from Russia with TRIZ
An evolving design methodology defines problems in terms of contradiction.
By Emily M. Smith
The idea for a self-heating beverage container
had already been implemented in the 1990s and was being used by consumers
of sake in Japan. But, in the eyes of an American entrepreneur—who
saw greater possibilities for such containers in the beverage, food, and
cosmetics industries—the design of these self-heating vessels needed
considerable improvement before being brought to market.
Clunky and hazardous to activate, the Japanese containers were also expensive
to manufacture.
Engineers at Ontro Inc., the Poway, Calif., container company later founded
by the American entrepreneur, overcame those obstacles by applying TRIZ,
an esoteric design methodology that is not in mainstream use because it
is still in the early stages of development.
TRIZ is an acronym for the Russian equivalent of the Theory of Inventive
Problem Solving. The design methodology was developed in 1946 by Genrich
Altshuller, a 20-year-old inventor who had studied the intellectual property
contained in some 200,000 patents. After World War II, Altshuller was
assigned to the Russian Navy as an inspector of inventing. Hoping to help
inventors solve technical problems in more creative ways, he decided to
analyze patent applications to discern patterns in the processes that
applicants had used to come up with the designs they were trying to patent.
Convinced that the process of design and invention could be defined by
more than creativity and luck, Altshuller decided to study only the patents
that introduced a new application of science. He organized his study of
40,000 patents according to patterns of design and the principles in these
innovative solutions. From that, the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving
was born.
TRIZ uses 40 principles and 39 parameters. One of the principles, nesting,
for instance, is defined in one text as "an object inside another,
which in turn is placed inside a third object." An example is the
mechanical pencil with lead storage. Parameters involve measurements,
lengths and widths, and weights.
In TRIZ, all design problems involve some sort of contradiction. A product
must be stronger but lighter—known as a technical contradiction—or
needs to be of higher quality but lower cost—an administrative contradiction.
Often, Altshuller discovered, solving a contradiction involved applying
an old method in a new way.
"It's like mathematics," said Michael Slocum, who taught TRIZ
to clients while a consultant for two years, and then to students at North
Carolina State University for another four years. A Fellow of the Royal
Statistical Society in London, he is now vice president of science and
engineering at Ontro. He introduced TRIZ to the company's engineers and,
with them, used it to develop the design of the self-heating container
enough to bring it to market. Like math, TRIZ "has a number of technical
and nontechnical applications," Slocum explained. "It reduces
creativity to an exact science." And like math, he added, "The
more you know, the more powerful it is."
He said his experience with solving some design issues with the self-heating
container is an example of just how powerful TRIZ is. By 1999, Ontro had
solved many of its container-design problems, but one in particular had
been giving engineers trouble. They had spent months trying to figure
out why an aluminum foil seal that prevented water from reacting with
calcium oxide—a main component of the self-heating technology—was
leaking.
Calcium
oxide inside the inner cone will react with water to heat this container.
The trick was to keep them apart until the reaction was needed.
They were still looking when Slocum came onboard. Given the problem on
his first day at Ontro, Slocum said he employed a basic TRIZ technique—identifying
the zone of conflict—and came up with the solution in two days.
Although Ontro's engineers had also identified the point of conflict as
the area where water met a laminated aluminum foil seal, they hadn't considered
everything. While they had analyzed elements in the water, they had made
an assumption about the makeup of the metal in the foil—that it was
pure aluminum.
When Slocum sent out the seal for analysis, he discovered two facts: The
seal was more iron than aluminum and the seal's laminate was not completely
waterproof. Because the laminate was dispersion-coated only once, water
was getting through the laminate and corroding the iron in the foil. A
call to the vendor—to substantially increase the percentage of aluminum
in the foil and to dispersion-coat the laminate twice—resolved the
issue.
Overall, Slocum said, 90 percent of the 333 problems encountered in the
development of the self-heating container have been resolved using TRIZ.
The design problems included: securely sealing a metal end to a plastic
body; developing a cone inside the beverage container that is part of
the heating technology; coming up with a process to keep the container's
contents sterile, and reconciling the chemistry causing the heat generation
with the absorption rate of the container's contents.
Now, if TRIZ is so efficient in leading engineers to solutions quickly,
why isn't it used as regularly as TRIZ advocates would like? "TRIZ
is subject to the same laws of evolution as every other science,"
Slocum said. He added that while TRIZ has been around for a while, its
implementation by users is still in the infancy stage.
Consider, too, that Altshuller was imprisoned for several years after
explaining in a letter to Stalin in 1948 how TRIZ would benefit the process
of inventing. New ideas can be frightening for those who are comfortable
using the old ways. Getting more engineers to use TRIZ will likely require
identifying the point of conflict in the contradiction: understanding
a methodology that will lead engineers to solutions faster without taking
a lot of time to learn it.
Both Slocum and Andre deZanger, who is giving an ASME-sponsored TRIZ seminar
this month at National Manufacturing Week, said that, generally, practicing
engineers are too set in their ways to try out a new, knowledge-based
approach to creativity.
DeZanger, a faculty member at Buffalo State University, said that "a
lot of engineers are burnt out." He added that they miss the value
of what he considers a database of genius. TRIZ, he said, embodies a "Rosetta
stone of invention in a generic form."
"Only a small percentage of engineers are going to invest the time
it takes to master TRIZ well enough to apply it for the rest of their
professional lives," said Slocum, who is an ASME member. He added
that there are pockets of use in the United States: Engineers at NASA
have used it; engineers at Ford have used it, and so have those at General
Motors and at the U.S. Department of Defense.
A
point of conflict in this design was an aluminum foil seal with too much
iron and too little waterproofing.
Confusion over TRIZ's terminology may also be hindering widespread use,
according to Slocum and deZanger. The methodology is known by five different
acronyms: TRIZ, the Russian acronym; TIPS, the English acronym for the
Theory of Inventive Problem Solving; and three more for derivative methodologies—
SIT, for Systematic Innovative Thinking; ASIT, which stands for Advanced
Systematic Innovative Thinking; and USIT, or Unified Structured Inventive
Thinking.
According to deZanger and Slocum, TRIZ is far more ingrained among engineers
in Russia, where learning to use available resources in new ways is second
nature, and in Japan, home to the Mitsubishi Institute, where thousands
of engineers are trained in TRIZ every year. Similarly coordinated efforts
don't exist in the United States.
The number of books and courses on the subject is growing, however. The
TRIZ Journal, where Slocum is a contributing editor, is available online
as are several other Web sites on the subject. He is the founder of Izobretenia
(Russian for "innovations"), the journal of the Altshuller Institute
for TRIZ Studies. But, Slocum said, only uniformity in the teaching of
TRIZ and beginning that indoctrination earlier in an engineer's education
will help TRIZ take greater hold in the United States.
Once standards are developed and the Accreditation Board for Engineering
and Technology, which sets the criteria for accreditation of undergraduate
engineering degree programs in the United States, buys in, Slocum said,
engineering students could be introduced to TRIZ during the capstone project
phase in their senior year.
As engineers develop a greater appreciation of TRIZ, Slocum said, its
potential for growth is staggering because its applications for engineering
are so broad. And yet, when it comes to design, Slocum said, TRIZ should
never be considered a panacea. It has limitations, he explained: "It
will not make an idiot into a genius."
ASME offers TRIZ short courses and in-company training. For details, visit
www.asme.org/education.
Emily M. Smith is managing editor of ASME News.