TRIZ for the Real World

There has been considerable recent dicussion on the LinkedIn TRIZ discussion groups about books for TRIZ.    This bibliography comes from my training class "Practical Innovation:   Using TRIZ to Accelerate Innovation"   and was updated in February, 2013.   Any other suggestions are welcome! 

For book reviews prior to 2006 see The TRIZ Journal www.triz-journal.com . Click “archive” then search on the title, or search on “book review” to see all. For recent book reviews see http://trizrealworld.blogspot.com  (Ellen Domb’s blog) E-books, conventional books, other references, and software sections

E-Books (and many in the “books” section are available for Kindle or as downloads)

1. Introduction to ASIT by Roni Horowitz. 2003. 95 pages. Published as an e-book packaged with the on-line course “Introduction to ASIT” www.start2think.com

2. USIT by Ed Sikafus. 2001-2006. 50 pages. Free. Available from http://www.u-sit.net

3. The 121 heuristics for problem solving, by Marco Aurélio de Carvalho, Tz-Chin Wei, Semyon D. Savransky, 2003. Published by RO-INI, Romania. Available from http://www.trizexperts.net

4. Hierarchical TRIZ Algorithm by Larry Ball. 2005-7. 150 page book. Free if you download one chapter each month from the TRIZ Journal, starting with May 2005. http://www.3mpub.com/TRIZ/ to purchase. Available in Spanish from http://www.triz.net/lecturas/trizJournal/Intrizj02.htm l . See http://www.opensourcetriz.com  for Tools of TRIZ individual subjects in more depth, free download, written by a consortium organized by Larry Ball, 2012.

5. Tetris Project Handbook: Teaching TRIZ in Schools. Download the whole book (5 chapters and 5 sets of exercises) and view the videos. Free, developed by the EU-sponsored Lifelong Learning initiative. www.tetris-project.org  2009 , updates planned for 2010.

6. Kraev’s Korner. Free textbook, download one chapter per month starting with http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/2006/10/05.pdf  (TRIZ Journal, October 2006).


Books: (Alphabetical by Author)

Ordering: Many of these books are available on-line from Amazon and from Barnes and Noble, which sometimes have reduced prices. The Altshuller Institute bookstore www.aitriz.org  is a good source in the USA.

1. Altov, H. (pseudonym for G. Altshuller) translated by Lev Shulyak. "And Suddenly the Inventor Appeared", 1992. Technical Innovation Center. www.aitriz.org

2. Altshuller, G. Creativity as an Exact Science. Translated by Anthony Williams. NY. Gordon & Breach Science Publishers, 1988. Available from Taylor and Francis, 1- 800-326-8917 or www.crcpress.com

3. Altshuller, G. 40 Principles, translated by Lev Shulyak. 1998. Technical Innovation Center. www.aitriz.org

4. Altshuller. G. The Innovation Algorithm. Translated by Lev Shulyak and Steven Rodman. Technical Innovation Center, 1999. http://www.aitriz.org

5. Belski, Iouri. Improve Your Thinking: Substance-Field Analysis. TRIZ4U, Melbourne Australia. 2007. www.triz4u.com  or from www.aitriz.org

6. Bukhman, Isak. TRIZ: Technology for Innovation. www.trizsolution.com  Cubic Creativity, Taiwan. 2012.

7. Cameron, Gordon. TRIZICS: Teach yourself TRIZ. Create Space 2010. Available for Kindle

8. Clarke, Dana. TRIZ through the Eyes of an American TRIZ Specialist revised 2002. www.aia-consulting.com

9. Domb, Ellen, K. Tate, R. King. TRIZ: An Approach to Systematic Innovation. Methuen, MA, USA. GOAL/QPC, 1997. (800)643-43l6 or http://www.goalqpc.com

10. Fey, Victor and Eugene Rivin: The Science of Innovation: A Managerial Overview of the TRIZ Methodology. Southfield, MI. USA. The TRIZ Group, 1997. www.trizgroup.com . Innovation on Demand. Cambridge Press, Cambridge, UK. 2005.

11. Gadd, Karen. TRIZ for Engineers: Enabling Inventive Problem Solving. Wiley, 2011. Available on Kindle.

12. Hipple, Jack. The Ideal Result: What It Is and How To Achieve It. New York: Springer. 2012.

13. Kaplan, Stan, S. Visnepolschi, B. Zlotin, A. Zusman. New Tools for Failure and Risk Analysis. Ideation International, 1999 www.ideationtriz.com

14. Mann, Darrell. Hands On Systematic Innovation. 2002. Matrix 2010, Hands On Systematic Innovation for Management, 2004.  Available in the US from www.aitriz.org . Updated versions of both books published in 2007. Systematic (Software) Innovation. 2008. www.systematic-innovation.com to order from the UK, plus many other books. 

15. Orloff, Michael A. Inventive Thinking through TRIZ: A practical guide. Springer Verlag 2003. Also available in German. Second edition 2006.

16. Rantanen, Kalevi and Ellen Domb: Simplified TRIZ. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2002. Updated version in 2007. http://www.taylorandfrancis.com  Available on Kindle.

17. Salamatov, Yuri. TRIZ: The Right Solution at the Right Time. Edited by V. Souchkov, translated by M. Strogaya and S. Yakovlev. Insytec, 1998. www.aitriz.org

18. San, Y.T., Y.T.Jin, S.C. Li. TRIZ: Systematic Innovation in Manufacturing. First Fruits Publishing, Malaysia, 2009. Fruit_1st@yahoo.com.my  or www.aitriz.org

19. Savransky, Semyon. Engineering of Creativity: Introduction to TRIZ Methodology of Inventive Problem Solving. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2000. http://www.taylorandfrancis.com

20. Silverstein David, Neil DeCarlo, Michael Slocum. Insourcing Innovation. 2005, 2007. www.crcpress.com . David Silvertein, Philip Samuel, Neil DeCarlo. The Innovator’s Toolkit, 2008. John Wiley & Sons.

21. Terninko, A. Zusman, B. Zlotin. Systematic Innovation. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press 1997. http://www.taylorandfrancis.com

22. Timokhov, Victor. Natural Innovation. 2001. Creax. www.creax.com

23. The Tools of Classical TRIZ, Ideation International. 1999. Directed Evolution. 2001. Hybridization. 2005. See the web site for other research reports published in book format. www.ideationtriz.com

There are TRIZ chapters in the following books:

Design for Six Sigma: A Roadmap for Product Development. by Kai Yang and Basem El-Haik 2003 McGraw Hill, New York, NY, USA.

Design for Six Sigma: Innovation for Enhanced Competitiveness by Gregory H. Watson. 2005. GOAL/QPC, Salem, NH USA www.goalqpc.com

Manufacturing Handbook of Best Practices: An Innovation, Productivity, and Quality Focus. Edited by Jack B. ReVelle. TRIZ chapter by Steve Ungvari, St. Lucie Press/APICS Series on Resource Management. 2002. http://www.crcpress.com

Mechanical Engineers' Handbook, Materials and Mechanical Design, 3rd Edition Chapter 18 by Jim McMunigal, Steven Ungvari, Michael Slocum, and Ruth McMunigal
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0471719854,descCd-tableOfContents.html

How To Invent Almost Anything by Graham Rawlinson and David Straker. Next Step Publications, 2002, by e-mail to graham@dagr.demon.co.uk

For case studies and TRIZ research see:

Proceedings of TRIZCON the annual conference of The A1tshuller Institute http://www.aitriz.org

Proceedings of the European TRIZ Association, ETRIA, http://www.etria.net

Proceedings of the Iberoamerican Innovation Congress, www.ametriz.org

Proceedings of the Quality Function Deployment Symposia, http://www.qfdi.org


International sites with significant English sections:

MATRIZ, http://matriz.ru  and the Altshuller Family www.altshuller.ru

TRIZ Home Page in Japan: http://www.osaka-gu.ac.jp/php/nakagawa/TRIZ/eTRIZ/

Software:

TRIZ-related software products are available from

The Invention Machine Corporation, http://www.invention-machine.com  Case studies and interviews with users on the web site.

CREAX, http://www.creax.com  (also has an excellent web site with links to hundreds of creativity sites and a free newsletter)

Ideation International, http://www.ideationtriz.com  (web site has about 50 articles, some promoting their software but some on general topics.)

TRIZContrasolve, http://www.ideacore.com

IWINT http://www.iwint.com  (lots of case studies on the website)

Systematic Innovation http://www.systematic-innovation.com

Ideal Matrix http://www.idealmatrix.com 

Pretium http://www.pretiumllc.com

Guided Brainstorming https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gbtriz.triz  Android “app” for TRIZ-influenced brainstorming. http://www.gbtriz.com  other tools and methods.

Oxford Creativity on-line database of scientific effects: Click “effects database” at http://www.triz.co.uk

In February of 2013 Dr. Noel Leon, Emeritus Professor of the School of Engineering and Information Technology of Tecnologico de Monterrey, was honored with the Rómulo Garza award in the category of Professor Inventor.



Dr. Leon graduated as Diplom Engineer in Agricultural Machine Design in 1969 from the Dresden University of Technology in Germany. He has a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (summa cum laude) from the same University in 1976.



He is recognized as the first Latin American certified in the TRIZ innovation methodology in 1996, and he is one of the leading international experts in this methodology for the development and innovation of products, processes and services. He has trained and educated engineers, technicians and managers from Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, France and Germany in this methodology. He practices also the methodology of Quality Function Deployment, QFD. He was the president Latin American QFD Association.



In his courses he uses the Project-based learning technique, and together with his students he has achieved the development and innovation of more than 50 industrial products.



Among some of the patents that have been granted in his name are:

• US6739438 Brake Rigging System,

• MX261228 Portable device for self-diagnostic tests of cervical uterine cancer through simultaneous optical and electrical measurements.

• NL/a/2005/000066 Saving Energy with an electronic sweeping circuit

• NL/a/2005/000072 /MX 288055 Improved system of slope protection with whole or halved waste tires

• NL/a/2006/000003 Centrifugal Filter of Reverse Osmosis with increased flow by vortex

• Dispositivo portátil para prueba de autodiagnóstico de cáncer cérvico uterino por medio

• Mx/a/2007/002577 Electro-thermal device for controlling the temperature in Textiles

• NL/a/2005/000021 Axial reciprocating engine.

• Mx/a/2008/016474 Solar concentrating lens by refraction with high efficiency

• Mx/a/2007/015520 Wall structure with thermal insulation.

• NL/a/2005/000016 Sampling of endocervical and ectocervix cells



Dr. Leon is founder and Honorary President of the TRIZ Mexico Association (AMETRIZ), which has sponsored six international conferences in Technological Innovation. Currently, he is director of the Research Chair "Engineering Design and Innovation" at ITESM, Campus Monterrey.

Book Review: The Ideal Result: What It Is and How to Achieve It by Jack Hipple


• Paperback: 208 pages, Prices from $99-129 on Amazon, also available in Kindle format $103
• Publisher: Springer; 2012 edition (June 26, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1461437067
• ISBN-13: 978-1461437062

Jack Hipple is a very popular TRIZ instructor. He works with the Chemical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering societies, with his own clients, and with groups at conferences around the world on TRIZ for management as well as engineering applications. I was delighted when I heard that he had finally published a book that incorporates what he has learned in 15+ years of teaching TRIZ to a wide variety of audiences.

The title tells the story: The Ideal Result: What It Is and How to Achieve It is a fresh look at teaching TRIZ. Each tool, method, or concept is tied to the IFR (Ideal Final Result) and each example is presented in terms of why the problem solver would want to achieve the IFR. The contrast to other books is dramatic! Many other books follow paths like “how to formulate the IFR” and “what is a trend of evolution” or “how can you apply principle 15….” Readers bog down in the details and never see the beauty of the whole structure of TRIZ. Jack Hipple doesn’t let that happen! By tying each lesson back to the IFR, he maintains clarity throughout the book.

A wide variety of examples, mostly illustrated, are used to help the reader understand how concepts are applied in diverse fields, and Jack puts particular emphasis on current examples, not some of the classics that appear in every TRIZ book. Use of information as a resource (and the availability of meta-information, information about information) is just one example—Jack shows that a police department can use the rate of change and location of cell phone signals to know where traffic accidents are happening, saving the cost of helicopters and other surveillance tools.

The tone of the book is definitely tutorial, and North American. It is designed to get the reader/student talking to the instructor. Explaining why a new prescription medication bottle is a good TRIZ example:

Do you call the pharmacy in case of emergency? No, you call 911, that simple-to-remember phone number. And what’s the first question they ask in a case of someone swallowing the wrong medicine? What did they swallow?

The casual tone and the specifics of 911 may be a bit of a problem for readers on other continents.

Each chapter has several tables, designed to be filled in by the reader as part of learning how to apply the lesson to her/his application. Minor frustration: the tables are symbolic, not big enough to write on, to turn the book into a case study set for a particular company. Other information in table format should not be—taking a list of 9 things and making 3 columns of 3 may make the book more compact, but it does not add to understanding the concepts being presented (chapter 11 has a bunch of these.) On the positive side, each lesson has several questions which are well-formulated to stimulate the reader to STOP reading and think about that particular lesson. I suspect that these questions will be very popular with other instructors looking for new ways to engage their students.

I am delighted that Jack Hipple did the work of translating his classes into a textbook so that the TRIZ students and instructors of the global English-speaking TRIZ community could learn his approach. The Ideal Result: What It Is and How to Achieve It is a strong addition to the small library of TRIZ textbooks. I look forward to introducing it to my students and seeing how it stimulates new ways of using the IFR.

Ellen Domb, ellendomb (at) trizpqrgroup.com

An evening of light rain did not discourage the innovators – we walked around town and went to “the best taco shop in all of Orizaba.”

Day 2 opened with Amir Roggel’s workshop “Systematic innovation and innovation leadership.” Amir is known to readers of this blog for his work as Intel’s TRIZ leader for several years, and for his popular presentations at many conferences. He showed great mastery of Spanish by telling jokes that the audience really appreciated! This was also a mixed media presentation, starting with music from around the Ibero-American world, then a video “What does ‘made in Israel’ mean to you?” then proceeding to a very active workshop, incorporating ideas from Lean and Theory of Constraints, showing how they interact with TRIZ in many situations. He’ll return in the afternoon program with hands-on work using the Spanish version of the Guided Brainstorming software system, with people solving real problems.

Humberto Aguayo Téllez, President of AMETRIZ, presented the situation for innovation in Mexcio, and progress and problems as reported in both government and university studies, concluding with strong recommendations for reform of both government policies and corporate structures/cultures. The participants had considerable advice for each other and for the authors of the paper.

Edgardo Cordova (Past President of AMETRIZ and Past Conference Organizer) presented a comprehensive model for the introduction of TRIZ as a strategic element for business success. Based on more than a decade of his observations of companies’ resistance to change, he has created a simple, 4-step process that starts with education and ends with application to important company problems, and monitoring for progress. This process should work in positive, neutral, and even hostile environments.

“A systematic method using TRIZ tools for generating software architectures” was presented by Cuauhtémoc Lemus Olalde from CIMAT in Zacatecas Mexico, and he pointed out that co-author Edgar D. Fernández Rodríguez is an entrepreneur. He started with the challenge of applying TRIZ to design, where the issues are most often those of increasing complexity and increasing customer demand, rather than the use of resources or technology alternatives that are the TRIZ issues in hardware. They found that the most powerful use of TRIZ in software is at the architecture level, where the 40 principles are used to develop significantly different alternatives, the Pugh method to hybridize various aspects of the alternatives, and decision criteria (including ideality and the evaporating cloud from TOC). They have developed their own program “Architect Assistant Junior” to guide people through the steps of the process.

Miguel Ángel López Ontiveros presented he team’s paper on the use of TRIZ in re-manufacturing, which is an important transitional step as many process seek to become more sustainable. He reviewed the many advantages of re-manufacturing (lower energy use, lower material use, faster production.) The problems of re-manufacturing differ from those of initial manufacturing, particularly because of the variation in the materials that have been used in many different environments, and the lack of consciousness of the need for easy disassembly during the initial design phase.

Ricardo López González presented an interesting combination of the TRIZ methods with SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity, threat, FODA in Spanish). SWOT was introduced to the strategic planning community by Albert S. Humphrey in the 1960’s, and has been used extensively—its persistence through 6 decades is a measure of its capability, and the ease with which people learn to use it. SWOT’s weakness is that while it focuses people on identifying problems, it does not have explicit problem solving tools—hence the opportunity for a successful merger with TRIZ. He emphasized the use of the 9 Windows and Function Analysis to fully define problems, as well as the contradiction resolution tools to remove problems.

We return to TRIZ applications with the paper on sealing PEM fuel cells, presented by Sebastián Jiménez R., Guillermo Cortes R., Leonardo de Silva M. This was a dramatic case study showing the many different kinds of contradictions that have to be solved to manufacture reliable, durable fuel cells that will be used in many different circumstances.

We stayed in the applications sphere for the next paper, application of USIT in the adhesives industry, presented by Vicente González Ladino. This is a detailed USIT case study, examining both the technical problem and the psychological problems that prevented the users from seeing their problem and its solutions. The specific problem is that a stick adhesive is designed to be purple when applied, then become clear when applied to a surface. Over time, it becomes brown and does not change to clear when used. The case demonstrates USIT methods of analysis (especially object-attribute-function analysis and closed world analysis) and problem solution.

“Three dimensional reconstruction of parts manufactured from the 2D information provided by a high precision laser scanner” was presented by the team of Gerardo Armando Hernández Castorena, Salvador Eduardo Ramírez Brambila, María Aracelia Alcorta García, Víctor Gustavo Tercero Gómez.  The project started as a challenge to increase the speed of inspection of parts, particularly the measurement of spatial parameters, by 2-D laser scanning. This was classical, non-TRIZ innovation, using detailed geometrical analysis to create an algorithm that can work under a variety of circumstances. The current model had excellent results with rectangular solids; future work is planned for parts without those symmetries.

“INNOPTIMATION – an Evolutive Innovation Algorithm” presented by Aarón Montiel Rosales, returned us to emerging theory. He starts with somewhat rigid assumptions about the New Product Development method (that innovation is needed at the beginning, then optimization in the development and deployment phases) then hybridizes innovation and optimization tools to help the developer at each stage of development. They plan to deploy this as a genetic algorithm – evaluation will have to wait until some case studies can be shown.

The team of Carlos Javier Valdez Pérez, Alberto Méndez Torreblanca, Héctor Adolfo Andrade Gómez and Guillermo Cortes Robles developed a systematic process for solving software problems using TRIZ tools. I think that the use of the matrix may be questionable (they used Matrix 2003), but their detailed method for analyzing the problem and formulating the contradiction will be of use to many people, regardless of whether the matrix is used or not. An extensive case study of improvement of an antivirus systems demonstrated the usefulness of their approach.

We adjourned for lunch. The afternoon session will be Amir Roggel’s workshop using the Guided Brainstorming software, and the evening activities include wine, music, and good discussions of innovation.

Day 3 has an exciting program, beginning with Noel Leon’s tutorial. I’ll be travelling tomorrow and unable to continue this report. Any other attendees who would like to to summarize the Friday session? You can just attach your comments to this blog using the Comment feature! Thanks!

The Seventh Iberoamerican Innovation Congress opened today, Nov. 14, in Orizaba, Mexico, a center of technical universities and industry about an hour’s drive from Vera Cruz. Participants are primarily from Mexico, with papers and delegates from Argentina, Brazil, Honduras, Costa Rica, and elsewhere.  Many thanks to conference organizer Guillermo Cortes Robles and to the board of AMETRIZ for all their work to make this event such a success!


The Congress was opened by the principal of the technical university in Orizaba, then I orchestrated a tutorial on the application of TRIZ to the new definition of business—that new definition being one of corporate social responsibility. Several of the corporate delegates talked about what their companies are already doing, and the university and industry delegates had considerable discussion of how they can work together to have their students/employees understand the scope of corporate social responsibility and have them use TRIZ to solve the seemingly unsolvable problems. Good news is that there are several papers on topics related to some of the aspects of ISO 26000 and some of the historical “green” subjects (energy efficiency, "green" construction, etc.) so this theme will run throughout the conference. 

As always this blog is my personal impressions of the conference—for the full program go to www.ametriz.org . The opening session of the technical program in the room I was in was by Dr. Jorge Antonio Lechuga Andrade, from the Yucatan region of Mexico, showing his application TRIZ to significant problems in desalinization technology—self-cleaning membranes, improved efficiency of membranes, co-generation of energy, and others. The practical application of these inventive solutions was evaluated at desalination plants in multiple countries.

Eva Cruz Maldonado presented her work for the joint program of interdisciplinary studies in science and engineering (my translation!) which focused on the need for educators who can fulfill the role of “cultural ecologist” and work at the boundaries of science, technology and society, creating a “green” future that goes well beyond the compliance with regulations that is all many companies do today.

Abraham Herrera Montiel and Karla Daniela Luna Flores jointly presented their teaching method for the Model for Function Analysis developed at the Technological Institute in Puebla by Eugenio Miranda Medina, based on the classical value analysis. It is a very hands-on method, that starts with deconstructing the existing system, and identifying the functions of parts, subsystems, etc. Functions are identified as sufficient, inadequate, excessive, or harmful as in other TRIZ-related Subject-action-object methods, in order to identify the functions of the system that are candidates for improvement. There was considerable discussion of the teaching method, with audience members making suggestions for further development.

López-Acosta Mauricio, Mendoza León Jorge G, Montiel-Rodríguez Luis Carlos, and Sánchez-
Padilla Jesús Enrique presented their development of LabRisk, a system that uses Case-Based Reasoning for evaluation of risk and planning risk reduction. They found that there is a tendency for product developers to extend technology outside its previous uses without using the available data on how it will perform when those boundaries are stressed. The commonality with TRIZ is the emphasis on the use of data, and the use of solutions to one problem in other fields to solve multiple problems.

Guillermo Cortes Robles (the conference organizer) presented an overview of the paper on application of trends of evolution during product development, on behalf of the team which was unable to attend. They use a detailed analysis of a chair to illustrate the application of trends of evolution to the seat, the arms, the back, and the whole system (including storage when the seat is not in use.) This is a very comprehensive case study.

A group from Instituto Technologico de Orizaba presented their product prototype: Proyecto Itzaya. It is an aid for the visually impaired that has the general shape of the cane used by many blind people, but also has active elements that sense obstacles and guide the user through the almost universally available resource of the smart phone. The students plan to take this socially beneficial product to market, integrating their TRIZ and business skills. (We’ll look for a report on launching their business next year—they have won several prizes in university innovation competitions.)

Reminder: this is not a complete report-there were six papers in another room that I didn’t see. Check the program, and get the proceedings later from www.ametriz.org.  For pictures see the Ametriz Facebook page.  Note to other conference attendees:  Please add your notes about any of the papers I missed or any other comments  using the "comment" feature here.

Day 3 of the ETRIA TRIZFutures Conference started with a keynote address by Luis Estevez of the Amorim Group, Portugal’s (and the world’s) largest cork producer. He gave the TRIZ audience his view of Kaizen Management and the Continuous Improvement Roadmap. The idea of a 9 year “production” cycle for a natural product put our thinking onto a different scale from the usual factory or university project.


Andrew Martin’s title “Brewing Free Beer” drew an enthusiastic audience to his presentation on the development of Oxford Creativity’s free-to-use TRIZ “effects” database using ideality. Most readers will be anxious to use the database at http://wbam2244.dns-systems.net//EDB_Welcome.php Andrew’s story of how they decided what NOT to include was charming, but buried beneath the charm was a very focused goal of making the information available to TRIZ users who themselves would do the real research on each of the effects before using it in their research.

Lilly Haines-Gadd brought some classical psychological research into the industrial environment in her project “Does TRIZ change people? Evaluating the impact of TRIZ training within an organization.” No surprise that people who had been trained had higher levels of idea suggestion, but the low level of creative thinking skills was the same with and without training was somewhat surprising. Motivation and self-efficacy appear to be the driving elements, whereas skill is the enabling element. This was confirmed by the very high correlation between advanced training and the improvement in idea generation, but rather low correlation with beginner level training—the beginners had skills but lacked confidence. (Lilly studied an organization which had been trained by another company, not hers, to try to avoid bias about how the classes had been structured and taught.) The audience shared experiences with a variety of methods of measuring creativity and associated pitfalls.

Marco A. de Carvalho traveled from Brazil to present his paper on methodology and software for new product ideation . He started by reviewing both internal and external techniques for us, and the research on the the of use of the various methods. Marco contended that the external bias shown in the data is not justified by market success or by analysis of the ideas. Conversely, directly using internal resources (for example by means of TRIZ heuristics) there is a strong probability of ignoring market forces. To avoid that trap, he proposes that only the heuristics that are associated with value (customer-perceived value, which is a whole different issuei!) be used, not the full set. By re-defining value as Functions/Connections he establishes criteria for both generating ideas and for evaluating them. The approach was compared to trends of evolution and to conventional brainstorming: This system produced >50% creative and useful ideas, vs 30% for trends of evolution and 20% for brainstorming. A second level was with case studies, with qualitative assessment of the method by industrial participants in a variety of companies and product areas. The software system is a support tool for gathering and evaluating the candidate ideas. We are looking forward to more case examples next year!

The last session started with “How TRIZ beginners can find and solve inventive problems with 5 simple tools” by Sara Saliminamin and Mahmoud Karimi. As TRIZ has become more and more popular in Iran, they have found it necessary to help beginners get started very quickly, with great success, so that the beginners will keep themselves engaged and motivated. They had impressive photos of TRIZ on television, the local TRIZ association meeting, TRIZ in the Ministry of Education, etc. They reviewed their method of explaining TRIZ tools for their students.

Final paper of the meeting is “Technological innovation of a steam iron” by Erik Rojas, experimenting both with TRIZ and with a multinational (California& New York in US, and Besancon in France, with engineering, marketing and artistic members.) QFD structures were used to define the functions and attributes of the system, which related very directly to the contradiction matrix formalism of TRIZ. They explored numerous phenomena such as magnetic levitation and inductive heating and geometrical variants for lower friction and easier handling. He recommended additional study of the appliance industry, and strong combination with QFD for customer sensitivity.

A brief ceremony was held with sincere thanks to the organizers and the university and staff for all their hard work. Some people adjourned to the ETRIA business meeting and some to tour Lisbon, and all repeatedly said “next year in Paris.”

The Day 2 keynote by Prof. Pierre Collet from Strasbourg University was designed to challenge the TRIZ audience by showing us what is happening in the fast-moving, creative world of computer-generated engineering (yes, the computer as the creator!) He took us quickly through the history of (electronic) computing, showing the experiments that were done with evolutionary simulations as early as 1953. Now, “AE” = artificial evolution and is used widely in industry—everything from calculating train schedules to optimizing diamond cutting. (Frequent readers will remember the work of Prof. Noel Leon and his students, applying AE algorithms and TRIZ problem solving to the generation of walking/hopping transport devices, reported at both the Iberoamerican Innovation Congress and the Computer-aided Innovation meetings, 2008-10)


Collet chose a real-world example: how to evolve French crepes to get the best possible recipe, and showed us how the bio-concepts of random variation and of crossing of good variants can be very efficient generators of creative options. (Not so clear how the “best” solutions are chosen if the result is truly unique.) He also showed how this system could create an omlette, not a crepe, quite easily, if the variant on egg/flour ratio goes to an extreme.

A more technical world example was the NASA ST-5 mission, using 3 micro-satellites (tiny computers, tiny batteries, tiny solar cells…) but how do they send data back to earth? A nice TRIZ contradiction: powerful, unfocused or weak, highly focused antennas. 3 weeks of computation “Evolved” an antenna design –the original 10 meter package was smaller than 2 cm. Prof. Collet charmed the audience with the story, showing how minor changes in the mission requirements could not be met by minor changes in the antenna—a full new evolutionary simulation was required for each design. Our classical design paradigm found it embarrassing that they could not explain the designs, but the antennas were flown quite successfully.

He concluded by showing some of the massively parallel technology now available in Strasbourg very cheaply, and the wide variety of design projects that can be tried using AE. There will be much follow-up discussion of the TRIZ-AE interactions.

The first paper in the scientific technical session is “Substance Field Analysis and Biological Functions” presented by Sara Greenberg . (Reminder: I report on my experience at the conference, so except for the keynote sessions, at least half the papers won’t get mentioned! ) The aim of using su-field analysis was to develop a language that could be used for both biological and technical systems. The analysis uses conventional Su-Field analysis and constructions, with the differences becoming obvious when they aggregate the biological structures that accomplish the same functions.

I jumped to the practioner session for “Systematic innovation in enabling hybrid based preventive maintenance” by Nagappan Annamalai from Intel Malaysia. Key to the successful use of TRIZ is the comprehensive analysis of the system, including statistical designed experiments to understand and validate the cause-effect relationships within the system. Dramatic savings resulted from resolution of the contradictions by switching from schedule-driven to usage-driven PM, but management had a lot of concerns (maybe due to past history of non-scheduled maintenance?) Further application of the contradiction resolution tools resulted in a hybrid PM system , using both schedule and volume triggers. Preliminary results: 40% reduction in headcount, spares savings US$millions (exact number not specified), schedule improved by 75%.

“Identification and realization of innovation potentials at a drum brake using WOIS and TRIZ methods” presented by K. Hiltmann, showing a case that local industry FTE Automotive had asked the university students to solve. They use VDI 2220, a structured design process—one weakness is that it starts with a “problem.” WOIS starts with a need for innovation, which is a broader challenge, looking at strategy, market, target, customer, and system to decide if there is a project opportunity. The students had a very real world experience: the client said don’t make any changes. The full analysis of the squeaking cause/effect chain showed the opportunity for a very elegant TRIZ solution—same geometry, same material , same supersystem, but the conduction of the sound is disrupted by use of a 2-layer structure

I missed the gossip during the coffee break-the Samsung team is preparing for their “TRIZ Festival” next week and wanted to interview me. I’m not sure what benefit I can give to people who are already using TRIZ so much, but I sent them my advice about how to improve TRIZ and my good wishes for their festival.

Karen Gadd’s story of the implementation of TRIZ in BAE Systems (100,000 people, global) over the period 1998-now captivated the audience. Straight-forward training, pilot projects, etc., have evolved into a self-sustaining system that uses humor seriously as a teaching/learning method. Anticipated benefits were the standard TRIZ list (solve difficult problems!, take advantage of people’s natural creativity!) but the unanticipated list (everyone speak the same language, solves management problems, fun, happy & productive teams) has been the key to the acceptance of TRIZ throughout the company. Use TRIZ to propagate TRIZ: using the resources already present in BAE, such as the life cycle management system, the education portals, the case study libraries, and the growing cadre of enthusiasts. Karen spoke frankly about culture issues, and the need to avoid “gatekeepers” and non-TRIZ facilitators who try to limit and simplify the system. Her very real world learning (and BAE’s willingness to tell the story) were appreciated by all 3 ETRIA audiences—academic, industrial, and consulting.

Val Souchkov presented the “Function Value Map” after explaining that it is different from the tool he usually teaches-he is presenting on behalf of his colleagues Ives de Sanger and Kim Rutten. He reminded us that historically TRIZ had strong roots in manufacturing troubleshooting, and that developing this tool for process modeling is returning from the product phase to the process phase of TRIZ evolution. It is similar to Su-field modeling, with emphasis on critical activities defined as specific verbs, time studies and the financial impacts of the time and resources. This map has been very effective for explaining the opportunities for improvement (and TRIZ) to people who have had discomfort with their processes but not enough specific knowledge to move ahead.

Petr Shimukovich tried an innovative approach to presenting his paper “New method for TRIZ contradictions” – an English-language recording of the paper was played, while he managed the slides, then the questions. We’ll see what the audience thinks. The method examines 10 aspects of a system, then has a series of algorithms, such as a series of changes to the system requirements, which create opportunities for improvement. Shimukovich has extensive lists of the types of transformation that can be used to satisfy the requirements of each of these changes.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Next year’s conference will be in France, in Paris, at ParisTech, hosted by TRIZ France. Laboratoire Conception de Produits et Innovation. http://www.ensam.eu/

Afternoon program:  Keynote speaker for the afternoon program is Denis Alves Coelho, professor at Universidade da Beira Interior of Portugal, speaking on TRIZ and Human Factors and Ergonomics. He explained the current focus of HFE as cognitive work, Production processes (automation and globalization) and product design (being taken over by crowd sourcing.) Ergonomics enters the refinement phase of the design, when the moderators become the detail level designers. Likewise in the production phase, both HFE and TRIZ are needed to get from the concept to the implementation. Denis explored the simplest applications of the 40 principles to validate the idea of interlacing the two disciplines, and suggested the need for a collection of case studies to explore the overlap further.

Achille Souli from Strasbourg presented “A lexico-syntactic pattern matching method to extract IDM-TRIZ knowledge from on-line patent databases” using natural language processing. Historically, engineers have ignored important data from the patent databases because extracting it is time-consuming (and expensive if they need expert help or facilitation) and subject to error because of bad or confusing information in some of the patents. The approach proposed uses both super-marker and polyvalent markers, which are both nouns and verbs with very specific characteristics, which are used to split text in ways that can then be re-formulated as a graph. The geometrical properties of the graph are then interpreted. Achille concluded by telling us about additional research on TRIZ terminology, and inviting conference participants (and our readers) to comment on the work at www.souili.com/trizterm

In the short paper section I was able to hear part of Olga Bogatyreva’s paper on a TRIZ-based algorithm for biomimetic design. Her main theme was that with a proper theory, projects would be much easier and therefore cost less and have less risk. Lack of a common language for engineers and biologists is a significant roadblock to the development of the theory and methodology.

Fons Sweeger from Philips showed us “Revealing end-user driven insights using TRIZ tools.” There is a methodology called “End-user driven innovation” (not surprising, but new to me that it is a structured methodology.) He coupled this with the trends of evolution to show from the customers’ point of view what some probably next steps are. His “trend of sinning” – laziness, vanity, greed – got a lot of audience interest and started discussion of many different overlapping trends and analysis methods.

Pavel Livitov & Olga Livitova (far right in picture) introduced us to “The Principle of Feeling” and the history  of conflict between the systematic/logical generation of ideas using TRIZ with the intuitive, non-systematic decision making and implementation processes. The TRIZ audience had very mixed feelings about their method: learn to feel, not think. Accept feelings as data. They introduced “systemic constellations” which is a map made of living people representing a situation, and the assumption that the elements of the system will find their own solution (using themselves as resources!) Pavel gave us a TRIZ example, a projector that overheats. 50+ideas were generated using TRIZ. Then people were assigned roles in the systemic constellation, and the group waited for something to happen. For example, the LCD says “I feel uncomfortable if I am too close to the Lens” and then says “I ask the light source not to look directly at me.” We had a very good time with 5 heroic volunteers who enacted the feelings of a jar of strawberry jam, and the lid, and the seal, and the label, as they expressed their feelings about their relationships. (See photo, taken in dark conference room--man on left is the jar, next left is the jam, then seal, etc.)

The afternoon ended with Gaetano Cascini’s paper on” ARIZ85 and patent-driven Knowledge Support.” He started by identifying design methods driven by problems, by information, by solutions, or by knowledge. Ongoing research has been on information retrieval and information extraction, but not explicitly for the support of the problem solving process. ARIZ 85 has steps which request information both explicity and implicitly, from patents and from other sources, and there are steps where new information is potentially useful even if not requested. Detailed analysis of which steps of ARIZ are supported and which are not has been conducted, and exploratory tests with students. The students developed 100 search strategies, of which 10 were successful. He concluded by calling for research to develop robust algorithms and coordinating the research that is now going on in a very un-coordinated way.

An innovation in ETRIA organization—tonight there is an extra social event, a bus trip to hear Fado, the unique Portuguese singing. Thanks to the organizing committee for arranging it so that the visitors can appreciate this music/art in the busy schedule of the conference! See ETRIA’s Facebook page for photos—I plan to relax and enjoy the singing.

Darin Moreira Anthony Vincent from Malaysia Intel kicked off the afternoon practioner session with a beautifully detailed case study of the removal of laser mark hardcoding, an error that cost more than US$2 million per year company wide. It is a particular problem for plants like his, with a very high volume of a large number of different products. The project team used lean principles to model the process and discover the processes that were subject to non-standard practices. They then used function analysis and trimming in TRIZ, to eliminate the possible opportunities for the improper processes.


“Using TRIZ to invent failures – concept and application to go beyond traditional FMEA” was presented as a combination of tutorial and methodology, introducing TRIZ professionals to the extensive formality of FMEA, then adding AFD to FMEA to generate candidate failures for mitigation.

Francesco Frillici from Florence presented the integration of OTSM TRIZ with AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) for choosing the “right” solution to a problem. Defying the history of both methods, he also set a requirement that the system must be easy to learn, easy to use, and not time-consuming. For orientation on AHP, see
http://colorado.edu/geography/leyk/geog_5113/readings/saaty_2008.pdf Francesco presented a case study on a removing the wires from a clothes steamer, to make it easier to use, comparing several solutions using AHP and other methods, and evaluating the results by means of comparison of experts’ opinions. AHP was not the easiest, but was the most reliable method. Audience comments suggested that Pugh selection, with the option of hybridizing options as well as selecting, might be a stronger method.

A second paper from the same group followed: “Product Architecture: evaluating the potentiality of TRIZ tools, “ presented by Lorenzo Fiorinesche. Unfortunately I don’t know enough about structured design methodology to summarize these papers—maybe after a few more years of listening I can do an intelligent commentary.

Tiziano Montecchi from U. Bergamo presented “Knowledge based approach for formulating TRIZ contradictions.” He uses OTSM vocabulary, and a very structured method to define the physical contradiction.

In the parallel session I heard part of Thomas Nagel’s presentation on “OTSM TRIZ Application for an Interoperable Pantograph” (device that conduct power from overhead cables to systems, and can do it for different dimensions in different countries.) This is a comprehensive study, originally part of a masters project from INSA in France, which included analysis of patterns of evolution, alternate technologies, and multiple problem solving options. Because of my fascination with both the technology and the TRIZ case study, I missed Daniel Scheu’s explanation of his trimming methodology, which got a lot of favorable comment, since it has both a structured theory of the order of trimming steps, and valuable practical examples.
The consensus on the buses was that this was a very long day (some people flew 17 hours from Korea, 18 hours from China…). We got a few minutes to relax at the hotels, then went to a Portuguese style dinner (vegetable soup, cod, potatoes, 2 kinds of wine, and of course fruit and multiple kinds of pastry) and a lot of good gossip. And we’ll do more tomorrow!

Pictures?   ETRIA members usually post lots to their Facebook page.

The European TRIZ Association’s TRIZ Futures Conference 2012 starts today, Oct. 24, in Lisbon, Portugal, with 82 delegates from 24 countries on all continents (well, except Antarctica) and many different areas of application of TRIZ—theoretical, practical applications, teaching methods, etc. There are multiple sessions throughout the conference. This blog is my personal report on the sessions I participate in. For the full program see http://www.trizportugal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Programme-TRIZ-F1.pdf

The conference opened with tutorials by Val Souchkov, introducing TRIZ to newcomers, and Olga and Nikolay Bogateyreva, on biological systems in the TRIZ context. Olga and Nikolay start by saying that we need theory because case studies can’t be general enough, but their case studies are fascinating to a non-biologist. One example: a tree is a pump that lifts 20 buckets of water the height of a 5-story building every day, for several hundred (even several thousand !) years, self-repairing and self-maintaining. A mule works every day for 60 years. Insects create elaborate polymers from the available resources for special purposes in each life phase.

How to use biological phenomena in engineering design? Nikolay did a charming job of challenging the audience to ask whether the need is for an object, the function of the object, the result of the function, or even the illusion of the function? The analogy of interpretation in language extends easily to the applications of biology in engineering/technology; interpretation requires vocabulary and grammar and context and cultural knowledge. They use an entertaining and instructional set of toys to illustrate these points, and show how the interpretation of bio-effects can be grossly different from the copying of bio-technology, and still be highly effective in other fields.

The tutorials were followed by the official opening ceremony, fortunately brief, with thanks to the organizers V. Cruz Machado and Helena Navas, and to Nova University, and to the cities of Lisbon and Almada.

Keynote speaker Sergei Ikovenko engaged the group with a Simpsons cartoon on bad inventing, to introduce his talk “Where does TRIZ start?” focusing on the migration from classical TRIZ to modern TRIZ, from emphasis on solving the problem to emphasis on practical, significant solution to “the right problem.” He challenged us to use the TRIZ system to understand the development and propagation of TRIZ. S-curve analysis says that we are at the stage of double competition, and should leave the “lab” and find a niche that will strongly appreciate what TRIZ has to offer. It is valid and useful to use in many fields, but Sergei recommends using it in engineering until it is much stronger and fully established. The analogy for double competition: puppies competing among themselves inside their box, not knowing that the first ones to leave the box will need to compete with the grown dogs who live in the bigger world.

What does the future hold for TRIZ? Sergei thinks there is a strong trend toward parametric TRIZ, using mathematical models for problem description, and for automation (maybe semi-automation) of full problem solving.

The group split into 3 parallel sessions. The practioner session featured Iouri Belski’s paper on the development of the portable crash barrier in Singapore as an illustration of TRIZ, addressing questions of why the original design was so similar to others (design fixation, detrimental effects of expertise on creativity) and what happened when the experts used TRIZ.

The second paper in the session was my own, with Timothy Brewer, on the application of TRIZ to problems in corporate social responsibility. Very few delegates had heard of ISO26000, but many had some familiarity with issues of sustainability, and we generated quite a bit of lunchtime talk about how TRIZ can be the problem solving system for complex business-social-technical problems.