Introduction to TRIZ
What is Triz?
Genrich Altshuller
• was a Soviet engineer, inventor, scientist, journalist
and writer.
• Working as a clerk in a patent office, Altshuller
embarked on finding some generic rules that would
explain creation of new, inventive, patentable ideas.
• By 1969, Altshuller had reviewed about 40,000
patent abstracts in order to find out in what way the
innovation had taken place and developed the
concept of technical contradictions, the concept of
idealistic of a system, contradiction matrix, and 40
principles of invention.
What is TRIZ?
Triz is a problem solving method based on logic and data, but not
intuition.
Triz principles
• Somebody someplace has already solved this
problem (or one very similar to it).
• Creativity is now finding that solution and
adapting to this particular problem.
The TRIZ-problem solving method
1. Generalizing
Problems And Solutions
2. Eliminate
Contradiction
Physical/
Technical
inherent
Contradiction
Contradiction
- Training is comprehensive (good), but it keeps - Software should be complex (to have many features),
employees away from their assignments (bad). but simple (to be easy to learn).
- Service is customized to each customer (good), but - Coffee should be hot (to be enjoyed), but cool (to avoid
the service delivery system gets complicated (bad). burning the drinker).
- The product gets better quality (good), but the - An umbrella should be large (to keep the rain off), but
weight increases (bad). small (easy to handle in a crowd).
Psychological Inertia/Mental Block
Routine Disruptions
Finding a pattern Breaking rule. (read the
(misspelled words), color not the words).
our brains LOVES this Our brain hates it.
•The left column shows a task our brain LOVES doing: finding a pattern in
misspelled words. Past experience and known solutions work great here, piece of
cake for our brain.
•The right column shows a task our brain HATES: reading the word’s color instead of
reading the written word. Past experience does not work here; even worse, past
experience is a wrong solution. Our brain has to do things differently, which is
tiring and frustrating. Unfortunately, innovation work must be disruptive and,
therefore, looks pretty much like this type of task.
• Our brain likes “doing the same things the way we have always done them”. This is
called psychological inertia. Innovation needs disruptive thinking, which does not
get along well with psychological inertia. This mental inertia prevents us from
seeing unconventional solutions and is a great obstacle for breakthrough results. It
is a wall between business as usual and innovation.
Why use TRIZ?
• TRIZ is a problem solving method based on logic and data, not
intuition, which accelerates the project team’s ability to solve these
problems creatively. TRIZ also provides repeatability, predictability,
and reliability due to its structure and algorithmic approach.
Why use TRIZ?
Spent $40,000 and perform 1200 experiments with 5,000 researchers.
Structured and
Trial and Error
systematic
Ways to Solve Problem
Aims
FASTER
BETTER
CHEAPER
ELEGANT SOLUTION