40 Inventive Principles with Examples:

  Human Factors and Ergonomics

 Jack Hipple

Innovation-TRIZ, Tampa, FL

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Stan Caplan

Usability Associates, Rochester, NY

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Abstract :  

Human factors and ergonomics is the area of science that applies to the physical, perceptual, and cognitive interactions of people with things, systems, and environment. This can be as simple as how a person uses a tool or as complex as how an operator manages the control room of a nuclear power plant. There are some inherent contradictions involved in the design of systems such as displaying of needed information and the mental overload created by the display of too much information. There is the concern about making a pill bottle easily accessible to elderly arthritics and totally inaccessible to young children. These types of contradictions are increasing because of factors such as our population becoming more elderly (their needs differ from that of a more agile younger population) and products/systems becoming more feature rich and complex. TRIZ uses the resolution of contradictions as a key problem solving principle. The various tools and principles used in TRIZ to resolve contradictions can be grouped in many different ways.  Recently, 40 Principles for Human factors and Ergonomics were published in the TRIZ Journal. This presentation will update this publication with examples of TRIZ principles and the use of separation principles to resolve conflicts in product designs that relate to human factors. A participative case study will also be used in the presentation.

 

 

Traditionally, the TRIZ contradiction table has been used to compare a desired “improving” feature” against a “gets worse” feature, optimizing the choice of which of the TRIZ 40 principles should be first used in attempting a solution to resolve the contradiction. Despite numerous advances in TRIZ problem solving tools and methodologies, the use of this process in reverse to determine the linkage between observed problem solving behavior and the underlying contradictions remains undeveloped. This type of analysis could be useful in analyzing competitive business strategies or in the analysis of criminal activities. This paper explores the use of the principles in reverse logic and offers a helpful methodology that can facilitate investigative and analytical research across many fields. The researcher or research group first determines the potential observed or hypothesized principle at work in an imminent organizational development, technical innovation, or behavior shift. In the next step, the research determines the underlying contradiction or contradictions which may be resolved by the principle at work. Through investigating the use of principles in reverse, competitor or criminal actions and innovations can be anticipated, analyzed, and pre-empted. Alternatively, the behavior or developments of neutral subjects may be further understood. In addition to expanding the use of TRIZ, the methodology illustrates that the classic 40 Inventive Principles and the Contradiction Matrix still continue to present innovative applications.

 

The concept of the use of resources is a key concept in TRIZ, since solutions to inventive problems that use resources from problem system or the immediate environment (or minor modifications of those resources) of the problem are inherently higher ideality than those that require additional energy or materials added to the system to generate the solution.   Application of modern teaching methods to the concept of the use of resources demonstrates that there are two distinct phases in teaching and learning about the use of resources:  how to identify the available candidate resources, and how to use the resources for problem solving.   The teaching methods will be demonstrated with examples from services and products in several areas.

Over ten years ago Ideation research group delivered a comprehensive paper “TRIZ Beyond Technology: The theory and practice of applying TRIZ to non-technical areas”[1]. The paper included available at that time theoretical base for applying TRIZ to solve problems in business, management, marketing, organizational development, education, arts, etc. Since then, the work has been continued; the proposed paper is going to address the new findings in non-technical applications of TRIZ, in particular:

·        Non-linear net-like relationships in evolution of complex social systems (organizations, enterprises, etc.).

·        Interactions between general and specific evolutionary patterns in social systems

·        Self-organized criticality and organizational crises

·         Co-evolution of business and technological aspects and their optimization

·        Analysis of a company evolution along its S-curve based on 26 specific parameters and formulating directions for business improvement.

·        Evaluation of a company’s intellectual property based on 36 specific parameters and formulating directions for its enhancement.

·        Applying multiple knowledge bases for addressing problems of business and IP improvement.

·        Strategic management targeting achievement of organizational vision and mission.

The paper will also include the main analytical processes and practical recommendations on conducting TRIZ business analysis. 

Patents have become increasingly important in business today because patents protect the innovations upon which future revenues depend. Engineers develop innovations in technical language. Patent attorneys write patent claims in legal language. There is a gap between the language and knowledge of the attorney and engineer. Failure to effectively bridge this gap often leads to weak, overly narrow patents. This paper will show how to use a TRIZ-based approach patent design and to bridge the communication gap between the patent attorney and the engineer. The result is stronger and broader patents. A case study covering a new acetic acid technology is described.

Author:
Peter Hanik, President
Pretium Innovation, LLC

This paper reflects the numerous places where TRIZ can be implemented by an engineer who has spent many years working and solving numerous problems using TRIZ at International Truck. His 2004 trip to Russia to study TRIZ with an eclectic group of TRIZ users, is the backdrop for this paper. Learning TRIZ from some of the premier TRIZ developers provides connection to the insightful phrase “When everyone thinks alike, nobody thinks very much!"

The author also brings to light some interesting historical highlights that left undocumented would be lost to history. One of the discoveries that Mr. Altshuller made during his analysis of Patents is that biological systems develop in predictable fashion, as with technological systems.   

The author reviews one of the main postulates of Altshuller’s theory of TRIZ is that systems, sub-systems, and Super- Systems develop at different rates. Maybe more concisely stated as these entities evolve, each is at its own position on the S-Curve. From this, Altshuller indicated that this is why Administrative, Technical, and Physical Contradictions occur.

Software systems have grown more and more complex over the years, driven by diverse trends such as decreasing size of computing devices, the telecommunication revolution, growth of the internet, diversity of users and uses of software and increasing globalization.  The purpose of software architecture has been to enable software-based systems to achieve desired current and future functions with least amount of complexity. The fundamental qualitative objectives of scalability, reliability, efficiency, adaptability, configurability etc. have remained relevant.   However, software architectures have been continuously evolving to achieve these objectives in newer, more complex contexts. Distinct stages can be observed on this evolution journey, namely routine-based, function-based, object-based and service-based architectures, each with their distinct principles, rules and structures and corresponding differences in usage and behavior.

 

This paper uses the TRIZ laws of system evolution as a base framework to analyze the evolution of software architectures. The paper further deliberates on the movement of software architectures to the next stages on the laws and lines of system evolution. In combination, these movements point to a possible quantum leap in the evolution journey. Key principles, rules and structures of the next software architecture avatar are derived from TRIZ laws and lines of system evolution. A specific software system is used as an example to visualize a potential roadmap from current to next level architecture and the impact thereof.