Editor | On 05, Nov 2001

By
Frank C. Grace, Fbgrace@mediaone.net
Graduate Student at North Carolina State University

Editors’ note: Frank Grace told us that he wanted to tell the story of introducing TRIZ to his company, but keep the company’s name private. We thought that the story was interesting for our readers, but we asked for some information, so that readers could compare their own companies to Frank’s. Here is the background: The company is a nonwoven/textile finisher, coater, and laminator providing specialized composite materials for a wide range of industries from automotive to apparel. There are approximately 80 employees in two locations in the United States, one in the South and the other on the East Coast. Many employees hold degrees ranging from textile chemistry to operations management. Over 70% of the company’s employees have been with the company for more than 20 years. Our annual US sales are 95% and we sell about 5% export. We have been ISO 9001:94 registered since 1997 and are currently in the process of working towards the high automotive quality standard known as QS-9000.

In the Fall 2000 semester at North Carolina State University, I had the honor of taking a distance learning course entitled TE 589A – TRIZ (The Theory of Inventive Problem Solving). Dr. Michael S. Slocum provided the televised lectures for the course and Dr. Timothy G. Clapp provided support during the semester via email.

For a more detailed study on what the class covered please see Drs. Slocum and Clapp’s articles published in The TRIZ Journal:

November 1998 – Theory of Inventive Problem Solving Pedagogy in Engineering Education, Part I

December 2000 – Theory of Inventive Problem Solving Pedagogy in Engineering Education, Part II

My First Impression of TRIZ:

When I first received the syllabus for the course it stated that “This class will change the way you solve problems”. To be honest my initial reaction was “Yeah, right!” Little did I know that I was demonstrating my own psychological inertia before the course even began. I had never heard of TRIZ before signing up for the class. If I had never heard of it, how could it be that good?

I work full time for a small company where we deal with plant problems on a daily basis. Sometimes there seems to be so many problems that occur so often that we are constantly “putting out fires”. It gets to the point that we now call solving a problem “fire fighting”. With this background, I decided to give the course a chance and see what it could teach me.

The outcome of the course culminated in a class project entitled “A New TRIZ Practitioner’s Experience for Solving an Industrial Problem using ARIZ 85C: Increasing a Textile Kiss-Coat Operation Speed” where using ARIZ I was able to solve a major problem our company had been facing for quite some time. The full paper can be found on The TRIZ Journal Archives in the January 2001 section. I also was able to solve other problems by using such TRIZ tools as the Contradiction Matrix and the Separation Principles. Needless to say that TRIZ has changed the way I look at problems and solve them. It has given me great confidence in tackling problems in the company that have been classified as “impossible to solve” because “we’ve tried everything”.

Introducing TRIZ to my company:

After the course was completed, I decided to spread the word throughout the company to see if there was interest in the company as a whole learning about TRIZ. There was and the company’s CEO asked that I teach an introductory class on some of the basic principles of TRIZ.

Although I am not a TRIZ master I was persuaded to put together a small seminar with upper and lower management and introduced them to TRIZ with the aid of the course notes that were provided by Dr. Clapp. I covered such topics as the Contradiction Matrix, Separation Principles, Inventive Levels of Solutions, and Psychological Inertia. I also included small exercises and broke the class up into groups. In one exercise I had them identify where the where the 40 principles are used in the company.

Using the Contradiction Matrix in the Seminar:

Another exercise I had the class do was to solve a company problem using the Contradiction Matrix. The class was broken into two groups and they separately came up with solutions to the problem that was posed. To my surprised (and to theirs) both groups came up with the same solution!

Conclusion:

As a company, we have assembled a Problem Solving Team. This team includes the members of our ISO 9001/QS 9000 Correction Action team. We have tied in both teams and have started to use TRIZ tools to solve company problems. We are seeing problems being solved and the manner in which we solve problems is changing. We now discuss problems by identifying where the technical or physical contradictions are and I can actually see the level of inventiveness improving. People are starting to identify their own and other people’s psychological inertia. The “fire fighting” is being reduced. It’s an exciting time!

The Seminar’s Feedback:

After the seminar, I had the attendees fill out a questionnaire to get their feedback on their feelings of what the learned. You can find the results below:

TRIZ Feedback Questionnaire Results

July 2001

1. Where do you think TRIZ can play a major role in our ISO-9001/QS-9000 quality system?

• Help Solve Technical Contradictions, solutions to FMEA’s
• All aspects of the system
• Constant improvement and progressive thinking
• Organize our approach to problem solving as ISO organized the way we do what we do
• We can utilize TRIZ in our Corrective/Preventative Action process as well as use it as a toll in continuous improvement, hopefully eliminating the “Trial & Error” portions of our daily existence
• Getting to root cause and CAR’s (Corrective Actions), continuous improvement
• To look at problems, processes etc. in a different way

2. How do you think the TRIZ method of tackling problems is different from the way we currently solve most problems at our Company today?

It pulls us in the right direction using generic problems that have already been solved instead of guessing using Trial & Error or placing band-aides on problems.

Quicker way of getting to root causes than Trial & Error

It will stop a lot of Trial & Error, save time and money

We would normally use the Trial & Error methods coupled with our inherent psychological inertia. TRIZ opens up a new way of looking at problems that we normally would not do.

By using an already established group of inventions (solutions) and finding how they would best apply to our problem, we eliminate much Trial & Error

We use Trial & Error and have many psychological barriers

It presents us with a different approach or tool to problem solving. It eliminates or reduces the problem with heading in many different directions

New way of looking at attempting to solve a problem

People need to change their way of thinking, try looking forward instead of always behind

Yes, now mostly Trial & Error, we be “general” solution & error!!

3. What did you find was the most interesting part of learning about TRIZ and what do you think will be the most helpful tool?

Looking at the problem solution at a high enough abstraction to get rid of noise or Psychological Inertia

Breaking down an actual problem, re-figuring it and also including your preventative action when deciding what can go wrong if correcting something

The table showing historical generic solutions, it works!!!

A better way of solving problems

That it is being used by others and it will allow us to think outside the box

That creativity is not really “creative”. Its actually a learned step-by-step process

The way it helps break down P.I.

It makes you think outside the box

Both groups came up with the same solution to speeding up the machine

Was that anyone could use TRIZ to solve problems; you don’t need a college degree to use it or solve problems with it.

4. What negatives, if any, do you foresee in getting everyone to use TRIZ tools at our Company?

Psychological Inertia

I do not see any big problem, only we need to inform people and help them get out of their old ways of thinking

Their P.I., also most people will feel they do not have the time to invest in it

Setting aside time to use the system properly

None, just another tool for solving problems

Negativity (people’s feelings)

5. What positives, if any, do you foresee in getting everyone to use TRIZ tools at our Company?

Less noise, overcome psychological inertia

Change for the better

A creative way to start solving problems

There is a great advantage to having someone from within present a new concept versus an outsider

Thinking outside the box

Faster more efficient problem solving, enabling people to be more open minded

Eliminated the wasted trials we are so accustomed to running and hopefully get us to the root causes of some of our major issues

It looks like the way of the future to solve problems. It will save us time and money, it will pull us ahead of everyone

Maybe we can stop putting out fires and finally solve some problems

Changing the way people think to benefit the company as a whole

6. Do you have any suggestions that will help or make it easier to implement using TRIZ at our Company? What are they?

The more people who practice using it, the easier this will become, example: presenting a problem once a week or monthly and let employees solve the problem

Make it part of everyday life, use it in a team form when solving any problems, do not let it become just another problem solving class we’ve all taken

Just that we should use it, the more we make it our daily work, the better we will get at it

Select some product development projects and do TRIZ before

Remind people they’re never too old to learn!

Formally use it with teams involving operations and management

Appreciation:

I would like to thank Drs. Slocum and Clapp for teaching the course and introducing me to TRIZ. It has changed the way I solve problems!

Frank C. Grace
Fbgrace@mediaone.net