Quality Alchemist (品質煉金術師): TRIZfest 2016

2016年7月29日星期五

TRIZfest 2016 – Day 2

In 2016, there is the TRIZ 60 anniversary and its founder, Genrich Altshuller’s 90 years birthday. The 12^th International Conference “TRIZfest 2016” was conducted on 28 to 30 July 2016 in Beijing, China which co-organized by the International TRIZ Association (MATRIZ) and China Association for Quality (CAQ). The Day 2 of the conference was held in the new building of CAQ headcounter. I took a photo in front of CAQ Building.

Before the conference Day 2 program, I met three experts and took a photo for memory.

(Left: Mr. Alex Lyubomirskiy (TRIZ Master & Senior Principal, GEN3 Partners), Dr. Oleg Yu. Abramov (TRIZ Master, Associate Professor, Senior Principal, Algorithm Technology Research Center), I and Mr. Prushinskly Valeriy (Principal Engineer, Manufacturing Core Technology Team, Global Technology Centre, Samsung Electronics))

The first speaker was Mr. Jun Li (李軍) (Shenzhen Designdo Industrial Design Co. Ltd.) and his presentation topic entitled “Deep Understanding and Applying Flow Analysis, Simplified Detective Flow Classification Models”. Mr. Li used flow analysis to combine with other TRIZ analysis tools (e.g. SFA, RCA, RA, etc) to define the minimum problem and analyze causes of defective flows.

Then he explained the Flow Analysis in Engineering Problem in which had Useful Flow, Defective Flow and Harmful Flow. And then he demonstrated a real engineering problem “Complex product’s shape caused collapses of edges & vertex”. After this case study, the low pass rate of pressure die forming of powder metallurgy production with a new material was enhanced upto 90%.

Dr. Sun Yongwei (National Institute of clean and low-carbon energy, Shenhua group) was the second speaker and his topic named “TRIZ Maturity Evaluation in Organizations”. In the beginning, Dr. Sun briefed several TRIZ killers included improper project, improper trainer, improper coach, improper team, improper promoters, improper TRIZ methodology, etc.

Then Dr. Sun briefed the failure in TRIZ implementation in different stages of S-Curve and he pointed out the most TRIZ activities fail because of non-TRIZ and non-technical reasons.

Finally, Dr. Sun introduced TRIZ maturity criteria in which total score was 1000. It separated into eleven items included “Strategic Positioning (50)”, “Leadership Support (100)”, “Resource Allocation (50)”, “TRIZ team (100)”, “Deployment Strategies (100)”, “TRIZ Methodology (150)”, “Project Management Process (100)”, “Results and Demonstration (150)”, “Incentive (50)”, “Employee Satisfaction (100)” and “Level of TRIZ Application (50)”. Dr. Sun said the higher score, the more likely TRIZ would success.

The third speaker was Mr. Wayne Mallinson (Director, Novation Now (Pty) Ltd.) and his presentation title was “Learning TRIZ and USIT by Tracking Real-World Problems – A Case Study”. Mr. Mallinson proposed to combine TRIZ with Unified Systematic Inventive Thinking (USIT) as an introductory combined course.

In the beginning, Mr. Mallinson introduced Altshuller’s dream of simplification of TRIZ and briefed different TRIZ tools and history of USIT via SIT.

Then Mr. Mallinson briefed the cross-reference table between TRIZ and USIT. TRIZ tools were separated into 3 Levels and USIT approaches was separated into 6 modules. He compared TRIZ levels and TRIZ-USIT combined course. After that he discussed the pros and cons of the following four questions.

1. Does combined training dilute the essence and power of TRIZ?

2. Does combined training raise the TRIZ learning burden of candidates?

3. Will combined training increase the growth and acceptance rate of TRIZ?

4. Which combined training approach will foster the spread of learning and using TRIZ?

Finally, he proposed the 3-day combined course which could make training more acceptable and enjoyable to candidates for introductory level of TRIZ.

The fourth speaker was Mr. Leping Zheng (Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Co. Ltd. (SMEE)) and his presentation named “Learning TRIZ through Lithography-electronics Co-evalution”. He illustrated innovation cases actually realized in lithographic-electronics industry, treating the two as a co-evolving tool-object pair.

Firstly, Mr. Leping Zheng briefed the history of SMEE Innovation Story. SMEE founded in 2002 and introduced TRIZ since 2008. Leader in SMEE would like to increase the innovation ability of engineers at the end of 2013 through building an intranet knowledge base with innovative cases. They told a good story of tool-object co-evolution as one of main ideas. They developed software under Wolfram Mathematica, system engineers could use the tool tips of 40 inventive principles and used it as a tool for looking for an innovative solution in the TRIZ matrix.

Dr. Johan Scheers (Assistant Professor, Applied Physics, Condensed Matter Physics, Chalmers University of Technology) was the fifth speaker and his topic entitled “Master Student Learning TRIZ at the University: Past Experiences, Future Plans, and Best Practices”. Dr. Scheer said TRIZ is a suitable topic for University student to learn but they needed to keep at low cost.

Then Dr. Scheers introduced their course named Creative Problem Solving in Engineering. The course topics included Function Analysis, Contradiction Matrix + 40 Inventive Principles, SU-Field + 76 Standard Solutions, and ARIZ, as well as, Trends of Evolution & S-Curves. This course developed since 2014 and changed to more practical in 2015. He pointed out some problem to create an efficient TRIZ learning environment at the university included few in-class hours (Budget Restriction), 8-week course format and teachers were not TRIZ-experts.

Dr. Simon Litvin was the sixth speaker and his presentation title named “Types of Psychological Inertia”. Firstly, Dr. Litvin introduced Creative Imagination Development and he said TRIZ and Creative Imagination were complimentary.

Then Dr. Litvin briefed the skills for successful innovation included “Subject matter expertise”, “Creative imagination”, “Methods for systematic innovation”, “Broad technical erudition’, “Motivation”, “Analytical thinking” and “Intrinsic talent / intellectual capabilities”.

He used T. Ribot Curve to explain human level of creative imagination was low and steady after 30 years old. In order to achieve higher levels of creativity, we needed to use some tools helping us to break the psychological inertia (especially expert and experience engineer).

There were many different types of psychological inertia (PI), Dr. Litvin talk covered the followings.

- Inertia of functional predisposition

- Inertia of terminological predisposition

- Inertia of form predisposition

- Inertia of predisposition to parameters, states and characteristics

- Inertia of non-existent prohibition

One of question was “John married Mary and became a millionaire.” People would think that related to Mary. But Dr. Litvin said John was millionaire before marry. Dr. Litvin had identified 16 types of PIs and only presented 5 of them in this talk.

The seventh speaker was Dr. Vinodh Mewani (Senior IP Professional Legal PACE, GE Global Research, JFWTC) and his topic was “Trends of Increasing Localization”. Firstly, Dr. Mewani briefed TRIZ roadmap from Problem Identification to Problem Solving and then Concept Substantiation.

Then Dr. Mewani mentioned the trends of Engineering System Evolution from different trends of TRIZ tools to increase Value and then to S-curve evolution.

He explained that localization was the process of adapting a product or service to a particular language, culture, and desired local “look-and-feel”. After that he demonstrated two cases and they were Localization in Healthcare and Localization in Aviation. Dr. Mewani expected the location in Non-Technological Systems would be increased.

The eighth speaker was Mr. Yang Li (李陽) (IWINT Ltd -億維訊) and his presentation title was “Application of TRIZ to the Evolution and Development of Systems Engineering Process Models”. He said the design and manufacturing activities (especially design activities) could take place throughout the entire product life cycle.

Then Mr. Li briefed the traditional systems engineering process model based on Hall’s model in which had met new problem. So that he proposed new 3D framework of systems engineering process model by PERA which was the evolution of systems engineering process models from TRIZ perspective.

Mr. Mike Min Zhao (趙敏) (President, TRIZ Research Council of China Association of Inventions) and he presented the topic named “Conjugate Evolution – Two New Evolutionary Sub-trends”. Mr. Zhao introduced that the systems in substance world were divided into natural systems, man-made systems (MMS) and composite systems. Technical systems were composite systems composed by the MMS and natural system (involved Human System (HS)).

Then Mr. Mike Zhao briefed that MMS and HS were conjugate evolution. Increase the ideality ofMMS, finally would increase the ideality of HS. Finally, he identified two trends and they were the trend of increasing the biological characteristics of MMS and the trend of syncretism of MMS and HS, both were increasing ideality of system.

Mr. Oliver Mayer was the ninth speaker and his topic entitled “Trend of Increased Addressing of Human Senses – Focus on Sound”. He said the human being was the super system and even the target for the engineering system.

Then Mr. Mayer pointed out some human senses including Seeing, Hearing, Sensing (touching), Tasting and Smelling firstly. And then he asked two hypotheses as follows:

Hypothesis 1: Intensify a sense (pleasant or unpleasant)

Hypothese 2: Address more senses in parallel

Finally, he used two samples that one is the evolution of movie and the other was evolution of police & birebrigad lights & sound to examine the sense development. At the end, Mr. Mayer expected the further development and research to evaluation further products and the other sense, as well as, to establish a guideline for evolution.

The tenth speaker was Mr. Valeriy Prushinskiy (Natural Innovations LLC) and his topic was “Appcessories as Novel Type of the Hybrid Devices: Description and TRIZ recommendations for development”. Mr. Prushinskiy defined Appcessories to be App + accessory as a smart phone accessory that was combined with a specially written app to perform a useful function.

Then Mr. Prushinskiy mentioned the IoT subtrend of Appcessories by category that the top three items were Home, Healthcare and Fitness. The he demonstrated different Appcessories samples included toys and control organs. He proposed the trimming of control organs such as “Nest”. (Trimming is an analytical tool for removing certain components and redistributing their useful functions among the remaining system or super-system components.)

Lastly, Mr. Prushinskiy recommended that using the summary table items (Trimming of Control Organs, Hybridization, Controllability and Importing of Functions) could help innovators to check the trends during the development of their own appcessory products.

Mr. Sergei Ikovenko (President, MATRIZ) invited different experts for Industrial Panel.

(Left: Mr. Sergei Ikovenko, Dr. Yongwei Sun (NICE), Oleg Feygenson (Samsung Electric), Mr. Näther S. and Ms. Martha Gardner (GE Electric Global Research))

The afternoon session keynote speaker was Prof. Edward Lumsdaine (Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Michigan Technological University) and his topic entitled “Creative Problem Solving and TRIZ in Engineering Design Process”. Prof. Lumsdaine presented a simplified creative problem solving (CPS) model that utilized the Ned Herrmann Brain Dominance model, then compared it with a simplified TRIZ model.

Then Prof. Lumsdaine briefed the Ned Herrmann Brain Dominance model that had four interconnected clusters of specialized mental processing modes from Physiology to Architecture to Metaphor and then to Application. At the last stage, it separated into four types that were A – Analyser, B – Organizer, C – Personalizer and D – Visualizer. Each people had different thinking preference distributed this four types.

Finally, Prof. Lumsdaine stated CPS model could enhance the TRIZ problem solving process through enhancing teamwork, formation of potentially optimal teams, better communication, more effective use of thinking tools and TRIZ innovation process. Lastly, he proposed to combine the model with the seven simple TRIZ steps as follows.

1. List all the resources

2. List all the parameters to be changed

3. Evaluate the benefits of each change

4. Consider distance from ideal device / wish

5. Examine trends of evolution / complexity

6. Consider contradictions in the system using the 40 principles and / or othe rtools

7. Reconsider all your resources again

The twelfth speaker was Mr. Michael Liu (劉勇謀) (CEO, GET Group / IMA Inno-clud (BJ) Co., Ltd.) and his topic was “Definition of System Innovation Degree and its Applications. Mr. Liu used some practical case study to distinguish the difference of the innovations which belong to the same innovation level, this paper propose a new concept-System Innovation Degree (SID).

Firstly, Mr. Liu briefed Genrich S. Altshuller’s five levels of innovations (LoI) below.

Level 1 – A simple improvement of technical system

Level 2 – Resolution of a technical contradiction

Level 3 – Resolution of a physical contradiction

Level 4 – Resolution of contradictions with better approach to Ideal Final Result

Level 5 – Discovery of new phenomena or substances

Then Mr. Liu introduced a new concept-System Innovation Degree (SID) which separated into 4 degree level as follows.

1. Within the trade relevant to that system

2. From different areas within the industry relevant to the system

3. From other industries

4. From different fields of science

Finally, Mr. Liu showed the full picture with LoI and SID. He concluded that traditional or classic TRIZ five levels of innovations were not enough to distinguish the difference of the innovations which belong to the same levels. Then he added the distinguishing of those innovations was helpful for setting up an integrated patent strategy and to predict the next step for an existing product or technology.

Mr. Sergei Ikovenko (President, MATRIZ) was the thirteenth speaker and his presentation named “Operation Principle Definition Through Patent Practices”. Mr. Ikovenko said an accurate definition of “Principle of operation” was a key issue in many TRIZ tools and procedures including S-curve analysis, Innovation Benchmarking, MPV Discovery Process and Long-term Forecasting. Operation Principle is a principle according to which the system operates!

Then Mr. Ikovenko stated Function-Oriented Search (FOS) which was a problem solving tool based upon identifying existing technologies worldwide, using function criteria. He said adapting existing technologies was easier, more reliable, and requires fewer resources (manpower, capital, and time) than inventing new technologies and their applications. The following diagram demonstrated many different tools but they had the same function that was to remove particles.

After that Mr. Ikovenko briefed 11 type of patent strategy as follows.

1. The Competitive Patent Circumvention Strategy by Trimming

2. The Competitive Patent Circumvention Strategy by Substitution and History Estoppel Research

3. The Antidote Strategy

4. The Picket Fence Strategy

5. The Toll Gate Strategy

6. The Submarine Strategy (old & new)

7. The Counter Attack Strategy

8. The Stealth Counter Attack Strategy

9. The Blanketing Strategy

10. The Bargaining Chip Strategy

11. The Cut-Your-Exposure Strategy

He then used Argon Blow-Through Process as Patent Strategy example and concluded that the parent practice defined the principle of operation at a method to perform a specific function (to change/maintain a parameter) of corresponding components in engineering systems.

The fourteenth speaker was Mr. Sergei Logvinov (R&BDPartners) and his presentation title was “Pair (Coupled) Functions Formulation”. He said a function was an action of one object (engineering system component) upon another one. However, one of the fundamental principles of natural science lied in the fact that action was always an interaction.

Then Mr. Logvinov mentioned that coupled functions were not a pair of independent interactions between two system components but two interactions. He quoted different case to explain this situation such as Saw and Woodchip Board, Heater and Water, Mirror and Light, CPU and PCB, etc. He concluded that coupled functions represented an indirect indication on feasibility of conducting the function analysis in a more detailed way.

Mr. Oleg Feygenson was the fifteenth speaker and his presentation topic entitled “Genrich Altshuller and Peter Drucker: Alternative Approaches To Solve Problems - Comparative Analysis”. Mr. Feygenson said this research performed because managers were showing a growing interest in systematic ways of developing creative solutions. On the other hand, TRIZ researcher and developers were actively working to adapt proven TRIZ tools to solve various business problems.

Then Mr. Feygenson introduced Genrich Altshuller and Peter Drucker that one is TRIZ founder and the other is Management Guru. And then he consolidated the definition of innovation to be “Executing an idea which addresses a specific challenge and achieves value for both the company and customer”.

After that Mr. Feygenson showed the comparative analysis with criteria including Objectives, Features of theories, typical format of tools developed, Main approach to solving problems and Influence on professional community, etc.

Mr. Feygenson briefed Altshuller’s tools such as Algorithm of ARIZ-85C and Peter Drucker’s 5 Questions. That famous five questions showed as follows:

1. What is our mission?

2. What is our customer?

3. What does the customer value?

4. What are our results?

5. What is our plan?

Then he used Post-It note as case study to demonstrate how company innovation for new product. Finally, he concluded that TRIZ and Management were supplementary to support innovation activity.

The last third speaker was Mr. Khoo Boon How (Lecturer, School of Engineering, Monash University Malaysia) and his presentation topic was “The Impact of Different TRIZ Tools on the Creative Output of Students”. He said engineering students were discouraged from taking creative risks because of the rigid structure of the curriculum and high expectation on getting things right all the time.

He proposed a TRIZ-based syllabus to increase the creative output of students and introduced their three TRIZ toolsets.

Toolset A included 9 Windows, S-Curve Analysis and Ideality

Toolset B included Contradiction Matrix and 40 Inventive Principles

Toolset C included Function Model and Trimming

After that Mr. Khoo used Eco-Ideality Analysis Chart to observe their student’s output. The concept of Ideality is the ratio of a product’s functionality over its cost and harm. Therefore, Eco-Ideality Analysis had axes that represented function and resource. Finally, he concluded the different TRIZ toolsets were able to be understood and used by the students beyond the engineering faculty and the design concepts by students was improved after using it.

Prof. TriZit Benjaboonyazit (Head of Electrical Engineering Program, Faculty of Engineering, Thai-Nichi Institute of Technology) was the last second speaker and his presentation topic was “TRIZ based Insight Problem Solving and Brainwave Analysis using EEG during Aha! Moment”. Prof. TriZit said human beings were trying to solve insight and non-insight problems.

The psychological process of creative thinking had been actively studied using the electroencephalograph (EEG) in cognitive neuroscience. Then Prof. TriZit using Mooney Face Test for EEG record for “Aha! Moment”. It was found that a sudden burst of gamma wave occurred and caused neuronal synchronization throughout the brain.

The 3D brain mapping was employed and demonstrated the activity of gramma wave when insight solution came up. His previous 2 electric circuit black boxes experiment showed that psychological inertia blocked problem solver from insight to the solution and TRIZ’s concept of resources could overcome this psychological inertia to restructuring the problem and got the insight solution. Another findings in EEG was the sudden burst of gamma wave when Aha! Solution come out was concentrated on the right hemisphere of the brain.

The last speaker was Dr. Mark Barkan (TRIZ Master, Education for a New Era) and his topic named “Developing Creative and Critical Thinking Skills in Next Generation Workforce”. Before the talk, Dr. Barkan showed a video about a pig tried to get cookie which placed on the top of refrigerator. The pig thought many methods but fail. At the end, it get the cookie accidentally.

Dr. Barkan quoted Albert Einstein statement that “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Then he introduced the skillset for 21^st century which included “Complex problem solving”, “Critical thinking”, “Creativity” and “Cognitive load management”.

Then Dr. Barkan compared the conventional education system and present-day required education system. Obviously, present-day required education system was more complex and dynamic.

Finally, he proposed the Education for a New Era should be included TRIZ-pedagogy, Creativity and Problems oriented approach to education. He quoted Victor Hugo (one of the greatest French writers) statement “All the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come”.