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C O N F E R E N C E 31 May - 2 June 2007 |
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Gunter Ladewig
TRIZ
Genrich Saulovich Altshuller (1926 - 1998), wondered, "Could inventions be the result of systematic inventive thinking?" Over half a century, Altshuller and his associates investigated some 200,000 patents. Their work resulted in the breakthrough discovery that ninety-five percent of all patents use only seven inventive tools or strategies. Less than five percent of all inventions come from discoveries in science or brand new ideas. They found that exceptional patents improved performance by resolving contradictory requirements, like increasing speed without higher fuel consumption. Another revelation was the frequent occurrence of a windfall of benefits that arose from resolving a system's fundamental contradiction. Not only were many costly add-ons and expensive tolerances were no longer required, many systems had inherited valuable, new, product differentiating, capabilities and features. Altshuller also found that if patents were categorized by what they did functionally, rather than by industry, the same problem had been solved over and over again with just a handful of inventive techniques. The result, TRIZ, a Russian acronym for The Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, provides us with a methodology for creativity.
TRIZ is a methodology that provides product, process designers, and people in general, with inventive problem solving tools that not only accelerate the problem solving process but help them achieve world class performance improvements beyond the trade-offs most consider unavoidable. Because TRIZ uses a functional approach to problem solving, it is equally applicable to solving business dilemmas faced by a giant steel mill as it is for microchips or societal human issues. It reaches across many different functional lines, comprising product, process, operational and organizational people issues.
TRIZ can provide the marketing team with inventive techniques for product renaissance, both through product differention and competitive analyses. They can 'Jazz–up' their products with brand new applications, or they can put 'wings' on their product or process with desirable new features.
Finally, TRIZ is an inventive problem solving tool that can be used by the continuous improvement team in charge of Value Analysis/Value Engineering (VA/VE), Lean, or Six sigma initiatives. In a most uncompromising way, TRIZ can be used to 'cut off', i.e. eliminate costly and poor quality components or processes and then make the pruned system work again by applying several inventive techniques. Saying it another way, TRIZ helps us define the problem and then walks around it with inventive techniques to find a solution.
A few final words about creativity activation and problem solving are appropriate. In facing a problem solution space, most of our knowledge is confined to our industry, background, and education. We can start fresh each time by using Trial & Error or other creativity unleashing methods like Synectics, to generate 'Out of the Box' solutions. Should we try to get as many ideas as possible (brainstorming), or should we try to get quality ideas? What’s more important: head count, i.e. many 'brainstormers' in one room, or head content? Should we emulate the traits of great inventors or should we use their tools? Our choice is to get the best ideas from the best inventors by using their best tools, TRIZ, a methodology tried and proven in the real world of the world-wide patent base.
Biography
Gunter R. Ladewig is president of PRIMA Performance Ltd., a consulting company that specializes in product, process, and operational renaissance by applying TRIZ, a Russian acronym for The Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, TOC, The Theory of Constraints, Six Sigma, and Lean manufacturing techniques. Gunter is an expert in operational efficiency improvement and world class product design. In 1992 he was winner of IBM’s Innovation Invitational, and in addition, twice on IBM’s winning team of the Government of Canada Award for Business Excellence: The Gold Award for Productivity, and the Gold Award for Quality. Most recently, Gunter is one of the authors of The PDMA, Product Development Management Association, TOOLBOOK 3 for New Product Development. .
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