PREFACE

 

 

This book is about how to solve the technical problems and how to develop the solutions for them with a high innovation level. Therefore, this book is for those who want to become more creative and successful one in the solving problems.

 

The book is written as a comprehensive, yet simple introduction to the practical use of the TRIZ methodology. TRIZ is a Russian acronym for the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving. This relatively new methodology is becoming a very popular all over the world. First, it was applied for solving just technical problems, then this methodology began to utilize for solving scientific, management and other problems.

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This book reflects the authors’ philosophy of TRIZ problem solving and illustrates the practical usage of this methodology for solving specific and common problems from our daily life. In an entertaining manner and with utilization of many household problems related to home appliances, the authors describe the application of the basic methodology tools and concepts for solving everyday problems. The theoretical materials are represented in a concise and abstract manner.

 

Therefore, in this book you will discover more than hundred well illustrated examples and problems from our daily life with solutions generated by using TRIZ tools. The authors hope that some problems surveyed in the book can be solved by the reader with the better results than the one solution that was published.

 

How was this book created? More then one year ago one of the authors was asked to provide a series of articles for practical TRIZ training for beginners. These articles appeared in the issues of the E-Newsletter of the Altshuller Institute for TRIZ Studies. At that time, it was decided to use this unique opportunity to start our tutorial about logical tools for solving inventive problems, in particular about classical TRIZ tools. During that year, many readers responded with proposals, positive comments, and good thoughts about this educational material. Therefore it was decided to gather all our lessons, improve them with additional new materials and compile into this book.

 

We wanted to thank all of our previous readers who sent us messages and participated in discussing the educational materials and training problems.

 

Also, we would like to challenge you to seek out beautiful problems and then develop more beautiful solutions with their practical application. We hope the knowledge that you obtain from this book will help you in your daily life and provide a spring board to expanding your professional creative activities.

 

We would like to dedicate this book to our children, the next innovative generation of successful problem solvers.

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The problem solving has always been a critical skill like language and mathematics. Society does not question our need to study language or mathematics for 12 years in elementary, high school and beyond. However, academia has overlooked our need to be good problem solvers and has failed to provide any mechanism to develop and improve those skills.

 

So, if there is not a place to learn about problem solving, then how do we get this skill? These survival skills are learned by experience. Our parents, friends, school, work, and television are the training grounds for the development of our problem solving skills. We usually learn just enough to get by.

 

That is the general state of the human condition. This is how Genrikh Altshuller felt while working in the patent office in Russia. Inventive people would come to him and ask, “How do I solve this problem?” Altshuller was not able to provide any additional solutions. Even though Altshuller was a gifted inventor, he was frustrated by his lack of competence and experience in general problem solving skills. Was brainstorming the only way that innovative ideas were generated? There has to be a better way to solve problems.

 

After further consideration, G.Altshuller recognized that he was working in a patent office. It is a repository where the essence of problem solving experiences is stored. He decided to review the patents and extract how inventive people solved their problems. Altshuller distilled years of review and classification efforts into what is known today as TRIZ.

 

TRIZ, Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, is a methodology of developing solution concepts by formulating the problem in terms of contradictions and ideal solution. TRIZ has tools and concepts that deal with different kinds of contradictions. By developing Technical or Physical Contradictions and Ideal Final Solution, we are able to look at problems from a new perspective. It is a problem solving methodology based on a systematic logical approach that was developed from reviewing thousands of patents and the analysis of technology evolution. TRIZ is being used as a powerful intellectual instrument to solve simple and difficult technical and technological problems more quickly and with better results.

 

G.Altshuller found out how smart people overcame contradictions and developed solution concepts that would achieve the desired result. He discovered that there are not an infinitive number of possibilities. He was confident that since the techniques for problem solving were quantifiable then they could be learned. Would this give anyone the ability to solve problems better? By studying TRIZ, you could become a better problem solver and become more innovative and creative. This is an epiphany in traditional thinking. People can become more creative and innovative by studying this methodology and becoming better problem solvers.

 

Fact – TRIZ contains the positive experience of thousands of inventors in developing new products or technology. By studying TRIZ, you will learn those secrets used by inventors. Since TRIZ originates from empirical data, patents, it is not foreign to how people normally think. The technology was developed first and has been used to develop the TRIZ methodology.

 

In this book, the authors’ experience of practical and training activities of TRIZ application is reflected. The structure of the book consists of 14 chapters. Each of these chapters is dedicated to viewing of a separate tool of the methodology. In the book, with usage of concrete examples, the utilization of the each method is displayed. Each of surveyed tools can be applied individually for solving problems or in combination with other methods. Both types of application are described and the opportunities for each of them are demonstrated.

 

To facilitate the comprehension of the considered material, each section has an identical structure. This structure includes an introduction, historical information about the considered tool, information on its basic features, practical examples, demonstration of tool’s application, summary and practical work section.

 

All practical work section includes two kinds of problems. First problems are related to determination of TRIZ tool which should be used. The level of difficulty for solving this kind of problem is not high. You can easily find solutions after carefully reading the corresponding chapter.

 

Another set of problems titled, “Three home problems for specific tool application” has a higher level of difficulty of solving process and will take more time for developing solution concepts.

 

Each problem presented in the book has a specific solution. All of these solutions were collected together in a separated chapter. Please, do not be in a hurry to read ready solution but try to solve each problem by yourself. After receiving your own solution, you can compare it with proposed one in the book. It would be a more helpful way for you to learn. Even if you have read offered solution for a problem from the book, we would recommend you to try developing your own new solution. Since the considered problems are creative, some of them have more than one solution and each solution has a value. That is why it is a good opportunity for you to develop your better offer.

 

The last chapter named “Hand-Book” contenting additional, reference materials on Standards, Algorithm of inventive problem solving and a case study which shows how these tools are used. These materials can be used for practical engineering work during the problem solving process. This chapter is written in a short, abstract-like manner and may be used as a reference for experienced engineers.

 

In summarizing the introduction we note, that time, experience and practice are the elements to success in many aspects of our practical activity. Use these elements for learning TRIZ and you will solve problems faster and with better solutions.