TRIZ: The Science of Systematic Innovation

by Ellen Domb

*This article first appeared in the proceedings of the Portland International Conference on the Management of Technology, August, 1999.

Abstract: TRIZ is the acronym for "Theory of Inventive Problem Solving" in Russian. The TRIZ methodology was developed between 1946 and 1985, and is now in use world-wide. It is a systematic, left-brain creativity method, and as such, is very well suited to the development of new and improved products, services, and systems. Examples of the use TRIZ in several situations will illustrate the use of the tools of TRIZ.

I. INTRODUCTION

Much historical problem solving and innovation has been based on an egalitarian assumption that if the people involved in some specific area of work apply their knowledge of the work and their knowledge of their customers to the improvement of that work, they will be a success. But, Deming and other have repeatedly taught that in any organizational improvement effort, the workers (whether mangers or non-management employees) must be given training to do the work they are asked to do. [1] For many quality and productivity improvement activities, the only training in creativity has been training in brainstorming.

A. Right brain creativity

Brainstorming is a method of creativity that was developed initially for liberating people from their disciplined way of thinking, to get them to look far-afield from conventional thinking, and was originally used in the advertising industry. [2] Brainstorming is a right brain activity; that is, it works best if the brainstorming team uses the skills of the right side of their brains. The right and left sides of the brain, for most people, have the characteristics shown in Table I.

TABLE I.
PATTERNS OF THINKING FOR THE RIGHT AND LEFT SIDES OF THE BRAIN.

 

Right Side	Left Side
Pattern recognition	Linear thinking
Pictorial thinking	Logical thinking
Playful thinking	Numerical thinking
Uninhibited thinking	Judgmental thinking

This is why the "rules of brainstorming" [3] advise participants to draw pictures, to post all ideas on a wall, to generate ideas continuously, not to criticize or praise another person’s ideas (since praise and criticism are both judgments, and will suppress the right brain activity in favor of left brain activity.) and to encourage continuous flow of ideas. At the end of the brainstorming session ideas are sorted, duplicates are removed, and criteria for the kind of ideas that can improve the process under consideration (nominal group technique, prioritization matrix, prototype studies) are applied. If there are many ideas, the affinity diagram is frequently used to look for patterns in the ideas and to consolidate the categories of ideas so action can be planned. If there are relationships between the ideas that have not been articulated, the interrelationship digraph can be used to bring out the patterns [3].

Extensions of brainstorming include brain-writing, imaginary brainstorming, mind mapping, and word/picture analogy development[2]. All of these techniques enhance the quality improvement effort by involving all the members of a team in creating the ideas for improving their work, and all these methods apply at many levels throughout the organization, from strategic planning by the executive team to process improvement in a quality circle, to health and safety improvement for all employees.

B. Left brain creativity

The introduction of TRIZ in the last decade has given us a left-brain creativity tool to use for creative problem solving when the right brain tools are not adequate, or not appropriate[4]. "TIPS" is the acronym for "Theory of Inventive Problem Solving," and "TRIZ" is the acronym for the same phrase in Russian. TRIZ was developed by Genrich Altshuller and his colleagues [4-8] in the former USSR starting in 1946, and is now being developed and practiced throughout the world [9].

II. TRIZ METHODOLOGY

A. Summary of the TRIZ research findings.

TRIZ research began with the hypothesis that there are universal principles of invention that are the basis for creative innovations that advance technology, and that if these principles could be identified and codified, they could be taught to people to make the process of invention more predictable. The research has proceeded in several stages over the last 50 years. Over 2 million patents have been examined, classified by level of inventiveness, and analyzed to look for principles of innovation. The three primary findings of this research are as follows:

1. Problems and solutions were repeated across industries and sciences
2. Patterns of technical evolution were repeated across industries and sciences
3. Innovations used scientific effects outside the field where they were developed

All three of these findings are applied throughout the innovation and quality improvement process, to improve products, services, and the quality of management. These findings have been embodied in a variety of TRIZ tools, which are used in many different ways . The best-known tool is the 40 Principles of Problem Solving, and the accompanying contradiction matrix. The following example shows how the TRIZ method can help all members of an organization contribute to improvement of products, process, and services:

B. Example: The Automobile Airbag:

"Technical contradictions" are the classical engineering "trade-offs." The desired state can’t be reached because something else in the system prevents it. In other words, when something gets better, something else gets worse. Air bag examples of technical contradictions are found in the technology and in the social problems that surround the entire passenger protection situation. Examples:

• If the threshold for deployment is set low, protecting belted occupants, more unbelted small people in the passenger seat are injured
  
  
• If the threshold for deployment is set high, unbelted passengers are protected from air bag-caused injury, but belted passengers suffer more injury from the collision.
  
  
• High power ("aggressive") deployment saves lives of average-sized drivers, but increases injuries to unbelted or small passengers.
  
  
• Adding more sensors (and data processing) to customize the deployment to the circumstances, and thereby save lives of small and unbelted people, increases the complexity of the system.
  
  
• Adding more sensors (and data processing) to customize the deployment to the circumstances, and thereby save lives of small and unbelted people, decreases the reliability of the system.