A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF TRIZ AS A CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING AND OPPORTUNITY FINDING TECHNIQUE by Ferdinand Jan Hendrik Myburgh (8715017) SHORT DISSERTATION submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree MAGISTER COMMERCII in BUSINESS MANAGEMENT in the FACULTY OF ECONOMIC AND MANAGEMENT SCIENCES at the RAND AFRIKAANS UNIVERSITY SUPERVISOR PROFESSOR W M CONRADIE OCTOBER 2002 Table of Contents CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY 1 1.1. Background to the study 1 1.2 Problem statement 6 1.3 Study objectives 6 1.4. Research methodology 7 1.5 Limitations of the study 7 1.6. Chapter division 8 CHAPTER 2: CREATIVITY 9 2.1 Introduction 9 2.2. Definitions of creativity 9 2.3. Physiology and psychology of the brain and creativity 11 2.3.1 Workings of the brain during thought 11 2.3.2 Memory and creativity 13 2.3.3 The "Whole Brain Affair" 16 2.4. Psychological inertia and creative thinking 19 2.5. Thinking for the future 29 Figure 1: Judgemental thinking boxes 30 2.6 Creativity techniques 31 2.7. Summary 33 CHAPTER 3: TRIZ AS A CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING AND OPPORTUNITY FINDING TECHNIQUE 34 3.1. Introduction 34 3.2 A brief history 34 3.3. The essence of TRIZ 35 3.4 TRIZ and its underlying inventive secrets 40 3.4.1 Defining the problem 41 3.4.2 Satisfying the functions 41 3.4.3 Prioritising the functions 42 3.4.4 Meeting contradictory requirements 42 3.4.5 Separation in time and space 42 3.4.6 Formulating an ideal, final result 43 3.4.7 Forty inventive TRIZ principles 43 3.4.7.1 Nested Doll 44 3.4.7.2 The Take-Out Principle 44 3.4.7.3 The Other Way Round Principle 45 3.4.7.4 Add Another Dimension Principle 45 3.4.7.5 Triads 45 3.4.8. Measuring of a system on the path to ideality and TRIZ principles 47 3.4.8.1 Dimensionality of the system, or its parts, or objects. 48 3.4.8.2. Degree of system multiplicity 48 3.4.8.3 The physical state or phase of the system, its parts, or its objects. 49 3.4.8.4 Dynamic capability of the system, its parts and objects. 49 3.4.8.5 Type and nature of applied frequency of actions from, by or to the system, its parts, or its elements. 49 3.4.8.6 Nature, type and dimensionality of the system, its functions, and its properties 50 3.4.8.7 Degree of voidness of the system, its parts and elements 50 3.4.8.8 Four essential parts of a system 50 3.5. The psychology of TRIZ 52 3.6 Summary 56 CHAPTER 4: TRIZ IN A NON-TECHNICAL APPLICATION AND IN CONJUNCTION WITH OTHER CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING TECHNIQUES 58 4.1 Introduction 58 4.2 Selected TRIZ inventive (non-technical) principles 58 4.2.1. Segmentation 59 4.2.2. Local Quality 61 4.2.3. Asymmetry 62 4.2.4. Merging 63 4.2.5. Universality 63 4.2.6. "Nested Doll" 64 4.2.7. Anti-weight 65 4.2.8. Preliminary anti-action 66 4.2.9. Preliminary action 66 4.2.10. The other way round 67 4.3. Further selected TRIZ inventive principles 69 4.3.1. S-Fields 70 Figure 2: Applying the substance field to other disciplines 70 4.3.2. Ideality 71 4.3.3. Trends of evolution 71 4.3.4. Substance and object segmentation 71 4.3.5. Mono-bi-poly. 72 4.3.6. Law of system completeness 72 4.4 TRIZ and other creativity techniques 72 4.4.1 Penetration area of TRIZ in relation to other creativity techniques 73 4.4.1.1. Conditioning/ motivating/ organising techniques 73 4.4.1.2. Randomising techniques 74 4.4.1.3. Focusing techniques 74 4.4.1.4. Systems techniques 74 4.4.1.5. Pointed techniques 74 4.4.1.6. Evolutionary directed techniques 74 4.4.1.7. Innovation knowledge-based techniques 74 Table 1: TRIZ evolutionary directed technique 76 4.4.2 TRIZ in conjunction with other creativity techniques 77 4.4.2.1 Functional Analysis 77 4.4.2.2 TRIZ, QFD and Robust Design 77 4.4.2.3. TRIZ and Six Sigma 78 4.4.2.4. TRIZ and Viable System Model (VSM) 80 4.4.2.5. TRIZ and Six Thinking Hats 81 4.4.2.6 TRIZ and 5W's and H 84 4.5 Summary 88 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS 91 5.1 Introduction 91 5.2 Conclusions 92 BIBLIOGRAPHY 98 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY 1.1. Background to the study To survive the competitive onslaught and to thrive, organisations need to perform in ways that give them an edge over their competitors. In order to be successful, organisations must build competitive advantage in the form of quality, speed and innovation and managers have to think and act strategically. Companies must constantly think about how to build a capable workforce and manage in a way that delivers the goods and services that provide the best possible value to the customer (Bateman & Snell, 1999:IX). Bennett and Stewart (1999:1) say people and companies should focus on maximising the firm's current market value. Greater value rewards the share holders who are the owners of the enterprise. A quest for greater value directs scarce resources to their most promising uses and most productive users. The more effectively resources are deployed and managed the more robust the economic growth and the rate of improvement in our standard of living. Innovation is daunting in its complexity and pace of change, say Bateman and Snell (1999:576). It is vital for competitive advantage. Not long ago new products took years to develop, were mass produced and were pushed onto the market through extensive selling and promotional campaigns. Today demand exists for products that have not yet been designed. The race is on to become the first to introduce innovative products and to find solutions for production, marketing, financing and design problems. The emphasis is on 1 innovation and creativity — a departure from previous ways of doing things. Business is therefore launched on a new quest. The need for developing new products is driven by a hunger to keep up with what competitors are doing, and to satisfy customers' diverse and ever- changing needs (Blosiu and Kowalick: 1996). Business now seeks a new advantage - creativity. Kao (1996:1) describes the creative advantage as delicate, dangerous and absolutely vital. According to the learned author the minds of gifted people are today what truly distinguish one organisation from another; whether it be computer software, services, product design and improvement, or human resources management. But minds alone, however, are nothing without processes specifically designed to translate these ideas into valued products and services, says Kao (1996:XIV). Therefore, today creativity is valued. Investors demand to know the rand and cents value of creativity even in companies that, according to Kao, sell stationery, plumbing equipment and any service or product that one can think of. Creative ideas translate into competitive advantage, which translates into positive future cash flows, which means that investors are satisfied the company is earning above what is expected in the market. Exceeding investors' expectations will invariably translate into higher share prices, which translates in greater value for the investor. 2 The realisation that creativity and a different way of thinking, are a prerequisite for human progress, and business survival for that matter, prompted a closer examination of how the thinking process can be stimulated to be more creative, as well as of the thought processes which are involved in creative thinking. From this flowed questions, inter alia, whether creativity can be learned, why people are not creative, the relationship between intelligence and creativity, whole brain and left and right brain thinking preferences, children and creativity and whether children are more creative than adults? An understanding of the thought process and of the creative abilities of people has been greatly enhanced by the understanding of the right and left brain concept (Neethling & Rutherford, 1996: 83). A better understanding of how the brain works helps to understand the blocks to improved thinking and patterns of thinking. Today it is known that the brain is not one centre of thought but two and that each side has control over certain skills and functions. Each half of the brain has its own memories and its own train of thoughts. The brain's functions are integrated, but the left brain deals mainly in words and is associated with analysis and logical thinking, whilst the right brain deals mainly in sensory images and is associated with intuition and creative thinking (Ornstein, 1978:79). Central to creativity is the concept of "thinking". According to De Bono (1976: 33) thinking is the operating skill through which intelligence acts upon experience. He says that extreme thinking is impossible without some information on the subject, and at the other extreme, that perfect information 3 would make thinking unnecessary. In between both thinking and information are required, the author says. Why are people complacent about how they think and how the world is explained to them? Is it too difficult for the human brain to consciously introduce different thought patterns and break free of paradigms? Each person has his/her own style of being creative and tends to accept the style of people whose style favours his/her own style. People are heavily programmed in their problem solving.