Page 276 - Design for Six Sigma for Service (Six SIGMA Operational Methods)

Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ) 245

The subject toothbrush is replaced by the more general tooth cleaning device.
The object teeth is changed to dirt in teeth; it is more precise. The action brush
is changed to the more general term remove. Under this alternative functional
modeling, many possible choices of subjects and actions can be open for
selection. For example, we can use hydraulic action or chemical action to clean
teeth; we can even consider pretreatment of teeth to make them dirt-free and so
on. Clearly this alternative functional modeling opens up a lot of gates for
problem solving and innovation.

Ideality and Ideal Final Result
After functional modeling and functional analysis, we can evaluate the
ideality of the current system by using

∑ benefits
Ideality =
∑ costs + ∑ harm
Ideal final result means the ultimate optimal solution for the current system
in which
∑ Benefits →∞ and ∑ Costs + ∑ harm → 0

By comparing the ideality of the current system with the ideal final result,
we can identify where the system improvement should go and what aspects
of the system should be improved. This will definitely help the problem def-
inition and identify what problem should be solved.

S-curve Analysis
It is very beneficial to evaluate the evolution stage of the current technical
system involved in any TRIZ project. For example, if our current subsystem
is at the growth stage, then we should focus our attention on gradual
improvement. If our subsystem is near the maturity stage, then we will know
that it is time to develop the next generation of this subsystem.

Contradiction Analysis
By using the method described in Sec. 9.2.4, we can identify if there are any
physical or technical contradictions in our current system. TRIZ has many
methods to resolve contradictions.

9.3.2 Problem Classification and Tool Selection
After we are finished with the problem definition, we should be able to
classify the problem into the following categories. For each category, there
are many TRIZ methods available to resolve the problem.