By Toru Nakagawa, Osaka Gakuin University
nakagawa@utc.osaka-gu.ac.jp
An answer to the question "What is the essence of TRIZ?" stated in
50 words and then explained in 2 pages. See the “TRIZ Home Page in Japan” at
http://www.osaka-gu.ac.jp/php/nakagawa/TRIZ/eTRIZ/
for the 2 page description, and for many other TRIZ resources in both English
and Japanese.
------
Essence of TRIZ:
Recognition that
technical systems evolve
towards the increase of ideality
by overcoming contradictions
mostly with minimal introduction of resources.
Thus, for creative problem solving,
TRIZ provides a dialectic way of thinking,
i.e.,
to understand the problem as a system,
to image the ideal solution first, and
to solve contradictions.
----------------
Originally written as a section of my paper to be presented in ETRIA
Conference, Nov. 2001. (See the TRIZ Journal Calendar
section for details on this conference.)
I've posted this section in advance with the hope of helping readers and
smoother promotion of TRIZ in the world.
Best wishes,
Toru Nakagawa
---------------------------------------------------------------
Toru Nakagawa, Dr.
Professor, Faculty of Informatics,
2-36-1 Kishibe-Minami, Suita-shi, Osaka 564-8511, Japan
Phone: +81-6-6381-8434 (Ex. 5056) FAX: +81-6-6382-4363
E-mail: nakagawa@utc.osaka-gu.ac.jp
"TRIZ Home Page in Japan"
http://www.osaka-gu.ac.jp/php/nakagawa/TRIZ/eTRIZ/
---------------------------------------------------------------
 TRIZ
Introduction, Research Note: |
   |
| Essence of
TRIZ in 50 Words |
Toru Nakagawa (Osaka Gakuin Univ.,
Japan)
May 16, 2001
[Posted: May 22,
2001]
[Japanese translation by Nakagawa and
posted on May 22, 2001] |
For
Japanese version press:
What is the Essence of TRIZ? This question must be most basic and
important for us to teach/learn TRIZ. There are many important principles
and methods in TRIZ, such as:
- 40 Principles of Invention
- 76 Standard Inventive Solutions
- Trends of Evolution of Technical Systems
- Altshuller's Contradiction Matrix
- ARIZ, etc.
Any of these, however, is too huge to be
regarded as the core essence of TRIZ. Essence of TRIZ does not exist at
this level of handbook-type knowledge, but exists much deeper at the philosophy
level.
For extracting the essence of
TRIZ, we should first understand the overall structure of TRIZ. I
understand [1] that
TRIZ = Methodology + Knowledge
base
and TRIZ has the following three
aspects:
- Methodology (a): New view of technology
- Methodology (b): Thinking way for problem
solving
- Knowledge Base: A collection of examples
implementing the methodology (a)
This view makes it clear that
the essence of TRIZ should be found in the Methodology (a) and (b).
The following is my current
understanding of the Essence of TRIZ in 50 words:
| Essence of
TRIZ:
Recognition
that
technical systems
evolve
towards the increase of
ideality
by overcoming
contradictions
mostly with minimal
introduction of resources.
Thus, for creative problem
solving,
TRIZ provides a dialectic way of
thinking,
i.e.,
to understand the
problem as a system,
to
image the ideal solution first, and
to
solve
contradictions. |
I obtained this understanding
mainly through my study of Salamatov's TRIZ textbook [2], and showed this
compact statement for the first time as a slide in the presentation at
TRIZCON2001 [3] and recorded it in my Editor's Note as the post-script of the
TRIZCON paper in my Web site ("TRIZ Home Page in Japan").
Let me explain this 50-word
statement briefly in a top-down manner:
First of all, TRIZ is stated to
be "a recognition", in other words, "a new view" of technology
(i.e. Methodology (a) mentioned above). By sharing this recognition, or by
viewing technology from this point of view, we can reach a position of
tremendous scope of not only technology but also science, society, our life,
etc.
The most important recognition is
that "technical systems evolve". We see technology mainly as
technical systems. Any system is composed of a number of components (i.e.
subsystems) and their relationships and may be regarded as a subsystem of its
super-systems. Every technical system evolves, i.e. changes/develops in
its history. This evolution forms huge trends containing but overwhelming
individual inventions. The evolution may appear in different phases and
different ways, such as birth, expansion, integration, convolution, etc.
Technical systems evolve
"towards the increase of ideality". This recognition is called the
Principal Law of Evolution. Ideality is defined as "Principal
function/(Mass + Energy + Size)" in Salamatov [2] and sometimes as "Useful
function/(Cost + Harmful function)". These definitions are qualitative in
nature. Main recognition here is that various forms of evolution can be
viewed universally as movements in the direction of increase of ideality.
This recognition forms our basis of foreseeing and developing future technical
systems.
The evolution occurs only "by
overcoming contradictions". Contradictions appear first as the gaps
between demands and supplies (or current technological performances). Such
contradictions are once recognized as obstacles/barriers, are compromised
somehow for a while, and then are overcome by break-through inventions.
These inventions form the micro-steps of evolution in technical systems.
Overcoming of contradictions are
achieved "mostly with minimal introduction of resources". Easy
introduction of additional resources (such as substances, energy, and size)
often complicates the systems and does not solve contradictions. It is the
TRIZ' recognition that contradictions are overcome only with no or minimal
introduction of resources. This corresponds well with the law of increase
of ideality.
On the basis of the recognition
stated above, TRIZ wants to provide a methodology (i.e. a way of thinking)
"for creative problem solving". This is the principal aim of
developing and learning TRIZ. Problem solving is most demanded for
overcoming contradictions. Since no solutions and no way of solutions are
known beforehand for such contradictions, we have to solve them
creatively.
For creative problem solving,
"TRIZ provides a dialectic way of thinking". TRIZ provides us with
a way of thinking, in its most general meaning. Beyond various specific
methods, heuristics, and tricks for problem solving, TRIZ shows us a new way of
thinking. It may be introduced as "a dialectic way of thinking" by using
terminology in philosophy, according to Salamatov [2]. The main
characteristics of this way of thinking are explained in the succeeding phrases,
"i.e.":
First, "to understand the
problem as a system." The objects of the problem should be regarded as
(technical) systems, for which TRIZ gives deep insights as stated in the above
recognition. We should also understand that the problem itself forms a
hierarchical system of problems. With this understanding, we may have
multiple and evolutionary view points of the problem and of its possible
solutions.
Second, "to image the ideal
solution first." This is of course based on the TRIZ recognition that
the technical systems evolve towards the increase of ideality. Since we
know the direction of evolution, we should think of the solution image
first. We should image the ideal solution first, and then try to find the
ways of achieving it, for example by tracing back to the present system step by
step. This recommends us a thinking process in the reverse direction, in
contrast to the conventional way of thinking with trial-and-errors starting from
the present system.
Third, "to solve
contradictions". Dialectic logic is often referred in philosophy with
"solving the contradiction between a thesis and its antithesis by introducing
their synthesis", even though the actual process for achieving it has not been
explained well. TRIZ, however, has succeeded in showing concrete
guidelines (especially in the form of ARIZ) to solve contradictions in technical
problems. The core process is to derive (by reformulating the problem) a
Physical Contradiction (i.e., a situation where an aspect of a system is
requested in one direction and in its opposite direction at the same time) and
to solve it with the Separation Principle. Once a physical contradiction
is derived, this solution technique is amazingly powerful to find break-through
solutions.
We should notice that the three
characteristics of the dialectic way of thinking in TRIZ correspond very well
with the TRIZ' recognition of the technical systems.
References:
[1] Toru Nakagawa: "Approaches
to Application of TRIZ in Japan", TRIZCON2000: The Second Annual AI TRIZ
Conference, Apr. 30 - May 2, 2000, Nashua, NH, USA, pp. 21-35. ; TRIZ Home Page
in Japan, May 2000 (in English), Feb. 2001 (in Japanese).
[2] Yuri
Salamatov: "TRIZ: The Right Solution at the Right Time", Insytec, 1999;
(Japanese Edition) Nikkei BP, Nov. 2000.
[3] Toru Nakagawa: "Staircase
Design of High-rise Buildings Preparing against Fire -TRIZ/USIT Case Study
-", TRIZCON2001: The 3rd Annual AI TRIZ Conference, Mar. 25-27, 2001, Woodland
Hills, CA; TRIZ Home Page in Japan, Apr. 2001 (in English & in
Japanese).
Eidtor's Note (Toru Nakagawa, May 22, 2001)
This article has just been written
originally as a section of the author's paper submitted for presentation at
European TRIZ Association (ETRIA) Conference with the title of:
" Learning and Applying
the Essence of TRIZ with Easier USIT Procedure" by Toru Nakagawa
The conference will be held on Nov.
7-9, 2001 at Bath, UK. Though it is usual not to publisize papers before
the conference/publication, I have chosen to post a part of my paper here for
the sake of readers' benefits and smoother penetration of TRIZ in the
world.
Last updated on May
22, 2001. Access point: Editor: nakagawa@utc.osaka-gu.ac.jp
