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Personal Report of ETRIACon2003 (Aachen, Germany, 2003) (Toru Nakagawa) Page 1

http://www.osaka-gu.ac.jp/php/nakagawa/TRIZ/eTRIZ/eforum/eETRIACon2003/eETRIACon2003.html 16-Dec-04 09:59:40

TRIZ Forum: Conference Participation Report (8)

Personal Report of ETRIA WorldConference: TRIZ Future 2003 (Held at Aachen, Germany, on Nov. 12-14, 2003)

Toru Nakagawa (Osaka Gakuin University, Japan), Dec. 11, 2003 [Posted on Dec. 11, 2003]

buttons guides you to the Japanese pages.Japanese translation of this page is not scheduled.

Editor's Note (Toru Nakagawa, Dec. 11, 2003)

This is a personal report of ETRIA Conference held a month ago. (See ETRIA Official Web site.) About 70 people attended at the conference andpresented/discussed a wide range of TRIZ research and applications. Summarising and reviewing important papers and activities in these conferencesshould be of interest and worthy to learn for many readers, I suppose. Thus, I have written a personal report of the conference and am posting it here inmy Web site, as I did so far for all the TRIZ confereneces I attended (See ETRIACon2002 and TRIZCON2003). Even though I am trying my best tounderstand and review the papers in fair ways, please regard this as a personal view and please correct me if there is any mistake/misunderstanding inthis report.

Top of thispage Outline Overview (A) Keynote

speech(B) Case Studiesin Industry

(C) Promotionexperiences in Industry

(D) EnhancingTRIZ

(E) Integration of TRIZand other methods

(F) Patentanalysis

(G) Non-technicalapplications

ConcludingRemarks

List ofPapers

Conference Name: ETRIA World Conference:TRIZ Future 2003Main Theme: Worldwide Best Practices in Systematic Innovation through Automotive IndustryDate: November 12-14, 2003Place: Technologiezentrum am Europaplatz, Aachen, GermanyHeld by: European TRIZ Association (ETRIA)Organized by: [WZLforum; Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL); and Fraunhofer Institute of Production Technology(Fraunhofer IPT)], RWTH University (Rheinisch-Westfanische Technische Hochschule), Aachen, GermanyParticipants: about 70 people from 17 countries

Outline of the Agenda: 1 Keynote Speech and 32 presentations in single track from 9:00 through 18:00 for the three days.

Overview:

This is the third World Conference on TRIZ organized by ETRIA (European TRIZ Association). The first one was held at the University of Bath, UK(See my personal report of ETRIA2001), and the second at ENSAIS University at Strasbourg, France (personal report of ETRIA2002). This year, theConference was held at RWTH University, Aachen in Germany.

Fraunhofer IPT and Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL) of RWTH University Aachen are the core of the organization. Professor Dr. Guenther Schuh served the Chairman of the Conference and Mr. Markus Grawatsch worked as the key person for realizing this conference. Dr.Denis Cavalluci gave a brief introduction talk as the new President of ETRIA.

The total number of participants was about 70 according to the list of participants distributed during the conference (plus several as the staff). Participantscame from the following 17 countries (according to my counting with the list): Germany (29), France (10), The Netherlands (6), Belgium (3), Italy (3), Japan(3), Brazil (3), UK(2), USA (2), Austria (2), Czech Republic (2), Belarus (2), Slovenia (1), Israel (1), India (1), Korea (1), Mexico (1), unknown (1). Noticeable is the participation of many industrial people from Germany, and of TRIZ colleagues from India, Brazil, and Mexico.

Keynote Speech was given by Vladimir Petrov, Master of TRIZ from Israel, for an hour on the second day. All other papers were presented in 30 minutesin single track, with intervals of lunch and morning/afternoon coffee breaks. In most cases only short time was available for official Q&A in the session.

The Proceedings were provided in two thick bound folders of A4 size. Each presentation is normally composed of a profile page, paper itself, and slides;while some misses either paper or slides. A list of the papers in the Proceedings are shown at the end of this page in its original order. The papers are presentedin this order with minor exceptions: a few papers were not presented (shown with the "--" marks); Nakagawa's presentation was orally given in the slot ofPoster Session as shown at the end of the list. Papers are referred with the numbers in this list as shown in [ ].

Topics of the presentations cover a wide range, while the sessions seemed not arranged in any clear categorization. As shown in the main theme, the presentconference featured in a large number of reports from automotive industries in Europe, talking about experiences in promoting and applying TRIZ. In thisreport I am going to group them in the following categories: (A) Keynote Speech (B) TRIZ Case Studies in Automotive and Other Industries (C) TRIZ Promotion Experiences in Automotive and Other Industries (D) Enhancing the TRIZ Methodology (E) Integration of TRIZ and Other Related Methods (F) Patent Analysis in TRIZ (G) Application of TRIZ in Non-Technical Area

Some Concluding Remarks are described after these reviews.



(A) Keynote Speech

The Keynote Speech [II-1] was given by Vladimir Petrov, Master of TRIZ, with the title of "TRIZ - past, present and future". He says "the essence ofTRIZ is the discovery and use of laws, regularities and tendencies for the development of technological systems" and showed bibliography in Russian, English,and German. History of TRIZ development was shown in 12 slides, itemized in the chronological way. It is quite interesting to learn that various theories andtools in TRIZ were formed gradually, sometimes in sequence and other times in parallel, for many years. I personally asked Mr. Petrov to make a one-pagechart of the history, but he said "It's impossible. I have written 600 pages of TRIZ History!" In the latter part of his lecture he listed up current shortcomings ofTRIZ and their future in various aspects, including aspects of theory, education methods, education of teachers, development of TRIZ community, anddevelopment of scientific schools.

Petrov [I-13] also gave a talk on "New system of Standard Solutions of Inventive Problems". Historically, "Standards" (of 29 laws) were developedduring 1975-1979, and "Systems of Standards" (of 76 laws) during 1981-1985. He has extended the idea and has formed "New Systems of Standards" of 150laws. So he showed names (after names) of those (new) laws in a hierachical numbering system. He has used this new system for these three years ineducation and problem solving successfully, he says, and still wants to make it more complete and universal before publication.

(B) TRIZ Case Studies in Automotive and Other Industries

Now I am going to review practical papers reporting on case studies and promotion experiences in industries, prior to theoretical papers, because theConference put much stress on them as the main theme and obtained a lot of fruits.

In the automotive industry, Pascal Guerry (MGI COUTIER, France) [I-7] reported his trials of applying TRIZ to his real problem. The problem is how toseparate droplets of rain from the air in the car air-intake line, especially prior to the cartridge air cleaner. Their first concept was to use quibbles. According to the test, this worked in the air blowing but did not in the air aspiration situations [Fig. 1a]. So they applied TRIZ, especially first four steps ofARIZ, i.e. Operating zone/time, Resources, Physical contradiction, and Ideal final result. They obtained 15 ideas, including puting a box [Fig. 1b] or anacoustic resonator around the pipe. Their intermediate solution succeeded in the droplet separation but caused pressure decrease. Thus they applied TRIZagain to solve the contradiction, and found a solution which introduced a hole for the Bernoulli effect at the optimal position suggested by the flow analyis[Fig. 1c]. Their third prototype revealed the water separation of 80% without quibble nor extra pressure drop.

[Fig. 1a,b,c: Not shown here because a permission is not given yet.]

Guerry summarizes the signifficance of his paper in the following scheme [Fig. 2; Redrawn with Nakagawa's understnding]. This corresponds to the idea of"Chain of Contradictions" in Darrell Mann's textbook "Hands on Systematic Innovation" (CREAX, 2002) and represents sound and powerful attitude intechnology develoment.

Dominique Benoit and Chris Rhodes (ArvinMeritor, France) [II-6] also reported a TRIZ case study for reducing the noise from the vehicle door. Thecompany has introduced TRIZ since 2001 in two projects assisted by INSA Strasbourg. With some experiment they have found that the noise problem mostsignificantly occurs at the top-behind section of the door which gets loose because of the sucking-out force caused by the aerodynamic effects during high-speed driving. The simplest idea is to make the door seal thicker, denser, and multiplied, but it would request the passengers to make harder efforts for closingthe door. Then by applying TRIZ Separation Principle in time, the project has found that the seal can be soft while closing the door (when the car is stationary)and can be tight while driving at high speed. This solution has been realized with a new idea of inflatable seal with an "inflatable joints" using the pressuredifference generated by the aerodynamic effects of the speed. (The solution is shown in a few slides but unfortunately not clear enough to me due to the lack ofa full paper.)

Edgardo Cordova Lopez (Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla, Mexico) [II-8] reported his activities at Volkswagen of Mexico. Problems toreduce the rework ratio in the casting with a sand mold were tackled. The main process applied is to interpret Inventive Principles suggested from theContradiction Matrix. Even though the analysis process seems elementary, the author obtained a solution of the return-scrap hopper with more perforation andvibration for fully separating the sand. The implementation has resulted more than 10% of reduction of scraps in the casting. This led the managers to organizea TRIZ course in Volkswagen of Mexico and many people to want to learn TRIZ in Mexico, he says.

An excellent case study was reported by Ellen Domb (Editor of the "TRIZ Journal") and her customer/friend John "Jack" Jacklich (USA) in the field ofdentists' tools. Dr. Jacklich is a dentist and the developer of "washed field technique" and related tools in dental operation (inside teeth) since 1972. In 1997,he took Ellen Domb's class "Practical Innovation: A TRIZ Learning Event" (See TRIZ Journal, April 1997). Though the class was a conventional presentationof TRIZ for biginners, the students were advised to identify their own past use of the tools/methods of TRIZ. Dr. Jacklich quickly mastered the essence ofTRIZ and has been using the concepts of IFR, Technical/Physical Contradictions, 40 Principles, and Scientific Effects since then, resulting much improveddesigns and quicker cycles in his innovation.

The paper shows three actual cases of Dr. Jacklich's inventions and further improvements with the help of TRIZ : (a) Periodontal intraligamentary syringe,(b) Fine-cut endo cartridge syringe, and (c) Circumferential filing. Since there is not enough space here to explain the problem and the solutions, I have justchosen to show figures with which you will be able to imagine the tool operation. [The authors have given a permission for me to post the paper in Japanesetranslation in near future.]



Ian Mitchell (Ilford Imaging, UK) and Darrell Mann (CREAX, Belgium) reported a practical approach of breakthrough innovation in constraint-dominated situations. Being faced with the prevailing shift towards digital cameras, the batch sizes for photographic paper manufacturing have to bereduced. A problem occurred in the mixing process, where an amount of water is chilled and then some powder is mixed to disolve. The mixing vessel shownin Fig 4a has hit its limit in batch size reduction at 106kg, causing much longer time for chilling and for mixing due to inefficiency in the situation out of itsoriginal design.

The team examined the problem with Functional analysis and by asking "what was stopping the various problem areas from being improved?". They founda number of technical and physical contradictions, and obtained suggestions of Inventive Principles with the help of CREAX's new Contradiction Matrix. Theuniqueness in the present paper is that some of the Inventive Principles were filtered out with the constraints imposed. They imposed the constraints onthemselves that the product must not be affected, the existing hardware must not be replaced, energy consumption must be small, and the cost of newinstallation must be minimal. The Fig. 4b shows their intermediate solution, with still insufficient efficiency.

At that time the bearing of the Impellor shaft was broken. This urged the team to trim the Impellor and to fully utilize the Pump, the least-used Resource inthe original design. As shown in Fig. 4c, the water is chilled by splaying onto the part of vessel wall where the Cooling jacket is installed and then is stirred fordissolving the powder with the circulated water flow. This solution achieved the batch size reduction to less than 50 kg and also efficient chilling and mixing,with minimal investment. [Note: These figures were shown in the slides but not recorded in the Proceedings. Nakagawa has modified Figs. 4b and 4c so as tobetter match with the description in the paper. The paper will be posted in Japanese translation in this Web site in the near future.]

The paper [II-16] by Pavel Jirman (Technical Univ. of Liberec, Czech Rep.), Bohuslav Busov (Technical Univ. of Brno, Czech Rep.), and AlexanderSkuratovich (Belarus) presented their observation on the development trends of glass moulds. In the paper, after the description of the mechanism of theglass-bottle manufacturing process with glass moulds, the authors examine several laws of technological evolution by turn to reveal actual mechanisms whichmay be interpretable as the reflection of the laws. Many photoes were shown in the presentation but not recorded in the Proceedings; thus it is difficult for meto follow the detailed observations.

The paper [I-9] by Serguei Khrouchtchev (Moscow State Technical Univ. named after Bauman, Russia), even though not presented orally, is an excellentanalysis of the development of laser optical disk systems. The author made a powerful cost-reduction invention of the DVD pick-up optical system atSamsung Electronics, Korea, during 2000-2002, as reported by Hyo June Kim at the 4th Japan IM User Group Meeting held on Sept. 12-14, 2003. The paper[I-9] reviews the up-to-date development of technology in laser optical disk systems and discusses about the problems/contradictions and their solutions interms of TRIZ principles.

Michael Schlueter (Philips Semiconductors GmbH, Germany) [I-17] discusses a case of improving software algorithm. An algorithm of the n2 orderwas improved into the one of the 2n order by inserting a sorting process. The author writes: "At first glance TRIZ doesn't seem to apply to software problems:no atoms, no molecules, no layers to touch; no physical, no chemical effects to apply. However, software provides functions, it is made from parts andresources, and software can be ideal or less ideal." This statement is quite right, but I still feel that software people could find the above algorithm relativelyeasily in their own expertise without somewhat indirect suggestions in TRIZ terms. Introducing TRIZ into software development area still needs further study,I feel.

(C) TRIZ Promotion Experiences in Automotive and Other Industries

Six papers were presented in this category from automotive industries in Europe (Germany and France). This is one of the most remarkable achievements inthe present Conference.

Guillaume Dupont (ENSAM Paris, France) and Marcel Monnier (PSA Peugeot Citroen, France) [I-12] reported their experiences of deploying TRIZ inPSA Peugeot Citroen (2nd European car manufacture, having about 200,000 employees). The company first learned TRIZ in 1998 through a TRIZ software(IWB), and started a project for trial deployment of TRIZ in 2001. They set three levels of expertise as their goal: (1) Basic level (with a short lecture), (2)Simplified use of TRIZ (after 2-day TRIZ training), and (3) TRIZ specialist level. The level 2 training has started since the first quarter of 2003. Since thereare no level-3 specialists at moment in the company, external TRIZ specialists are called for conducting case studies. Feedback from 27 trainees is reportedabout their usage of TRIZ tools with ranks from 5 (always) to 0 (never): Questionaire = 4, Problem Formulation =5, Contradiction Matrix =5, SeparationPrinciples =3, S-Fields =2, Laws of Evolution =2, ARIZ =1.

Eckhard Schueler-Hainsch and Christine Ahrend (DaimlerChrysler AG, Germany) [II-14] reported their experience of applying TRIZ concepts ofTrends of Technical Evolution. The major task of the authors' division (i.e. Society and Technology Research Group) is looking for future trends in society andtheir implications on technology and products (related to their company). Thus the authors organized a task force for foreseeing the future trends ofcustomer requirements. They focused on a rather standard group of customers, i.e. age of 30-45 years, family households, middle class car, and medium to



upper segment of income. As a result of intensive customer interviews (up to 2 hours each), three subgroups of customers were assigned (by using GroundedTheory Methodology) being characterized with their requests for (a) Function and innovation, (b) Relief and confort, and (c) Family and fun.

The the foreseeing task was submitted to a TRIZ-based taskforce of 12-14 researchers including senior managers. The taskforce conducted 4-stepworkshops, where the 1st and 4th workshops with all the members together, while the 2nd and 3rd workshops with split members in parallel for speeding upthe group communication. The project office worked during the intervals of the workshops. The main objectives of the workshops were:

1st WS: Kick-off: Definition of the most important vehicle functions, and Collecting technologies already existing and in research pipe line.

2nd WS: Generating ideas: Completing problem statements, and Generating ideas on the basis of the laws of technological evolution

3rd WS: Integration of concepts: Assessment of generated ideas, Identification of concept kernels, and Integration of ideas to vehicle concepts

4th WS: Concept discussion: Discussion and agreement on three different vehicle concepts.

In one of the 2nd workshops, being requested by the participants, they tried to teach TRIZ to the participants, but explanation of TRIZ was rather hinderingthe process. So later TRIZ was not taught but used to stimulate participants thinking; this was much a success, the authors say. The taskforce obtained clearconcepts of three different vehicle types, though such concepts themselves were not reported in the Conference, of course.

Nicolas Gombe�t (Hutchinson, France) [II-17] reported the experience of introducing TRIZ in Hutchinson, world market leader in the industrial rubbersector having markets in automotive and aerospace industries and consumer products. The company learned TRIZ in 1998 and started an experimentation in1999 with 2 students of INSA Strasbourg. The results of the experiments were so good that many departments wanted to have TRIZ experts. However,Huchinson found that TRIZ user (or expert) has to be trained well and has to perform regular practice; thus it decided to centralize the expertise into onespecialist shared by all the departments. Thus the keyperson in TRIZ, i.e. the author, has been trying to promote TRIZ in internal Web site, incommunications with many department, and to train himself in the courses of INSA Strasbourg and Invention Machine software. He summarized theachievements as: Since 2000 TRIZ represents about 3-4 studies per year; 5% of the result idea are filed as patents; Each sector of Hutchinson world wide hasever used TRIZ at least once. The idea of sharing the centralized TRIZ expertise should be practical and fruitful in many organizations.

Denis Cavallucci, David Oget, Michel Sontag, and Nathalie Gartiser (INSA Strasbourg, France) [II-5] reported with the title of "About non technicalbarriers preventing efficient TRIZ integration into organisations". This report reflects INSA's experiences of promoting TRIZ for these 7 years in about50 companies, they say. The topics of their TRIZ application are summarized in Fig. 5. Automotive industry is appearently most active in introducing TRIZ.

The first postulate by the authors is: "TRIZ is formally acknowledged as an efficient way of addressing technological problems. However, the difficulties ofits acceptance by organizations confronted with the problem of its integration are very significant." The attitudes of organizations to TRIZ (or any other newmethodology/concept) may be characterized as shown in Fig. 6. The authors have found a number of basic differences between conventional corporate cultureand the TRIZ philosophy, in the fields of educational, management, and cognition sciences.



The authors thus propose non-technical consideration to be taken prior to the development of a TRIZ action. The scheme is quite generic (i.e. applicable tothe introduction of any other new methodology), as shown in Fig. 7.

-- One point we should notice here is the way of our presenting TRIZ itself. The typical or classical way of presenting/teaching TRIZ is too muchellaborated and time-consuming, I think. We should teach TRIZ in its essence in a much easier and useful way. USIT approach (Nakagawa, [II-24]) is such atrial.

(D) Enhancing the TRIZ methodology

Dennis Murnikow (TriSolver Group Germany, Germany) [II-7] reported how the innovation and problem solving projects can be supported in TRIZ, ormore strictly with their software tool "TriSolver". He discusses about innovation projects in the following 5 steps:

(a) Formulating the innovation tasks(b) Analyzing initial situation (current technical system)(c) Solving problem (idea generation)(d) Evaluating ideas(e) Developing and evaluating concepts

While new product development needs all these steps, improvement of an entire technical system needs (b) through (e), and small system modification needs(c) alone, he says. In the process (a), an effective method of using Trends of Technology Evolution is explained as "Technical driven innovation", withemphasizing the necessity of "Customer benefits driven innovation". The whole article is a nice introduction to their well-structured and easy-to-use softwaretool, "TriSolver".

Elena Novitskaya (Educational center "Universum", Belarus) [I-11] demonstrated the importance of transforming good ideas to different technicalsystems. The key concepts are Trends of evolution and structural similarity. Being a professional designer and TRIZ specialist, she has demonstrated a lot ofbeautiful drawings of examples of transformation results, which are instructive for engineers as well as for children.



Peter Chuksin (LG Electronics, South Korea) [II-20] talked about their method of forecasting technical systems, especially in their structural andfunctional anaysis. However, since his work on current technical systems in the company was not allowed to publicize, he took an example of historicaldevelopment of the grain-harvesting combine devices.

Sebastien Dubois, Phillippe Lutz, and Francois Rousselot (INSA Strasbourg, France) [I-8] is a proposal to make TRIZ (or ARIZ) easier to use withthe aid of Atriticial Intelligence. ARIZ and Inventive Standards are formally modeled in the object-oriented style (i.e. a style of software programming), as acollection of rules to be applied on knowledges of problem situations. To make the knowledge acquisition of a concrete problem manageable to users, theyinstalled a set of "Heuristics" of questionaire. While replying the questions one after another as guided by the computer, the problem situation is formed in thecomputer, especially in the style of physical contradiction. Then, hopefully, solutions or solution triggers are suggested by the computer as a result ofapplication of TRIZ rules. -- Even though a case of solution is illustrated in the paper, it is not clear to me how it comes out. Interesting work, but still a longway to go, I suppose.

Alla Nesterenko (TRIZ Specialist, Russia) [II-22] reported a paper (though not presented orally) in a similar to above [I-8] but slightly different direction. She uses the ENV model (i.e. Element, Name of feature, and Value of feature) in the OTSM-TRIZ approach (i.e. the approach led by Nikolai Khomenko) asthe basis. Then she reported the framework to formulate the followings: properties, effects, laws, and TRIZ solution rules. This formulation is somewhatsilimar to the style reported in Dubois et al. [I-8], but meant to assist human specialists/learners to think in a more formal way to find new solutions to their ownproblem.

Prakash R. Apte (Indian Institute of Technology at Bombay, India) [I-14] presented a paper composed of two parts. In its first part, he puts stress on theuse of Effects knowledge base to see/utilize various methds for any target function. As an example, he chooses the function of "moving an object throughsmall/precise displacements". The following methods can be used in the increasing order of fineness: Pantagraph, micrometer screw, worm wheel, steppermotor, stepper motor with micrometer screw, and then stepper motor with worm wheel. Here comes the limit of mechanical system because of back-lash. Then, we know about Piezoelectric actuator useful in the sub-micrometer region. Then, what next? Magnetostrictive actuator for nanometer displacement, hesays. "Change in the Field" is the key to think about this kind of jumping over limitations, he says.

Pavel Livotov (TriSolver Group Europe, Germany) [I-16] discussed the role of TRIZ in sustainable and disruptive innovation process. These two typesof innovation process are defined as:

Sustainable innovation Disruptive innovationcontinuous improvement processproblem and tasks are being solved step-by-stepusing technologies with low to medium implementation

costslower risk

significant shift to a new technologyhigher future potential of created systemsbreakthrough solutions with medium to high implementation

costshigher risk

The author proposes a method for evaluting the maturity (called as "System Value: Vs") of a technical system quantitatively with the importance-weighted average of satisfaction level for a large number of needs. In this measure, he suggests that sustainable innovation with notable success can beobtained with a certain degree of increase DVs ranging from 25% (when Vs is up to 50%) to a few % (when Vs is around 80%) and that the disruptive(breakthrough) innovation may need additional increase by about 10%. It is also noted that in a highly matured system (with Vs > 85%) disruptive innovationcan be obtained only by introducing/meeting new user needs.

Thus the author concludes: "The future TRIZ development should be focused on: identification of true user needs, evolution of existing needs, andprediction of new needs. This, in turn, allows to define what functions and systems will be required to meet these new needs. This knowledge also makes itpossible to discover radically new directions of technical system evolution." (Note that this statement is based on the recognition that "System is to provideFunctions, and Functions are to satisfy Needs".)

Toru Nakagawa (Osaka Gakuin Univ., Japan) [II-24] gave an oral presentation (at the Poster Session) with the title of "USIT approach in Japanfor simpler and powerful process of creative problem solving in TRIZ". Simplification of TRIZ should be the key for TRIZ to be widely adopted in industries. Essence of TRIZ can be expressed in 50 words, and the process of problem definition (including root cause definition) and problem analysis in terms ofObjects, Attributes, Functions, Space and Time can be achieved in a straightforward way in USIT. Also all the tools of TRIZ (including Inventive Principles,Inventive Standards, Trends of Evolution, and Separation Principles) have been reorganized and unified in the USIT solution generation methods. In Japan theauthor has conducted 2-day USIT training seminars in industries, where TRIZ/USIT is introduced to beginners and 3 real industrial problems are solvedsuccessfully in parallel along the full course of the USIT process. USIT method has been adopted in several manufacturing companies in Japan. -- This is arefrain of the main theme Nakagawa has been writing about in his Web site.

(E) Integration of TRIZ and Other Related Methods

One of the important themes in the Conferrence is to view TRIZ in a wider scope of technology and product/process/service development and to tryintegrating it with other methodologies. Several papers were reported in this direction from both practical and theoretical aspects.

Thomas Novacek (MTU Aero Engines, Germany) [II-4] reported the introduction of TRIZ into the company's R&D process in one of DaimlerChryslerCompanies. Fig. 8 shows the overall view of the technology process in MTU. TRIZ is assigned as an important methodology in the Innovation step of theTechnology Portfolio phase. A number of TRIZ workshops (i.e. projects) have been conducted since 1999 and TRIZ and other innovation methods have alsobeen introduced/accumulated.



Andreas Jost (DaimlerChrysler Research and Technology, Germany) [I-6] reported that the well established System Dynamic problem analysis andmodeling method (developed in MIT) provides a foundation of using TRIZ. Especially the System Dynamic Cause and Effect Diagram can smoothly be usedas the input data of TRIZ Problem Formulation. Capability of simulation in System Dynamic is also valuable in complementary use of the two methods, theauthor suggests.

Michael S. Slocum (Breakthrough Management Group, USA) [II-9] advocates "the integration of QFD, TRIZ, and Six Sigma in an axiomaticallydriven Total Product/Process Development System (TPPDS)". The follwing figure shows his scheme of the comprehensive DFSS (Design for Six Sigma):

In the above scheme TRIZ can be used in the following points: (a) In identifying Social Needs, to focus on identifying and resolving contradictions; (b) inidentifying Customer Requirements, to derive concepts with TRIZ structured approach based on empirical observations, heuristics from patents andtechnological evolution, functional modeling, and contradiction identification; (c) in identifying Functional Requirements, to analyze with Su-Field modelingand MLP (SLP?); (d) and to assist in identifying Design Parameters and Process Valiables. This paper does not show any example.

Tilo Pfeifer and Martine Tillmann (Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology, Germany) [II-10] reported their approach for Innovative ProcessChain Optimization (IPO) by integrating TRIZ, TOC (Theory of Constraint), Classical Quality-Management Methods, and Six Sigma. The researchproject was accomplished by a work group of representatives coming from different industries and was validated in two pilot applications, the author says. Their scheme, whose framework of DMAIC being taken from Six Sigma, is shown in Fig. 10.



The Theory of Constraints is: "Production systems consist of process chains, whose quality depends on the weakest link." TOC's thinking process is toanswer three basic questions: "What to change?", "What to change to?", and "How to cause the change?". The thinking process is supported by the tools of"five logical trees" as shown in Fig. 11.

In the Analyze Phase, TOC is used to derive the Current Reality Tree and Conflict Resolution Diagram. Then, in the Improve Phase, TRIZ can contributemuch to create breakthrough solutions. By use of Portfolio Diagrams of chance vs risk and cost vs time, right solutions are chosen, and they are furtherchecked with the succeeding TOC tools to safeguard their successful implementation. -- This paper has clearly shown the logic for innovative improvement inproduction process by complementary use of TRIZ and TOC.

Zahir Messaoudene (INSA Strasbourg, France) [II-12] discussed about a theoretical method for formulating problems in a system of manufacturingprocess. In order to implement the idea of Lean Manufacturing (by J.P. Womack, 1996), the author has proposed a method of representing networks ofrelations among functional needs, design parameters, activities, and performance indicators. For reducing the manufacturing time, for instance, it is desirable toreduce lot delays (resulting from the batch of transfer) and run-size delays (resulting from the manufacturing batch) simultaneously. These functionalrequirements are interpreted in terms of associated design parameters and performance indicators, and thus a large number of contradictory reqirements arerevealed in the matrix-style representation. This opens the possibility of applying TRIZ to solve such contradictions in designing lean manufacturing systems,the austhor says.

Jan C. Aurich and Karsten Jenke (University of Kaiserslautern, Germany) [II-13] also put stress on the problem solving in manufacturing processes. They discuss about their development of a holistic concept of a systematic management for solving technical problems in manufacturing processes. They aregoing to embed TRIZ tools as the major elements with interfaces to several complementary tools. The project seems to be at an initial stage.

Markus Grawatsch (Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology, Germany) [II-19] discusses about TRIZ-based method of TechnologyIntelligence (i.e. to identify and forecast global technology road map). Such Technology Intelligence is necessary for corporations prior to setting up theirTechnology Planning (i.e. to decide corporate-specific technology road map). TRIZ can contribute much to Technology Intelligence, providing tools of Trendsof technological evolution and related ones. The author suggests the following usage of TRIZ: (a) to define framework of examination (with Function Analysisand 9-Windows method); (b) to identify alternative technologies (with Effects database and construction catalog); (c) to define long-term development targets(with the concept of Ideality), and (d) to anticipate development directions (with Evolutionary patterns).

(F) Patent Analysis in TRIZ

Gaestano Cascini and Paolo Rissone (University of Florence, Italy) [I-10] reported a sophisticated software tool "PAT-Analyzer" for speeding uppatent analyses. The key methodology adopted in the tool is the functional analysis supported by (external) semantic analysis of the patent texts. By scanning



the patent text, the tool automatically identifies all the components, identifies subsystem/supersystem relationships (hence defining a hierarchy of detail/abstraction levels), and determines positional and functional interactions between the identified components (by filtering the list of Subject-Action-Objecttriads to eliminate unrelivant triads).

On the basis of the information thus obtained, a few types of graphs can be drawn as the summary of each patent. An example of application is shown forthe case of US Patent 5,406,868 "Open end wrench". This patent is unique in profiling the working faces of the wrench such that the points of contact with thenut avoid the damage-prone corners. By processing the patent text, the tool generates the figure as shown below. Hierachical structure of components areshown with the enclosure relationships of rectangles, while the functional relationships are shown with arrows (with the standard convention in TRIZ fordistinguishing useful and harmful functions). Most specific (i.e. most detailed) components and functional relationships are highlighted with colors, in order toguide users' focus for understanding the peculiarity of the patent. This highlighted parts can be read as: "drive surface 21" of the "jaws 13" of the "wrenchcavity 16" -- "contact" -- "flat surfaces 25" of the "fastener head 17", but "not contact" -- its "corners 26". This is certainly a meaningful summary of the patent,extracted automatically by the tool.

Barry Winkless (CREAX, Ireland) [II-15] reported their patent analysis research (presented by Darrell Mann in stead). They use the information ofboth backward citation counts (i.e. the patent cites older patents) and forward citation counts (i.e. the patent is cited by later patents), and try to interpret theinformation in comparison with the ideas of levels of inventions, originality, and generality. Even though the CREAX' patent research has already achieved alot as reported at TRIZCON2003, the current presentation is at its stage of "a first look" as its title says.

Siegfried Luger (Luger Research, Austria) [II-18] also proposed a method for evaluating patents, by using "Patent Index". His index is based on themodel of Function (performance) S-curve, which is hierarchically composed of Component S-curves and Parameter S-curves. The parameters arebenchmarked (with the Trends of technology evolution) in height (innovation level), in depth (innovation steps), and in breadth (number of trends), and thenthe patent indices of components and the patent are calculated with them. The author tried to validate the method in the case of lighting electornics.

(G) Application of TRIZ in Non-technical Area

Two papers were reported in this category:

Atsuko Ishida (Hitachi, Japan) [II-21] reported a new approach to "Apply TRIZ to Create Innovative Business Models and Products". While therehave been a number of trials to re-interpret TRIZ technical principles in business terms so far, the author made one step further to build "Business ideadatabase" first and then to provide a number of suggestions for triggering concrete business ideas.

Her idea is based on a concise definition of three "comon business/product strategy": (a) Expand business/products' functions, (b) Concentrate business/products' functions, and (c) Change business/products' structure. For each strategy, improving and degrading features are listed up, and such features areinterpreted in terms of parameters for Contradiction Matrix (in technology). Corresponding to pairs of such improving and degrading features for a (business)strategy, Contradiction Matrix (in technology) shows a large number of Inventive Principles, which may be re-interpreted in business terms. (SegmentationPrinciple, for example, is interpreted as "Divide a system and summarize common functions"; while Taking-Out Principle as "Divide a system and eliminateuseless functions.") In this manner, patterns of business ideas are accumulated in "Business Idea Database".

Users may use the Business Idea Database as a pool of concepts of business ideas; corresponding to user's situation, users may build up their business ideasby applying the concepts in their own choice. Then the conceived business model should be evaluated with a set of criteria, including scarcity, hardness totransfer, hardness to imitate, durability, hardness to substitute, customer power, and supplier power. The author has demonstrated two small examples. -- Thispaper talks at a high level of abstraction and seems to be widely applicable in conceiving business models and business strategies.

Nelly Kazyreva (Belarus-TRIZ, Belarus) [II-23] talked with a title of "TRIZ for people: psychological aspects". She discussed about NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) and TRIZ, emphasizing the similarity between them especially at the points "What TRIZ-specialists can learn from NLP?" (Herpaper is not easy to read for many people because of unfamiliar concepts of NLP and because of her writing in somewhat too Russian way, but having struggledwith her paper, her slides are surprisingly clear to me.) NLP was founded in 1975 by Bandler and Grinder, and currently R. Dilt in St. Petersburg seems to beone of the most important thinkers in NLP.

NLP deals with human relationships. In the 9-Window method, while TRIZ puts a technical system at the central box, NLP put I (myself) there to model theworld of problem. "Re-framing" is the important concept in NLP, implying to change our own thinking way from the frame of "problem" to that of "result",from "mistake" to "feedback", and from "impossible" to "if". Just like 40 Principles and other tools in TRIZ, NLP has a number of guiding ways of "re-framing" and "problem solving" in human-related areas. The author has been trying to make bridges between these two independently-establishedphilosophies/methodologies, and has found that TRIZ has most (and some more) of the concepts essentially correspond to those of NLP.



Finally she concludes: "TRIZ' skills of personalities are a resource which is not fully used at present for solving personality and social problems. MasteringTRIZ and NLP together will make it possible (a) to expand own internal resources and "a map (i.e. the view) of the world"; (b) to create successful positivestrategy of behavior in the varying world; (c) to model and use the behavior of other people; and (d) to solve internal and interpersonal conflicts.

Concluding Remarks

As described above, the ETRIA World Conference 2003 had brought in people working and being interested in TRIZ around the world. It was veryvaluable that people came from industries and academia besides specialised TRIZ consultants/promoters. Here are some of my personal impression:

The biggest success in this conference comes from contributions from industries, especially from automotive industries in Europe. Many cases ofintroducing TRIZ into their company's R&D activities were reported. It can be summarized that in Europe TRIZ has found its bases in various places inmanufacturing industries.Academia in Europe have been performing a big role in the research and promotion of TRIZ. A number of cases were reported in collaboration withindustries and academia.Integration of TRIZ with other methods in the whole R&D process is becoming clear and realistic in some industries. In such integration, the merit ofTRIZ is not in its bigness or extensive functionality but should be in its effectiveness and benefits. TRIZ itself should be integrated (or concentrated) intoa simpler and yet powerful methodology. (Sorry for so many times of refraining.)Success stories are often wanted (for instance, actually talked in the closing discussion session), but very few were reported so far. However, notice thatsuccess stories are good only for sensational and journalistic porpaganda and that case studies of promotion and of problem solving process are moreimportant to learn. In this sense, this conference as well as other conferences and (Web) publications have provides us nice case studies.How to think creatively (in TRIZ) is the core point we want to learn. Papers and conferences can present it only at a high level of abstraction (incomparison with personal, real case training). Authors are trying their best to present it as much (under the constraints of company's secrecy policies),and readers are advised to find it as much in the papers and talks which are already published in a large amount.There are more areas of TRIZ application which were not discussed much in the present conference. Hope to see them in coming conferences.

Before closing this Personal Report, we would like to express our sincere thanks to the people and organizations who made this conference possible and somuch success.

Proceedings are available at WZLforum. [The price is 300 Euro. (Dec. 17, 2003). Send an Email to WZLforum at [email protected] ]

For next year, ETRIA World Conference "TRIZ Future 2004" is announced to be held in Frolence, Italy, in autumn. Details will be available inJanuary, 2004. We are looking forward to meeting many of you at ETRIACON2004. (BTW: TRIZCON2004 being organized by the Altshuller Institute forTRIZ Studies is going to be held in Seatle, USA, on April 25-27, 2004. See you there, too!)

List of Papers in the Proceedings [--: Not presented orally.] [Some papers posted in Web sites are shown with their URL and are linked.]

[I-4] Introduction: Why's and How's of ETRIA Denis Cavallucci (INSA Strasbourg, France) (President of ETRIA)

[I-5] Opening Speech Guenther Schuh (WZL, RWTH Aachen, Germany)

[I-6] Requirements for systematic process innovation: System dynamics versus TRIZ? Andreas Jost (DaimlerChrysler Research and Technology, Germany)

[I-7] TRIZ approach in an automotive supplier: MGI COUTIER Pascal Guerry (MGI COUTIER, France)

[I-8] Proposal of an Object-oriented model of the physical contradiction to facilitate the problem-framing phase in design * Dubois Sebastien, Lutz Phillippe, Rousselot Francois (INSA Strasbourg, France)

[I-9] Analysis and development aspects of laser optical disk systems -- Serguei Khrouchtchev (Moscow State Technical University named after Bauman, Russia)

[I-10] PAT-Analyzer: a tool to speed-up patent analyses with a TRIZ perspective * Gaestano Cascini, Paolo Rissone (University of Florence, Italy)

[I-11] Transformation of structurally similar elements of technical system Elena Novitskaya (Educational center "Universum", Belarus)

[I-12] Deployment of TRIZ within PSA Peugeot Citroen and Experience Feedback * Guillaume Dupont and Marcel Monnier (PSA Peugeot Citroen, France)

[I-13] New system of standard solutions of inventive problems Vladimir Petrov (TRIZ Master, Israel)

[I-14] High-Level Innovative Solutions using Non-Linear S-Field Models and Combined Effects Prakash R. Apte (Indian Institute of Technology at Bombay, India)

[I-15] Applying TRIZ to Endodontic Tool Design



* Ellen Domb (PQR Group, USA) and Joh "Jack" Jacklich (Special Products, Inc., USA) [TRIZ Journal, Dec. 2003: http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/2003/12/b/02.pdf]

[I-16] Differentiating the role of TRIZ in sustainable and disruptive innovation process Pavel Livotov (TriSolver Group Europe, Germany)

[I-17] Fast Software by TRIZ Michael Schlueter (Philips Semiconductors GmbH, Germany)

[II-3] Keynote Speech: TRIZ - past, present and future Vladimir Petrov (TRIZ Master, Israel)

[II-4] Innovation process as a key to the market success in the engine manufacturing business Thomas Novacek (MTU Aero Engines, Germany)

[II-5] About non technical barriers preventing efficient TRIZ integration into organisations * Denis Cavallucci, David Oget, Michel Sontag, and Nathalie Gartiser (INSA Strasbourg, France)

[II-6] Vehicle soundproofing: Improved door seal * Dominique Benoit and Chris Rhodes (ArvinMeritor, France)

[II-7] Levels of TRIZ support for the innovation and problem solving projects in the automotive industry Dennis Murnikow (TriSolver Group Germany, Germany)

[II-8] TRIZ cases study in Volkswagen of Mexico Edgardo Cordova Lopez (Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla, Mexico)

[II-9] Total Product/Process Development System Where Six Sigma Meets TRIZ and QFD Michael S. Slocum (Breakthrough Management Group, USA)

[II-10] Innovative process chain optimization - Utilizing the tools of TRIZ and TOC for manufacturing Tilo Pfeifer and * Martine Tillmann (Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology, Germany)

[II-11] Constraint-dominated breakthrough innovation in a manufacturing process situation (A case study from the photographic paper manufacture industry) Ian Mitchell (Ilford Imaging UK Ltd., UK) and * Darrell Mann (CREAX nv, Belgium)

[II-12] Towards a management of problems formulation within the framework of lean manufacturing implementation Zahir Messaoudene (INSA Strasbourg, France)

[II-13] Solving technical problems in manufacturing processes by using embedded-TRIZ Jan C. Aurich and * Karsten Jenke (University of Kaiserslautern, Germany)

[II-14] Applying the TRIZ principles of technological evolution to customer requirement based vehicle concepts - Experience report - * Eckhard Schueler-Hainsch and Christine Ahrend (DaimlerChrysler AG, Germany)

[II-15] Integrated qualitative and quantitative invention analysis - A first look Barry Winkless (CREAX, Ireland) [presented by Darrell Mann (CREAX, UK)]

[II-16] Observing the development trends of glass moulds using the laws of technical system evolution * Pavel Jirman (Tech. Univ. of Liberec, Czech Rep.), Bohuslav Busov (Tech. Univ. of Brno, Czech Rep.), and Alexander Skuratovich (TRIZ consultant,Belarus)

[II-17] TRIZ experience at Huchinson Nicolas Gombe�t (Hutchinson, France)

[II-18] TRIZ based patent analysis for lighting electronics Siegfried Luger (Luger Reseaarch, Austria)

[II-19] TRIZ-based technology intelligence Markus Grawatsch (Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology, Germany)

[II-20] Peculiarities of structural and functional analysis of forecasted engineering systems Peter Chuksin (LG Electronics, South Korea)

[II-21] Using TRIZ to Create Innovative Business Models and Products Atsuko Ishida (Hitachi, Japan) [TRIZ Journal, Dec. 2003: http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/2003/12/e/05.pdf ]

[II-22] Onthe question of the generating typical solutions -- Alla Nesterenko (Academy of educator's retaining and upgrading, Russia)

[II-23] TRIZ for people: psychological aspects Nelly Kazyreva (Belarus-TRIZ, Belarus)

[II-24] USIT approach in Japan for simpler and powerful process of creative problem solving in TRIZ Toru Nakagawa (Osaka Gakuin Univ., Japan) -- orally presented during the poster session. ["TRIZ Home Page in Japan", Posted on Dec. 11, 2003 ]



Top of thispage Outline Overview (A) Keynote

speech(B) Case Studiesin Industry

(C) Promotionexperiences in Industry

(D) EnhancingTRIZ

(E) Integration of TRIZand other methods

(F) Patentanalysis

(G) Non-technicalapplications

ConcludingRemarks

List ofPapers

ETRIA Web site Personal Report ETRIA2001 Personal Report ETRIACon2002 TRIZCON2003 Nakagawa's talk Japanese page

Generalindex

NewInformation

Introduction toTRIZ

TRIZReferences

TRIZLinks

TRIZ News &Activities

TRIZ SoftwareTools

TRIZ Papers and TechReports

TRIZForum

Generalindex

Home Page NewInformation

Introduction toTRIZ

TRIZReferences

TRIZLinks

TRIZ News &Activities

TRIZ SoftwareTools

TRIZ Papers and TechReports

TRIZForum Home Page

Last updated on Dec. 17, 2003. Access point: Editor: [email protected]

Documents

Personal Report of ETRIACon2003 (Aachen, Germany, 2003 ...seecore.org/d/2003etn.pdf · Personal Report of ETRIACon2003 (Aachen, Germany, 2003) (Toru Nakagawa) Page 1 ... Each presentation