Editor | On 05, May 2008

By Katie Barry, Ellen Domb and Michael S. Slocum

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!

• How useful is TRIZ? This article evaluates innovation and continuation improvement tools.
  
• Darrell Mann looks at the often-unspoken role that timing plays in innovation. Are customers fickle or can innovation timing be controlled?
  
• The application of TRIZ and other systematic innovation methods and tools is useful beyond product innovation – consider it in the world of mergers and acquisitions.
  
• TRIZ is usually discussed in terms of the past and present. But the future of TRIZ is coming and Alex Zakharov looks at its future through the trends of evolution.
  
• Last month’s issue included an article about designing consummate systems. This month, the process is demonstrated with a valve travel stop.

CTQ Media News

Last year our sister publication, iSixSigma.com, launched a Marketplace for e-publications (http://store.isixsigma.com/). The Marketplace sells a wide selection of immediately downloadable electronic documents. More importantly, it markets and sells items produced by small companies and individuals, allowing them to reach their target audience in a cost-effective and low-risk manner.

The Marketplace’s success has been so great with sellers and buyers alike that later this spring CTQ Media (parent company to Real Innovation and iSixSigma) will launch a re-designed and re-engineered website to include other CTQ Media topics – expanding into the areas of systematic innovation and business process management.

What can you sell? Materials that business professionals want in any number of forms, including:

• Ebooks (10- to 2,000+ page documents)
  
• Training materials (Microsoft PowerPoint slides that include instructor notes)
  
• Templates (Microsoft Excel or Word)
  
• Reports
  
• Software
  
• Examples (control plans, communication plans)
  
• You name it!

How do you become a partner? Once you have a product ready for sale that is 100 percent owned by you or your company, contact the Marketplace via email (http://store.isixsigma.com/contact.asp) with your request to partner or contact Marketplace manager Virginia Hill directly at 206-347-0943 or Virginia.Hill@iSixSigma.com.

More News

• Last month, founding editor Ellen Domb attended The Altshuller Institute’s TRIZCON2008. She shared her impressions of the conference and reported on the speakers and attendees in a series of commentaries. In case you missed them “live,” catch up here.
  
• The 8th ETRIA World TRIZ Future Conference has extended its call for abstracts until May 30, 2008.
  
• The TRIZ Journal is always looking for returning and new authors and new articles. It’s easy to submit – instructions and guidelines can be found here.

Until June, happy TRIZ reading!