The Importance of Innovation Timing: the Fickle Consumer

Knowing when to launch a new product or service is difficult. The challenge is particularly great when the innovations directly interact with consumers. Critical information can be obtained by studying the voice of the consumer and market demand.Read More

Innovation Tools and Continuous Improvement Evaluations

Quality and innovation are key issues in today’s businesses and managers are focusing on special tools to improve their results, including the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ). TRIZ is an effective resource for improvement.Read More

Welcome to the May 2008 Issue of The TRIZ Journal!

There is a lot of information to share this month. We’ve got company news, conference reports and news, a reminder that we’re always on the hunt for new article submissions, and that’s without all of this month’s articles!Read More

Case Study: Consummate System for Valve Travel Stop

This case study elaborates upon the principles and processes described in "Instruments for Designing Consummate Systems." Consider the system of a centrifugal wall pump and of its valve travel stop specifically.Read More

Explore the Future of TRIZ with the Trends of Evolution

TRIZ was born, developed and became a problem-solving method for technology, manufacturing, society and nature. The basis of TRIZ is the objective trends of natural evolution, and therefore TRIZ is a practical part of the theory of evolution.Read More

TRIZ Enabled Mergers and Acquisitions

As part of a growth strategy, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) can ensure dominance in a given product line, technology or market. TRIZ can be used as an M&A tool to help identify these potential evolutions of products, technologies and markets.Read More

The Customer-Centered Innovation Map

Ellen DombHarvard Business Review’s “Tool Kit” article this month (May 2008) is “The Customer-Centered Innovation Map” by my colleagues Lance Bettencourt and Tony Ulwick.  With all the soft (squishy?) “how to be innovative” articles and books getting published these days, … Read More

Dogwood in the Moonlight

Lynda Curtin

Driving up the mountain to Big Bear from the desert below I was struck by the stark contrast between the dry sandy desert – plants not quite in spring bloom, and the snow sledding hills filled with families having … Read More

Functional Discontinuity

Michael S. Slocum

Many times a system is improved by increasing the performance of a particular function in a system. For example, if the function of fuel efficiency in an automobile is important, a system improvement might involve a system … Read More

Dynamism in Innovation

Jack Hipple

What’s dynamism? It’s the changing of a product, system, or service in response to “something” or a pro-active management of a product, service, or organization in response to both anticipated or unanticipated conditions. In my opinion, it is one … Read More

Open Innovation

Michael S. Slocum

Why Go to Conferences?

Ellen Domb

TRIZCON 2008 concluded on Wednesday, April 16 with Jack Hipple’s seminar on How to Use TRIZ with All the Other Innovation Tools and Assessments You Are Using and my presentation of “Contemporary Su-Field Analysis”  which was developed by Iouri … Read More

Tuesday at TRIZCON2008

Ellen Domb

Mansour Ashtiani won the election for President of the Altshuller Institute, and Don Masingale will become Secretary.  Tim Schweizer and Richard Langevin continue as VP and Treasurer, respectively.

The conference began with a fascinating talk by Dr. Cemil Inan, … Read More

Monday at TRIZCON2008

Ellen Domb

 Amir Roggel from Intel started the conference with a masterful keynote address—he applied his TRIZ sensibility to create a talk that was both educational and entertaining, and a true “key” note, setting themes for the conference of modernizing TRIZ … Read More

Trizcon2008 – Sunday Report

Ellen Domb

The experimental workshop on the US$10million Automotive X-Prize at the Altshuller Institute TRIZCON2008 started Sunday morning with delegates from Germany, Israel, Ireland, UK, Korea, Taiwan, and multiple parts of the US;  from the electronics, automotive, aerospace, control systems … Read More

Eight New Trends – Or Examples of Well-known Trends of Evolution

Ellen Domb

Consultants write articles for a lot of reasons.  Two leading reasons are (1) A genuine desire to share their research with the world (2) To show how smart they are, to get people interested in hiring them.          

Since I … Read More

Changing Your Focus

Katie Barry

I don’t get a lot of forwarded emails from friends and family; I’ve trained them to only send me the “best of the best.” Today, one video appeared in my inbox that not only intrigued me, but seemed worthy … Read More

Improving Technology Forecasts: Four Cases of Selection

Technology forecasts are being made today made more than ever before. To choose a good prediction, it is useful to compare opposing forecasts. The comparison compels the forecaster to make clear why, exactly, one prediction is better than another.Read More

Instruments for Designing Consummate Systems

Only a limited number of technological systems have possessed the outstanding qualities that allowed them to enjoy enormous success over an unusually long life. The best name for them may be "consummate" systems.Read More

The Revival of the Gallic Harvester

During a period of crisis in food production in Australia in the 1800s. the government challenged individuals to find a solution to the haresting problems. The inventive Australian millers and farmers produced the Gallic stripper harvester.Read More