doctorines, the problem
solving with TRIZ would never be creative and
would turn into thoughtless, non-creative
work. One should understand the real
essence of TRIZ, and then use it
with liberated, flexible, and creative mind. The real
aim of learning TRIZ is to study
the cases of creative technology developments in the
history and to train oneself to
be able to think by oneself in creative ways on such a
basis.
Further research tasks of TRIZ should include the followings:
(a) To extend the application
fields of TRIZ into the fields related to information,
biology, and social activities such as services.
(b) To re-examine the frameworks
and classification categories in TRIZ, especially in
relation to the above extension of application field.
(c) To implement wider range
of TRIZ methods in software tools,
(d) By comparing and combining
TRIZ with various problem solving methods and
designing
methods, to make it an even more effective methodology.
(e) To establish a leading
philosophy for the movement of introducing and promoting
TRIZ
for technology innovation.
In the current situations of increasingly
hard competition in technology development in
the global scale, these research
tasks should be important; the future of technology and
industry will depend on how people
utilize and extend TRIZ.
[ 1]
"And Suddenly the Inventor Appeared: TRIZ, the Theory of Inventive
Problem
Solving", G. Altshuller (H. Altov), Children's Literature, USSR (1984),
English translation by Lev Shulyak, Technical Innovation Center, Inc.,
USA
(1994), p. 171.
[ 2]
"Creativity as an Exact Science: The Theory of the Solution of Inventive
Problems",
Genrich Altshller, (English translation by Anthony Williams) American Suppplier
Institute, 1988.
[ 3]
"The Science of Innovation: A Managerial Overview of the TRIZ",
Victor Fey and Eugene Rivin, The TRIZ Group, Michigan (1997), p. 82.
[ 4]
"An Introduction to TRIZ: The Russian Theory of Inventive Problem Solving",
Stan Kaplan, Ideation International (1996), p 44.
[ 5]
The TRIZ Journal
http://www.triz-journal.com/
[ 6]
American Supplier Inst. http://www.amsup.com/
[ 7]
TRIZ Empire Home Page, http://home.earthlink.net/~lenkaplan/
[ 8]
The TRIZ Experts Home Page, http://www.jps.net/triz/triz.html
[ 9]
Reality of Super-Technique for Invention: "TRIZ". (I) Creativeness
everybody
can derive, (II) Solving a problem all together, G. Mazur, Nikkei Mechanical,
April 1,
1996, No. 477, pp. 38-47; April 15, 1996, No. 478, pp.47-54.
[10]
"Overview of TRIZ Principles and Concepts", Super-Technique for Invention,
TRIZ Series No. 1, Introduction Part, (originally written by G. Altshuller,
"Algorithms
of Invention", 1969), Japanese translation by Keiichi Endo and Takao Takada,
Nikkei
BP, Dec. 1997.
[11]
"Overview of TRIZ Principles and Concepts", Super-Technique for Invention,
TRIZ Series No. 2, Entrance Part, (originally written by G. Altshuller,
"And Suddenly
the Inventor Appeared", English translation by L. Shulyak), Japanese translation
by
Mitsubishi Research Institute, published by Nikkei BP, Oct. 1997.
[12]
"An Introduction to TRIZ", Yotaro Hatamura et. al., Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun,
Tokyo, Dec. 1997. (Translated from and commentated on "The Science of
Innovation" by V.R. Fey and E.I.Rivin.)
[13]
Invention Machine Corp. http://www.invention-machine.com/
[14]
Ideation International Inc. http://www.idiationtriz.com/
[15]
Mitsubishi Research Institue, IM Project http://internetclub.mri.ne.jp/IM/
[16]
Windshield/Backlight Molding -- Squeak and "Buzz" Project TRIZ
Case Study
Michael Lynch, Benjamin Saltsman, Colin Young (Ford Motor Company)
American Supplier Institute Total Product Development Symposium,
Nov. 5, 1997, at Dearborn, Michigan, USA.
The TRIZ Journal, Dec. 1997
http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/97dec/dec-article5.html
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Last updated
on Feb. 18, 1999. Access point: Editor:
nakagawa@utc.osaka-gu.ac.jp