Improvement and Innovation

Praveen Gupta

Improvement and Innovation

Recent BusinessWeek articles have been singing obituaries of Six Sigma, and giving birth to innovation. According to a recent article, the two could not co-exist because Six Sigma has been used for efficiency, and innovation for … Read More

Innovation and Six Sigma

Katie Barry

Or should it be innovation OR Six Sigma? Innovation with a hint of Six Sigma? Innovation and Six Sigma separate but equal? It’s a topic covered on this site (see below) and, this week, in Business Week’s quarterly “Inside … Read More

Case Study: Road Fleet Maintenance

Contradiction matrix application, in an unusual area as road transport fleet maintenance and in a brake system, demonstrates that the scope of applications of TRIZ use is practically unlimited.Read More

Student Corner: the Optimistic Magic of Sorbents

Sorption is the ability of mostly porous materials to absorb solid particles, gaseous matters or liquids from other materials. It is likely that you would use just a simple sponge to clean this spill, thus taking advantage of sorption.Read More

Predicting Innovations for the Years 2020-2060

Predictions of innovations, based on scientific and technical expertise, are more reliable than people usually think. Using nine screens, patterns of evolution and other TRIZ tools they can be further improved.Read More

Welcome to the June 2007 Issue of The TRIZ Journal!

Editor Katie Barry wrote commentaries reporting on her four days at the Front End of Innovation conference in May. Editors Ellen Domb and Michael Slocum – along with other commentators – regularly share their thoughts and insights, too.Read More

A New Problem-solving Algorithm

Historically, each TRIZ tool was developed (and could be used) independently for problem solving. That is why each tool had its own mini-algorithm. This work is a revision of the main TRIZ tools so that they work together as parts of the same system.Read More

Complexity, Contradictions, and Cost

Michael S. Slocum

The holy grail of business performance has long been the simultaneous realization of time, cost, and quality. The right product delivered at the right time with the right margin. I refer to this as the business excellence triad. … Read More

TRIZ in Forbes

Katie Barry

Be sure to check out “Ten People Who Could Change the World” in Forbes. This article talks about world-changing breakthroughs and includes a section discussing TRIZ (The Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) by Genrich Altshuller and his colleagues – … Read More

Measures of Innovation

Praveen Gupta

Why everyone wants to measure innovation without understanding the innovation process and its elements. I have seen, similar expectation for other performance measurements when we first want to get handle on some measures, fit some statistics to the numbers, … Read More

Over Innovation

Ellen Domb

Our friend Roni Horowitz introduces the concept “over innovation” in his recent ASIT newsletter.  For more about his work, his courses and books, see www.start2think.com.  The rest of this commentary is reprinted from his newsletter 282–thanks, Roni!

Why do … Read More

Innovation Epicycles

Michael S. Slocum

“”Adding epicycles” has, thanks to the many attempts to make the obviously failed earth-centered model work, come to be used as a derogatory comment in modern scientific lingo. If one continues to try to adjust a theory to … Read More

Last Day of Front End of Innovation

Katie Barry

It was another jam-packed day of innovation ideas today and now that I’m back in my hotel room, I’m ready to share what I listened to today.

The morning keynote speaker was Dustan E. McCoy, Chairman & CEO of … Read More

Day 2 of the Front End of Innovation

Katie Barry

Dale McIntyre with PDMA welcomed everyone (500-600 of us) to day one of the main Front End of Innovation conference.

Conference chairman Peter Koen followed and presented some best practices in the front end and led us through … Read More

Front End of Innovation Conference

Katie Barry

I’m in Boston this week, attending the Front End of Innovation conference. This afternoon the full conference began with a kickoff keynote by Peter Diamandis, M.D., best known as the founder of the X Prize and who wears a … Read More

Taiwan TRIZ Association’s Call for Papers

The Taiwan TRIZ Association was formed in 2005 and now boasts more than 200 members. Following the success of its first conference, the Taiwan TRIZ Association announces a call for papers for its second annual conference to be held December 15, 2007.Read More

Student Corner: the Applications of Shape Memory Alloys

Shape memory alloy (SMA or memory metal) is a metal that "remembers" its initial geometry during transformations. The range of applications for SMAs has increased in recent years – in industries including medicine and aerospace.Read More

Welcome to the May 2007 Issue of The TRIZ Journal!

At April’s TRIZCON2007, sponsored by the Altshuller Institute, Ellen Domb presented the history of the TRIZ Journal (and the celebration of its 10th anniversary) showing how TRIZ was used to solve the challenges of starting an online journal.Read More

Improving Lift/pump Stations Using TRIZ

A significant problem in all technological processes is reducing energy expenditures. One way to solve this problem is to apply energetically self-sufficient technological processes – for example, through the use of a siphon.Read More

TRIZ in Industrial Technology Education

TRIZ provided a powerful systematical approach for a technology graduate student to approach a problem regarding fuel cell research. TRIZ education is a valuable part of students’ programs of study and helps them find solutions to unfamiliar problems.Read More