Simplified TRIZ: New Problem‐Solving Applications for Engineers and Manufacturing Professionals

Citation

Narasimhan, K. (2006), "Simplified TRIZ: New Problem‐Solving Applications for Engineers and Manufacturing Professionals", The TQM Magazine, Vol. 18 No. 3, pp. 311-312. https://doi.org/10.1108/09544780610660031

In the global market, the provision of innovative products and services that offer value for money retaining customers and marketing them in innovative ways has become imperative to satisfy and retain customers. This book is really a practical guide to the application of TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) developed by Altshuller of USSR.

Kalevi Rantenan is a Finnish TRIZ expert earned his Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from USSR and has worked as an entrepreneur since 1991. He conducts TRIZ training to help organizations achieve business objectives through creativity. Ellen Domb is the President of PQR Group, USA. She has worked in the field of quality management for a number of years and is a chartered member of the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) Institute. She is the Co‐founder of the TRIZ Institute and editor of the TRIZ Journal, a free online monthly (www.triz‐journal.com).

The book comprises 16 chapters, glossary of terms and a useful index. Each chapter commences with an introduction and culminates in a summary of key points and useful references. There are useful cross references to material covered in previous chapters and what is to follow in the following chapters.

The first two chapters show why a new approach to problem solving is needed and describe the five key steps of the new approach based on TRIZ features. The five features described, with the aid of a model, are the concept of contradiction, mapping resources, ideal final result, patterns of evolution and innovative principles.

The next two chapters explain how to formulate a problem using the concept of tradeoffs between two opposite inherent properties or features. First the terms are explained and then examples are used to explain how tradeoffs can be described both graphically and in words. Chapter 5 focuses on unused but available resources (termed “invisible reserves”) and shows how an analysis of such resources can stimulate new ideas to resolve the problems by understanding customer needs that might not have been previously identified.

The concept of value termed as “ideality” (or the “ideal final result”) that forms the basis of evaluating solutions is explained in Chapter 6. Chapter 7 explains how the concepts of ideality, contradiction and resources are used for evaluating alternative solutions to a problem. The application of these concepts is reviewed in Chapter 8, with the aid of examples.

Chapter 9 focuses on patterns that are repeated in the evolution of systems. Five primary patterns discussed are uneven evolution of technology, transition to macro level, segmentation, increase of interactions, and expansion and trimming. How these patterns are used for selecting solutions, finding or solving problems, forecasting evolution and transferring solutions across industries is also covered. “Forty Principles” of TRIZ to create good solutions are covered in some depth in the longish Chapter 10 (82 pages). First, the principles are listed and grouped into 13 categories. This is followed by a brief statement of each principle and a number of examples (from both business and technology) that illustrate the principle under consideration. Examples used in the previous chapters are repeated to show how the relevant principles were used to develop innovative solutions to those problems. A whole section is devoted to explaining 39 features of the contradiction matrix and how to select the most suitable principles for a given situation.

Chapter 11 is a very brief (2 pages) and list questions to be posed in evaluating the use of TRIZ tools for a given situation. How to introduce TRIZ into an organization is briefly explained with the aid of a flow chart in the following chapter. The relationship between TRIZ and QFD is also illustrated. The next two chapters focus on showing, respectively, the relationships between TRIZ and “Theory of Constraints” and TRIZ and Six Sigma. Chapter 15 is a summary of the previous chapters. The final chapter is a short exhortation to start using TRIZ for problem solving.

The book is compact and well written with a number of easily comprehensible examples. It is a very useful addition to the other books on TRIZ reviewed earlier.