TRIZ
“Many years ago I spent two years of my life in Russia. To this day, my interest level remains high in the events, news, and culture of Russia, as would be expected with anyone who lives that long in a foreign country.
So, it wasn’t a surprise that I find a creative design strategy, invented in the former Soviet Union, called TRIZ, intriguing. ”
In Russian, TRIZ (or триз) stands for “теория решения изобретательских задач.”
My own translation is “the theory of resolving innovation tasks” but it could also be translated as “the theory of inventive problem solving.” (with the acronym of TIPS). However, I’m glad that in English we often still refer to is as TRIZ. It’s similar to how we still use “SI units” when employing the French “Système International d'unités.”
The inventor of TRIZ, Genrich Altshuller, essentially explored millions of patents and solutions to problems and categorized them and systematized ways of solving what he called “technical contradictions”. My own term for these contradictions is “trades.” These trades are the relationships between different elements, dimensions, parameters, attributes, or criteria, such that when one goes up the other goes down. Or, more comprehensively, when one dimension improves in a desirable direction another one will degrade. For example, a car with faster acceleration (desirable) is usually more expensive (less desirable), and a smartphone with a longer-lasting battery (desirable) may need to be larger (less desirable).
Altshuller discovered that almost all of the engineering trades or contradictions can be categorized into relationships of two or more of 39 different engineering parameters. This set of 39 parameters includes obvious ones such as “volume”, “weight”, “shape” and “strength”, but also the parameters of “complexity”, “loss of information”, and “convenience of use” which are sometimes more challenging to measure. For example, the “convenience of use” of a smartphone goes way down even if it could last for a full month with a five-pound battery (i.e. “weight” goes up).
Altshuller also identified 40 different ways or inventive principles to resolve these trades. Some examples include: “short-lived (disposable) instead of durable,” “periodic action,” “composite materials,” and “feedback.” Other principles hint at the solution, such as “spheroidality,” “homogeneity,” or “inert environment,” but the details and summary of these principles can be clarified through various definition tables and infographics that are available online. (See below for one example.)
In terms of applying TRIZ, if you are designing something, a recommended process would be to first go through the 39 parameters and cross off the ones that don’t apply or aren’t initially the most important elements for your design. Next, take time to explore and discover the trades or contradictions among that subset of relationships. Yes, there could be a lot of them – up to 1482 (i.e. 39x38). Then, identify and prioritize the most essential or critical trades. Finally, iterate thought the 40 inventive principles and see if they can be instrumental in solving the trade. Again, many of these principles can be eliminated based on the domain or constraints within your design problem, but it’s better to err on the side of an open mind.
There is also an associated algorithm of TRIZ called “ARIZ” and lots of open-source and proprietary tools that implement TRIZ and ARIZ and the interested reader is encouraged to search and explore those.
Regardless, TRIZ can be repeated a number of times during the design process, especially if there are nested subsystems and components. There may be a number of specific techniques that resolve the same contradiction within one inventive principle category. These techniques can be compared and contrasted and may need to be resolved. For example, more than one choice of composite material might do the job but each will have its own pros and cons. Furthermore, when TRIZ is implemented to solve one trade, another trade may become much more important due to the coupling of the 39 parameters. Thus, the application of one principle may need to be followed by the application of another. Be prepared to iterate. Yдачи!
