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Anonymous — Fri, 08 May 2009 06:32:28 CDT

Introduction

This is the home page for the TRIZ wiki. The intention of the wiki is to capture as much information about TRIZ as possible and place it in the public domain for everyone's use. You, dear reader, can play a critical role in the success of this Wiki by reading and improving the entries here. It is very easy and fun. If you see anything incorrect please click on EasyEdit and change it. Don't worry about making your contribution perfect--other people will correct it if needed. If you see opportunites for improvement go ahead and EasyEdit it; don't worry about who wrote the original--he/she will be glad for your improvement OR will make more changes. This is the beauty of the wiki method!

This wiki may never be "complete." If you think a topic is missing, please create a new page, give it a title and eliminate the omission. This wiki is completely open, anyone can edit it. All we ask, is that you follow some common sense etiquette.

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Links for using this wiki

We believe this was the spirit behind Altshuller's contribution.
_______________________________________________________________________

Here is an overview of Triz. As you explore, please use the Wiki functions to add your own examples to illustrate these steps:

1. Problem Analysis - Primary function, type of problem, resources available, etc.
2. Standard solutions, standard problems
3. SuFields
4. Technical contradictions
5. Physical contradictions, separation techniques
6. Evolution trends
7. Effects - physical, chemical, geometrical
8. ARIZ
9. Ideality
10. Functional analysis, trimming, conflict models
11. Feature transfer

TRIZ Teaching

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 17:56:04 CST

See http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/2008/12/05/ for Ellen Domb's most recent article.

There are many other articles about teaching TRIZ in both university and industrial environments.

For teaching TRIZ to children, see the book by Tatiana Sidorchuk and Nikolai Khomenko, Thoughtivity for Kids.

Southbeach

smithh — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 03:25:12 CST

Visual modeling, driving change

www.southbeachinc.com

quotes from the site Jan 2009: "Southbeach is a new visual analysis and diagram style. It fosters joined up thinking - situations that can only be fully understood by embracing multiple perspectives. Southbeach helps to clarify the problem, untangling conflicting causes and effects so as to generate innovative outcomes.
A universal visual language. Use Southbeach to model any complex situation in fields as far flung as finance, engineering, management, the law, global issues, education, marketing, the service economy, health care, information technology, strategy or politics. Add perspectives to your models. What is useful? What is harmful? From which viewpoint?
Southbeach is simple. Some users get by with just a flip chart, Post_It notes and highlighter pens (red for harmful and green for useful). For more complex work, the free Southbeach Modeller software allows you, with your colleagues, to explore multi-faceted scenarios incorporating new ideas, systems, processes and trends.
Southbeach can visualize and help to resolve complex organizational tensions and social dilemmas. Use it to map out contradictory requirements in any technical or human system. Your models document problems and solutions in areas such as corporate sustainability, climate change, biodiversity, resource utilization and the green agenda.
The methodology keeps you moving forward. Whether thinking about a personal life goal, a new business idea, global trends, a complex technical challenge, or just working through a difficult change/transformation at work with your team, Southbeach diagrams provide the visual elements you need to pinpoint the root causes of inertia, to innovate and to work towards actionable solutions.
Southbeach is both a personal thinking tool and a collaborative consulting tool. The approach is oriented towards counselling and mentoring, team work and group facilitation. The Modeller software is designed for efficient use in a workshop setting or when working face to face with a domain expert.
Using one tool and drawing style you can substitute for many other commonly needed diagrams, including mind maps, flows, cause-effect, force-field, sign diagram, polarity, influence diagrams, theory of constraints, affinity diagrams, argument maps, SWOT charts, TRIZ 9-boxes or any other window-pane diagram. Flexible grid, window pane, pool and swim lane overlays provide management consultant style models. Unlike Visio or PowerPoint diagrams, each Southbeach model is consistent in approach and meaning and so can be used to derive key insights.
An ideal research tool. Keep notes with models and annotate any visual element. Invoke web searches from the names of elements of the diagram. Copy and paste from the web browser to create model elements. Link elements to web pages. The in-built web-browser is fast and convenient, keeping everything together in one place. When you share models with your colleagues, they get all your notes and links. File sizes are small and transfer easily in email or via the Web.
Southbeach 0.8 builds on typical TRIZ notations. It has been developed to support a variety of applications where TRIZ or TRIZ-like methods are effective, including P-TRIZ.
Southbeach Modeller is free software. You are licensed to share it with others. You may also include a copy of the Modeller within any other product or service that you provide to your customers. There will always be a free version of Southbeach Modeller.
If you choose to try Southbeach, do send us feedback. Click on the Feedback button in the tool. Enter your message. Press Send. That's it. Your message is delivered via a Web service. This also works when you are offline. Your offline messages are delivered when you are next online.
If you like Southbeach, but it does not do quite what you need, tell us. Explain what you are trying to achieve. A Share button in the tool allows you to send a model to any email address. Our address on the beach is feedback@southbeachinc.com."

Visual Notations for TRIZ

smithh — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 03:20:08 CST

Over the years (decades) there have been a variety of visual notations for drawing models associated with TRIZ inventive problem solving. There is no standard for such notations, and conventions have varied across different communities. In addition, there has not been a systematic attempt to define the formal semantics associated with these notations. Recently, Southbeach (www.southbeachinc.com) has proposed a unified notation for TRIZ and related business and engineering disciplines. A specification and quick guide is available at the web site. The current version is 0.8. Southbeach will be releasing 0.9 based on user feedback. If you wish to provide feedback, please write to feedback@southbeachinc.com. The company also provides a free to use tool for drawing and sharing Southbeach models. This software will be kept in step with the development of the notation.

The Southbeach web site also contains links to example models and modeling idioms on related blogs. These are proving popular with users of the tool to show the possibilities within the 0.8 notation. This modeling experience is pointing the way to 0.9.

Links_to_TRIZ

wmyfowlkes — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:35:35 CST

Today if you search Triz on google, you will get nearly 750,000 hits!

Here are some of the most important Triz web sites for you to visit:

TRIZ Journal archives
http://www.triz-journal.com/

"TRIZ Home Page in Japan" edited by Dr. Nakagawa (most pages are in English and in Japanese in parallel)
http://www.osaka-gu.ac.jp/php/nakagawa/TRIZ/eTRIZ/

Current TRIZ list archives (to access these you must subscribe to the list)

http://www.topica.com/lists/triz

The Altshuller Institute for Triz Studies

http://www.aitriz.org/

The European TRIZ Association is making its archive available at www.etria.net

http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/43344

An open invitation to all TRIZ World subscribers to join the TRIZ Developers Groupon LinkedIn. Follow the link above and request to join. Don't forget to let me know you have made a request by sending an e-mail to glenn (at) martrek (dot) com.

Here are some interesting Creativity Sites:

Mycoted wiki of techniques

Compendium of idea generation methods

Creating Minds

See another list of books, mailing lists, and web sites at Learning_TRIZ

References

For book reviews see The TRIZ Journal. Click “archive” then search on the title, or search on “book review” to see all.

E-Books
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.TRIZ for Six Sigma by Geoff Tennant, 2003. 155 pages. Available from http://www.sixsigmatriz.com. An interactive version of the Contradiction Matrix and the 40 principles is also available on this site.
3.USIT by Ed Sikafus. 2001-2006. 50 pages. Free. Available from http://www.u-sit.net
4.The 121 heuristics for problem solving, by Marco Aurélio de Carvalho, Tz-Chin Wei, Semyon D. Savransky, 2003. Published by RO-INI, Romania. $60. Available from http://www.trizexperts.net
5.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. Also available in Spanish from http://www.triz.net/lecturas/trizJournal/Intrizj02.html

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 for books published by the authors.
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.Clarke, Dana. TRIZ through the Eyes of an American TRIZ Specialist, revised 2002. www.aia-consulting.com
7.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
8.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.
9.Kaplan, Stan, S. Visnepolschi, B. Zlotin, A. Zusman. New Tools for Failure and Risk Analysis. Ideation International, 1999 www.ideationtriz.com
10.Mann, Darrell. Hands On Systematic Innovation. 2002. Matrix 2003, Hands On Systematic Innovation for Management, 2004. www.systematic-innovation.com. Available in the US from www.aitriz.org. Updated versions of both books published in 2007.
11.Orloff, Michael A. Inventive Thinking through TRIZ: A practical guide. Springer Verlag 2003. Also available in German. Second edition 2006.
12.Kalevi Rantanen and Ellen Domb: Simplified TRIZ. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2002. Updated version in 2007. http://www.crcpress.com
13.Y. Salamatov. TRIZ: The Right Solution at the Right Time. Edited by V. Souchkov, translated by M. Strogaya and S. Yakovlev. Insytec, 1998. www.aitriz.org
14.Semyon D. Savransky. Engineering of Creativity: Introduction to TRIZ Methodology of Inventive Problem Solving. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2000. www.crcpress.com
15.David Silverstein, Neil DeCarlo, Michael Slocum. Insourcing Innovation. 2005, 2007. www.crcpress.com
16.Terninko, A. Zusman, B. Zlotin. Systematic Innovation. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press 1997. www.crcpress.com.
17.Timokhov, Victor. Natural Innovation. 2001. Creax. www.creax.com
18.The Tools of Classical TRIZ, Ideation International. 1999. Directed Evolution. 2001. 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 Quality Function Deployment Symposia, http://www.qfdi.org
Proceedings of the Total Product Development Symposia, 1995-1998, http://www.amsup.com
Proceedings of the International TRIZ Conference, part of the 4th Total Product Development Symposium, 1998, http://www.amsup.com
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
CREAX, http://www.creax.com (also has an excellent web site with links to hundreds of creativity sites and a free newsletter.)
TRISolver, http://www.trisolver.com
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)

Trial and Error Method and Its Modifications

rinka — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:47:46 CDT

Trial and error is the recurring process of arriving at solutions by trying, failing, and learning from the experience. This is the natural way humans learn and consequently approach problem solving.

In Altshuller´s view, trial and error can be very unproductive, because the time necessary for arriving at useful solutions is unpredictable. A good solution can take hours, days, months, years - or never appear.

Altshuller considered the problem solving methods such as Brainstorming, Morphological Analysis, Synectics and others to be improvements of trial and error, and TRIZ to be a really new paradigm, because it is based on laws and disciplined thought.

Experience shows that, although TRIZ problem-solving processes (especially the ARIZ process) tend to be more disciplined than natural thought and most other problem solving methods, they are also not completely non- trial and error.

Some references on:

Trial and error
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_and_error

Brainstorming
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainstorming
http://www.mycoted.com/Brainstorming

Morphological Analysis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphological_analysis
http://www.mycoted.com/Morphological_Analysis

Synectics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synectics
http://www.mycoted.com/Synectics

Situation Analysis

by Pentti

Searching the actual problem
Normally problems do not appear in clearly defined terms. There is something going wrong, e.g. decline of sales, additional customer complaints, not properly working system etc. Often the problem ‘owner’ does not necessary know the real cause, but realises that something should be done to rectify the situation. More often than not he or she might even suggest some action. Usually such a recommendation doesn’t necessary solve the problem, only postpones further twists or complaints. Altshuller called this kind of a situation as an Administrative Contradiction.

Amongst innovative techniques there are many other methods which deal with such a situation. To mention but a few there are e.g. Value Analysis/Value Engineering, Kepner-Tregoe and Root Cause Analysis.

Value Analysis starts with a general discussion around the subject matter, then approaches the possible problem through Function Analysis, e.g. what does the subject matter, product or process do in functional terms. Especially the function of the part where the problem arises.

Kepner- Tregoe uses in the Problem Analysis by asking "What (happened in exact terms), Where (why there but not here?), When (for the first time?), Why, and How" did it happen.

Root Cause Analysis aims at identification of the specific underlying cause which can be reasonably identified. Further the aim is to prevent the reoccurrence of problems.

The ideal situation is when we can see the cause of the problem. However many a technique starts with a complete analysis phase supposing there is not a single idea of the real cause of the problem. This approach is however the hard and a very tedious way to solve a problem. The method is in fact desperate, suggests that people have no idea of the reason nor of the solution. This will probably lead in most cases to frustration.

There is a need for better approach, the TRIZ way of doing.
See also: Problem Definition in Problem Analysis.

Life Strategy of Creative Personality

marcodecarvalho — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:25:41 CDT

Altshuller and his colleague Vertkin studied a big number of biographies. The database of biographies allowed them to develop a creative strategy in the form of a chess play. The environment makes moves against a creative person. The person makes moves of his/her own, against the hostile environment. The strategy is divided in six parts:

- The socially dignified goal (the worthy goal);
- Planning and control;
- The capability to work and time management;
- The proper technology of problem solving (TRIZ);
- The capability to hold out the attacks of the environment;
- Getting results continuously.

We all recognize Albert Einstein as one of the most creative thinkers in mankind's history. Today's (Jan 22, 2007) Einstein Quote of the Day from iGoogle is one that all Trizniks should resonate with:

Problems cannot be solved by the level of awareness that created them.

What this means is that we must think "outside of the box" or to be specific, we often must bring in knowledge from other engineering disciplines in order to come up with high level solutions to challenging problems. Creative personalities develop strategies for changing their "level of awareness." Osborne recommended free wheeling "brainstorms" using people from other disciplines and no criticism of ideas during the generative stage. DeBono recommended "lateral thinking." Synectics, Mimetics, Six Thnking Hats, these are all designed to change your level of awareness. Altshuller began with empirical studies, but when you actually use Su-Fields, Patterns of evolution, Tables of resources and Inventive standards, pretty soon you see just how well the TRIZ problem solving toolkit forces one to shift awareness as you attempt to go from the abstract solution to the concrete. That is the transition where I find the highest level of creativity occurs in applying TRIZ.

Classical TRIZ

marcodecarvalho — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:21:52 CDT

Classical TRIZ means TRIZ as developed by G. S. Altshuller and under his leadership. It includes all versions of ARIZ (Algorithm for Inventive Problem Solving) developed until 1985 (the ARIZ 85-V version).

Perhaps the last "official" description of Classical TRIZ is the one from "Information on Teaching TRIZ", a document created by Genrich Altshuller and Igor Vertkin in 1988 and translated from Russian to English by Nikolai Khomenko in 2007. It includes:

- Trial and Error Method and Its Modifications;
- Laws of Technical System Evolution;
- TRIZ Standards;
- ARIZ - Algorithm for Inventive Problem Solving;
- Inventive Sources for TRIZ;
- Life Strategy of Creative Personality;
- TRIZ Application to Non-engineering Domains;
- TRIZ Teaching.

It is important to note that ARIZ 85-V does not include the probably most famous TRIZ tool, the contradiction matrix and the associated inventive principles. This is because Altshuller considered that later TRIZ instruments, included in ARIZ 85-V, are much more powerful and much less "trial-and-error".

The Market Place

marcodecarvalho — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:18:50 CDT

Here is where we invite you, our dear reader and contributors, to tell us all about yourself, your accomplishments related to Triz and to provide links to your own web site.

The PQR Group http://www.trizpqrgroup.com is the network of TRIZ instructors and consultants founded by Ellen Domb. We specialize in making TRIZ accessible to beginners, and turning beginners into practioners in 3 days. We provide train-the-trainer, licenses for training programs, and facilitated problem solving to organizations ranging from the global 500 to entrepreneurial companies with 50 employees.

The TRIZ Journal www.triz-journal.com is a free, on-line resource that has been published monthly since 1996. The full archive is available on-line. Articles cover the history and development of TRIZ, case studies by advanced practioners and by beginners, high-tech and no-tech, and tutorials on a variety of TRIZ topics. Recent additions include "commentary" blogs and a discussion forum.

Aditiva Consultoria (www.aditivaconsultoria.com) is a consultancy company, founded by Marco A. de Carvalho. It is based in Brazil. It focuses on systematic innovation, product development and project management.

What_is_TRIZ

marcodecarvalho — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:16:15 CDT

'''TRIZ''' is a Romanization of the Russian phrase "Теория решения изобретательских задач" meaning "Theory of solving inventive problems" or, in its most popular translation, "Theory of inventive problem solving". It was developed by Soviet engineer and researcher Genrich S. Altshuller and his colleagues starting in 1946. It has been evolving ever since.

Today, TRIZ has reached the level of theory or set of theories, if we take into consideration its many spin-offs (I-TRIZ, Systematic Innovation, General Theory of Innovation, etc.). However, TRIZ is most popular at the levels of methodology, tool set, knowledge base, and model-based technology for generating innovative ideas and solutions for problem solving. TRIZ provides tools and methods for use in problem formulation, system analysis, failure analysis, and patterns of system evolution. TRIZ, in contrast to techniques such as brainstorming (which is based on random idea generation), aims to create an algorithm/algorithmic approach to the invention of new systems, and the refinement of old systems.

You can jump to here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triz to learn more about TRIZ. Alternately, TRIZ Journal has a good introduction, too: http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/what_is_triz/

Upcoming Events - 2008

wmyfowlkes — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:44:41 CDT

August 2008

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November 2008

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Usability issues for a humane interface

Nitpicker — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:20:24 CDT

Jef Raskin wrote a book calledThe Humane Interface to clarify many issues that matter to operators of practically any gadget or computer. I think they apply to wikis too. He once summarized them in a single page of text, shown here:

A nearly one page summary of design rules

by Jef Raskin

The first principle: When you use a product to help you do a task, it should only help and never distract you from the task.

Definition: A gesture is an action that you finish without conscious thought once you have started it.Example: For a beginning typist, typing the letter "t" is a gesture. For a more experienced typist, typing the word "the" is a gesture.Commentary: Designing a human-machine interface demands that both the human and the machine be understood as well as possible. An understanding of the relevant portions of cognitive psychology, ergonomics, and cognetics is essential. That is not all that is needed, but it is a prerequisite.

Rule 1: An interface should be habituating.

Commentary: If the interface can be operated habitually then, after you have used it for a while, its use becomes automatic and you can release all your attention to the task you are trying to achieve. Any interface will have elements that are habituating, but the principle here is to make the entire interface habituating.

Rule 1a: To make an interface habituating, it must be modeless.

Commentary: Modes exist where the same gesture yields different results depending on system state at a time when your attention is not on system state. In the presence of modes, you will sometimes make mode errors, where you make a gesture intending to have one result but get a different and unexpected result, distracting you from your task.

Rule 1b: To make an interface habituating, it must be monotonous.

Commentary: "Monotony" here is a technical term meaning that you do not have to choose among multiple gestures to achieve a particular sub-task. Crudely, there should be only one way to achieve a single-gesture subtask.

The second principle: An interface should be reliable.

Commentary: Aside from not crashing, the system should never lose any work you have done or any information you have received or retrieved, even if you make a mistake or are forgetful. This is often not thought of as a property of an interface, but one can build a reliable interface on top of an unreliable system (of the order of unreliability of todays operating systems).

Rule 2: The system should neither lose your work nor through inaction allow your work to be lost.

The third princple: An interface should be efficient and as simple as possible.

Commentary: Time is an unreplaceable asset. An interface should not take more of your time than is necessary, either in use or in learning.

Rule 3: Good engineering practices should be applied to interface design. Quantitative measures should be used, and an interface should be close to its theoretical minimum in terms of the time it takes to do an operation.

Commentary: The GOMS model and information theoretic measures of efficiency (to name two particular techniques among many) must be mastered and used by interface designers. Another set of techniques and measures can be used to help judge learnability. LINK-Where for GOMS?

The fourth principle: The suitability of an interface can only be determined by testing.

Commentary: All of the theory in the world, and the wisest guru, cannot always predict how an interface will work in practice. One must test, objectively observe, and modify the interface if testing shows that users have difficulties. It is never the user's fault, but also remember that people find it difficult to change, so difficulties based on previous habits may not be dispositive.

The fifth principle: An interface should be pleasant in tone and visually attractive.

Commentary: How messages are phrased is important, how the interface looks is also important. But these are of secondary importance in terms of task completion. When use of the interface has become habitual, these elements go unnoticed. All of the principles, if followed, create learnable interfaces.

Summary: An interface should be effective, habituating, reliable, efficient, and tested. To the extend that doing so does not conflict with these essentials, an interface should also be attractive.

Note: This page is also shown, somewhat more prettily at Nitpicker.PBwiki.com/The+Humane+Interface in another wiki.

Learning_TRIZ

Nitpicker — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:54:45 CDT

Resources

gathered by Gary Bartlett from triz@topica.com and web searches.
1. Articles by Val Kraev
a. Lesson 1: TRIZ Foundations: www.triz-journal.com/archives/2006/10/05.pdf
b. Lesson 2: Levels of Innovations: www.triz-journal.com/archives/2006/11/05.pdf
c. Lesson 3: Technical and physical contradictions: www.triz-journal.com/archives/2006/12/01.pdf
d. Lesson 4: Resource Analysis: www.triz-journal.com/archives/2007/01/08/
e. Lesson 5: System Ideality: www.triz-journal.com/archives/2007/02/08/
2. Alexander Narbutt’s TRIZ: History of the Instruments: www.trizcenter.co.kr/eng/dataroom/en_treatise_read.php?view_no=13
3. The Advanced Master of Innovative Design (AMID) based on TRIZ & OTSM (INSA Strasbourg Department of Continued Education)
cms.insa-strasbourg.fr/fr/actualites/amid-5e-session.html
4. The TRIZ books on Amazon.com.
5. Substance Field Analysis by Iouri Belski
6. Darrel Mann’s books: www.systematic-innovation.com/Products/products01.htm
7. www.insightcentre.com/triz.html
8. Simplified TRIZ by K. Rantanen and E. Domb
9. Semyon Savransky – book + course via email: TRIZExperts@hotmail.com
10. www.trizpqrgroup.com
11. www.systematic-innovation.com
12. www.start2think.com - Roni Horowits’s ASIT site (simplified TRIZ)
13. www.triz.org
14. www.triz-journal.com
15. www.aitriz.com
16. www.trizcenter.co.kr/eng/
17. www.creax.com – free tools and software
18. www.triz4u.com
19. store.isixsigma.com/eBooks/Business-Innovation-in-the-21st-Century-eBook/p-107-166/
20. triz-world.wetpaint.com/
21. www.start2innovate.com/
22. www.ciri.org.nz/downloads/TRIZ.pdf
23. www.ideationtriz.com/training.asp#IPS_User_Program
24. www.mazur.net/triz/
25. organicdesign.co.nz/Triz
26. www.ipm-marketing.co.uk/triz.htm
27. www.ciri.org.nz/trizworks/downloads.html
28. www.innovationtools.com/PDF/Vedic_Inventive_Principles.pdf
29. www.trizpqrgroup.com

Contributers:

Gary Bartlett
gb@prodsol.co.nz
Phone 0800 776-276 (NZ)
+64 9 473-9530 (International)
Mobile +64 21 776-390
Fax +64 9 473-9539
Productivity Solutions International
www.prodsol.co.nz - dramatic improvement through pattern-level intervention

If you have favorite TRIZ resources, on the web or not, please add them above and add your name to those of the other contributers.

If you see a better organization for the list, then organize it differently, possibly on a secondary page linked from here.
(I thought of having an alphabetical list, ignoring the "www." part of urls.)

Component Analysis

ellendomb — Sat, 03 May 2008 19:26:25 CDT

To build up a Function Analysis, one has first to do the Component Analysis. For this SAO-function model, (Subject-Action-Object) three kinds of graphical elements are used. These elements are products (or targets), components and super system components. Those elements could be a substance, a field or a combination of both. These elements are also sometimes called material objects to enforce that issue.

Figure 1: Elements of a SAO-function model

The components are all those elements of the system from those the given technical system is built of on a given abstraction level. Therefore, this could be assemblies, parts or even fragments of parts. In the example with the pot that holds water it could be stated that the pot is an assembly consisting of a base part that holds the water and a lid. It could also be stated that the pot is just the base part and the lid is another component of the system. If someone wants to look deeper into the physics that are happening within the wall it could even make sense to split the pot into three layers: The outer glaze, the metal body and the inner glaze (see figure 2).

Figure 2: Different abstraction levels in the definition of elements

Before a model can be built, it has to be clear on which abstraction level the model should be constructed. Components for a model should be derived from the same abstraction level to be comparable. But this leaves open another degree of freedom. If the problem cannot be solved on the chosen abstraction level, a different level can be selected to either go in deeper in the problem area or to get a bigger picture of the problem. If similar components are used in the technical system, they are normally considered as one component. So if function model of a contactor with a contact arm for each of the three current paths should be build, just one contact arm will be in the model. Or, to stick to the fire heats water problem, nobody would consider each piece of wood that is thrown into the fire. It would just be stated wood as a component in the interaction “wood fuels fire”. From this last example another insight could be gained. “Fire” is also considered as a component in the system. A component does not necessarily have to be a substance or a solid part of the system. It could also be a field or a combination of substance and field. Fields could be for instance electrical, thermal or magnetic fields that enable interactions between two substances. This thinking was derived out of the substance-field-analysis by Altshuller. Components cannot be stated as parameters or attributes. So “temperature”, “safety” or “convenience” are not components that could be used in a model.

A super system is a higher level system that has the analyzed system as a subset. Super system components are all those elements of the super system that influence or are influenced by the technical system but are not part of the technical system. Super system components could be objects (not in the meaning of the object of a sentence as in SAO but as a physical object), fields, systems and resources that are ‘close’ to the engineering system that should be modeled. They are those elements in the system that cannot be influenced. It could also be assembly groups that you are not willing to discuss in this functional analysis.

The product of a given technical system is the object of the main function of the technical system. Now, what is a main function? We are not even sure what a normal function is. So let’s formulate it in another way. The product is that object that should be created by the technical system that is examined. If your system you are examining is a microwave oven, then its ultimate goal could be “food”. Because that’s the reason that microwave oven exists - to heat up food. Food is then the product of that system. Another way of thinking up the product of the technical system is the following: Determine the main action that is performed by the engineering system. Then name the part that is changed or dependent on the main action. So thinking again of the microwave oven you would ask: “What does it do?” – Answer: “It heats” – Question: “What does it heat?” – Answer: “Food” Why did I say, that that could be the product? If you want to look deeper in other aspects of your microwave oven you could also define some other products. If the user is to be informed by the oven about the cooking time, then the user could also be a product. If the action “to inform” is not the reason why that function model was built than it would be better to state the user as a super system. Therefore it could also be stated, that the product is normally a component of the super system. It is just that very component the inspected system is used to do something to it. Sometimes the product is also called target.

A good test of a function statement is to fit this template:
Component A does something to Component B, changing a parameter of Component B. So, the microwave oven heats the food, changing the temperature of the food. (Thanks to Larry Ball for this incredibly easy to use test!)

Therefore it is necessary to get clarity about the hierarchy of components of a given technical system and choose the right hierarchy level to build a function model on. If there are too many components in the model, the subsequent analysis steps will be difficult. If there are too few components, the model is too abstract to get any good results from it. The components for the function model should be from the same hierarchy level.

Function Analysis

Anonymous — Sat, 03 May 2008 19:03:52 CDT

The Innovation Situation Questionare is one way to analyse the problem; function analysis is another way. It is implemented in the Invention Machine Software, but can easily be done without the software also.
To do a function analysis, one has to go through the following steps:

Component Analysis
Interaction Analysis
Function Modelling

Evolution of Technical Systems

marcodecarvalho — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 22:43:41 CDT

A TRIZ postulate is that technical systems evolve in a certain organized way, not chaotically. Furthermore, the evolution is independent from an individual inventor´s will. It proceeds acoording to the Laws of Technical System Evolution (LTSE).

The LTSE proposed by Altshuller are:

- Completeness of a system;
- Energy conductivity;
- Rythm harmonization;
- Increasing ideality;
- Uneven development of subsystems;
- Transition to supersystem;
- Transition from macro to microlevel;
- Increasing involvement of Su-Fields.

The LTSE are briefly explained in the following table.

LTSE		Explanation
TS genesis laws ("statics")	Completeness of a system	In order to be complete, a TS should have an engine, a transmission, an operation subsystem (or tool) and a control subsystem. For the TS to be controllable, at least one of its parts must be controllable.
	Energy conductivity	Every TS is an energy converter. In order to have a working TS, at least one of its subsystems should be capable of conducting energy. For a subsystem to be controllable, it is necessary that energy flows between this subsystem and the control subsystem.
	Rhythm harmonization	The subsystems of a TS should have compatible rhythms of operation.
TS development laws ("cinematics")	Increasing ideality	The development of TS happens according to the increase in the degree of ideality. A TS´ weight, volume and area tends to zero, but its capability to deliver the main function is not diminished.
	Uneven Development of Subsystems	The development of a TS´s subsystems is uneven. The more complex the TS, the more uneven the development of its parts tends to be.
	Transition to the supersystem	When a TS reaches its limit of development, it becomes a part (subsystem) of another TS.
TS development trends ("dynamics")	Transition to the microlevel	Development of operation subsystems (tools) proceeds first on the macrolevel and then on the microlevel.
TS development trends ("dynamics")	Increasing involvement of Su-Fields	Development of TS proceeds in the direction of the increasing involvement of Su-Fields.

The uses of the LTSE include guidance in the development of new TSs and forecasting. According to Alshuller, it is somehow easy to break the LTSE, but inventions that break the LTSE are doomed to failure in the long term.

A famous forecasting attributed to Altshuller concerned conveyors for transporting molten glass during their production: he reportedly predicted that the conveyors should follow the transition to the microlevel. Today, we have the tin float bath process of flat glass production.

More on the LTSE:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_of_Technical_Systems_Evolution

Some authors use terms as trend, pattern, technical system evolution heuristic and other, instead of laws. This is probably because evidence against some of the LTSE is relatively easy to find. Trends or laws are, however, at the root of all attempts to use TRIZ as a forecasting tool.

The TRIZ Journal has an extensive collection of articles on evolution by both Russian TRIZ experts (particularly Victor Fey and Boris Zlotin, both now in the US) and global experts (Noel Leon from Mexico, Darrell Mann from the UK, Michael Slocum and Ellen Domb from the US, etc.) Go to http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/year/
to search. Use "Guided Evolution" and "Directed Evolution" and "Evolutionary Potential" as well as "technology forecasting" as search terms, since this seems to be an area where people try to impose their own vocabulary.

Substance-Fields Analysis

wmyfowlkes — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 14:13:38 CDT

Su-Field (VePole in Russian) a minimal technical system consisting of two material objects (substances) and a "field". "Field" is the source of energy whereas one of the substances is "transmission" and the other one is the "tool." Su-Fields are generally shown symbolically, where the specific field and substances for a given problem would be shown as such:

Verbally, such a diagram would be explained as showing a substance S2 which acts on a another substance S1 by means of a field F. In the diagram, F is the field that guarantees the reaction of S2 on S1, rather than F is a field that acts directly on S1. This distinction is important to preserve the focus on the interaction between the tool (S1) and its object (S2). Not shown in this example is the nature of the interaction (harmful or useful) or any details about how the field mediates the interaction between the tool S2 and its object S1.

In Triz, words like Substance and Field have uniquely general meanings. Meaning that Trizniks use those words to represent a very wide range of things, not at all like the usual narrow English usage of the terms. The purposes being to avoid any psychological inertia that would result, for example, if we were to liternally take the term Field to only represent the fundamental forces in Nature (electro-magnetism, gravity, the strong force and the weak force).

Here are some examples of substances:	Here are some examples of fields:
Chemical compounds	Acoustic
Elements of Objects	Biological
Gases and Liquids	Chemical
Powder and loose material	Electrical
Particles	Gravitational
Objects	Hydraulic
Biological objects, man	Magnetic
Mixtures	Mechanical
Components	Nuclear
Subsystems	Optical
Technical systems	Pneumatic
Voids	Radiation
	Thermal

Su-Field analysis is useful in connection with Altshuller’s 76 Standards for solving problems. In otherwords, a Su-Field may represent a specific engineering problem for which an associated Standard Solution exists.

Su-Field analysis is also useful for synthesis. An incomplete Su-Field can be modified by adding necessary components. Or one can increase the effectiveness of a Su-Field by connecting it to another Su-Field. In this way, complex solutions can be generated via very primitive analysis. Very often this is done by adding a substance (e.g. a ferromagnetic material to strengthen a magnetic interaction) or adding a field (e.g. adding fields for measurement and detection).

A good example of the latter is a problem from Altshullers Book And Suddenly the Inventor Appeared. There the problem of measuring the gas pressure inside a light bulb non-destructively is raised. Here we have an incomplete Su-Field (only S2 the gas inside the bulb). The inventor is free to introduce a tool S1, or better yet use some part of the light bulb as an existing resource, but what field has a strong interaction with a gas. Most fields pass right through a gas with little or no interaction. But some obervation of Nature, especially during a thunderstorm, should convince you that there is at least one field that interacts strongly with a gas. I'll leave the rest of the solution to you as an exercise.

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Technical Contradictions

wmyfowlkes — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:05:19 CDT

Often problem statements are vague, perhaps mixing technology, economic and schedule issues. For example:

“We need to speed up the production line to reduce the cost of goods.”
“We need a hybrid automobile that runs on a mixture of gas and electric.”

For problem solving, these statements are not very useful. Such problem statements, often referred to as 'managerial conflicts,' are important for setting directions and for setting boundaries and constraints but they are not useful for problem analysis and are often lead us away from the optimum solution path.

It is often the situation in technical problems that improving one aspect of a system will result in worsening another aspect. TRIZ helps us to define the main technical contradiction that needs to be eliminated. A technical contradiction represents the conflict between two parts of a system that defines the managerial problem. For example, an action A produces a desired effect, but also results in degradation of property B:

"While productivity increases, quality deteriorates"
"The solution, when heated, degrades.”

It is characteristic of TRIZ that we try to avoid vague problem statements by using specific verbal constructions to describe the problem. Doing this forces disciplined problem analysis and prepares the problem statement for the problem solving tools. Here are two useful problem statement templates. The use of the these forms will force one to move from the "perceived" problem to the "real problem (see Standard Problems):

"If {describe the condition} then {some positive statement}, but also {some negative statement}."
or
"I want to {describe the required change} by {describe how you can do this change} but {describe the problem caused by the change}."

TRIZ provides two major paths for directly solving technical problems.

1. Drive the problem analysis further to discover the Physical Contradiction underlying the TC and to solve the problem at the PC level. For many, this is the strength of ARIZ, and solving the underlying PC is the best way to proceed.

2. Directly solve the TC by applying the contradiction matrix to find the best of 40 principle for altering the problem to eliminate the TC. There are also many locations on the internet from which you can download the matrix in an Excel format. There are also on-line tools that will help resolve contradictions by applying the contradiction matix. There has been much discussion about the strength of this approach, the consensus being that this is a relatively weak problem solving tool.

In an attempt to avoid the use of the often confusing contradiction table, some experts recognize the functional view of technical contradictions and then apply Altshuller’s 76 Standards. Other Triz experts have tried to put the Standard Solutions into formats that more ideally suited for technical contradiction statements. (For example, Zinovy Royzen's "Direct Ways" and Invention Machine's Tech Optimizer Prediction module.) But generally these simply repackage and combining of the 40 solutions from the contradiction matrix plus the 76 Standard Solutions.

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Standard solutions, standard problems

wmyfowlkes — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 12:41:30 CDT

The most general description of the problem solving approach is Triz is shown in the following diagram:

This diagram is meant to show that traditionally we try to go directly from a perceived problem to solutions via Brainstorming (or similar approaches). With Triz, we use Functional Analysis and Analogy to transform the problem to a Standard form and then apply Standard Solutions.

There are several categories of Standard Problems. For Technical Contradictions, there are the 39 Standard Features. Technical Contradictions can also be shown by Functional Analysis as standard combinations of Useful and Harmful functions. Contradicitons and Incomplete systems can be expressed as Substance-Field diagrams (Su-Fields). There are also proscribed verbal forms for Technical and most especially Physical Contradictions (using opposite statements, or negations).

Along with the Standard Problems there are Standard Solutions, such as the Technical Contradiction matrix and the 76 Standards for resolving Su-Field problems. But probably the most powerful are the Separation techniques for Physical Contradictions. ("Most powerful" is subject to debate--the claim appears in much of the Russian TRIZ literature, but the only quantitative study showed that the solutions produced starting from Physical Contradictions and from Technical Contradictions are at the same level, and those solved both ways are at a higher level. The study was on a small sample, and it is possible that only the most interesting problems were solved both ways, so this is regarded as inconclusive.)

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Problem Analysis

ellendomb — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:51:01 CDT

The critical first step in problem solving is analysis. This first step is ubiqitous in the literature, but the best known example is probably the Innovation Situation Questionnaire from Ideation International. But the information sought is generally the same:

1. The Primary Useful Function of the system (why it exists, the product produced)
2. A description of the system, its functions its environment, and any resources that may be useful for problem solving
3. A functional analysis of the failure, a history of the failure and previous attempts to fix the failure.
4. Any constraints on the problem solving that we should be aware of.

Diagrams, timing charts, functional analysis, resource lists are all important products of the Problem Analysis step. Understanding the time sequence of the situation is extremely important, and frequently neglected by beginners since many TRIZ teaching methods show static function analysis diagrams. The System Operator (also called 9 Windows) is a template for looking at the situation at different levels--components, subsystems, system, and super-systems--and different time frames. A very simple method is to draw the functional relationship diagram at several times, such as before the problem occurs, during the problem occurence, and after the situation is over. More complex, dynamic simulations can also be very helpful. (Teaching note: if the TRIZ students aren't already familiar with dynamic simulations, don't introduce them at this point. Let them use multiple static diagrams.) Some articles on a variety of ways of including time dependence in function analysis are as follows:

http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/2005/12/05.pdf A. Bushuev
http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/2004/05/01.pdf C.Sorgie
http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/2002/12/a/01.pdf J.Miller & E. Domb
http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/2002/06/c/index.htm J.Miller & E. Domb

In addition, the System Operator (also called 9 Windows) method places considerable emphasis on understanding the temporal relationship in the problem situation.
http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/2002/01/c/index.htm D. Mann (4th article in a series on the system operator)
http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/2002/01/d/index.htm A. Serediskii
http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/2008/03/04/ R. Czerepinski, J. Miller, E. Domb (4th of a series)

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