Information letter No.1

 
Non-Governmental Organization "TRIZ Developers Summit"
+7 (812) 449-8984
 

 
Information Letter No. 1 - August 11, 2011
 
 Information about TRIZ Summit 2012
 
Dear colleagues!
 
1. A discussion on the issue of subject matter for the TRIZ Summit 2012 was held. The following subject matters were discussed in this process:
·         S-curves – mechanisms for S-curve construction and analysis;
·         ARIZ of new generation: verification, training and consulting;
·         Su-Field analysis. Standards for inventive problem solving;
·         Identification of secondary problems;
·         Glossary of key TRIZ terms;
·         Trend of transition to the Supersystem: its mechanisms and tools (methods) for integration in Supersystem;
·         Trend of system parts completeness;
·         Trend of increasing degree of ideality;
·         TRIZ methods in information systems;
·         Definition of objects and goals of system improvement (innovations);
·         Development of TRIZ a s a science;
·         Development of creative imagination (thinking) – tools and opportunities for their use in practice;
·         Levels of inventions.
 
2. Two leading subject matters were determined as a result of discussion and preferential voting - namely, ARIZ and "Identification of secondary problems". It was decided to present the subject matter "TRIZ methods in information systems" at the TRIZ Summit 2012 as one of the most promising subject matters for the nearest future.
 
3. A decision was made to include three main constituents in the structure of TRIZ Summit 2012: 
- new subject matter for TRIZ Summit ("Identification of secondary problems" is proposed as such for TRIZ Summit 2012);  
- subject matter of TRIZ Summits of previous years – materials developed based on results and recommendations of one of the previous TRIZ Summits and recommended for application in TRIZ community (subject matter "ARIZ of new generation: recommendations for training and consulting" is proposed for year 2012);
- promising subject matter for TRIZ Summits for the nearest future (it is proposed to present the subject matter "TRIZ methods in information systems" at TRIZ Summit 2012). 
4. Abstract to TRIZ Summit 2012 subject matter "Identification of Secondary Problems":
Importance of selected subject matter: Unfortunately, a considerable percentage of extraordinary TRIZ ideas and solutions is not implemented in actual products offered at the market and in operating equipment and technological processes. This is explained by several reasons, but the main one consists in the fact that several (sometimes, a great number) of the so-called Secondary Problems (SP) needs to be solved to actually implement such ideas and solutions in practice. Secondary Problems may involve identification of the most favorable conditions for the application of solution worked out through the use of TRIZ, minimization of changes in the source system, reduction of costs, overcoming of psychological inertia related to new principle of action (operation principle), circumvention of patents that are still valid and that prevent a worked out solution from implementation in practice and so forth.
Example: Well-known TRIZ solution (first mentioned by G.Altshuller) about separation of bark from wood. This solution involved covering all trees at a wood-cutting area with ferro-magnetic fluid (FMF) and removing pieces of bark by magnetic field after wood chipping. When one of us actually encountered this problem during his employment in Finland, he quickly realized that this solution couldn't be implemented in practice without solving the following sub-problems. Firstly, how so many trees could be covered with ferro-magnetic fluid (including branches of trees)? Secondly, separation of bark should be carried out in the field (i.e. at a wood-cutting area) with a lot of mud around and under the conditions of -30 degrees C in wintertime. Thirdly, in the case of large-scale production of timber, tons of FMF will be required, which would make the process too expensive. Besides, it turned out that separate pieces of bark are not left after wood chipping - the majority of pieces and represent wood chips with bark. It is impossible to throw away theses chips because o lot of precious wood would be wasted in this case. In addition, several patents were already issued for magnetic separation of bark from wood by the moment when TRIZ idea was generated - and so forth.  
The conclusion from the above is obvious - there is a great need in TRIZ in approaches and tools enabling to identify the most important Secondary Problems (SP). They also could be solved using TRIZ (if these problems are inventive ones) or they could be solved using other methods.
State-of-the-art of research and development in the filed of Secondary Problems: The most popular tools in modern TRIZ for the identification of SP are the following ones: Determination of Supereffect, Failure-anticipation synthesis and method for identifying adaptation problems in Function-Oriented Search (FOS). However, all these tools require further development and approaches to identification of most important SP. On the whole, this subject matter is not developed yet to a required degree and is a matter of urgency for TRIZ at present.
 
To participate in TRIZ Summit 2012 "Identification of Secondary Problems", TRIZ experts are requested to submit titles and abstracts of their papers related to the above indicated subject matter no later than November 1, 2011. Before November 15, 2011, we will inform everybody what papers will be selected for TRIZ Summit 2012. We plan to prepare and publish a collection of papers for TRIZ Summit 2012 in Russian and English.  
 
5. Subject matter "ARIZ of New Generation: recommendations for training and consulting" was discussed two years ago - namely, at TRIZ Summit 2009. During TRIZ Summit 2012 we plan to prepare specific proposals and recommendations for this subject matter and to identify what proposed option are most convenient for the purpose of consulting and training. We address all those who are interested in this subject matter with a request to submit all new ARIZ texts. We would like to emphasize here that we asking you to submit not simply ideas on ARIZ development, but already developed texts with examples of problem solving. The proposed procedure for consideration of options of ARIZ of new generation will be described in the next information letter. We plan to further improve and refine the procedure for consideration of various TRIZ methodology developments, decision making and working out recommendations at TRIZ Summit in respect of such developments. 
 
6. We also plan to present a report devoted to problems in TRIZ method application for the development of information systems in the course of TRIZ Summit 2012. We believe that this subject matter could become the main subject matter for one of the future Summits. Therefore, we address TRIZ experts with a request to send their ideas, developments and materials on this issue and express our gratitude in advance.
 
7. Exact time and site where TRIZ Summit 2012 will be held is yet unknown. It is our tradition to hold this event in July. Exact time and site will be determined later. One or two days could be allocated for closed session of TRIZ Summit 2012 - depending on specific situation and degree of detail in discussing presented materials. 
 
Organizers and facilitators of TRIZ Developers Summit: