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TRIZ Tools and Techniques

There are five main TRIZ techniques, viz, Inventive Principles, Contradictions, Ideality, Standard Solutions and Trends of Evolution. These are found to be commonly followed by all TRIZ professionals. Besides there are some more TRIZ tools and Techniques which may not be used across the TRIZ professionals, but still found to be powerful problem definition or solution tools.

It is not important to count or debate on how many tools are there, or which specific tool originated / followed by which TRIZ school. The five main tools specified above are definitely sufficient to address any kind of inventive problem. However, the other tools are also powerful and found to be effective in many cases.

The following is a list of the tools and Techniques of TRIZ.
1. 40 Inventive Principles
2. Contradictions
2a. Contradiction Matrix
3. Ideality
4. Inventive Standards
5. Trends of Evolution
5a. S-curves
6. Resources
7. Functional Analysis
8. S-Fields
9. System Operator
10. ARIZ

1. 40 Inventive Principles

According to TRIZ all the inventions are made out of forty and only forty principles, which are called Inventive Principles. Applying 40 principles is the most powerful technique in TRIZ.

The principles can be applied directly as solution triggers, or can be applied after finding a contradiction. Any contradiction can be eliminated by applying a single or multiple Inventive Principles.

The Inventive Principles are very basic in TRIZ methodology and all TRIZ people must understand their applicability. [Please go to our Inventive Principles section in order to read more on the topic.

2. Contradictions

The concept of Contradiction is central to the TRIZ tool-kit. A contradiction happens when two different parameters conflict to each other. The parameters may conflict in space or time. It is important to identify where the conflict takes place.

The contradictions may be physical or Technical. A physical contradiction creats a conflict with the same parameters. For example, the cofee cup should be hot to keep the cofee hot and the cofee cup should be cold to be hold by the user. Here the same parameter "heat" needs to be high and low, so a physical contradiction. In this case the problem is solved by making the inside of the cup hot and outside of the cup cold (spacial segmentation).

To site another example, the umbrella should be large to protect from rain and the same should be small to be carried easily. This physical contradiction is resolved by segmenting in time. By making the umbrella collapsible, the same becomes small while carried.

A technical contradcition takes place where different parameters conflict each other. For example, the motor should move fast, but should not generate heat. All contradictions are solved by using Inventive principles and other TRIZ techniques. [Please go to our section on 39 Parameters in order to read more on the topic.

2a. Contradiction Matrix

TRIZ provides a tool called contradiction matrix, which presents all contradiction parameters in the form of a tabular matrix. The x axis of the matrix shows all improving parameters and y axis of the matrix shows all worsening parameters. Each cell of the matrix shows the inventive Principles which can be used to solve that particular contradiction. [You may click here to view Contradiction Matrix in a separate window.]

3. Ideality

Ideality is the ultimate stage of any evolution or the ultimate solution to any problem. All systems (products/organisations etc.) move towards ideality over period of time. Although the ultimate ideality may be unachievable, the measurement of ideality is done by the formula "benefits /(Costs + Harms)". Increasing ideality means "increase in benefits", "decrease in costs" and "decrease in harms".

While defining the Ideal system, we keep in mind that, it should have everything positive, good and nice and should not have anything negative, contradictory and undired. The ideal system should not be ideal only for user or manufacturer, it should be ideal for everyone, user, manufacturer, designing engineer and all. In brief the ideal system :

  • should have all the benefits of the current system.
  • should have benefits other than the current system
  • should have no limitations of the current system
  • should not include any new limitations or difficulties.

4. Inventive Standards

Inventive stadards are designed to solve complex problems. They are structured rules for synthesis and reconstruction of technical systems. They are effective in s-field modeling. Altshuller offered 72 Standards divided into five groups:

  • Group 1: Built or destroy S-Fields
  • Group 2: Develop an S-Fields
  • Group 3: Transition from the basic system to the super system or to the subsystem
  • Group 4: Measure or detect anything within a technical system
  • Group 5: Rules how to introduce substances or field into the technical system
Standard Solutions is a collection of ready-made, highly domain-specific standard solutions and physical effects. These solutions help inventors to solve standard problems, as the name says. The solutions are logically organised in standards and effects, hence easy for computerized application.

Inventive standards are voluminous and difficult to apply. They need substantial understanding of all the standards and experince of applying the standards. Inventive standards is disputed by many TRIZ practitioners. [You may go to our Inventive Standards to read more on this tool.]

5. Trends of Evolution

All products, all processes, all technical systems evolve over time. Evolution is essential and desirable as higher evolution means higher efficiency and better product. TRIZ researchers have analysed the technical evolution and found the generic trends or patterns of these evolution.

TRIZ offers us ways of seeing how all products and industries develop. Using Trends of Evolution we can predict the new markets and new products. The Trends of Evolution map the general directions of product or system development.

TRIZ Trends are based on Ideality to some extent. The features of the ideal product is kept at the end of the evolution. All stages between the current features and ideal features are stages of evolution.

According to Altshuller there are 9 generic trends which all technical systems follow while moving towards their ideality. Those nine trends are as follows.

  1. Trend of the Completeness of Parts of the System
  2. Trend of Energy Conductivity of a System
  3. Trend of Harmonizing the Rhythm of the Parts of the System
  4. Trend of Increasing the degree of Idealness of the System
  5. Trend of Uneven Development of Parts of the System
  6. Transition to a super-system
  7. Dynamization
  8. Trend of the Transition from macro to micro level
  9. Trend of Increasing the S-Field development
Trends are used as forecasting tool and failure analysis for development and evolution of technical system. [Please visit our Trends of Evolution section to read more on this technique.]

6. Resources

Identification of available resources around any problem is essential for finding good, cost effective, environmentally friendly solutions. Unlike any other problem solving technique the TRIZ definition of a resource is all-encompassing and focuses even on apparently negative or harmful resources. Thinking about symmetry, smell, colour or surface finish as resources rather than just things that exist in the system helps you learn how to identify, transform and then use all the resources to focus on cost reduction and produce elegant, clever solutions. [Please visit our Resources section to read more on this technique.]

7. Functional Analysis

This is the TRIZ discipline and process for describing the system containing the problem(s) in all its detail by listing all the components and all their interactions. TRIZ Functional Analysis is unique in that it includes all the negative, ineffective and excessive interactions in the system, and this is key to a proper understanding of the problems and potential solution points in the system. All interactions are expressed as Subject-Action-Object and it is important to use simple, clear language (no acronyms) in order to be able to structure the problem correctly. Correct use of this tool allows direct access to the world’s knowledge (which is structured along similar lines) to locate the best solutions.

Once the problems have been identified from the Functional Analysis diagram we try to simplify the system using the Trimming Rules. Often this step will eliminate problems but it also of course reduces the cost of the system and increases its ideality.

After trimming we select one of the remaining problems to solve and identify where we can solve it (in time and space). The range of possibilities constitutes your solution map, and you choose which type of solution to try for according to what constraints you have.

8. S-Fields

According to Altshuller, each function consists of "Substances" and "Field". A substance"substance" could be any material thing like a car, a wheel or a cycle. A field represent a source of energy, and is usually identified by the type of energy employed, such as mechanical, chemical, thermal etc. Substances are symbolized by "S" and Fields by "F". That is why these functions are called "S-Field" or "Su-Field".

In the s-field model, the substances interacts with each other and with the field. These interactions are pictorised in different type of lines. The following are a set of accepted line patterns for s-field interactions.

Altshuller’s Substance-Field Analysis offers innovative solutions to inventive problems, but many people find the method tedious, hard to understand and difficult to remember when solving problems. S-Field is very useful in some cases but not applicable in all kind of of problems. Many TRIZ professionals use this tool on a second priority when other tools like principles and contradictions are not very effective.

9. System Operator

According to System Operator, we have to take into account not only the system itself but also its super-system and sub-systems. For each of these super-system, system and sub-systems, we take into account the past, present and future. Thus the tool consists of 9 windows, which helps finding the correct problem.

The system operator is used to identify the problem correctly. Besides the Present, Past and Future windows show the trend of the system development.

10. ARIZ

ARIZ is the Russian Acronym for "Algorithm of Inventive Problem Solving". ARIZ is the analytical tool of TRIZ used for defining a problem through problem defining algorithm. ARIZ has different versions. The most recent version of ARIZ (ARIZ85C) contains nine steps as below.

I. Restructuring of the Original Problem

  • Analysis of the system, which helps to define the basic function of the system and the root conflict that is worth solving.
  • Analysis of the resources of the system includes analysis of the zone where the selected conflict happens, periods when it happens and objects and energy that system has.
  • Define the Ideal Final Result and Formulate the Physical Contradiction
II. Removing the Physical Contradiction
  • Separate the Physical Contradiction-which includes application of one of six rules to separate conflicting requirements.
  • Apply the Knowledge Base: Effects, Standards, and Principles
  • Change or reformulate the problem
III. Analyzing the Solution
  • Review the Solution and Analyze the Removal of the Physical Contradiction,
  • Develop Maximum Usage of the Solution,
  • Review all the Stages in ARIZ in "Real Time" Application.

TRIZ concepts
The TRIZ Approach
5 levels of invention
Key Findings of TRIZ
Four Pillars of TRIZ
TRIZ Tools
40 Principles of TRIZ
39 Parameters
Contradiction Matrix
Trends of Evolution
Online tools
Online Matrix *
Popup Matrix *
Solve Contradictions
Matrix Switchboard
Principles/Matrix *
[ * These tools will take some time to load. Please have patience to wait for half a minute after clicking.]
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Links to External Sites
Links to Patent sites
Links to Invention Sites
Links to Innovation Sites
Links to Creativity Sites
120 TRIZ links by Toru Nakagawa
Encyclopædia Britannica's Great Inventions
The Official G.S. Altshuller Foundation webpage
Umakant's book "TRIZ Principles for IT" in Japanese
trizsite.com quoted in AI's website
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