Friday, November 22, 2013
Day 3 - 8th Iberoamerican Innovation Congress, Merida, MX
The morning sessions were both tutorials—TRIZ for Business
Applications by Jack Hipple and Product Development by Ricardo Alvarez (an
expanded version of his “best practices” presentation yesterday, with a lot of
intuitive creativity exercises—a few participants tried quite successfully to
apply TRIZ methods to the puzzles and games!)
I went to the regional anthropology museum and learned about the Maya
understanding of ideality in their mythology:
Oscar Acuna Valdez, founder of the Mexican division of the
PDMA and VP for Latin America of Global PDMA, and a professor of management of
innovation technology at UIA served as facilitator of the first after-lunch
session. He used a mix of cartoons and
business models to guide us through a systematic innovation model that put
emphasis on both understanding the customers and on managing the business’
network of relationships. The audience
agreed with many of his statics about the deficiencies of product development
as practiced in today’s enterprises. They
mapped their own processes and proposed improvements during the “work” part of
the workshop.
The last afternoon session was cancelled due to several changes in people’s
travel schedules. The papers will
appear in the proceedings. Watch www.ametriz.org for the announcement of the proceedings’
publication.
The congress will end in a few
hours with a ceremony at the university, and a tour of the university
facilities.
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Thursday, November 21, 2013
Day 2, 8th Iberoamerican Innovation Congress
The Wednesday evening tour of the Gran Museo del Maya was
magnificent in multiple dimensions—unique architecture, and video/music
production that covers the entire outside of the museum, and a private tour of
the exhibits with a knowledgeable (and entertaining guide), finished with a
midnight picnic before the bus trip back to the hotel. And talking TRIZ the whole time!
I was the first speaker on Thursday morning, combining some
of the work done by Tim Brewer, Joe Miller and me on the insights that TRIZ
analysis can provide for new business models, with crowdsourcing and
crowdfunding used as examples. The
audience demonstrated great enthusiasm, and asked a number of questions about
how to manage the intellectual property risks in a variety of open innovation
scenarios, including crowdsourcing.
“TRIZ in the University Autonoma de Nuevo Leon” was explained by Luis Cardenas Franco. Nuevo Leon state is in Northeastern
Mexico. It has 98 colleges and
universities (4 with major international reputations, ) with 15,000 annual graduates in science and
engineering, in a population of 4.6 million.
“Vision 2020” at UANL unites faculty and students with the community for
application of innovation systems to the needs of the region. Recent growth in university intellectual
property development is one sign of the health of the system. The full range of TRIZ methods—IFR, 9
windows, contradictions, patterns of evolution, etc.—are used by many people to
address many different types of problems.
See www.innovacion.uanl.mx for details.
Fabiola Cruz reported
on the use of TRIZ in creation and implementation of ideas for ISO 14001 in the
Zona de los Rios in the state of Tabasco in southeastern Mexico, known as the
“biological corridor of central America.”
Numerous opportunities for conflict resolution were defined and addressed
successfully, in electronics, food processing, and energy production.
Ruben Vasquez explained the energy-saver device for
refrigerator and air conditioning unit which he invented, motivated partly to
improve comfort and partly to save energy, since saving is more than
generating energy. The use of wasted resources is the featured
TRIZ tool—a simple heat pipe using the Carnot cycle is the core of the system
with water as the working fluid. The
audience showed considerable interest in the device itself and in the story of
the development.
The TEC de Monterrey team got a lot of audience appreciation
for their story “Redesign of an acoplamiento para 4 eje en fresadora
CNC” in order to make the CNC system
able to create a wider range of shapes, and of course the requirements included
very low cost and very fast deployment. 0.0001mm tolerance is a real challenge! Classical TRIZ resource analysis (materials,
energy, information, tools, etc.) provided the basis for the improved
system. The video of the system in
operation and the validation tests were impressive!
Celeste Cantu Alejandro presented on behalf of the second TEC de Monterrey team, demonstrating a model for innovation based on work done at
the Institute Andaluz, and expanded for a variety of applications (Modelo y Programa de capacitation en
competencias de innovation para las empresas Mexicanas.) A competency model has been developed,
supported by several templates for evaluation of organizations and individuals
in various circumstances.
Gonzalo Uscanga-Castillo presented the method for selection
of the portfolio of technical projects in the early steps of innovations. Elements of technology, intellectual
property, market conditions, investment potential and technology roadmap are evaluated. Weights are assigned to these factors, and
candidate ideas are evaluated on the weighted scale.
The afternoon’s
leading talk was by Dr. Jesus Vega Herrera of IMPI, a joint venture of 5
states of southeastern Mexico, emphasizing the value of intellectual
property and the integration of the
overall strategy of the business with the innovation strategy. Dr. Vega showed us impressive statistics on the changes in human capital in Mexico in
recent years, increasing the competitive stature of the country. See www.impi.gob.mx for more on the initiatives.
“Experiences in innovation in the water market” was the foundation of the talk by the Rotoplas chemical company. Rotoplas has 9 plants in Mexico and 5 in
other parts of Latin America. The
company has a history of innovation in the development of alternate materials
for water containers, milk containers, filters and purification methods. Innovation has been used internally for
quality improvement of management improvement, as well in the development of
ecologically sensitive technologies. Their
new projects are focused on recycling and reuse of water. Some very compact, efficient and sanitary toilet systems for use in rural
areas generated a lot of interest, as
did very rugged drinking systems for schools and other public places.
Ricardo Alvarez presented a study of
best practices in innovation, from conference sponsor, Product Development
Management Association. He focused on
all the aspects of creation of value in both services and products. He used a wide variety of examples,
including biomimetics to capture the audience’s imagination (although many were
categorizing his examples according to the 40 principles as he spoke!)
We returned to the world of water for the paper from Jose Barros--that's the name of the company AND the name of the second-generation innovation leader. He gave us a very dynamic tour of their work in irrigation, swimming pools, spas, and water purification systems, and their new ventures in information about water as well as the water itself.
The local committee organized a cultural evening at the Parque Santa Lucia. We were treated to local dancers, a guitar/drum ensemble, an orchestra, and a guitar soloist with vocalist. This was the 2422nd Thursday night performance of the Serenata Yucatena--quite an introduction to the modern culture of Merida to add to our museum experience last night.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Day 1, afternoon, 8th Iberoamerican Innovation Congress, Merida, MX
Five papers are scheduled for the after-lunch session at the
Iberoamerican Innovation Congress in Merida, Mexico—2 USIT case studies, one
TRIZ case study and one TRIZ methodology paper, and one paper on innovation
portfolio management. One was later
postponed until tomorrow.
Vicente Gonzalez Ladino from the Engineering Faculty of
Quintana Roo started with a USIT application, Caso Sellador de PVC for the
automotive industry. He guided us through the steps of the problem definition,
the analysis, and the generation of alternative solutions. A lot of chemistry goes into the problem
definition phase in this example, since “simple PVC” is a complex product. (These things always look easy in
retrospect! Here the hydrochloric acid
reacts with one of the filler materials –calcium carbonate—creating calcium
chloride, water – both liquid and gas- and
carbon dioxide) So the simplified (or ideal) state is to use the minimal
materials to produce the useful product with no side effects (such as gases
that damage the material.) General USIT rules for using the system
resources, plus knowledge of the effects operating within the system, rapidly
produced an elegant solution – use CaO instead of CaCO3 to avoid production of
CO2 (with much joking from the audience that this solution was discovered in
pre-historic Mexico by the Mayas.)
Juan Carlos Nishiyama reported on his group’s work at the
Universidad technologica nacional in Argentina, in “Functions en el marco del
USIT.” He showed a combinatorial logic
method for generating the closed world functions in USIT, and the OAF (object, attribute, function) model
that is a fast way to analyze and diagram root cause analysis. The specific
case study looked at improvement of a rotary cutting tool.
Carlos Flores from Siemens worked with Noel Leon’s group at TEC in Monterrey. He reported on the methodology, based on
TRIZ, using semantic search of global knowledge. The practical case from Siemens was an
electromechanical low amperage circuit
breaker with low capacitance. More than
30 high-potential ideas were found, several patents are in progress, and the
search took less than a week. Both the
FAST (function decomposition) diagram and the IWB Problem formulator™ analysis
were used. The formulator identified 33
directions and combinations of directions for innovation. The Goldfire ™ semantic search tools were
then used to look for methods of achieving the goals described by the
formulator. Natural language search
found >50,000 documents which were not very relevant, but a tightly
controlled keyword search found 11 highly relevant documents. Some of those ideas were then further
developed using Goldfire’s device analysis/trimming tool, which lead to further
problem identification (don’t initiate an electric arc, thereby protecting the
life of the components while leaving the utility unimpeded.) The solution was not shown in detail since
the group is pursuing patents now.
Jorge Antonio Lechugas and Jose Carlos Peraza from the University faculty of chemistry in
the Yucatan reported on the production of MgO recovered from saline pools called “Las Coloradas” in the Yucatan, after
the direct evaporation of sea water has been completed. A solar thermal system both heats the salt
residues and operates a generator for electric power production. The details of the solubility of the MgSO4
in the brine as a function of temperature is the key to the development of the
system that takes best advantage of the heat available. There are 14 industrial saline areas in
Mexico, and these methods could be used to recover Mg salts in all of them. Other similar areas in Spain, France, and
elsewhere may also benefit.
Cultural event: We
will meet at 8 for a bus trip to the Mayan Cultural Museum.
8th Iberoamerican Innovation Congress, Merida, Mexico
Sixty people from Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, and
the US gathered at the Hyatt in Merida,
Yu, Mexico for the 8th Iberoamerican Innovation Congress, Nov.
20-22, 2013. Many university students participated in the tutorial sessions on
the preceding days, then joined the main congress. We were welcomed by the government economic
development officials of the state of Yucatan (and 3 video photographers AND 5
still photographers!) and the city of
Merida. AMETRIZ President Humberto
Aguayo-Tellez declared the session open, and the director of economic
development and the secretary of commerce gave short addresses on the importance
of promotion of innovation. (My loose
translation of the topic, and the contents.)
The opening paper was delivered by Noel Leon, “How can we integrate
TRIZ/QFD with new methods of innovation?
Blue Ocean Strategy, Design Thinking, Data Mining, Social Networks.” Prof. Leon started with a review of invention
and innovation with and without TRIZ, emphasizing the spiral nature of
progress, and the need for continual attention to the changing needs of the
customers and the need for business decisions.
Blue Ocean strategy is now being taught in 1400 universities
in 99 countries as a way of finding the business strategies for potential
success amid all the possible improvements/innovations in any competitive situation. The classical TRIZ technical contradictions
(trade-offs) are very similar to the Blue Ocean contradictions, and both
methods agree that resolving a contradiction is the heart of breakthrough.
“Design thinking” is
now used outside the design discipline and includes many of the aspects of
QFD—understanding the customer, measuring the factors that are important to the
customer, and in general making the human interaction the focus of the
innovation process. Both strategic and
tactical levels of design thinking are
in use. Ideality, with emphasis on
performing the function without harm, is very useful in achieving the goals of
the design thinking approach, and the Ideal Final Result formulation of
solution helps the designer focus on the
functionality of the system. Another aspect
of design thinking is usually called “empathy” and encompasses many aspects of
understanding the customer from many different points of view. The experimentation and collaboration
phases of design thinking likewise are compatible with the TRIZ methods,
particularly the “effects” search systems, and the learning phase of design
thinking echoes the feedback and improvement phases of all systems, from
Deming’s Plan-Do-Study-Act to ARIZ’s stage 9 where each problem/solution
is examined to see how the knowledge gained can improve the whole system.
Prof. Leon introduce the tool Quantum Leap Buzz, the leading provider of
social media search, and a meta-tool for understanding the popularity of search
terms. It is becoming the leading
indicator of unmet customer needs, and therefore the predictor of plausible business directions. It is a front end for TRIZ and Design
Thinking, and input to the Blue Ocean Strategy on the relative reputation of
competitors.
Conference organizer Guillermo Cortes Robles was the next
speaker, emphasizing the social nature of innovation, in the motivation and
collaboration methods of the innovators.
He challenged the group to consider how such a social interaction can
have the speed of dynamic realignment required in today’s business world. A partial answer is the evolution from
“world wide web” to the semantic web that permeates all activity and
facilitates access to massive databases whenever and wherever needed. His demonstration of the linkages and
networks of relationships between the data
in systems were impressive, and graphically emphasized the need for
integrated understanding, rather than point-by point accumulation of
information. His examples from Amazon,
Netflix, EBay, etc., made the theory come alive for the audience. Extensive discussion (in 2 languages!)
followed the 2 presentations.
After the break I led a workshop on the use of the 5- and
6-element versions of the method of complete (technical) system analysis—I’m
trying to get the word “technical” dropped, since all systems perform functions, so the distinction between
technical and “non-technical” systems disappears.
---------------Blog will continue after lunch (hey, this is a semi-live report...)
Monday, November 11, 2013
Photos from the European TRIZ Association TRIZ Futures conference in Paris, Oct. 29-31, 2013
Tuesday, November 05, 2013
UK TRIZ Forum
Eleven of us met in Clevedon, UK, for the UK TRIZ Forum # 5
on Nov. 1—some coming directly from Paris ETRIA, one from Scotland, and the rest from around
England. No surprise to frequent readers of this
blog: the best learning may have
happened in the hotel bar and the conference “gossip” and the size of the group was perfect for
discussion. The program:
|
Ellen
Domb
|
The
Future Of TRIZ: An International Perspective
|
|
Adi
Kavitzky
|
Deployment
Of TRIZ In The Advertising & Marketing Worlds
|
|
Darrell
Mann
|
PanGenics:
TRIZ, Music Composition & Healthcare
|
|
Ellen
Domb, Tim Brewer, Joe Miller
|
Crowdsourced
and Crowdfunded Business Models Viewed as Complete (Technical) Systems
|
|
Tim
Brewer, Ellen Domb
|
Using
the TRIZ System Operator to Compare Traditional Product Development to Crowdsourced
Product Development
|
|
Paul
Howarth
|
PanSensics: Automated Mass Capture Of Conflicts & Contradictions
|
|
Paul
Filmore
|
Applying
TRIZ to Graphic Design using Genetic Algorithms
|
|
Ian
Mitchell
|
Moving from Inventive Principles and Trends to Solving
problems with Standard Solutions
|
|
John
Cooke
|
The future of the product development process – a
TRIZ perspective
|
The “proceedings”
will be published as a collection of the presentations. Contact
{ Cara (at) Systematic-innovation.com }
for information.
I gave the kick-off on the future of TRIZ, concluding (well,
opening the discussion) that TRIZ will be absorbed into the supersystem, and
that it has already started, being absorbed into systematic innovation (in many
forms), into Six Sigma, and into the general world of knowledge transformation. I challenged the group to complete an
evolutionary potential diagram that I started to justify the conclusion.
Adi Kravitz got the group wrapped up in his ideas about TRIZ
for advertising/marketing (although his background in intellectual property is
equally fascinating.) He has
challenging questions for the TRIZ community about real research on uses of
TRIZ, on turning TRIZ into a system for “creative” people to understand their
clients’ needs.
Darrell’s talk introduced “ PanGenics” – a method for interactive composing, threat could have many applications. The initial projects are to create music that
will aid healing.
Tim Brewer and I did
a pair of papers that amplified our presentation at ETRIA, looking through the
TRIZ 9 windows and complete system “lenses”
at the rapidly emerging crowdsourcing
and crowdfunding business models.
Paul Howarth introduced the PanSensic method for understanding meaning and context. (Back in the QFD days we called this
translating the Voice of the Customer.) Massive opportunities for listening in
healthcare, utilities, marketing, fast-moving consumer goods, and even for government understanding its
citizens.
Paul Filmore repeated his ETRIA paper on using a genetic
algorithm, with TRIZ elements as the “chromosomes”
for the generation of graphic
designs.
Ian Mitchell’s paper stimulated a lot of group discussion,
since it dealt with the ever-popular subject of teaching people to use TRIZ
easily. His solution to the problem of
people who have difficulty expressing their problems as contradictions was to
(brilliantly!) avoid the problem and guide them into using the standard
solutions.
John Cooke concluded the program with his thorough
discussion of the whole product development process, and the TRIZ perspectives
on each phase of the process, and differences between industries in how
formal/informal the “process” can be.
In addition to discussing the presentations there were
several ideas about including much more
of the UK TRIZ community in future years.
