“Mr. Royzen's workshop has provided training to approximately 450 of Boeing's technology experts and engineers.  He has provided them with the ability to apply this unique and systematic method of solving complex problem.  Some have already learned how to apply what they have learned to solve significant problems for Boeing, saving millions of dollars a year.  An example, is a TRIZ workshop solution developed for the 767 Tanker (air-to-air refueling) aircraft project.  As a result of that TRIZ solution, the program was successfully launched with a customer who preferred the TRIZ solution over the competitions solution for the same system, thereby ordering aircraft from Boeing. “

 Don Masingale
Internal TRIZ Consultant - Certified TRIZ Specialist
Advanced Research Engineering Program Manager
Tel:  (316) 526-5777      
don.masingale@boeing.com
July 8, 2003

Japan to Buy 767 for Midair Refueling

Tokyo – The Japanese government said yesterday that it will buy its first midair refueling plane from The Boeing Co.  The purchase of three more 767 tankers, at about $216 million each, is also planned.

Japan chose the 767 over a modified Airbus, the European consortium that is Boeing’s primary global competitor, said Boeing spokesman Paul Guse in St. Louis.  “We believed this really confirms that the 767 tanker transport is the optimum platform for the air refueling and transport mission,” said Guse, who noted that the program was launched in July when Italy selected Boeing to produce its tankers.

 Japan to Buy 767 for Midair Refueling
The Associated Press
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Saturday, December 15, 2001

 Boeing Wins Italian Bid for Military 767s

The Italian government has notified The Boeing Co. that its air force will be the launch customer for the new 767 military air-refueling tanker to replace aging 707 airframes now used for that role.

Boeing’s 767 design won out over two competing entries from rival airbus.

Also $700 million deal is small – four tankers with options for two more- it is considered a significant development for Boeing and a boost for the 767 program.  The potential worldwide air-refueling tanker market is estimated to be worth about $50 billion.”

 “Airbus and EADS, the European aerospace company that owns 80 present of Airbus, had been offering Italy either a modified A310 or A330 as a tanker replacement plane.  The Germans were pushing for used A310s: the French wanted Italy to be the launch customer for tanker based on A330 airframe.

Instead, Italy reportedly decided that Boeing’s 767 design offered a better combination of performance and cost.”

James Wallace
Boeing Wins Italian Bid for Military 767s
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Tuesday, July 10, 2001 

TRIZ: Invention Versus Inertia

“You don’t have to go out of the company to think “out of the box.”

Using a Short Course grant from Ed Wells Initiative, 24 engineers brought Russian master Zinovy Royzen to Wichita to help them unlock the secrets of creative problem solving. During a five-day seminar, they learned – and then applied – the basic principles of TRIZ (pronounced treez), the acronym for the Russian “theory of inventive problem solving.”

For some, the training was the first step out of the “psychological inertia” that hampers creativity.  For John Higgs, 767 Tanker Transport chief project engineer, the five-day TRIZ seminar refocused the thinking about a technical problem that had stumped a crew of top Boeing engineers for three years.  The results, according to Higgs, have put us ahead in our race to reconfigure the 767 into a combined tanker and transport for military use.

The Tanker Transport program presented what chief engineer Higgs calls a classic conflict. The 767, “the word’s most efficient airplane,” is a two-engine airplane and, by design, has no excess hydraulic power. Yet it must be capable of pumping fuel at 900 gallons a minute at the boom-nozzle interface, flying at 15,000 feet altitude at 300 knots.   “By applying the TRIZ principles,” says Higgs, the class came up with two complete solutions and two supportive solutions that my team had never thought of.  These solutions have many useful auxiliary solutions,” he says, adding that the solutions must remain under wrap because they are highly competition sensitive.”

TRIZ: Invention Versus Inertia
ED Wells Initiative
A joint SPEEA/Boeing program for the application of technical excellence
October 2000