Vishwanath Ramdas

Simplified TRIZ

Ellen Domb & Kalevi Rantanen St Lucie Press

Vishwanath Ramdas

Background - points

• Complement tool to many other methods– Theory of Constraints (TOC), Six Sigma, Quality Function Deployment, Taguchi

method, DFM-A

• Biography of Altshuller / TRIZ– Resident of Baku | tormented by Stalin until 1954 |

• Basic Principles – Ideality | Contradiction | Resources | Patterns of Evolution|Innovative

Principles– Motivation | Orientation | Internalization | Application | Evaluation |

Implementation [Learning cycle]• How does this compare with the Kaplan learning model?

Vishwanath Ramdas

Why do good ideas take time to fruition?

• Xerox – lithography • Penicillin – Alex Fleming• Molok – dust bins• Mcdonalds – Ray kroc • Horizontal Petro Drilling• T – Drill [without T joint]• Appa – jute wire for opening furnace ladles• Flash smelting • Linz donovitz process ….

• Is it sales? – May be no– Richard Foster’s book Innovation

• National Cash Register continued to advertise electromechanical cash registers in the 1970s

• Is it Prejudice?– We don’t know whats good or Bad?

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How to know? – 3 features?

• Resolves a contradiction [ 2 – dim TOC ]– Tradeoffs / Inherent

• Reaches Ideality– All features / No costs * No harmful effects * less complexity

• Uses idle resources [no waste – Lean]– Energy / Materials / Information / objects

• 2 Views– Mcgregor :: Cristopher Freeman :: Engestrom :: De Bono– Theory Y :: Demand Pull :: Humanized :: Lateral – Theory X :: Science Push :: Rationlized :: Straight

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TRIZ APPROACH

Vishwanath Ramdas

OLD AND THE NEW

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COMBINING BOTH.

TRIZ MODEL

TRIZ in 1 word = Contradiction

Vishwanath Ramdas

Are Effects / available reserves and properties that enable the outcomes on the object. Often invisible in the beginning as users are not accustomed to looking at them

Motive force for evolution, trade-offs and inherent contradictions and constraints that stop evolution and lead to assumptions and aceptance. == psychological inertia.

Vishwanath Ramdas

Getting to the ideal final result – completing the model

• Features – Whole gamut of components and

functionality

• Patterns– Soft formulae [ not rigid algorithms!]

• Laws / Innovative Principles

• ARIZ– Method guide for solving TRIZ

• Standards [76 standards]– List of system transformations

• Effects– Database of phenomena – Electro, mechanical, chemical, physical

• Software– Automated above!

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Some training standards

• Maintain the good / best practices – Some elements like 40 principles that reflects evolution of thinking for

innovation should be maintained

• General Concepts >> short procedures – Less than 1 page the better [ capability vs usability]

• Social network – provide overall concepts – People will internailze and adapt [ don’t regidify!]– Peter Senge and Engestorm.

“Leave the beaten track occasionally and dive into the woods. You will be certain to find something that you have never seen before.”

Alexander Graham Bell in the foyer of Bell Labs as observed by Shockley

Understanding Contradictions

Trade-Offs [Multi]Inherent Contradictions [ single]

the same contradictions have been discovered in science, engineering, and business situations that, on the surface,

appear to be very different from each other

In the 1950s, Altshuller wrote that finding and resolving contradictions is essential in problem solving

Vishwanath Ramdas

Draft the problem to expose the tradeoffs.

• Problems are sirens OR scylla & Charybdis – Homers illyiad

• Understand the problem – 50% solution!– Problem Finding * Problem Solving– The tool – Action / Effect – Object – Defining what is the end outcome / effect on the object / user

• A system by its existence creates trade-offs– Its continuous iterative method [TOC]

• Define systems not by deficiencies but by trade-offs– Safety reduces X | Safety reduces as speed increases

• Describe the systems as Actions & Features– Typically it is easier to describe features [nouns] than actions [verbs]

• Trade-offs happen at different system levels – Needs systems thinking e.g. Lawnmover – muffler noise – Study at muffler system | lawnmover system | Garden system

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How to display trade offs

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Some e.g.s

• Lawnmower Muffler Noise– Muffler Level

• Increase muffler thickness / softness – Lawnmower level

• Use exhaust differently– Garden level

• Use grass to muffle exhaust noise – Also dries grass to reduce stickiness

• Why cut grass at all?– Growth control

• Why have grass at all?– Artificial grass – Grass like lawn effect?

• Carrot garden thinning to ensure no overlap and therefore nutrition supply– Time split – Thinning

• Right distance between carrots saplings• Use mechanization in seeding

– Seeding • Use bio degradable tapes with standard distances

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Screens of talented thinking [9 screens]

• System @ Present • enhance understanding of a problem

– expand the areas in which you can look for solutions.

• Simplify by asking what is good or bad in a part [de bono forced removal]– what happens if left out?– Alex Osborn

• “What can we eliminate?… Suppose we leave this out.…Why not fewer parts?”

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System operator Concept• Space & time thinking • Systemic thinking• Getting over psychological

intertia• Zoom in & out for more

frames.

Darell Manns description of the system operator model from triz journal.

Vishwanath Ramdas

System operator –between the boxes SLP

• Step in & view from each room

• Small little people – get into the problem

• Become the problem [synectics]

• E.g.s – Helicopter blades & dust– Airports & People [beyond airport] – Future modeling

Darell Manns description of the system operator model from triz journal.

Vishwanath Ramdas

System operator- additional dimension• Multiple layers of system

operator plots– Robert Dilts

• One direct application– Map vs territory– Reality vs Perception

• Management problems esp.• E.g.

– Marks & Spencers products – HR problems

Darell Manns description of the system operator model from triz journal.

Vishwanath Ramdas

System operator- integrations• Using System operator with

other models like– SWOT – Co-optition [M]– Association / Dissociation– VAKOG

• Kinesthetics / Olfactory / Gustative / Visual / Auditory /

Darell Manns description of the system operator model from triz journal.

Buckminster Fuller

“Start with the universe, any sub-categorization under that level is purely arbitrary”

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Selecting the right trade-off

• Iterative Definition of the problem based on state of solution

• Available resources & time• Select Effected Components• From the problem to the tradeoff

– Describe pairs of tools and objects and the action that links them. [Chain]• Select one pair. Explain why you picked this tool and object.

– Describe features and conflicts between them.• Select one tradeoff.

– Explain why you identified this tradeoff.– Describe the tradeoff graphically and in words.

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Selecting the tradeoff - summary

crazier the conflict you imagine, the better solution you get.

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Inherent contradiction – The root cause?

• Solution of this solves many • Focus on one provides better answers • Presenting & influencing with one is better than cluttered

many.

• Much ↔ little : water– Atomized water spray– Extinguishers [www.hi-fog.com]

• Long ↔ short : training• Present ↔ Absent : Object

Peters and Waterman bestseller “In Search of Excellence” : 1982 - Chapter 4

“Most important, we think the excellent companies, if they know any one thing, know how to manage paradox.”

Syd Field : The Screen- writer’s Workbook

“Drama is conflict; without conflict there is no action, without action, no character, without character, no story, without story, no screenplay”

Vishwanath Ramdas

Intensify the inherent contradiction!

• Bizarre but true • Push the contradiction to the extreme!

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How to intensify contradiction

Andersen’s fairytale :little child saw that the emperor had no clothes.

The ancient Mayans used wheels for toys and obviously knew how to make wheeled vehicles, but they never built

them for any other uses.

Mapping of invisible reserves

Idle resource :: Free or cheap resources that are available in the system.

Vishwanath Ramdas

• What are the invisible resources?– Boundary conditions [ proximal / gray zones] of development

• Benefits from resources analysis– Understand customer needs – Foresee the evolution of development

• What are the resource types and classes?• The seven most important resources in detail

Vishwanath Ramdas

Invisible Reserves

• Areas for proximal development – Available resource not used – Available resources that can be harnessed

Vishwanath Ramdas

Resource Analysis - Benefits

• Getting new ideas directly• Solving contradictions• Predicting the system evolution

• What are the resources– MECE – Space | Area | Consumer

• Character of resource– Empty Space | Topology | Time & skills of users

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Resource Types & Classes

• System levels [ref fig]• Type of Resource

– Substances and things | Modified substances and things| Voids | Interactions | energy | Form | Features or properties | Space | Time

• Additional resources– Information | Harm – Side FX| skills & abilities

Vishwanath Ramdas

Main Resource Types

• Resources of tool & Object– Starting point | How – Interaction needs to be understood

• Resources : Environment– Natural Fields & Effects – Emptiness & nothing are also resources – NVA = Wasteful work

• Resources : Macro level

Vishwanath Ramdas

References

• TechOptimizer– The Invention Machine Company, http://www.invention-machine.com.

• Ideation Workbench, Ideation International Incorporated, – http://www.ide-ationtriz.com.

• TRIZ Explorer , Insytec– http://www.insytec.com.

• The TRIZ Journal– http://www.triz-journal.com.

• CreaTRIZ & CREAX,– http://www.creax.com.

• Engeström Y., Learning by Expanding Orienta-Konsultit, Helsinki, 1987.• Shockley W. The Path to the Conception of the Junction Transistor.

– IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, vol. ED-23, no. 7, July 1976, 59

Vishwanath Ramdas

References

• Foster, R.N., Innovation: The Attacker’s Advantage, Summit Books, New York, 1986.

• McGregor, D., The Human Side of Enterprise, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1960.

• Freeman, C., The Determinants of innovation, Futures, , June 1979, 206.• 4 articles by Darrell Mann The TRIZ Journal on 9 screens methods

– http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/2001/09/c/index.htm– http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/2001/11/b/index.htm– http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/2001/12/b/index.htm– http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/2001/11/b/index.htm

• http://www.google.com/patents?id=KBIBAAAAEBAJ&dq=5,875,658 – Latches & Pins patent from google search.

Vishwanath Ramdas

References

• Peters, T.J. and Waterman, R.H., In Search of Excellence Harper & Row, New York, 1982, 91.

• Field, S., The Screen-Writer´s Workbook Dell, New York, 1984, 31.

• Altshuller, G.S., And Suddenly the Inventor Appeared Technical Innovation

• Center, Worcester, MA, 1996, 21.• Savransky, S.D., Engineering of Creativity, CRC, Boca Raton,

2000, 235.• Altshuller, G.S. and Shapiro R.B., Psychology of inventive

creativity, Izobretenie, II , 23, 2000