PRODUCT IMPROVEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF NEW GENERATION PRODUCTS USING TRIZ
Zinovy Royzen, President TRIZ Consulting, Inc.
Seattle, Washington
(206) 364-3116
Zroyzen@trizconsulting.com
http://www.trizconsulting.com
The paper was presented at the ASI Total Product Development Symposium in Dearborn, MI in November 1995.
ABSTRACT
This paper describes why the improvement of products and the development of next product-generations can be done much more effectively by understanding the Laws of Engineering System Evolution, following them to define the problems which are worth solving, and using TRIZ technology for problem solving. TRIZ is the Russian acronym which means "The Theory of Inventive Problem Solving." This science is based on extensive analysis of the world’s most significant patents, which resulted in the discovery of the Laws of Engineering System Evolution and several hundred inventive principles which were used to solve fundamental contradictions, the most difficult type of inventive problems. Engineers and managers increase effectiveness of work and results by using the TRIZ knowledge-based way of thinking.
PRODUCT IMPROVEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF NEW GENERATION PRODUCTS USING TRIZ
1. INTRODUCTION
The competition makes companies continuously improve their products and technologies. The rate of improvement of effectiveness of a current product or the replacement of it with next product-generation has became the real key to success. What technology does a company use to generate breakthrough concepts and ideas? How does a company evaluate these concepts, establish priorities, and develop its strategy of innovation?
Conventional tools for product improvement include Brainstorming, Flow Diagrams, Cause-and-Effect Diagrams, Check Sheets, etc. Many companies have included in their arsenal such methods as Value Engineering, Function Analysis, Robust Design, Quality Function Deployment, etc. Problem solving technology in all of these tools and methods is based on brainstorming. It is a good method for generating creative ideas in a team, but it is based on the trial and error method of generating ideas by every individual. Brainstorming is not effective in solving difficult problems with contradictions involved.
TRIZ knowledge-based technology for generating new concepts and ideas has deepened analysis of current products and technologies, brought breakthroughs in problem definition and problem solving, and provided criteria for evaluation of the created concepts.
2. THE THEORY OF INVENTIVE PROBLEM SOLVING
TRIZ was created in the Soviet Union. Genrich S. Altshuller, the creator of TRIZ, realized that the most difficult problems in engineering involved fundamental contradictions. He found that most solutions to a difficult problem were trade-offs. A desired improvement of a system’s parameter in a trade-off caused deterioration of another parameter of the system. As a result of a trade-off, the system did not perform at least one of its functions perfectly, but a breakthrough solution to a difficult problem solved or eliminated the contradiction without any trade-off. Altshuller selected the world’s most significant patents and analyzed ways of solving and eliminating the fundamental contradictions. He discovered that just several hundred inventive principles were used to solve or eliminate contradictions in many thousands of breakthrough inventions. He realized that if inventors had known these inventive principles in advance, many of the analyzed inventions would have been created much earlier. G. S. Altshuller developed TRIZ as a new technology for solving fundamental contradictions. Today’s TRIZ is based on analysis of approximately 1.5 million patents worldwide. TRIZ Problem Solving Methods include the Inventive Principles, the Table for Engineering Contradiction Elimination, the Standard Solutions to Inventive Problems, and the Algorithm for Inventive Problem Solving.
Every breakthrough invention is a significant step in the evolution of a product or technology. Altshuller discovered common tendencies in the evolution of many different products, technologies and their functions. He called these tendencies Laws of Engineering System Evolution. They provide one not only with understanding of the evolution of one’s product and technology, but also with the opportunity to predict and accelerate its inevitable evolution. Guided by the Laws of Engineering System Evolution, one can define problems which should be solved to approach the next step in the evolution of one’s product and technology. In addition, the Laws of Engineering System Evolution provide one with criteria to evaluate found concepts.
The TRIZ approach to study a system has incorporated the following:
Analysis of the structure of the system, its subsystems and the supersystem.
Analysis of the functions of the system, its subsystems and the supersystem.
Analysis of the inevitable evolution of the system, its subsystems and the supersystem.
The TRIZ approach to study a system has been strengthened by Substance-Field Modeling. The simplest Substance-Field Model describes, by symbols, a useful, unwanted, harmful or insufficient action of one object at another. Any system, engineering problem or solution can be described by its simplest Substance-Field Model or a set of Substance-Field Models. It helps in understanding the mechanisms of the useful and the unwanted functions of a system. Substance-Field Modeling deepens even subject experts’ understanding of a system. Almost in all cases of my TRIZ practice, my customers learned something new about their systems from Substance-Field Modeling.
Substance-Field Modeling has strengthened TRIZ problem solving technology. If different problems are described by the same Substance-Fields Models, their solutions are described by the same Substance-Fields Models as well. The Standard Solutions are the transformations of the Substance-Field Models of problems to the Substance-Field Models of their solutions.
The Algorithm for Inventive Problem Solving (ARIZ) is the main TRIZ problem solving method. It has incorporated the Inventive Principles and the Standard Solutions. ARIZ divides the process of contradiction elimination into a set of steps. Many problems with contradictions involved could now be routinely solved.
Altshuller started his research in 1946. He and leading TRIZ experts have published many books1,2. Numerous seminars and workshops have been conducted. The Association of TRIZ was established in 1989 and Altshuller is its President.
3. TRIZ THINKING
In TRIZ, the imaginary Ideal System performs its function for free, costs nothing and does not create any undesired effect. According to one Law of Engineering System Evolution, the evolution of a real system increases the degree of the system’s approaching the imaginary Ideal System. The degree of a real system’s approaching the imaginary Ideal System can be increased by reduction of the system’s cost without any deterioration of the useful function and by the improvement of the system’s functionality without any additional cost.
According to this Law of Engineering System Evolution, any improvement of a real product or technology should be obtained for free and without any trade-off. Establishing these goals requires a shift in thinking. In traditional engineering thinking, it is customary to pay for every improvement of a system. "In the past, space programs sought extreme efficiency at any cost," says George Whittinghill, Amroc’s (American Rocket Company) director of marketing3." It is part of the engineering culture to pay for the desired improvement. Value Engineering has improved the situation. The value engineering approach attempts to find the lowest cost way to perform the desired function. In contrast, TRIZ attempts to discover how to perform the desired function with no cost. Most customers has confirmed that before being introduced to TRIZ they never thought about their problems in this way.
Many customers have expressed their surprise when they saw problems defined by using TRIZ to improve their products or develop next product-generations. For example, engineers of a company manufacturing powered tools were surprised by the TRIZ definition of a problem targeted to improve the functionality of a circular saw. Its 7-1/4" blade cuts wood up to 2-3/8". They agreed with my suggestion to make the saw cut wood up to 2-15/16". They had thought about it long before, but they also thought that the saw would require a 8-1/4" blade and a corresponding increase in motor power and weight. This traditional thinking resulted in a contradiction which they have neither solved nor eliminated. In traditional thinking, if a trade-off is not acceptable as the solution to a problem, the problem is considered impossible to solve. The company had not found the solution to its problem for years.
Moreover, a competitor makes a circular saw with 8-1/4" blade to cut wood up to 2-15/16". According to TRIZ, the current saw with 7-1/4" blade had to cut wood up to 2-15/16" without any increase in motor power nor in weight. The new problem was a routine problem which did not even require any TRIZ problem solving methods. Almost no change in design was required. In this case, TRIZ has eliminated the need to solve the contradiction of the original problem. The solution was applicable for the competitor’s saw as well4.
TRIZ analysis of the circular saw resulted in the identification of the fundamental contradictions preventing it from gaining further significant improvement. Implementation of breakthrough solutions to these problems would result in the next generation of the circular saw.
My first application of TRIZ in developing next product generation was made in 1984. The product was a fuse that restored its own wire, because the wire was made of a metal which had less volume in the liquid state than in the solid state.
The fuse includes just four parts: two electrodes and a glass capillary filled with the wire. When an excessive electric current raises the temperature of the wire, it melts. The reduction in the wire’s volume results in an open circuit. The solidifying metal restores its initial volume and closes the circuit5.
One of the goals of the project was to increase the number of the fuse’s useful functions.
According to one of the Laws of Engineering System Evolution, a new function should be introduced with no cost. According to another Law of Engineering System Evolution, a new function can be introduced by making a hybrid. A hybrid of the fuse and resistive heater is a heater which is a fuse for itself. The hybrid maintains the temperature of the melting point of its wire and does not require any devices to measure and control its temperature. The hybrid can measure the outside temperature by measuring the frequency of opening and closing the circuit. I want to underline that no changes were made in the design of the fuse. Since the first application, I have helped many corporations in different industries to improve their products and develop next product-generations.
The effectiveness of TRIZ has been proven by thousands of engineers. TRIZ provide current Quality Improvement tools and methods with much more effective technology of problem solving than brainstorming. TRIZ has been proven very effective in cost reduction and simplification of products and processes since TRIZ incorporated Value Engineering7. TRIZ helps reduce the cost of a system while improving its functionality. TRIZ thinking increases the ability of people to solve difficult problems and create significant inventions. As a result, TRIZ increases the effectiveness of their work.
4. THE ADVANTAGE OF UNDERSTANDING THE INEVITABLE EVOLUTION OF A PRODUCT
The evolution of a product or technology has three stages. The graph of relationship between the effort to improve a product or technology and the growing effectiveness of it is shaped like an S, and called an S-curve.
A newly born product or technology advances slowly at the first stage of its evolution; then the mature product or technologies accelerates until it reaches its limits at the end of the second stage of its evolution; then the old product or technology advances very slowly at the third stage of its evolution. A new product or technology with higher limits inevitably wins the competition.
Nevertheless, many companies invest their money in mature or even old products or technologies. "People are spending half-a-billion dollars to make an old technology 10 percent better," said Paul Nye, president of Information Optics Corp. The company’s ORAM (optical random access memory) Cube can find and deliver data about 200 times faster than a modern fast hard drive. "We have got this wonderful new curve we are working on8."
TRIZ can accelerate advances of a product or technology while reducing efforts for it at the first and the second stages of the product’s evolution. At the third stage, when the product has reached its limits, any significant improvement is impossible. There is a need to switch to a new product. A new S-curve means a new breakthrough invention. Very often a new-curve invention is beyond a team’s, division’s or even company’s background. If a company wants to get a jump on competition, it needs a new product-generation.
The Laws of Engineering System Evolution cover all possible directions in the evolution of a product. TRIZ thinking gives individuals, teams, and companies the opportunity to overcome their background barriers and psychological inertia. The TRIZ approach broadens and deepens the company’s vision of its product and product’s inevitable evolution.
TRIZ provides a company with valuable technology for predicting the evolution of its product, its subsystems and the super system. All of them have their own S-curves. The created concepts can be the basis for development of short and long-term innovation strategy.
Top engineering managers need not be experts in TRIZ, but they have an advantage if they know about the possibility of solving their contradictions instead of accepting trade-offs. Managers have the advantage if they understand the evolution of their products and its competitors and can predict the dynamics of their evolution.
The evolution of a product is inevitable. The failure to recognize the evolution of a company’s product costs the company millions of dollars. It provides an opportunity for a company’s competitor to take the leadership in the market. Knowing TRIZ helps a company not only avoid the wrong conclusion about its innovation strategy but also accelerate the evolution of its product.
5. CONCLUSION
The application of TRIZ is receiving increasing attention from US corporations. TRIZ offers experience drawn from most successful inventions. TRIZ has concentrated this experience into a certain number of patterns. TRIZ has been proven by practice to be a very valuable technology for conceptual engineering design. TRIZ recommendations help to identify the problems which should be solved to improve the function of a current system, not only by improvement of the current system itself, but also by development of the next product-generation. TRIZ helps to solve contradictions instead of accepting a trade-off. TRIZ provides one with an advantage in understanding the inevitable evolution of products, in the definition of problems which are worth solving, and in problem solving. The TRIZ knowledge-based way of thinking gives companies advantage in their innovation to develop better products at a lower cost and in less time.
REFERENCES
1. Altshuller, G. S., in Russian, To Catch an Idea. Introduction in the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, Novosibirsk: Nauka, 1986.
2. Altshuller, G. S., Zlotin, B. L., Zusman, A. V., and Philatov, V. I., in Russian, Searching for New Ideas: From Insight to Technology. The Theory and Practice of Inventive Problem Solving, Kishinev: Kartya Moldovenyaska, 1989.
3. Gottschalk, M. A.,1993, "Tale of Rockets."
Design News, 9-6-93, pp. 70-74
4. Royzen, Z. 1995, "TRIZ Technology", Seattle: TRIZ Consulting, Inc.
5. Ioysher, A. USSR Patent 546,956
6. Royzen, Z. USSR Patent 3,964,662
7. Royzen, Z. 1993, "Application TRIZ in Value Management and Quality Improvement." The SAVE Proceedings, Vol. XXVIII, Society of American Value Engineers, International Conference, May 2-5, 1993, Fort Lauderdale, Florida,
pp. 94-101.
8. Erickson, J., "Fast Times. Data-storage Breakthrough Could Race Past Hard Drives."
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Monday, July 17, 1995