Systematic Innovation and Technical Creativity (TRIZ)

1. Systematic Innovation and Technical Creativity (TRIZ) Hamid Houshmand

2. Source of Well Being • Strong thinking • Analytical independent thinking • Well-being of any society = Proportion of creative individuals in the society • Man’s only means of understanding and changing reality is reason

3. Traditional method of invention • Search for solution by trial and error (randomly) • Each unsuccessful idea is replaced with another, and so on • Later, it becomes obvious the whole concept is wrong • A new searching concept • Moving from a known concept to an unknown one • Either the inventor doesn’t want to see the problem • Or He doesn’t attack the problem seriously

4. Creativity • Creativity first resides in the skill to state the problem correctly • Considering logical direction in the evolution of technology • Solve inventive problems efficiently • Repeatedly utilize the new-found method to solve other technical problems

5. Creativity Process • A general process: • Statement of the problem • Solution to problem • Engineering the implementation • This process is however so vague. It can not help inventors to invent • Rossman in Psychology of Inventor: • Identification of needs / or problems • Analysis of this needs / or problems • Review of existing information • Formulation of all possible solutions • Analysis of those solutions • Birth of a new idea • Experimentation and confirmation of new concepts

6. Creativity Process • Jacobson, 1934, in The Process of an Inventor’s Creativity: • Period of intellectual/creative readiness • Finding a demand • Birth of a task or idea • Searching for the solution • Creating an inventive concept • Transition of the concept into a schematic format • Technical implementation and development of the idea

7. Diagram of Creativity Process

8. Extension of the levels of registered inventions • Analysis of registered inventions during 1970s: • Level one (trivial inventions): 32% • Level two (Routine solutions): 45% • Level three (Non-trivial solutions): 19% • Level four (Great inventions): 4% • Level five (Pioneer inventions): 0.3% • Thus levels one and two together: 77% • Today’s creative inventions belongs in the range between the third and the mid-fifth levels • Quantitatively, this is ¼ of all registered inventions • However, these inventions provide qualitative changes in technology

9. Qualitative Difference between the levels • Level one: A problem, and its means of solution, exist within an area of one profession (one specific section of an industry) • Level two: A problem, and its means of solution, exist within an area of one industry • Level three: A problem, and its means of solution, exist within an area of one science (a mechanical problem is solved by mechanical means) • Level four: A problem, and its means of solution, exist outside the boundary of the science where the problem originate (mechanical problem is solved through chemistry) • Level five (higher sub-levels): A problem, and its means of solution, exist outside the boundary of contemporary science (it is necessary to make a discovery and then, based upon this new scientific data, solve the inventive problem

10. Differences between problems of the first and the fourth levels • First level: • The number of elements in the problem is small • There are no unknown elements (seldom one) • Simple analysis: Elements that need to be modified can easily be separated from other elements that should remain unchanged • A short time is given to solve the problem • Fourth level: • They have a large number of elements • They have a significant number unknown elements • They are difficult to analyze (hart to separate known from unknown elements) • A long time is given to solve the problem

11. Practical Differences between levels • Creating /Improving a product • This is often an invention on level two or three • Patent landscaping and patent data is useful • Benchmarking on existing (competitors) products • Invent something new in principle • Often on level four or five • Conditions for the task very widen • No use of patent information

12. Methods of Inventing • Brainstorming • An idea-generating team should be comprised of people from different fields • Ideas should be generated in such a way that anyone can express any idea. Ideas can be expressed without providing proof . All ideas are recorded • No criticism is permitted, members should maintain a free and friendly relationship. It is preferable that ideas proposed by one member should be picked up and develop by others • During the analysis all ideas, even those that seem wrong should be attentively analyzed

13. Methods of Inventing • Steps of brainstorming • Free discussions about the problem • Generation of ideas (requires idea-generating members) • Developing ideas • Analyzing and summarizing of ideas (requires idea-analyzing members) • Limitation of brainstorming • No significant result when dealing with more complex problems • Ceiling of brainstorming process is solution of the second level • Reject control of the thought process • Advantage • It is a better method than the traditional trail-and-error method • Can be more effective if using experienced people with methodical problem solving process

14. Application Areas of Brainstorming • In various projects • In designing equipments • In practical tests • Solving technical issues in product development

15. Morphological Boxes • Building of multidimensional tables given combination of objects • For non-quantifiable problems where causal modelling and simulation do not function well • The system however does allow for reduction, not by reducing the number of variables involved, but by reducing the number of possible solutions through the elimination of the illogical solution combinations in a grid box. • Application: in general design problems, specially in designing new machinery or searching for new conceptual solution

16. Synectics • The foundation is based on brainstorming organized in groups • People in the groups have different occupations/ expertise • The groups get training (methods and experience) to work efficiently together • Problem solving: • Learning the problem • Narrow the problem • Transforming into a structure everyone understand • Solving the problem by transforming of the unfamiliar into customary and then back into unfamiliar • Purpose: to see the problem from a new perspective to remove the psychological inertia

17. Synectics • Synaptic uses four different types of analogies in order to accomplish this • Direct analogy: The given subject is compared to similar subject from nature or another area • Personal analogy: Called also empathy. The person imagine his feelings and sensations • Symbolic analogy: Abstract analogy • Imaginary analogy: Some imaginary creatures are introduced into the problem

18. Innovation Algorithm (TRIZ) • A heuristic algorithm is needed that is capable of making the transition fourth level problem with 100,000 trials to first level problems with only 10 trials • In order to develop a working algorithm the following is required: • Define the objective laws of technical system development • Analyze massive amounts of patent information data • Develop a program for the solving process where each step originally evolves from the preceding one • Continuously select and improve the program during its practical application

19. Important Points in TRIZ • An inventor should never accept a problem statement fabricated by others • One should check whether a problem is stated correctly • Many difficult problems are difficult only they have requirements contradictory to the central tendency of technical system evolution • A designer’s art is depend on the skills for determining what must be gained and lost through compromise • Invention is necessary when a problem contains one additional requirement: gain without loss • By innovation, for solving the problem a technical contradiction is removed • Ignoring the technical contradictions will result in machine that will be incapacitated and impractical • Creation of a technical invention (not necessarily for a patented invention) manifests the full or partial overcoming of a technical contradiction • Sometimes, a technical contradiction within a problem is clearly evident, sometimes the contradiction is imperceptible as though it was dissolved with the problem conditions. • Once a technical contradiction is discovered it is not difficult to overcome • To solve a problem it is necessary to precisely determine what is “ not superimpossible” and then answer the question: what needs to e changed and where, in order to remove that which is “ not superimpossible”

20. Difference Between TRIZ and Patent Perspectives • From patent perspective: An innovation has to posses “substantial novelty” • Substantial novelty means solutions with new, previously unknown features providing fresh properties to the object of the invention • So novelty means presence of new properties, in other words, substantial changes (many changes in contrast to few changes) • From TRIZ perspective: An invention is the removal of technical contradictions. • TRIZ definition allows examination of not only the formal principle of novelty, but also on the reasons why the changes were made, and what result they have brought

21. Concepts of ARIZ • Concepts: Ideal Machine and Technical Contradiction • Utilizing the two concepts make it possible to substantially control the process of solving inventing problems • Ideal machine helps to determine the direction to search • Technical contradiction indicates the obstacle that must be removed • Finding a way to remove the obstacle is a way to invention

22. ARIZ and Personality of Inventor • ARIZ is adoptable • The same problem can be solved with diverse approaches depending upon who is solving and how it is to be solved • ARIZ stimulates the maximum utilization of an inventor’s specific characteristic strengths • The path from the problem statement to its solution can be executed differently • Different inventors can find different solutions to the same problem

23. Step-by-Step ARIZ-61 • Three stages: • Analytical stage • Operative stage (removing a technical contradiction) • Synthetic stage (introduction of a additional changes)

24. (Step-by-Step ARIZ-61) • Analytical stage • Step one: State the problem • Step two: Imagine the ideal final result (IFR) • Step three: Determine what interferes with attaining this result (find the contradiction) • Step four: Determine why it interferes (the reason for the contradiction) • Step five: Determine under what condition it will not interfere (find conditions during which the contradiction is removed)

25. Step-by-Step ARIZ-61 • Operative stage • Step one: Explore the possibility of making changes in the object (the given machine, device, or technical process) itself • Step two: Explore the possibility of dividing an object into independent parts • Step three: Explore the possibility of altering the outside environment • Step four: Explore the possibility to make changes in the neighbouring(interacting) object • Step five: Study prototypes from other industries (how was a similar contradiction resolved in another area of technology? • Step six: Return to the original problem (in case the above steps are not applicable), and widen the problem’s conditions _ make a transition to amore general problem statement

26. Step-by-Step ARIZ-61 • Synthetic stage: • Step one: Change the shape of the object _ a machine with a new function should have a new shape • Step two: Change other objects that interacts with the one under consideration • Step three: Introduce changes into the means of an object’s functionality • Step three: Explore the implementation of the new-found principle in solving other technical problems

27. Step-by-Step ARIZ-71 • Stage one: Choosing the problem • Stage two: Define the problem more precisely • Stage three: Analytical stage • Stage four: Preliminary analysis of the obtained concept • Stage five: Operative stage • Stage six: Synthetic stage

28. Step-by-Step ARIZ-71 • Stage one: Choosing the problem • Determine the final goal of a solution (technical, characteristics, economical, ceiling of expense) • Investigate a “bypass approach”. Imagine that the problem cannot be solved. What other more general problem can be solved to reach the required final result. • Determine which problem, the original or the bypass, makes the most sense to solve (by comparison of the two options with the tendencies in the industry) • Determine the required quantitative characteristics • Introduce time-correction into the quantitative characteristics • Define the requirements for the specific conditions in which the invention is going to function (conditions for manufacturing the product, and the scale of applications)

29. Step-by-Step ARIZ-71 • Stage two: Define the problem more precisely • Define the problem more precisely using patent information (in close area, and in the leading industry, and how are opposite problem is solved) • See if changing size, time, or cost can solve the problem • Describe the conditions for the problem • Identify the effect of changes in elements, choose the easiest element to change or redesign

30. Step-by-Step ARIZ-71 • Stage three: Analytical stage • Formulate the ideal final result (IFR) • What element, with what function, including time and conditions • Draw two pictures, one initial, and one ideal • Identify in the ideal picture which element cannot perform the required function under the required condition • Why this element cannot perform the required action • Under what conditions can this part provide the required action • What must be done so that this element the attain the needed characteristics • Provide a schematic for releasing the first concept

31. Step-by-Step ARIZ-71 • Stage four: Preliminary analysis on the obtained concept • What is getting better and what worse (what is achieved and what gets more complicated • Is it possible the prevent that which is getting worse • What is getting worse or complicated now • Compare gain and losses • If the gain is greater that the losses go directly to stage six skipping stage five

32. Step-by-Step ARIZ-71 • Stage five: Operative stage • From the vertical column of the contradiction matrix choose the characteristic that must be improved • From the horizontal row of the contradiction matrix choose the characteristic corresponding • In this matrix, find the principle to remove the contradiction • Investigate how this principle can be used • Investigate the possibility of applying physical phenomena and effects • Investigate the possibility of changing the action • How are similar problems solved in nature • Investigate the possibility of making changes to those object that operate in conjunction with ours

33. Step-by-Step ARIZ-71 • Stage six: Determine how the super-system to which our modified system belongs must be changed • Explore how our modified system may be used differently • Utilize the newly found technical idea to solve other technical problem