The Effectiveness of TRIZ from the Perspective of Comprehensive Benefits of Technological Innovation
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Paper ID #29557 The effectiveness of TRIZ from the perspective of comprehensive benefits of technological innovation Prof. Wei YAO, School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University Dr. Chu Zhaowei, ZheJiang University Chu Zhaowei, Ph.D candidate at Institute of China’s Science Technology and Education Policy, School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University. He holds BS degree in Material Physics from Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology in 2015, and MS degree in Education from Zhejiang University in 2017. He is currently interested in engineering education, global competence and innovation management. Dr. hu shunshun, zhejiang university Hu Shunshun is a PhD student in the Institute of China’s Science, Technology and Education Policy at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. He received a BA in Marketing from the Nanjing Univer- sity of Chinese Medicine in 2015, and a MA in Educational Economic and Management from College of Public Administration, Nanjing agricultural University in 2018. He is currently interested in higher engineering education, engineering education policy, and emerging engineering education. Mr. Bifeng ZHANG, Zhejiang University Bifeng ZHANG is a PhD student at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. He received his BE degree from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and MBA degree from Zhejiang University. His research focuses on engineering education and systematic innovation. c American Society for Engineering Education, 2020 The Effectiveness Assessment of TRIZ:From the Perspective of Comprehensive Benefits Abstract: TRIZ is a method that identifies contradictions in a given problem and then searches for solutions. There are still some controversies on the effectiveness of TRIZ. This study focuses on three questions: (1) What is the effectiveness of TRIZ? (2) Is there any difference in the effectiveness of different TRIZ tools? (3) What are the implications for engineers to apply TRIZ in R&D activities. These questions provide an opportunity to enhance the effectiveness of TRIZ, and even improvements on the method itself. According to the questionnaire survey on more than 300 engineers and assessment on comprehensive benefits, regression analysis was performed, to find out the contribution of TRIZ to comprehensive benefits. Through the research above, we can draw following conclusions: (1) There are sharp differences in the effectiveness of different TRIZ tools. (2) Applying of TRIZ has more significant economic and intellectual benefits and relatively poor social benefits. (3) Engineers should attach importance to the comprehensive benefits, giving priority to effective TRIZ tools, and select TRIZ tools according to the type of problem. 1. Introduction TRIZ is the acronym of the phrase "Theory of Inventive Problem Solving" in Russian. Researches on TRIZ began from G. Altshuller, when he found that innovation is not a random process relying solely on uncontrolled flash of insight. He found that engineering breakthroughs depend on the objective trends or principles which can be learned and repeated [1]. G. Altshuller and engineers around him believe once these principles can be identified and codified. Engineers could make the process of invention more predictable and quicker. According to the survey by European TRIZ Association in 2009, TRIZ had been used in R&D, product design, patent solutions, and engineering management over more than 39 countries nowadays [2]. Existing literatures indicate that TRIZ contributes in three aspects: (1) TRIZ can help engineers improve novelty and diversity of solutions [3], and also help them to find out root cause of technical problems [4]. (2) TRIZ can improve engineers’ creativity, and steadily promote their ability to solve engineering problems [5]-[7]. (3) TRIZ has significant psychological value, such as increasing engineers’ confidence when they are solving engineering problems [8], and also place engineers into real engineering environment [9]. With the extensive applying of TRIZ, scholars still want to verify the effectiveness of TRIZ, because TRIZ is not a scientific theory through peer review: Firstly, what is the effectiveness of TRIZ? Some surveys show that the overall efficiency of TRIZ is relatively low [10], and the existing TRIZ literature "exaggerate the value of TRIZ without exception" [11]. Current researches on the effectiveness of TRIZ mainly focus on its impact on individual’s creativity, which cannot explain the macro benefits. However, macro impacts on economic and social benefits are the key to dispel these doubts. Secondly, are there any differences about in the effectiveness of different TRIZ tools? Research shows that benefits from applying TRIZ depends on personal talents and cannot produce systematic solutions [12]. The problem-solving process cannot be repeated, and results will vary from person to person [1]. In summary, this research focuses on three questions: (1) What is the effectiveness of TRIZ? (2) Is there any difference in the effectiveness of TRIZ tools? (3) what is the implication for engineers to apply TRIZ in R&D activities. In order to answer these questions, we collected relevant data through questionnaire. Based on factor analysis and regression analysis, comprehensive benefits of TRIZ and the effectiveness of TRIZ will be evaluated, and suggestions on applying of TRIZ will be given for engineers. 2. Background 2.1 TRIZ tools and procedures to solve problems TRIZ provides a large number of tools or methods helping engineers to solve inventive problems. As showed in Figure 1, the process of problem-solving by TRIZ is mainly divided into four steps: problem describing; problem analyzing; problem solving and scheme forming. Tools provided by TRIZ are mainly used in second and third step. Figure 1 The process of problem-solving by TRIZ 2.2 The logic of TRIZ to solve problems Although there are many TRIZ tools with each own usage, the logic behind these tools strictly follows the problem-solving model, as shown in Figure 2. The traditional problem solving is to directly find out Specific Solutions for Specific Problems, while TRIZ converts a Specific Problem into Typical Problems first, then find out Typical Solutions for these Typical Problems, through these Typical Solutions, and finally obtains many Specific Solutions. Wang provided a typical TRIZ tool (Technical Contradiction and 40 Invention Principles) as an example to explain how TRIZ could help engineers solve inventive problems [13]: Specific problem: At high speed, the air flow over the top of a car tends to create a low-pressure area at the rear and thus the car is reducing traction and losing stability. Typical problem: Increasing traction and therefore the downward force (improving parameter #15–force) of a car at high speed, and do not want to increase its weight (worsening parameter #1–weight of a moving object). Typical solutions: We can find inventive principles #8,#1,#9,#13,#37,#28,#31,#35,#18 in the 2003 Contradiction Matrix, and finally select the inventive principle #8 “counterweight” (to compensate for the weight of an object, make it interact with the environment–e.g. use aerodynamic, hydrodynamic, buoyancy and other forces). Specific solutions: The spoilers used in airplanes for descending are adopted here on cars to reduce lift and thus improve traction while not increasing the car’s weight. This example illustrates the logic of TRIZ. It starts with mapping the problem from a specific scenario to a set of contradicted features (force and weight), and then it maps generic inventive principles to specific solutions (the counter weight principle yields the solution of spoilers.) Obviously, most specific problem can be solved by TRIZ based on above-mentioned process and this will help engineers a lot. Figure 2 Problem-solving model for TRIZ 3. Literature Review: Comprehensive Benefits Assessment The comprehensive benefits refer to the sum of direct and indirect benefits in engineering activities. The primary purpose of engineering activities is to obtain economic benefits, such as obtaining profits, maintaining market share, reducing costs, improving performances of products [14], improving resource utilization, improving quality and productivity, etc. [15]. Engineering activities should also pay attention to social benefits. Social benefits include promoting personal development, improving quality of life, promoting social welfare, improving resource utilization, etc. [16]. Intellectual benefits are also important in engineering activities. Intellectual benefits usually include obtaining inventive patents [17], and promoting technological accumulation [18]. Finally, negative benefits should be considered [19-20]. At present, the most commonly assessment system for comprehensive benefits is Oslo Manual assessment developed by OECD [21], which considers economic, social, and environmental impacts in production, delivery and business organization. Based on the researches above and the objective of this study, assessment index for comprehensive benefits were established as shown in Table 1. Table 1 Assessment index for comprehensive benefits by using TRIZ Benefits indicators Indicator interpretation / items in Questionnaire Source Direct profits TRIZ can increase direct profits Siegel, Oslo Manual Potential profits TRIZ can increase future profits Siegel, Oslo Manual Market demands growth TRIZ can boost product demands and enlarge market Oslo Manual share Increasing in TRIZ can improve the convenience of product