Exploring the Effectiveness of Inventive Principles of TRIZ on Developing researchers’ innovative capabilities: a case study in an innovative Research Center 

 Mostafa Jafari, Peyman Akhavan, Hamaid R. Zarghami, and Naser Asgari

Department of Industrial Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the efficacy of 40 inventive principles of TRIZ for developing researchers’ innovative capabilities and to evaluate the extent of application of “40 inventive principles” by inventors In Research Center of Intelligent and Signal Processing (A Successful research center that is producing new products in the field of signal processing and medical engineering).

Design/methodology/approach

 – A range of relevant literature is explored initially. A questionnaire about 40 inventive principles of TRIZ was developed based on literature review.  

Finally, a data analysis including descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis was designed by using SPSS software.

Findings – 

The results showed that about 71% of the researchers have employed TRIZ above the average in their innovative products. Also these studied researchers used TRIZ principles unintentionally. Therefore, if this research center and similar institutes want to make full use of their Researchers’ abilities, they can facilitate innovation through offering courses on TRIZ, the principles of TRIZ and its other tools to them.

 Research limitations/implications

 – This research explore the using of 40 inventive principles as TRIZ simplest tools in an innovative research center without information of TRIZ field. It may need further research to be exploring through other tools of TRIZ and repeat this work in organizations using TRIZ with information from it. Although all of selected researchers were inventor and elite in their fields but a limitation of this research is exploring one successful research center and it can be done in a spread area in all of industries for generalized results. It is needed to note this research is a start for evaluate of using from TRIZ principles and continuing this work was needed through other researchers in all of field and organizations in all of countries.

Originality/value

 – This study is probably the first to provide an exploring of TRIZ inventive principles applications through a research center. Using finding of this research, this research center and other similar research organizations interested in implementing innovative problem-solving techniques will be more familiar with some benefits of TRIZ implementation in innovative accelerate for innovative problem solving in today’s complex competitive environment.

This research is somewhat different from previous works and the way of doing this research is unique in the world.

We explore efficacy of TRIZ inventive principles on researchers’ innovative capabilities through unintentional and intentional using from TRIZ principles by researchers of a successful inventor research center which have powerful researchers at field of signal processing. It is needed to note this research is a start for evaluate of using from TRIZ principles and continuing this work was needed through other researchers in all of field and organizations.

Keywords: Systematic innovation, TRIZ, 40 inventive principles, Researchers’ innovative capabilities, NPD.

The present research has been conducted in order to assess the usage and efficacy of the 40 inventive principles of TRIZ for developing researchers’ innovative capabilities. In other words, it was done to find out whether the principles formulated by Altshuller through an analysis of inventions in the past, are used by contemporary inventor researchers who are not familiar with TRIZ in our case, and whether explaining these principles can result in enhancing the ability of researchers to use existing knowledge more efficiently. In fact, contemporary researchers and those who lived before Altshuller have this in common, that they all had no understanding of TRIZ. We have made an effort to show how much the researchers in the Research Center of Intelligent Signal Processing, as a successful producer of inventive products, use the principles of TRIZ? The results showed that about 71% of the researchers have employed TRIZ above the average and the main hypothesis (H1) of the research was confirmed with confidence level of 95%. It means most researchers used TRIZ principles more than the average number. A considerable finding was that all 41 people who were selected from a population of 50 researchers said they didn’t know anything about TRIZ. It means the researchers used TRIZ principles unintentionally. Considering that the research center is an organization with lots of laboratories along with hardware and software facilities that help develop medical equipment and produce software for processing life indicators, probably the results achieved from this research center could be generalized to a wider population and to similar institutes. We could conclude that if this research center and similar institutes want to make full use of their researchers’ abilities, they should facilitate innovation through offering courses on systematic innovation, such as the principles of TRIZ to their employees; thanks to the researchers conducted by Altshuller, his students, and other scholars, TRIZ has already provided us with required tools. Exploring all innovative aspects of TRIZ needs a period of time as long as its existence. In addition, a trial-and-error approach to innovation is neither scientifically nor economically in the 3rd millennium. So, we can conclude that TRIZ could be applied for improving researchers’ capabilities. So, it would be good ideas to introduce TRIZ to knowledge-workers and researchers in research organizations in order to use its potential for developing their innovative practices. This research also shows that the priority given to each principle varies among researchers (see, table 5). This result supported previous findings in ranking principles about different ranking of principle in different fields (Mann, 2004a; Mann, 2004b). It was revealed that there is a positive and significant correlation between “using TRIZ principles” and “making use of previously invented methods to develop new products”. Considering that the philosophy of TRIZ is to summarize the knowledge of innovation so that inventors in any field of science would take advantage of it, the correlation between using previously invented methods and using TRIZ principles shows that TRIZ has done its best to summarize and simplify innovative principles. Regression analysis in table 7 shows, 60 percent of changing of “extent of unintentional usage of TRIZ principles by researchers” is predicted by” the extent of utilization of results of previously innovative products”. It also shows more extent of utilization of results of previously innovative products by researchers leads to higher unintentionally using from TRIZ inventive principles. So, Altshuller studied the previous patents completely and represents an excellent category of innovative principles (TRIZ). As it wasn’t observed any relationship between trial-and-error approach, the number of accomplished inventive projects, age and another demographic features and using TRIZ principles, we can conclude that these factors don’t affect the result of using TRIZ principles. Besides, more experience and other surveyed factors can’t lead to higher unintentionally using from TRIZ inventive principles, so we strongly suggest that innovators need to have access to these tools to increase their innovative capabilities through TRIZ intentionally with applicable learning of 40 inventive principles and other TRIZ tools. Perhaps evaluation of the usage of TRIZ, especially in terms of intentional or unintentional usage is carried out in the present research for the first time. It seems no similar research has ever been conducted in such organized and scientific fashion that is done in this research in the studied field.

Suggestions for Further Research

Considering that this research is the first scientific survey conducted on the use of TRIZ (basis not availability books and papers about it), it is necessary to evaluate the use of TRIZ principles in other innovative organizations to find out the efficacy of TRIZ in a more comprehensive way. In addition, other researchers might work on the practical methods of encouraging innovators to use TRIZ; they might work on training innovators to use correct and effective techniques of TRIZ as well. And researchers from other countries can make use of the same procedure to evaluate intentional and unintentional uses of TRIZ principles in creative institutes of their countries. For generalizing these results, a number of spread surveys at many innovative research organizations are need with the way of present research.