ISI Seminar on Design Thinking

The seminar entitled "Design Thinking" was co-organizer by Institute of Systematic Innovation Hong Kong (ISIHK), Hong Kong Quality Management Association (HKQMA) and Six Sigma Institute (SSI) on 15^th Jan 2018.  Design Thinking originally is about presentation of functions to their user and aesthetics is only part of design. It is first started at IDEO and then was popularized by the design school (d. school) of Stanford University which teaches of Design Thinking to people beyond the design profession.  The seminar aimed to discuss the basic concept and application of Design Thinking.  I took a photo with Mr. David Kwan for memory.

In the beginning, Dr. Frankie, K.S. LAM (Chairman, HKQMA) introduced the guest speaker Mr. David Kwan to us.  Mr. Kwan is an experience automation and mechanical system designer consultant and he is a MATRIZ Level 3 Triz specialist.  

Mr. David Kwan (Founding Director, ISIHK) introduced the concept of Design Thinking. He said he like the meaning of Design search from internet that “… a Rational Presentation of Function…”  Then he quoted David Kelly (1978) who started at IDEO about Design Thinking (Human-Centric Design) meant that “Apply the mentality of Designer to Solve Problems” (employing Designer’s thinking logic).  

ISI Seminar on Pragmatic Open Innovation (TRIZ)

The seminar entitled "Pragmatic Open Innovation" was organized by and co-organizer by Institute of Systematic Innovation Hong Kong (ISIHK) and The IMSE Department, HKU on 20^th July 2017.  Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) was one of supporting organizations.  Among numerous TRIZ (Theory for Inventive Problem Solving) tools for innovation, there is a sub-set of pragmatic tools for practically exercising the Open Innovation concept.  Arrived at the venue, I took a photo with guest speaker Dr. Sergei Ikovenko (President of the International TRIZ Association) and ISI exco members and organizers.

(Left: Dr. Frankie Law (PT Lecturer, Business School, HKU), Dr. Victor Lo (President, ISIHK), Dr. Sergei Ikovenko, I, Prof. George Q. Huang (Dept. Head, IMSE) and Mr. David Kwan (ISIHK))

Then I took some photos with my quality friends.

(Left: Mr. Larry Lee (GP), Dr. Percy Chan (GP), I and Mr. Lam (Catherine’s husband))

(Left: Mr. Lam, Dr. Victor Lo (ISIHK) Dr. Catherine Chan (President, HKQFDA) and I)

Before the seminar, we took a group photo with all participants.

In the beginning, Dr. Sergei Ikovenko (President of the International TRIZ Association) briefed the topic “Pragmatic Innovation with TRIZ” and briefed the history of TRIZ development.

ISIHK TRIZ Application Sharing Seminar

Institute of Systematic Innovation, HK (ISIHK) invited Dr. Yongwei Sun (VP for Industrial Relations & Level 4 Certified, MATRIZ; China Coordinator of MATRIZ and Expert Member of China Council for Promoting Six Sigma, China Association for Quality)  to share his TRIZ experience on 19 Jun 2016 (It is father’s day!).  Firstly, Dr. Sun introduced himself that he is the DFSS (Design for Six Sigma) Master Black Belt of National Institute of Clean-and-Low-Carbon Energy (NICE) since 2012. He is the Vice President of MA TRIZ (the International TRIZ Association), a member of MA TRIZ presidium, and expert member of China Council for Promoting Six Sigma. He holds MA TRIZ Level 4 certificates. Prior joining NICE, Dr. Sun worked in GE for 7 years, successively as a research scientist, Black Belt, and program manager.

Since all cases are real and sensitive, no photo took and kept confidential.  So I would like to summarize some key points on Dr. Sun experience of employing TRIZ for sharing below.

i)            IP analysis and strategy are very important.

ii)           MATRIZ Level 1 tools used to “Identify the Problem”; Level 2 tools used to “Solve the Problem” and Level 3 tools used for “Idea Verification”. 

iii)          Most frequency use and important tools in level 1 are “Function Analysis (FA)”, “Cause and Effect Chain Analysis (CECA)” and “Trimming”.

iv)          If the solution of problem is very easy you think out, it must not a real problem otherwise the company’s engineers had already solved it.  That’s why we need TRIZ engineer.

v)           Why problem is so difficulty to be solved?  Because we haven’t discover the real problems.

vi)          When CECA was employed, it should be at least down to 5 levels (like 5 Why).

vii)         Why his customer’s engineers no resistant to use TRIZ?  It is because they need to solve that problem immediately. (High incentive!)

viii)       In his example, Physical Contradictions appeared in many cases.  However, it is very seldom to use Technical Contradictions (Contradiction Table).

ix)          So he used Separating Principle frequently including separation in space, time, relation and system level. (More Dynamic)

Finally, we took a group photo for memory.

Reference:

Institute of Systematic Innovation, HK - http://www.isi.org.hk/

The International TRIZ Association - http://matriz.org/

CAQ, TRIZfest 2016 - http://www.caq.org.cn/html/hyhd/2016triz/index.html

20160528: Dr Sun (MATRIZ) visit to the Science Park Laboratories - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2016/05/dr-sun-matriz-visit-to-science-park.html

Dr Sun (MATRIZ) visit to the Science Park Laboratories

I was honor to invite Dr. Yongwei Sun (VP for Industrial Relations & Level 4 Certified, MATRIZ; China Coordinator of MATRIZ and Expert Member of China Council for Promoting Six Sigma, China Association for Quality)  to visit Hong Kong Science Park and its laboratories.  We had lunch in Happiness Restaurant first and Dr. Sun gave me his book named “TRIZ: the key to open the door of innovation”.  

After lunch, Dr. Sun visited our Reliability Laboratory, Wireless Communications Test Laboratory, Material Analysis Laboratory and Probe and Test Development Centre. We took a photo in front of Reliability Laboratory.

Patent Analysis and Corporate Development Series 2016 - Extenics (可拓學)

The training program on “Patent Analysis and Corporate Development Series 2016” (專利分析導航企業發展) was organized by Shenzhen Intellectual Property Society (深圳市知識產權研究會 ) from March to August 2016.  It aims to enhance the scientific management on IP skill and quality of R&D with IP protection.  I attended the 2^nd series named “Extenics (可拓學)”.  The training was held in Shenzhen Science Museum from 15 to 16 April 2016.  I took a photo in front of the venue.

Before the seminar, I took a photo with Prof. Cai Wen (蔡文) (middle) and Dr. Michael Li (Founding President, Institute of Systematic Innovation, Hong Kong (ISIHK)) (left).  Extenics (可拓學) is original developed by Prof. Cai Wen (蔡文) through his 30 years research (The first paper published since 1983).  Extenics includes three steps and they are “Extension”, “Transfer” and “Evaluation”.  Moreover, I got Prof. Cai’s signature for his books. 

The 6th International Conference on Systematic Innovation - ICSI 2015 (Day 3)

The 6th International Conference on Systematic Innovation (ICSI 2015) was organized by The Society of Systematic Innovation (SSI), Taiwan and co-organized by Institute of Systematic Innovation, Hong Kong (ISIHK), Manufacturing and Industrial Division of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineer (HKIE) and Department of Industrial Engineering and Logistics Management (IELM), HKUST, held from 15-17 July 2015. Before the last day of conference, we took a photo with Mr. Darrell Mann. (Left: I, Mr. Darrell Mann, Dr. Michael Li, Dr. Victor Lo and Mr. David Kwan)

The morning parallel session, Prof. Surachai Tumtavitikul (Thammasat University) and I were session chair to rate the paper.

The first speaker was Prof. Kazuhiro Takeyasu (Tokoha University) and his presentation entitled “Questionnaire Investigation on Jewelry / Accessory Internet Shopping and its Analysis Utilizing Bayesian Network”.

Prof. Takeyasu had led his research team employed Extended Analysis Method for different topics. The questionnaire research focused on young person in Japan and the survey period from May 2008 to June 2009. There were 421 samples collected from 1500 mail (collection rate is 28.1%).

Prof. Takeyasu employed Structure Equation Model (SEM) and hypothesis test to construct the model below. Arrows showed significant relationship between each element. He concluded that jewelry/accessory buying via the internet was increasing, especially for young people. However, they often had difficulty deciding what kind of jewelry/accessory. Therefore, this study would like to develop online network consulting service to support this decision.

Prof. Kazuhiro Takeyasu (Tokoha University) another project named “Brand Selection and its Matrix Structure in a Brand Bag Purchasing Case”. It also employed the Extended Analysis Method.

Prof. Takeyasu would like to build the ranking table for mapping the brand bags with which class of customers. They did the numerical calculation for simulate consumers’ behavior and to evaluate brand position.

The third speaker was Ms. Asami Shitara (Arknet) and her presentation topic named “Optimization in Allocating Goods to Shop Shelves Utilizing Genetic Algorithm Under the Introduction of Sales Probabilities”. She would like to seek how to optimize in allocating goods to shop shelves in this study. Benefit means Sales Probability x Profit. She built different algorithm to evaluation the sales probability in each time zone and in multiple shelves.

The last speaker was Mr. Daisuke Takeyasu (Social Worker, Shizuoka, Japan) and his topic was “Multivariate Analysis for the Questionnaire Investigation in the Support of High School Teachers by the School Social Worker”. He also used the Extended Analysis Method and Factor Analysis. His study clarified the possibility of utilizing school social worker for supporting and guiding club activities that student feel less burden.

The Conference Forum: The Status, Barriers and Prospects of SI Development: Leveraging Experiences Across Regions was performed.

Mr. Darrell Mann (CEO, Systematic Innovation Ltd. UK) gave speech first. He reviewed TRIZ / SI in Europe and found to fit the Hype Cycle. Then he mentioned that only ICMM Level 4 and 5 companies which TRIZ capability was best suit for them. However, ICMM Level 4 or 5 companies were only 4% of enterprises.

Then Darrell Mann shared the emerging evolution pattern. We would get some hints to promote SI/TRIZ in our region.

Prof. D. Daniel Sheu shared Taiwan situation. He said TRIZ was first introduced to Taiwan around 1998 but it had not been pervasive yet.

Prof. Shen summarized his observation of barriers for promoting SI/TRIZ in the following tables. He added to accumulate and analyze the success/failure causes across regions and sharing more non-industrial cases for more people to understand SI tools.

Dr. Michael Li shared that he also found difficult to promote TRIZ in Hong Kong. TRIZ first promoted in Hong Kong by Hong Kong Productivity Council ten years ago. But it was fail because the mainly industries in Hong Kong were SMEs. They had no this capability.

I was invited by Dr. Li for sharing my view on TRIZ. I said it was difficult both in Academic and Industry. Firstly, there was no high SCI index journal in the field of TRIZ. So it is not attracting professors’ interest. Secondly, there was no big impact on industry like Six Sigma in GE which created Six Sigma wave worldwide.

Prof. Toru Nakagawa shared Japan situation. He said they had enough exposures of TRIZ since 1996. Almost all big industries once introduced TRIZ but a few of them promoted it company-wide (e.g. Hitachi (1997-present), Panasonic (2003-2010) and Olympus (2010)). TRIZ taught only 10 to 20 universities (very weak) in Japan.

Prof. Nakagawa proposed to establish a Public Web site in SI/TRIZ/CrePS in our region and we needed to translate for sharing worldwide.

Dr. Jianhong Ma (Hebei Technology of University) shared China situation. Government supported Systematic Innovation with national policy to train innovation engineers and built multi-level innovation bases in province stage and national stage.

She added CAI tools didn’t work very well in enterprises in China because of language barrier, operation complex and difficult to learn for beginner. Therefore, the future works should be more wise (Do more things for human), more simple and more knowledge and effect to be presented to design. The evolution process of CAI tool was shown in the following diagram.

Before conference close, some project and paper awards were presented.
Dr. Victor Lo got project award and presented by Prof. Toru Nakagawa.

Dr. Michael Li got paper award too.

Prof. Sheu presented souvenir to co-organziers.

Mr. David Kwan (ISIHK) presented an appreciation certificate to Dr. Victor Lo for HKIE.

At the end, Prof Sheu said the next conference would be held in Portugal.

Reference:
Institute of Systematic Innovation, HK - http://www.isi.org.hk/
HKIE-MIE Division - http://www.hkie.org.hk/eng/html/aboutthehkie/Disciplines/mie.asp
HKSQ - http://www.hksq.org/index.asp
20130625: International Symposium on Innovation Excellence and Practices 2013 - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2013/06/international-symposium-on-innovation.html
20150715: The 6th International Conference on Systematic Innovation - ICSI 2015 (Day 1) - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2015/07/the-6th-international-conference-on.html
20150715: The 6th ICSI 2015 – Conference Tutorials - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2015/07/the-6th-icsi-2015-conference-tutorials.html
20150716: The 6th International Conference on Systematic Innovation - ICSI 2015 (Day 2) - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2015/07/the-6th-international-conference-on_16.html
20150716: The 6th International Conference on Systematic Innovation - ICSI 2015 (Day 3) - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2015/07/the-6th-international-conference-on_17.html

The 6th International Conference on Systematic Innovation - ICSI 2015 (Day 2)

The 6th International Conference on Systematic Innovation (ICSI 2015) was organized by The Society of Systematic Innovation (SSI), Taiwan and co-organized by Institute of Systematic Innovation, Hong Kong (ISIHK), Manufacturing and Industrial Division of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineer (HKIE) and Department of Industrial Engineering and Logistics Management (IELM), HKUST, held from 15-17 July 2015. Before the start of the second day of conference, Dr. Michael Li (Chairman, ISIHK), Dr. Victor Lo (Vice-Chairman, ISIHK) and I (Former Chairman, HKSQ) took a photo for memory.

The keynote speaker was Prof. Toru Nakagawa (Professor Emeritus, Osaka Gakuin University) and his topic entitled “Six-Box Scheme: New Paradigm for Creative Problem Solving”. Prof. Nakagawa would like to use “Six-Box Scheme” as basic framework to collect and integrate different successful methods so as to form a general and effective methodology named “The General Methodology for Creative Problem-Solving/Task-Achieving” (CrePS).

Prof. Toru Nakagawa compared the conventional method and TRIZ/USIT under different approaches in the following table. (Remark: USIT stands for Unified Structured Inventive Thinking, details in tutorial session.)

Then he introduce G.S. Altshuller (1926-1998) (ex-USSR) who got the basic idea to reorganizing knowledge in science & technology and in patents, then developed TRIZ in 40 years. After the end of the Cold War, TRIZ had been introduced into the western world (included into Japan in 1996). The following diagram demonstrated TRIZ methodology for problem solving.

Prof. Nakagawa then introduced Mr. Ed Sickafus who developed Unified Structured Inventive Thinking (USIT) at Ford in 1995.

After that he explained the USIT Procedure flowchart which was developed by him in 2005. USIT operators included Object Pluralization, Attribute Dimensionality, Function Distribution, Solution Combination and Solution Generalization.

Different areas of applying TRIZ were reviewed. Prof. Nakagawa said we needed a more general method to employ TRIZ.

Therefore, Prof. Nakagawa raised a new target at a higher level in 2012 to establish a general methodology of creative problem-solving / task-achieving, to spread it widely, and to apply it to problem-solving and task-achieving jobs in various domains in the whole country and the world. This methodology was named as “CrePS”. The following diagram showed the mechanism of CrePS and the different business activities.

Finally, Prof. Nakagawa said the traditional TRIZ expert was an inventor or contract researcher. He promoted a new paradigm with USIT that expert was a guiding assistant of engineers to help them thinking and solving the work together in any field. Prof. Nakagawa had developed a public web site named “TRIZ Home Page in Japan” to share TRIZ information since 1998. (http://www.osaka-gu.ac.jp/php/nakagawa/TRIZ/eTRIZ/)

Dr. Michael Li (Chairman, ISIHK) presented a souvenir to Prof. Toru Nakagawa.

I attended the Morning parallel session and shared their presentation below.

The first speaker was Dr. Jyhjeng Deng (Industrial Engineering and Management Department, DaYeh University) and his presentation entitled “Patent Circumvention of Tea Bag Filter”.

Then he described research methodology from “Patent Problem Analysis” to “Key Technical Features Identification”, “Functional Model”, “40 Inventive Principles” and then “Generate Design Solution”. Function analysis was performed and also employed one of 40 Inventive Principles “13. Inverse”. The accusation for infringement of the patent right was not valid by the Japanese Intellectual Property High Court on 25 Jan 2010.

The second speaker was Dr. Jianhong Ma (National Technological Innovation Method and Tool Engineering Research Center, Hebei University of Technology) and her topic named “An Inventive Standards-Based Approach in the field of Inventive Problem Solving with CAI Tools”. She told use SI/TRIZ was widely studied in China.

Dr. Jianhong Ma introduced Computer Aided Invention (CAI) tools using the Innovation Knowledge Cloud (IKC) platform for computer-aided innovative design to solve the inventive problems. The platform and tools were shown in the following diagram and some cases had been discussed.

The third speaker was Dr. Hsin Rau (Dept. of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Chung Yuan Christian University) and his topic was “Inventive Green Product Development System by Integrating QFDE and TRIZ”.

Inventive Green Product Development System (IGPDS) methodology was briefed. IGPDS integrated Quality Function Deployment for Environment (QFDE) and Luttropp and Lagestedt (2006) ten golden rules, as well as TRIZ for product development.

Afternoon, I attended the 5th Global Competition on Systematic Innovation – Project Session.

Dr. Hsin Rau was the first presenter and his project named “Value-added & Creative Design for the Bicycle Side Kickstand”. His students would like to solve the problems come from forgetting kick up the bicycle side kickstand and forgetting to bring a lock.

Then they developed bicycle side kickstand which added lock with T-shaped bar and solve their problem automatically.

Asst. Prof. TriZit Benjaboonyazit (Head of Electrical Engineering Program, Faculty of Engineering, Thai-Nichi Institute of Technology) was the second presenter and his project was “Dynamic Car-Wheel-Lock”. Prof. TriZit demonstrated their final product to us.

The problem of car-wheel-lock was bulky in version 1 and was easily removed wheel to escape from version 2. The new design using adjustable dynamic car-wheel-lock improved the problem in version 1 and without use of version 2.

The third presenters were Mr. Gui Ke and Mr. Chen Fixiang (Human University) and their project topic was “Design of a Multipurpose Desk used in Classroom”.

They performed market research, questionnaire survey and referring to data. Then they identified different types of courses using classroom such as common course, engineering drawing, Multimedia teaching, etc. The prototype desk was demonstrated through video.

The forth presenter was Ms. Helena V.G. Navas (UNIDEMI, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal) and her project named “TRIZ and Lean Methodologies in an Industry of Air Handling and Ventilation”. The project goal was to improve the management of stocks of external and internal material. 5S and TRIZ were employed. TRIZ tools included Substance-field analysis and Matrix of contradictions used for some problem solving.

The fifth presenter was Mr. Chen Kuang-Chen (Department of Political Science, National Chengchi University) and his project presentation entitled “Proposal for a Systematic Innovation of Decision-Making”. Using Systematic Innovation tools, he hoped to find out the right people and experience people in administrative positions in Taiwan.

The sixth project presenter was Dr. Wen Shan Lin (National Tsinghua University Taiwan) and his topic named “TRIZ-Based CMP Conditioner Redesign Innovation”.

The pad conditioner usually was a stainless steel disc whose surface was coated with adhesive diamond abrasive grains. If pad surface was conditioned insufficiently, by-products remaining on the polish pad surface which would make more scratches on the wafer surface. After TRIZ methodology employed, the final solution used water jet and brush to remove by-products.

Dr. Victor Lo (Vice-Chairman, ISIHK) was the seventh presenter and his project presentation named “Developing Innovation Project Using Innovative Quality Improvement PKIR model”. Dr. Lo would like to develop Innovative Quality Improvement model which was universally true. PKIR stands for “Problem identification”, “Knowledge acquisition”, “Ideation” and “Realization”.

Dr. Lo’s model was developed according to two main streams of innovation methods included Human Centered Innovation (e.g. Design Thinking) and TRIZ (e.g. Technical know how). He developed more than 50 project flash cards and Chinese Martial Art Kata. Some companies had tried to use this PKIR model such as Union Hospital, The Salvation Army, Towngas, Laundry Services in Correctional Service Industries, etc. Dr. Lo said the future development direction was “Gamification”.

Prof. D. Daniel Sheu (National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan) was the eighth presenter and his project title was “Using TRIZ for Problem Solving in Product Development: a Speaker Case”.

He employed most of TRIZ tools included FA, CECCA, CM, FOS, Effect Database, Parameter Change, SF-Model, Trimming, etc. The real product was demonstrated to us.

The last presenter was Dr. Chi-Ming Chen (Department of Industrial Management, Chien Hsin University of Science and Technology) and his project presentation entitled “Transformable Raincoat for Motorcyclists”.

He selected 3 Inventive Principles and they were IP-1 Segmentation, IP-15 Dynamicity and IP-17 Transition into New Dimension.

After Day 2 of conference, HKUST campus tour was arranged for participants.

We joined the conference banquet and Prof. Sheu raised his glass in a toast to all participants.

We took a table photo for memory.

(Left of first row: Dr. Victor Lo (ISIHK), Mr. Roy Tse (ISIHK; Sales Manager, Avantec Manu Ltd.), Mr. Sam Sham (ISIHK), I (HKSQ), Mr. SL Mak (HKIE; OUHK), Dr. Jackson Tang (HKIE; Asst. Manager, Varitronix Gp) and Mr. David Kwan (ISIHK; Bworks Ltd))
(Left of second row: Dr. Liu Jiang Nan (Hunan University), Dr. Jianhong Ma (Hebei University of Technology), Ms. Suki Lee (ISIHK) and Dr. Tai-Chang Hsia (Chienkuo Technology University))

Reference:
Institute of Systematic Innovation, HK - http://www.isi.org.hk/
HKIE-MIE Division - http://www.hkie.org.hk/eng/html/aboutthehkie/Disciplines/mie.asp
HKSQ - http://www.hksq.org/index.asp
20130625: International Symposium on Innovation Excellence and Practices 2013 - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2013/06/international-symposium-on-innovation.html
20150715: The 6th International Conference on Systematic Innovation - ICSI 2015 (Day 1) - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2015/07/the-6th-international-conference-on.html
20150715: The 6th ICSI 2015 – Conference Tutorials - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2015/07/the-6th-icsi-2015-conference-tutorials.html
20150716: The 6th International Conference on Systematic Innovation - ICSI 2015 (Day 2) - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2015/07/the-6th-international-conference-on_16.html
20150716: The 6th International Conference on Systematic Innovation - ICSI 2015 (Day 3) - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2015/07/the-6th-international-conference-on_17.html