Editor | On 03, Sep 2007

By Katie Barry, Ellen Domb and Michael S. Slocum

As ever, this month’s articles represents an array of topics and TRIZ subjects to keep readers busy. From toothpaste to carbon, to drilling to voids, TRIZ proves useful in any environment. Beyond this month’s articles, be sure to read Ellen Domb’s tales from the Process of Innovation conference in August and learn how to take advantage of a discount to attend a Lean Six Sigma Forum.

• The high-profile subject of carbon capture is the focus of a collaboration between Darrell Mann and Adrian Cole. Breakthrough Carbon Capture: Exploiting Trade-Offs doesn’t focus on providing a breakthrough method, but suggests how the use of trade-offs – and successes in other industries with other problems – could help researchers.
  
• Trying to finish a tube of toothpaste – and squeeze out that last little bit – is a problem that most of us are all too familiar with. It serves as a good example for how to use contradictions to find an inventive solution.
  
• Roustem Kourmaev, Mikhail Makariev and Abram Teplitskiy examine the challenges and contradictions inherent in drilling underground in Using Directional Drilling in Underground Construction.
  
• The year-long Kraev’s Korner series comes to an end this month. The final installment focuses on the problem solving process as a whole.
  
• Abram Teplitskiy also shares another Student Corner article with readers. This month’s topic is voids – learn how nothingness can be a valuable resource to inventors.

News

• Ellen Domb attended the Process for Innovation Conference in Chicago last month. She shared her observations – and photographs – from the conference in a series of commentaries.
  
• The Third TRIZ Symposium in Japan was too important for The TRIZ Journal to miss, so we invited Dr. Paul Filmore to serve as a guest commentator and share his observations of the conference. His postings provide a first-hand view of the progress that TRIZ continues to make across all industries and borders.
  
• The Lean Six Sigma Forum 2007 is coming up November 27-28, 2007, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. TRIZ Journal readers may take advantage of a 15 percent discount on registration by quoting “TRIZ.”
  
• Toru Nakagawa has updated The TRIZ Home Page in Japan. Be sure to check out the new additions in both English and Japanese. 

As ever, The TRIZ Journal would not exist without your contributions. What problems are you solving with the contradiction matrix? What inventive principle came to your rescue on your last project? Has Su-field analysis proven beneficial to you? Do you have a solution to the carbon capture problem? Send us your analyses! Send us a shortcut you discovered! Tell us how to improve a TRIZ tool! Send us your case studies!

Until October, happy TRIZ reading!

Katie Barry, Ellen Domb and Michael S. Slocum
editor@the-trizjournal.com