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

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

Dow Pairs Six Sigma with Innovation

When innovation is the lifeblood of a company, it cannot rely solely on the fickleness of inspiration. "Dow not only has to run better than competitors, but also has to respond to changes in the marketplace by having new products to fill the demand space."Read More

iSixSigma Live! Seattle Networking Party

Katie Barry

If you live near Seattle and would like to hobnob with the area’s finest business process improvement practitioners in a casual after-work setting, attend the iSixSigma Live! Social and Networking Party at the Rock Bottom Brewery in Bellevue. (iSixSigma.com is a … Read More

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

Lynda Curtin

I have come across the compelling work of creativity expert, Sir Ken Robinson, which I want to share with you via his very funny and dramatic presentation – Do Schools Kill Creativity? He delivered this presentation at a TED … Read More

A Vote for Process Innovation

Cass PursellThink of the most innovative companies in the world. Better yet, pick one. Focus on it. Get it firmly in mind.

How much of that company’s annual revenue is represented by new products? If it’s a young company you’re … Read More

Structure is a Good Thing

Cass PursellI’ve been reading a lot about how government can and should stimulate innovation, particularly in relationship to the emerging economies in India and China. The consensus seems to be that innovation flourishes in areas that are particularly free of … Read More

Innovation in Small Businesses

Praveen Gupta

How can a small business benefit from innovation? Can small business afford innovation? How can innovation help small business grow revenue, and how quickly? These are some of the most frequently asked questions about innovation.

I believe most of … Read More

A Recession is Coming (?)

Jack Hipple

I was asked recently to contribute to the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Management Division newsletter and thought I would share a modified version of it with all of you.

A Recession is Coming, A Recession is Coming….

Is the sky falling … Read More

Organizational Brownian Motion

Michael S. Slocum

Brownian motion is the random movement of particles suspended in a liquid or gas. This phenomenon was first observed by botanist Robert Brown in 1827 (“A brief account of microscopical observations made in the months of June, July … Read More

Technology Forecasting: How to Practice

Ellen Domb

TRIZ Journal readers have been given more terms for this one element of TRIZ than any other—laws of technology evolution (many translated texts), guided evolution (Victor Fey), directed evolution (Alla Zusman and Boris Zlotin), trends of evolution and evolutionary … Read More

An Innoholic

Praveen Gupta

I met Wayne Rothschild about three years ago at a Kellogg Innovation Network meeting. We both were consultants and were looking around for contacts. We connected. He told me had 55 patents and I had just completed development of innovation framework. … Read More

Sound Guidance From Four Top Practitioners

James Todhunter

It is always interesting to hear the insights of leading innovation practitioners.  The article, “Instituting Innovation: Tell-all advice from 4 leading practitioners”, posted on Core77 doesn’t disappoint in this regard.  Here Arkadi Kuhlmann, CEO of ING Direct Bank; Ken … Read More

Product Dna and the Property-function Matrix

If systematic approaches to innovation are pushing the view outside the domain, a form of filtering or direction is needed. Product DNAâ„¢ provides a structure, a common ground, a checklist for knowledge transfer.Read More

Case Study: Pizza and the System Operator for Teaching

The system operator is a powerful tool when used as part of the integrated TRIZ methodology, but it is also a simple tool that beginners can use very quickly.Read More

Perturbation Theory and Working Backward from Ideality

Perturbation theory is a technique that appears in both classical and quantum physics, where it is often convenient to approximate the solution to a nonlinear problem. Nonlinear problems are useful in day-to-day engineering and physics situations.Read More

Welcome to the March 2008 Issue of The TRIZ Journal!

This month’s articles feature a case study on silicone technology, using soggy pizza to teach the system operator, placing TRIZ appropriately in the world of science, directing innovative approaches and looking at perturbation theory in physics.Read More

TRIZ in the World of Science – Where Does It Fit?

The modern interpretation of the structure of TRIZ is gradually turning into thick compote where theoretical postulates, individual tools, algorithms, notion definitions and the like float on equal terms.Read More

Evaluating Product Innovation – Silicone Technology

This paper relates the use of TRIZ to translate and manage silicone-based gasketing technology into new fields of application such as human necessities: baking and butchering, kitchen equipments and healthcare.Read More

You Measure What Matters

Cass PursellIs innovation mutually exclusive with continuous improvement? “Incrementalism is innovation’s worst enemy!” Sam Walton has declared. “We don’t want continuous improvement, we want radical change.” Large, established firms seem to find it much easier to focus on incremental improvement … Read More