 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