TRIZ was developed by Soviet inventor and science fiction
author Genrich Altshuller. Altshuller
was a patent disclosure analysis for the Soviet navy and refined his methods in
one of Stalin’s Gulags.
Altshuller’s contribution was that he systematically reviewed
over 40,000 patent abstracts and derived techniques that could help resolve the
technical contradictions (e.g. safety vs weight ) inherent to the problem.
This resulted in the most commonly used set of 40 principles that could
help inventors looking for solutions to their specific problem. However,
Altshuller derived a contradiction resolving tool called ARIZ. ARIZ is an
algorithmic approach to finding inventive solutions by identifying and resolving
contradictions. This includes the "system of inventive standards
solutions" which Altshuller used to replace the 40 principles and
contradiction matrix, it consists of SuField modeling and the 76 inventive
standards.
TRIZ has been used at my organization with mixed results.
Though TRIZ can help democratize the invention process without solely relying
on the limited number of “creative” individuals, in reality, the true benefit
of TRIZ/ARIZ can be maximized by helping improve the quantity & quality of
solutions developed by creative individuals.
Other variants of TRIZ can help identify technology
development trajectories (useful for competitive analysis & roadmap
creation) and deficiencies & failure modes related to existing products.
To summarize, TRIZ is not just a tool, it is a mindset. If properly adopted, can unleash the latent creativity that is typically present in all organizations.
Does your organization still employ TRIZ?
ReplyDeleteGood question - TRIZ is not a standard tool within the organization; the organization does emphasize IP generation. Individuals practice some of the underlying principles of TRIZ but more so on their own initiative.
ReplyDelete