Page 314 - Design for Six Sigma a Roadmap for Product Development

284 Chapter Nine

9.1.1 What is TRIZ?
TRIZ is a combination of methods, tools, and a way of thinking (Darrel
Mann 2002). The ultimate goal of TRIZ is to achieve absolute excel-
lence in design and innovation. In order to achieve absolute excellence,
TRIZ has five key philosophical elements. They are:

■ Ideality. Ideality is the ultimate criterion for system excellence;
this criterion is the maximization of the benefits provided by the sys-
tem and minimization of the harmful effects and costs associated
with the system.
■ Functionality. Functionality is the fundamental building block of sys-
tem analysis. It is used to build models showing how a system works,
as well as how a system creates benefits, harmful effects, and costs.
■ Resource. Maximum utilization of resource is one of the keys used
to achieve maximum ideality.
■ Contradictions. Contradiction is a common inhibitor for increasing
functionality; removing contradiction usually greatly increases the
functionality and raises the system to a totally new performance level.
■ Evolution. The evolution trend of the development of technological
systems is highly predictable, and can be used to guide further
development.
Based on these five key philosophical elements, TRIZ developed a sys-
tem of methods. This system of methods is a complete problem defini-
tion and solving process. It is a four-step process, consisting of problem
definition, problem classification and tool selection, solution genera-
tion, and evaluation.

Problem definition. This is a very important step in TRIZ. If you define
the right problem and do it accurately, then that is 90 percent of the
solution. The problem definition step includes the following tasks:

■ Project definition.
■ Function analysis. This includes the function modeling of the sys-
tem and analysis. This is the most important task in the “definition”
step. TRIZ uses very sophisticated tools for function modeling and
analysis.
■ Technological evolution analysis. This step looks into the relative
maturity in technology development of all subsystems and parts. If
a subsystem and/or part is technically “too” mature, it may reach its
limit in performance and thus become a bottleneck for the whole
system.