The Biz of TRIZ

!±8± The Biz of TRIZ

Necessity is the mother of all invention, or at least that is how the old adage goes. Invention is at the heart of most entrepreneurial endeavors, whether it is creating flavored popcorn salt or inventing a blanket with sleeves. The Pet Rock and the Big Mouth Billy Bass turned their inventors into millionaires while we all sat back saying, "Why didn't I think of that!" If necessity is the mother of all invention and invention is the child, how is invention born? In less maternal terms, if necessity is the current state and invention is the desired state, how does one bridge the gap? Enter TRIZ.

TRIZ stands for Teoriya Resheniya Izobretatelskikh Zadatch or for the English speaking crowd: the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving. Conventional wisdom tells us that invention is the result of unique and radically new ideas of which no one has ever thought. Humans have been around for thousands of years and it seems virtually every unique and/or new idea worth thinking has been thought. Based on this premise, starting in 1946, a Soviet gentleman by the name of Genrikh Saulovich Altshuller studied hundreds of thousands of patents across a spectrum of industries and applications. In reviewing specific inventions and the technical contradictions an invention was able to overcome, Altshuller was able to generalize said contradictions and their corresponding solutions into 40 problem solving principles. In successfully converting specific contradictions to generalized contradictions using quantitative measures, Altshuller was able to create generalized solutions to lead to specific solutions for an application.

So how does it work? TRIZ is generally used in its matrix form, which involves a 40 by 40 table of values. There are 39 quantitative features across the top row and down the left column of the matrix including speed, reliability, efficiency, weight, etc. To use the matrix, a technical contradiction must be established. A simple real world example would be getting ketchup out of a bottle. One would think that humans would have perfected the art of extracting ketchup from a bottle over the past 125 years of ketchup production. The problem with ketchup is that you can never empty the bottle-no matter how hard you try there is always some left in the bottom. Furthermore, as bottles of ketchup get larger, an increasing amount of ketchup is remains latched to the sides of the bottle. This specific problem can be converted to a generalization in TRIZ terms. As the "quantity of substance" increases, "productivity" (aka efficiency) decreases. Referencing the mighty TRIZ tables produces 4 possible principles to help solve this humanitarian dilemma, one of which is principal #13 appropriately titled "the other way around." This principal tells us to, among other things, "turn the object upside-down." Eureka! Today, after a short century of sticking knives in ketchup bottles, we have the ubiquitous upside-down ketchup bottle! By performing the preliminary action of turning the bottle upside-down before the ketchup is needed, salvageable condiment quantities are increased without an increase in production costs.

The Biz of TRIZ is not only limited to the world of processed vegetable-fruits. TRIZ can be used to solve virtually any technical contradiction. Many notable products have been developed using the TRIZ systematic method of invention. In fact, Proctor & Gamble's most successful product ever-Crest Whitestrips-was developed using TRIZ.

The next time you find yourself with "inventor's block," consider utilizing TRIZ. Thanks to the internet, paper TRIZ matrices have gone the way of the slide rule and free interactive tools are available online: http://www.triz40.com.