Time & Scale - also known as Thinking in Time & Space/9 Windows - is a unique and powerful Oxford TRIZ tool for encouraging problem solvers to think in a structured way. Time & Scale helps individuals and teams to understand the context around a challenge, to explore past, present, and future, and to map elements from the big picture down to the detail. This helps reveal all the many different problems, threats, opportunities, and solutions that appear at different times and in different parts of the system.
It is a superb communication tool as the human brain can take on information from all 9 boxes. This means it helps an individual understand and plan and ensures a team can share knowledge, ideas and conclusions.
Completing a Time & Scale grid ensures a systematic mapping of all the places to look for answers, problem causes and available resources. It reveals the system in the past, present and future, as well as the bigger picture (super-system) and detail (sub-systems).
For example, thinking in scale for a car tyre involves consideration of the tyre itself, and all its details (the components) and the car’s super-system weather conditions, the road, potholes, the law and regulations, as well as location (tyres have different requirements in different countries - Finland/Southern Italy/Saudi Arabia). The time dimension has changing elements from the new to old tyre, as well as the beginning/end of a journey. When Time & Scale is mapped throughout the Oxford TRIZ processes, for both defining and solving challenges, it helps to ensure that nothing has been overlooked or missed.
