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 3.0 The Theory of TRIZ

There are a number of laws in the theory of TRIZ. One of them is the Law of Increasing Ideality. This means that technical systems evolve toward increasing degrees of ideality, where ideality is defined as the quotient of the sum of the system's useful effects, Ui, divided by the sum of its harmful effects, Hj.

Useful effects include all the valuable results of the system's functioning. Harmful effects include undesired inputs such as cost, footprint, energy consumed, pollution, danger, etc. The ideal state is one where there are only benefits and no harmful effects. It is to this state that product systems will evolve. From a design point of view, engineers must continue to pursue greater benefits and reduce cost of labor, materials, energy, and harmful side effects. Normally, when improving a benefit results in increased harmful effects, a trade-off is made, but the Law of Ideality drives designs to eliminate or solve any trade-offs or design contradictions. The ideal final result will eventually be a product where the beneficial function exists but the machine itself does not. The evolution of the mechanical spring-driven watch into the electronic quartz crystal watch is an example of moving towards ideality.

3.1 The TRIZ Process Step-By-Step

As mentioned above, Altshuller felt an acceptable theory of invention should be familiar enough to inventors by following the general approach to problem solving shown in figure 1. A model was constructed as shown in figure 4.

3.1.1 Step 1. Identifying My Problem

Boris Zlotin and Alla Zusman, principles TRIZ scientists at the American company Ideation and students of Altshuller have developed an "Innovative Situation Questionnaire" to identify the engineering system being studied, its operating environment, resource requirements, primary useful function, harmful effects, and ideal result.

Example: A beverage can. An engineered system to contain a beverage. Operating environment is that cans are stacked for storage purposes. Resources include weight of filled cans, internal pressure of can, rigidity of can construction. Primary useful function is to contain beverage. Harmful effects include cost of materials and producing can and waste of storage space. Ideal result is a can that can support the weight of stacking to human height without damage to cans or beverage in cans.

3.1.2 Formulate the problem: the Prism of TRIZ

Restate the problem in terms of physical contradictions. Identify problems that could occur. Could improving one technical characteristic to solve a problem cause other technical characteristics to worsen, resulting in secondary problems arising? Are there technical conflicts that might force a trade-off?

Example: We cannot control the height to which cans will be stacked. The price of raw materials compels us to lower costs. The can walls must be made thinner to reduce costs, but if we make the walls thinner, it cannot support as large a stacking load. Thus, the can wall needs to be thinner to lower material cost and thicker to support stacking-load weight. This is a physical contradiction. If we can solve this, we will achieve an ideal engineering system.

3.1.3 Search for Previously Well-Solved Problem

Altshuller extracted from over 1,500,000 world-wide patents these 39 standard technical characteristics that cause conflict. These are called the 39 Engineering Parameters shown in Table 2. Find the contradicting engineering principles. First find the principle that needs to be changed. Then find the principle that is an undesirable secondary effect. State the standard technical conflict.

Example: The standard engineering parameter that has to be changed to make the can wall thinner is "#4, length of a nonmoving object." In TRIZ, these standard engineering principles can be quite general. Here, "length" can refer to any linear dimension such as length, width, height, diameter, etc. If we make the can wall thinner, stacking-load weight will decrease. The standard engineering parameter that is in conflict is "#11, stress."

The standard technical conflict is: the more we improve the standard engineering parameter "length of a nonmoving object," the more the standard engineering parameter "stress" becomes worse.

3.1.4. Look for Analogous Solutions and Adapt to My Solution

Altshuller also extracted from the world wide patents 40 inventive principles. These are hints that will help an engineer find a highly inventive (and patentable) solution to the problem. Examples from patents are also suggested with these 40 inventive principles. See Table 3. To find which inventive principles to use, Altshuller created the Table of Contradictions, Table 4. The Table of Contradictions lists the 39 Engineering Parameters on the X-axis (undesired secondary effect) and Y-axis (feature to improve). In the intersecting cells, are listed the appropriate Inventive Principles to use for a solution.

Example: The engineering parameters in conflict for the beverage can are "#4, length of a nonmoving object" and "#11, stress." The feature to improve (Y-axis) is the can wall thickness or "#4, length of a nonmoving object" and the undesirable secondary effect (X-axis) is loss of load bearing capacity or "#11, stress." Looking these up on the Table of Contradictions, we find the numbers 1, 14, and 35 in the intersecting cell.

Inventive Principle #1 is Segmentation.

a) Divide an object into independent parts
b) Make an object sectional
c) Increase the degree of an object's segmentation

Examples:

• Sectional furniture, modular computer components, folding wooden ruler

• Garden hoses can be joined together to form any length needed

For example, using Inventive Principle 1 c. "Increase the degree of an object's segmentation," the wall of the can could be changed from one smooth continuous wall to a corrugated or wavy surface made up of many "little walls." This would increase the edge strength of the wall yet allow a thinner material to be used. See figure 5.

Inventive Principle # 14 is Spheroidality.

a) Replace linear parts or flat surfaces with curved ones; replace cubical shapes with spherical shapes;
b) Use rollers, balls spirals;
c) Replace a linear motion with rotating movement; utilize a centrifugal force.

Example: Computer mouse utilized ball construction to transfer linear two-axis motion into vector motion

Using Inventive Principle 14 a., the perpendicular angle at which most can lids are welded to the can wall can be changed to a curve. See Figure 6.

Inventive Principle #35 is Transformation of the physical and chemical states of an object.

Change an object's aggregate state, density distribution, degree of flexibility, temperature.

Example: In a system for brittle friable materials, the surface of the spiral feedscrew was made from an elastic material with two spiral springs. To control the process, the pitch of the screw could be changed remotely.

Change the composition to a stronger metal alloy used for the can wall to increase the load bearing capacity.

In less than one week, the inventor Jim Kowalik of Renaissance Leadership Institute was able to propose over twenty usable solutions to the U.S. canned beverage industry, several which have been adopted.