Inventive Thinking through TRIZ: A Practical Guide

348 Pages·2003·13.604 MB·English

by  Professor Dr. Dr. Sc. techn. Michael A. Orloff (auth.)

Michael A. Orloff
Inventive Thinking through TRIZ
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg GmbH
ONLINE LIBRARY
Engineering
http://www.springer.de/engine/
Michael A. Orloff
Inventive Thinking
through TRIZ
A Practical Guide
With 329 examples and 228 figures
, Springer
Professor Dr. Dr. Se. teehn. Michael Orloff
IGZ Innovations- und Griindungs-Zentrum
Berlin -Adlershof
Rudower Chaussee 29
D -12489 Berlin
Germany
e-mail: [email protected]
www.artis-inventum.com
ISBN 978-3-662-08015-3 ISBN 978-3-662-08013-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-662-08013-9
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© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003
Originally published by Springer-Ve rlag Berlin Heidelberg New York in 2003
Softcover reprint of tbe hardcover 1s t edition 2003
The use of general descriptive names, registered names trademarks, etc. in
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Dedicated to my son Alexey
with love and respect
for his generosity,
purposefulness
and
courage
A heuristic program is necessary for effective
solutions to the requirements of inventing at a
higher level that replaces the continuously new
selection of variations with a goal-oriented
movement into the area of the solution.
Genrikh Altshuller
Algorithm of Inventing
Moscow. 1973
TRIZ at the Beginning of the 21 Century
st
Author's Foreword
It is never too early to think about tomorrow.
Federico Mayor *
Humanity developed on the stepping stones of inventions. Brilliant inventions
brought humanity to breathtaking heights. Millions of other inventions made these
stepping stones and the entire construct of civilization secure. The rise of civiliza
tion accelerated continuously.
But, the process of inventing remained the same throughout the ages. There
was intellectual torture about a problem, a search in all possible directions, count
less unsuccessful attempts, stumbling, total loss in a labyrinth, circular movement
in fog, and - very rarely - unexpected ideas shone like a light in the deepest dark
ness, like the realization of our dearest dreams or a cure for an incurable disease.
This is how we invented. Sometimes inventors searched their entire lives long.
There were many enthusiasts who attempted to uncover the secret of the birth
of inventing. Brilliant scientists tried to develop theories of creativity. Great
pragmatists collected hordes of useful suggestions to stimulate the development of
ideas and put them to use. However, all of this was only marginally successful in
praxis.
It was impossible to learn how to invent!
This was only because it was impossible to explain and pass on individual and
historical experience while inventing. Well-known descriptions of inventive crea
tivity were written down in metaphors with emotional language and individual
suggestions and recommendations. This was not done scientifically: there were no
laws or methods. It was also not possible to treat inventing like an art because
even art can be learned and taught to a great degree.
Despite this fact, civilization rose steadily. Enthusiasm about the progress ex
emplified by automobiles, aircraft, space rockets, by the Internet and cellular
phones was so great and so universal that very few people in the 20th century also
recognized the deadly threats that these devices in their complexity represent for
humanity.
Even the shocking truth about coming global catastrophes caused by the de
struction of nature by industry and technology was not sufficiently sobering. Lack
of responsibility and egotism in many technocratic structures, the lack of critical
knowledge about questions of global survival, and the lack of globally coordinated
institutions, not to mention problems in the consolidation of the efforts of all in
dustrialized countries -all of this has to be changed from the ground up as quickly
as possible.
* Federico Mayor - General Secretary of the UNESCO (2002)
VIII Author's Foreword
A secure future has to be the goal and motivation of every attempt at progress
and of all politics. Engineers, teachers, and scientists can assume a part of their
personal responsibility in such attempts. We should all search for organizational
and technical possibilities individually and with our fellow professionals that can
help avoid technogenic -and therefore -sociogenic catastrophes.
When we consider the extremely short time for inventions and the practical ap
plication of essential ideas, it is not enough to rely on the methods for finding new
ideas that our wonderful, yet so imperfect civilization has created. Perhaps this
civilization is sometimes so deficient because the methods that have shaped it are
imperfect.
Who controls the development of humanity? Can we really make a reliable
prognosis about our best way into the future? How can sociogenic, geogenic, and
cosmic catastrophes be avoided? How can we insure the progress and security of
coming generations?
TRIZ teaches us how to make inventions!
TRIZ teaches us how to construct the future!
TRIZ changes your thinking, i.e., all of civilization, too!
Rational decisions about the problems above cannot be made today without the
use ofTRIZ.
TRIZ will be an invaluable part of all the possible sciences and learning proc
esses that remain from the 2nd millennium AD What could be more valuable than a
science about how we can learn to think effectively, to become an inventor, or
even a genius!
The following are the essential concepts of TRIZ in its modern form:
1. All systems (not only technical systems) are developed to fulfill a certain func
tion, the system's so-called useful primary function. Systems are developed
according the certain laws that can be perceived and used to shape the devel
opment of systems.
2. All systems strive to enhance their effectiveness during their life cycle. Effec
tiveness can be understood as the ratio between positive factors from the im
plementation of useful functions and negative factors - such as compensation
for harmful effects on the environment -that arise from the development, use,
and application of the system.
3. All systems and components develop differently in comparison to other sys
tems in their environment. This is the main cause of slow growth in the effec
tiveness of systems and of technical problems.
4. Contradictions between incompatible characteristics and requirements that
prevent the achievement of the useful primary function of the components and
the system create the basis for all technical problems.
5. A solution for such a contradiction with technical means is then an invention.
TRIZ at the Beginning of the 21st Century IX
6. The number of different types of contradictions is limited. This allows us to
perceive them precisely in real problems and to evaluate them with adequate
methods for a solution.
7. Adequate methods for the solution of contradictions can be developed by in
vestigating a sufficient number of a representative selection of real inventions
along with patent descriptions and technical literature.
8. Methods for the solution of contradictions can be developed along with pro
cedures for the development and stimulation of memory, attention, associative
thinking, imagination, and various useful characteristics of the intellect and
psyche.
9. Methods for the solution of contradictions can be applied along with other
methods used to shape the development of complex systems -economic, sys
temic, cultural-educational, and even political methods.
Several thousand inventions were examined for the development of the first pro
cedures in TRIZ for the solution of contradictions. The number of investigated in
ventions is now more than 2.5 million. TRIZ procedures have proven effective for
many years and continue to be applied successfully.
At the beginning of the 21 5t century, TRIZ is the only constructive theory of in
vention and, based on its essence, of engineering creativity. TRIZ has in no way
been developed fully. It must be further developed, structured, and supplied with
axioms. Special and combined theories and methods can be developed along with
TRIZ, such as the integrated theory CROST - Constructive Resource-Oriented
Strategy of Thinking & Transforming that was developed by the author of this
textbook. In accordance with the model of TRIZ, still more patents and scientific
technical literature should be examined. However, the main principles of TRIZ are
still invariable, just like with every other effective theory. They can therefore be
considered classical principles.
Although time and a special praxis are required for a study of the basis of
TRIZ, this theory will prove itself in your future activities, regardless of your pro
fession. The methods of TRIZ allow you to find valuable solutions more quickly
and with less effort. TRIZ is quite simply irreplaceable for solutions to extremely
difficult problems. In my almost 40 years of TRIZ praxis since 1963 when I read
my first small book [1] by Genrikh Altshuller, I have heard of no one who had
abandoned it after studying its methods and models. At this point, I would like to
quote a statement by the author ofTRIZ:
" TRIZ supports thinking, it doesn't replace it".
I would like to thank many specialists who have supported my idea to write the
first textbook on the principles of classical TRIZ. Conversations with Prof. H.-J.
Linde (FH Coburg) and Dr. R.Thiel, Dr. D. Zobel as well as Dr. M.Herrlich were
especially helpful.
x Author's Foreword
Meetings with Prof. W. Beitz and Prof. G. Seliger (Technical University Ber
lin) helped me become familiar with the creative components of university educa
tion in Germany. Prof. G. Ropohl's (J. W. Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main)
ideas about the problems and the role of technocracy in the maintenance and fur
ther development of civilization - impossible without environmental protection
and humanistic social ethics -and his supportive letters reinforced my plans.
I cannot mention everyone here who helped enable us to live and work in Ger
many. However, my special thanks go to Udo Matusch (engineer and entrepre
neur, head of the firm AMT Automatisierungstechnik GmbH, Essen) who was the
first person to invite me to Germany and who allowed me to work on an adapta
tion of the TRIZ methodology for Germany at his company for 2 years.
My heartfelt thanks go to the engineer and inventor Katharina Koterewa, head
of the firm ZWEK Vakuumtechnik GmbH in Apolda, who provided ideal condi
tions for me at her home in Thueringia's mountains to order my thoughts and
maintain hope and optimism in a very difficult situation during my move to Ber
lin. I would like to thank my friend Heinrich Kochs (specialist at
VOLKSW AGEN) for the many days for thought and discussion, for my first in
troduction into the German everyday, and for the use of his garden house with a
large library and the best conditions for my work in a wonderfully quiet region in
the woods near Hannover. My great thanks go to Dr. Lydia Dessau, the manager
of Innovation Centre IGZ-OWZ Berlin, who allowed me to work in her firm and
who worked together with us to deal with the difficulties in establishing my first
German firm. I would like to thank her husband, Harmut Dessau, an employee at
SIEMENS who always supported us with his constructive criticism. I thank both
of them that they offered us their idyllic weekend house on the river Dahme for a
long time.
I am especially thankful to Prof. Martin Moehrle (University Bremen) whose
energetic and early support first made it possible to continue working in Germany
and to publish my most important works.
My thanks also go to my colleagues Harald Lemanski, Siegfried Helling and
Dr. Siegfried Greschner. And I hope that the translation of this textbook into Eng
lish in creative co-operation with Dr. Cary Henderson - a translation that repro
duces the spirit ofTRIZ -helps my readers connect positively with the book.
I am extremely thankful to the Springer Publishers, especially to Mrs. Eva Hes
termann-Beyerle, Editor of Textbooks Engineering, who made the suggestion to
write a textbook on the essential principles of classical TRIZ.
Of course, I wish everyone success who is not afraid to search for new ideas in
the creation and development of technical systems and who remembers that all of
our solutions changes humanity in some way.
Michael A. Orloff
Berlin, November 2002