Commentary by Katie Barry

TRIZCON - Afternoon of Day 2

As you expect to happen at any conference, each time I step outside a session room I walk by small groups of attendees clumped together. There are lots of card exchanges and - presumably business deals being planned. For my part, I'm trying to get new papers and authors for both Real Innovation and The TRIZ Journal. (Wish me luck.)

Teaching TRIZ

After eating a too-filling lunch at one of the hotel's restaurants, the afternoon sessions have started and I'm listening to Toru Nakagawa, editor of the TRIZ Home Page in Japan and professor and member of the faculty of informatics at Osaka Gakuin University. Toru teaches "Creative Problem Solving Thinking" at various levels.

The S-Curve

To learn more about the S-curve, I'm listening to Xiaoling (Ellen) Shi. She is a teacher at the Innovation Technology Institute (ITI), which was founded in 2006 and aims to spread TRIZ throughout China. After only one year, ITI is now the largest TRIZ platform in China.

The S-curve looks at system lifecycles - infancy to rapid growth to maturity and ending in decline. In Ellen's experience, management is more concerned with the S-curve than other employees. But everyone should note that there are ways to move beyond the typical S-curve and take it to the next step. For example, a system's lifecycle can be stretched by adding more subsystems. Or one system can merge with another and the result may be far more profitable and lasting.

A Different Perspective on Teaching TRIZ

Next up is Donald Coates, assistant professor of technology at Kent State University (speaking on behalf of co-authors Sergey and Galina Malkin - both of Pretium Consulting Services, LLC) talking about an improved method for teaching TRIZ to students.

Their ideal vision is that all students everywhere will use TRIZ for problem-solving. Their plan? Use a computer program (a function model) to guide students who need help surmounting initial learning hurdles.

The session ended with an interesting Q&A with the authors and among the participants - what is the best way to use TRIZ? Should you use classical or adapted versions? Will a modified/"light" TRIZ eventually lead to full TRIZ?

Customer Satisfaction and Organizational Development

The last session I'm attending before the convention's dinner is "Balancing Customer Satisfaction and Organizational Development Activities - An Application of TRIZ Techniques" with Prakasan K.

The managers thought that the engineers weren't contributing to the company's development, while the engineers felt they were doing their best and that their clients were happy. To solve the problem, they used perception mapping, which is used for "soft" issues - here based on mutual understanding and appreciation of individuals.

Off on a short break (time for regular work!) before the dinner - look for more commentaries tomorrow from the last day of TRIZCON2007.

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