Jack Hipple

Last month we left you with some problems relating to contradiction analysis. Let's take a look at them from several different levels. First I asked you to think about your own job and its contradictions. Let's look at mine! Since I don't work for a company in the traditional sense, the question I asked you regarding contradiction conflicts between your view and your employer's view may not be relevant, but everyone has a boss. So in my context, let's consider my wife as the boss who wishes I brought home more money to allow her mother to spend more time with us (ouch!)

Jack Hipple

When we first look at the contradiction table and the inventive principles, we are tempted to look at the words and not see how to connect them with business, organizational, and people problems and just say they aren't applicable. However, as was demonstrated in a proposed answer to the first homework problem from the last issue, it's not impossible—it just takes some mental effort and a little imagination. An excellent TRIZ Journal article reviewing the 40 principles and their "translation" into business terms can be found at the www.triz-journal.com web site. It's in the September 1999 issue. In addition, an additional resource in this area is the business contradiction table developed by Darrell Mann. It's a 31X31 matrix and uses parameters unlike those in the original contradiction table and the terminology is a little different than used in many US businesses.

Jack Hipple

Last month we reviewed some of the inventive principles contained in the TRIZ contradiction table and discussed how they could be translated into concepts useful in the business and organizational world. Let's continue that discussion.

As we said last month, when we first look at the contradiction table and the inventive principles, we are tempted to look at the words and not see how to connect them with business, organizational, and people problems and just say they aren't applicable. As we demonstrated, it's not impossible-- it just takes some mental effort and a little imagination. Recall also an excellent TRIZ Journal article reviewing the 40 principles and their "translation" into business terms can be found at the www.triz-journal.com web site. It's in the September 1999 issue.

Jack Hipple

For the past two months we have been discussing the translation of the standard 40 TRIZ principles into business and organizational language. It takes a little mental effort, but I hope you have seen how it can pay off as you use this way of taking a hard look at business and organizational problem.

In TRIZ, we make a distinction between a conflict between two different parameters (traditionally called a technical contradiction) and a conflict within a parameter itself (a physical contradiction). For example, instead of the concern about "shape" vs. "ease of repair" in the contradiction table, we are talking about either shape or ease of repair on their own. We may want the shape to be round for one reason and square for another reason. We may want something to be thick for one reason and thin for another reason (think of a circuit breaker). We may want an item or piece of machinery to be easily accessible for maintenance, but inaccessible while running (for safety reasons).

Jack Hipple

In the late 1960's Boris Zlotin and other original TRIZ Masters of Altshuller came up with a very clever "reverse" method of using TRIZ principles. This application goes by several different names such as Anticipatory Failure Determination™ and Predictive Failure Analysis™. The basic principle is to invert the classical TRIZ problem solving algorithm as follows (we'll use an organizational as opposed to a technical problem as an example):

1. State the Ideal Result: We want to make sure that all of our employees know all they need to know to do their jobs to sustain the organization's objective
2. Invert this statement: We do not want our employees to know what they need to know to assist their organization in achieving its goals
3. Exaggerate the inverted Ideal Final Result statement. (This is the key mental step that may be hard to do just as the normal TRIZ ideal result is difficult to express): We NEVER want our employees to have the information they need to assist the organization in achieving its goals.
4. What resources are available to achieve this "inverted ideality"? Are they available? Can they be created?

Jack Hipple

As the science of TRIZ developed, we went from simple contradiction analysis to standard solutions, a general algorithm (ARIZ), and eventually to Lines and Patterns of Evolution. This is again one of these areas where long time TRIZ Scientists debate how many lines and patterns there are, what they are called, etc. In this discussion, I am going to use the high level 8 lines that I and others learned from Boris Zlotin and Alla Zusman, TRIZ Masters. No offense is intended if you think there are more or less lines, you call them something else, use different verbiage to describe, etc. Many "new" lines have been defined, which in some cases are merely subdivisions of the top level lines, while others can be considered actually newly defined. These next two columns are about applying the thinking imbedded in these lines as opposed to an academic debate. This will at least provide a framework to assist you in translating whatever lines you are using, or what you call them. We can all debate these points at a future Altshuller conference panel discussion.

Jack Hipple

This article will review the last 4 of the 8 lines we discussed last month and their applicability to business and organizational problems. But first, let's look at the homework. We asked you to consider yourself as the President of ABC Company who had decided to do a total review of the company's' performance evaluation and compensation program. You are planning an off-site meeting with your senior staff and have decided to use the thoughts from this lesson as the structure for the meeting and discussion. What are some of your preliminary thoughts? What reaction do you expect from the VP of Engineering, your VP of Director of Human Resources, your VP of Manufacturing, and your VP of Marketing and Sales? Consider this in the context of the Lines of Evolution discussed previously.

Jack Hipple

This will be the last of the articles in this 12 part series of columns discussing the use of TRIZ principles alongside business and innovation processes and assessment tools. The list of these is too long to be covered in any short paper, let alone a long one, and when writing about this subject it is inherent that someone's favorite process or assessment will be left out. I apologize in advance if your favorite "other" tool is left out. No offenses are intended, but use the thought that I am trying to convey in the context of the business process or personnel assessment tool you prefer.