A 40‑hour foundations course in TOP‑TRIZ, the most powerful and user-friendly modern reformulation of the theory of inventive problem solving. Engineers and project managers learn to formulate the contradictions inside their hardest problems and surface the inventive solutions hiding inside them — for cost reduction, quality improvement, RCCA, new product development and technology forecasting. The interactive course includes many examples and 22 case studies. Bring your real-life problems to class.
Twelve practical capabilities, taught with examples from three decades of consulting at Boeing, NASA, Saint-Gobain, Bridgestone and others. Every topic is part of a single, end-to-end TOP-TRIZ algorithm — not a loose collection of techniques.
The TOP-TRIZ list of problems includes:
TOP-TRIZ provides checklists or algorithms to solve six classes of problems in innovation:
In most cases, an improvement of one feature or function affects another. The Conflict Solving Algorithm guides you to achieve the desired improvement without any deterioration of the conflicting function. Even the most difficult problems with contradictions involved may be routinely solved without having to make trade-offs.
For example, a Boeing team struggled with a conflict between two features in the 767-TT design for three years. A trade-off was not applicable, making the problem seem unsolvable. Two solutions developed through a 4-hour TOP-TRIZ session were credited by the company for winning eight orders while saving millions of dollars.
Building Sufficient Functions offers a step-by-step approach to introduce a new function or find a better way to perform an existing one. The method is supported by a list of physical fields and effects that helps you overcome background limitations.
TOP-TRIZ provides checklists for six Direct Ways to eliminate harmful action — and four ways to turn a harmful action into a benefit.
TOP-TRIZ guides you to list, analyze and use the available resources of the system, its supersystem and even the environment in order to develop the least expensive solutions possible.
TOP-TRIZ guides you to identify what happened and why it happened, then develop the improvements needed to eliminate the problem. It handles root cause & corrective action much faster than conventional methods including five whys, fishbone diagrams and brainstorming — especially for problems with multiple causes.
The key difference: we pretend the failure is a desired result and use Build Sufficient Functions to invent how to produce it using available resources, then guide elimination of the revealed causes using Harmful Action Elimination and the Conflict Solving Algorithm.
For example, a team had been working for years on revealing the cause of an electric arc inside a fuel pump electrical connector. It took just two hours for a team using TOP-TRIZ to reveal the set of events leading to the failure and determine multiple ways to eliminate the problem completely. Some solutions were patented in the US and other countries.
TOP-TRIZ provides a checklist for cost reduction. There are four different ways to eliminate or substitute an expensive component or feature. Building Sufficient Functions helps identify new ways to perform the needed functions.
The Conflict Solving Algorithm helps achieve the desired result without deterioration of anything else. TOP-TRIZ has helped clients save hundreds of millions of dollars.
Conventional road-mapping is usually based on the past trends of development of the same product, and is very often incorrect for the long term. TOP-TRIZ technology forecasting is based on a set of trends drawn from the evolution of hundreds of products. There is a very high probability your product will follow the same evolutionary steps — and TOP-TRIZ will guide you to use those steps and trends to invent its future.
TOP-TRIZ guides you to invent how to achieve the same — or a better — result using entirely different and all possible ways.
The TOP-TRIZ Problem Formulator and Solver software is based on the same steps as the training materials. It helps you learn the method faster, guides you in TOP-TRIZ applications, and is a great tool for facilitating teams. A one-year free license is included with this course (a $2,000 value).
TOP-TRIZ is based on a generalization of breakthrough invention — which is why it leads to breakthrough solutions. The process helps you overcome preconceived notions, psychological and background barriers, and develop winning solutions in less time.
Eleven live online sessions, taught from Seattle by TRIZ Master Z. Royzen. Workshop materials and a one-year license to the TOP-TRIZ Problem Formulator and Solver software are included.
By Zinovy Royzen, TRIZ Master · TRIZ Consulting, Inc. · ISBN 978-0-9728543-0-6.
One year free license — a $2,000 value. The software follows the same algorithm taught in the course and is an excellent tool for facilitating teams.
Selected from three decades of correspondence with our students — Boeing Associate Technical Fellows, Saint-Gobain senior scientists, NASA chief engineers, and university faculty.
One of the most thought-provoking courses I have ever taken. Zinovy will make you look at problems in a different way — enabling you to get under the surface and apply new concepts to resolve them. I still regularly refer to the exercises from the course.
I highly recommend Zinovy and his TRIZ offering. It can save your company time and substantial money where innovation and problem solving are required beyond standard engineering solutions. He has continued to develop his methods to eliminate common errors and make the process more intuitive — I highly recommend this training.
Zinovy is a truly amazing TRIZ educator, inventor and problem solver. His series of TRIZ classes are the best, most useful, and most interesting I've ever taken — and like all engineers I've taken a lot.
Don't let the word "Theory" in "Theory of Inventive Problem Solving" fool you; TRIZ is a practical tool for solving all types of engineering, scientific, and business problems. If you have a chance to work with Zinovy, through his classes or his consulting business, I highly recommend it.
Out of several TRIZ promoters I have had contact with, Zinovy is the best. His credentials are impeccable. He is also one of the few people I know of who are actively contributing to the science of TRIZ. I am convinced TRIZ is real and could be of significant benefit to NASA.
Zinovy Royzen's TRIZ classes teach a very non-intuitive set of approaches to problems. The TRIZ methods allow problems to be seen from many additional viewpoints — that allows many otherwise-impossible problems to be solved.
Most classic approaches such as brainstorming or fishbone diagrams result in focus on a particular class of solutions while ignoring others. TRIZ tools give a high level of confidence that all avenues of possible solutions have been explored.
I have taken many professional development training courses over my career. I found the Basic TRIZ and Advanced Practice TRIZ courses to be the most useful, the most stimulating, and the most satisfying of these trainings.
Two features I find especially valuable: (1) the functional analysis process forces you to understand what the problem really is on a fundamental level; (2) the TOP-TRIZ algorithm is complete. You can be confident that if a solution to your challenge exists, you will find it.
Zinovy's course materials include a summary of the methods in his TOP-TRIZ Problem Formulator, which contains a flow chart for problem formulation, classification, solution and evaluation. This is a handy reference I rely on in both practice and real-world problems.
Although the course examples are focused on technical contradictions, I have been successful in extending Zinovy's analysis approach and TOP (Tool-Object-Product) model to organizational and software development conflicts. I highly recommend Zinovy's course series to anyone interested in solving difficult, complex and inventive problems.
I would rate Zinovy's five-day TRIZ class as being in the top three best of the hundreds of hours of training I have attended in 12 years. His training brings clarity and simplicity to a topic that has been clouded by 56 years of evolution and differing opinion. His course workbook is one of the best I have seen for enabling an attendee to apply what they have learned.
"If you just want a warm fuzzy feeling about how good TRIZ can be, you can attend just about anyone's class, but if you want to actually be able to do something with what you learn, the only class to attend is Zinovy's." She was absolutely right. I give it the strongest possible recommendation for anyone working in applied R&D, product or process engineering and design, manufacturing process improvement, or problem solving in any industry.
Your TOP (Tool-Object-Product) model is much cleaner than the original substance-field model for functions. Based on this new model, you can actually reduce the number of standard solutions and make those solutions more independent from subject-of-matter knowledge. This makes TRIZ more coherent and easier to use — and easier to integrate with other engineering disciplines.
It was a stunning discovery for me when I found that TOP-TRIZ, enhanced by Zinovy, produced strong technical solutions in a far clearer way compared to classical TRIZ. I routinely use TRIZ developing "out of the box" technical solutions. Working for my company for 20 years I have been awarded with 31 patents — and TRIZ methodology was a significant part of that.
I'm absolutely impressed. The structure of the standard techniques is excellent, very clear and logical. I like a lot all the micro-algorithms and excellent worksheets which make the book very "hands-on". I wish I had discovered this book five years earlier.
I found your Designing and Manufacturing Better Products Faster Using TRIZ course stimulating and interesting. I found your approach very rigorous — I am now a fan of your TOP approach versus S-fields. Also your function analysis piece is stronger than other TRIZ courses I have been at.