It is particularly powerful for getting teams to work well together, for both understanding problems effectively and everyone generating ideas together of how to solve them.
TRIZ logic demands that we have a clear idea of where we are going, and how to get there. Years of Russian research uncovered that there are only 100 known solutions to fundamental problems and made them universally available in the famous three TRIZ solution lists and the Effects Database.
Beginning in 1946 and still evolving, TRIZ was developed by the Soviet inventor Genrich Altshuller and his colleagues. TRIZ in Russian = Teoriya Resheniya Izobretatelskikh Zadatch or in English, The Theory of Inventive Problem Solving. However it is not a Theory - it is a big toolkit consisting of many simple tools - most are easy to learn and immediately apply to problems. This amazing capability helps us tackle any problem or challenge even when we face difficult, intractable or apparently impossible situations.
TRIZ helps us keep detail in its place, to see the big picture and avoid getting tripped up with irrelevance, waylaid by trivial issues or seduced by premature solutions.
Developed by Oxford Creativity, Oxford TRIZ is simpler than standard or classic TRIZ. Its tools and processes are faster to learn and easier to apply.
Oxford TRIZ is true to classical TRIZ (neither adding nor removing anything) but it delivers:
TRIZ enthusiasts who have failed to use TRIZ effectively or to embed TRIZ into their organisations hail Oxford TRIZ as revelatory, often saying -
The Objective
Rolls-Royce needed to find the capacity of their turbines; to do this they needed to calculate the throat area. The throat area is the geometric parameter of the blade ring, which enables engineers to profile the blades and from this calculate the turbine capacity.
The Problem
Rolls Royce were struggling to calculate the turbine throat areas - an automated method for doing so had been developed, but it would not work reliably due to the complex geometry. Despite much effort, the problem was still not fixed after 6-8 months of development. Finally it was decided that this problem required a new approach - the new approach was TRIZ.
The Oxford TRIZ Solution
One afternoon the TRIZ 40 Principles were used as a stimulus for brainstorming with a group of engineers. The TRIZ Principle 13 “The Other Way Round” yielded the idea of modelling air in passage, rather than the metal itself. This worked perfectly!
“The problem was solved – the answer was very obvious in retrospect, very simple and very cost effective.”
Dave Knott – Rolls-Royce Derby
The Objective
Highways England wanted to identify where and when road cones had been placed on the Road Network at any specific time, in order to ensure they were only out when needed.
The Problem
Highways England wanted to come up with a system which mapped all the locations of road cones on major roads – and tracked where and when they were in place, including the times when they were being laid down and removed. Of course, this is easier said than done, so they turned to TRIZ to help them come up with an innovative solution.
The Oxford TRIZ Solution
The Highways England Lighting Specialist Team joined an Oxford Creativity problem solving workshop and used Fast 4 Step TRIZ to come up with the idea of a Road Cones app. This App maps and tracks changes by monitoring cone-laying and removal through self-tracking instrumentation on vehicles and other available resources.
The Objective
A new coffee box had been designed to have all the advantages of a rigid package and a soft package. It had the functionality of a traditional tea tin and the advantages of a soft coffee pack, with a small one-way valve which allowed the coffee to de-gas. It was about to be rolled out to full production.
The Problem
The boxes were found to be difficult to assemble, but if the package was made more rigid to ease assembly, it lost its squishiness. The problems stemmed from fitting a rigid top to a flexible box, before loading the coffee from the top, and from having the valve in place and active while filling.
They needed get the lid on, without stressing the box, fill with coffee from the top, seal the complex lid with the coffee in the pack and then activate the seal.
The Oxford TRIZ Solution
Oxford Creativity were called in to help solve this problem. The solution came from Principle 13 the Other Way Round which was one of several Principles applied during the problem solving session.
One designer looked at Principle 13 and said "lets make the boxes with the lid assembled and sealed, hold the sides in place during this operation, load from the bottom (the bottom of the pack was a separate part), then attach a stiff bottom with an integral valve."
The Problem was solved.
