TRIZ. Engineering Problem-Solving Algorithm

STEP 1

Recommendations and comments

The goal of the first step is a formulation of a technical task. It happens that the initial task is technically set and requires only minor refinements. But, as a rule, a problem is formulated in the administrative form.

To make a primary description of a problem, we answer the questions: "What's going on? Where does it happen? When does it happen? Why is it happening? "And clarify the function of the system.

For example, there is a task of "Ensuring a reliable supply of raw materials to the production line".

Working at this step, we must go to a specific technical statement, so we formulate the question: "Why is the security unreliable?". Answer: "Because there is a downtime of equipment, because of which the supply of raw materials ceases."

We go further: "With what do downtime equipment?". Answer: "There is a breakdown of the drive shaft, and it has to be repaired."

Thus, we reached the technical essence of the problem: "There is a breakdown of the shaft." To formulate a technical problem, we found a concrete physical event with a negative result.

At step 1 we stop at the first technical event found and the reason for its occurrence, which is obvious. A further refinement, unwinding of the cause of the failure, we will carry out in step 3.

Thus, the result of the work on the first step will be the definition of a specific technical problem and its causes. Its verbal formula is presented in the basic materials.

For the example shown above, this problem will look like this: "In the system designed for the transportation of raw materials, during the supply of raw materials, the drive shaft is damaged due to overload."

Pay attention that already at the first step, with thoughtful analysis, you will have ideas for a solution. Try not to hang on to them, although sometimes it can be very tempting.

The best thing is to take a piece of paper and write down the ideas that come to mind. This sheet should be with you throughout the whole work on the algorithm. And every idea that appears should be recorded. Do not try to immediately criticize the idea, but just write it down. Analysis and criticism will be conducted at step 8. Until then, everything will be fixed and accumulated.

The point is not to throw out weak ideas since the "weak" idea now can be combined with another and a third idea and give a powerful result.

And even if ideas did not appear at the first step, be sure to take a piece of paper, write the heading "Ideas".

STEP 2

Recommendations and comments

At this step, we check the problem for "false". In a case, a positive test result does not mean that there is no problem but will mean that there are easier ways of solving or even self-elimination of a problem, and it will not be necessary to solve it in an inventive way.

We are looking for possible workarounds in the past, future, and the object's supersystem.

“Past” and “future” are understood not so much in time, but as previous and subsequent operations or events in the life cycle of an object.

STEP 3

Recommendations and comments

The main goal of this step is to identify the root cause of the problem. This means that from the visible result you need to get to the point at which the problem appears. Your task is to identify the physical mechanism of the problem's appearance.

Most often, the complexity of a problem lies in the fact that it contains not one, but several interrelated tasks. Sometimes there is only one problem, but its cause is outside the scope of finding a solution. That is, the solution is not looking for there.

In the process of analysis, we must go to the original undesirable phenomenon (UP), find the place where it occurs, and the undesirable element (UE) that causes an undesirable phenomenon.

These are tools for it -  system operator or split-screen scheme and cause-effect analysis.

In your analysis, you are looking for a consistent series of answers to the question "Why is this happening?" and "Under what conditions?" The desired place will be where the answer to the question "Why" appears in the form "To..." or "This is the law of nature." It is useful to ask the question: Can we "to..." do it differently, without the presence of an undesirable phenomenon? It can lead to a new direction for finding ideas.

Then you need to draw up the found place in the form of a drawing of an operational zone (OZ). If there are several of these places, then OZs are numbered and a drawing is made for each operational zone.

To do this, draw a general diagram of your system. On this diagram, mark the identified OZs with red circles and number them. Make a separate large drawing for each OZ.

A typical minimum picture of OZ consists of 2 elements and a harmful interaction between them. The harmful interaction will be the identified undesirable phenomenon. The drawing can be supplemented with details that you think are important.

After that, make up a clarified problem formula (mini-task), as indicated in paragraph 3.6. of an algorithm.

For each operational zone, a mini-task must be specified, that is, its updated formula must be drawn up.

Two undesirable phenomenons may occur in one place at different times. In this case, we consider this place to be two operational zones, with different operational times. And we make them out according to the description.

The Multi-Screen Analysis in detail with example.

Step 4. Recommendations and comments.

Analysis of Substance-Field Resources (SFR).

The material for this step is the list of operational zones with their mini-tasks from the previous step.

The result of your work at step 3 will be a ready-made list of resources.

The principle of analysis is simple: "I describe everything that I see".

The collection of resources begins from the Operational Zone (OZ). How many OZs you identified in the previous step, so many lists of resources you should get.

So, how do we select the resources? In the operational zone, the first fixed resource is the undesirable element (UE). Then write down everything that you see in OZ, then what is next to OZ, then what is in the supersystem, down to the level of the enterprise. Also, indicate all the resources of the environment.

You may have difficulties filling out the table with a list of resources. They are connected with the fact that substances, properties, and parameters are not always clearly distinguished.

For example, a red-hot piece allows us to heat something. It is tempting to write that the resource is "temperature". But it's not right. Temperature is a parameter that refers to the properties of giving and retaining heat, through the property of the heat capacity of a material. Accordingly, the resource will be the "workpiece" with its thermal field and with such and such parameters.

Please note that the resources will be repeated in different OZs. The difference will be in their location. What for OZ1 will be a resource within the OZ, for OZ2 will be either a resource of an adjacent zone or a supersystem. Accordingly, the same resource in different OZ will have a different weight.

How to estimate the weight of a resource?

The logic is simple: we have attracted a useful resource for the functioning of a system, it has its own cost, and to increase it, you need to bear additional costs. And a harmful resource was formed by itself, and completely free of charge. Therefore, the use of a harmful resource will give us a more ideal solution, the weight of the harmful resource is higher.

A resource located in the OZ weighs more because it is already in the place where we are going to use it. “Distant” resources will require efforts to deliver them to the OZ.

Let's go through the presence of the resource in the operational zone in a similar way. If it is in the OZ all the time, then we can always use it. If it is temporarily there, then it is necessary either to spend efforts to ensure its permanent presence, or to adjust to the known schedule of its presence in the OZ. An episodically present resource is even more difficult to use since sometimes we cannot predict when it will appear in the OZ.

An energetically saturated resource allows us to use more energy to solve a problem than a weakly saturated one.

Energy saturation is considered in two ways:

1st, if a resource participates in the performance of a function, then its saturation is determined relative to the need to perform this function. “Adequately fulfills” means “sufficient”. “Doesn't pull” means “weak”. "Tears keys and shafts" means "Excessive".

2nd way. If the resource is in itself, then we evaluate it for selfish technical reasons: "And how much can we get from it to solve a problem?" Keep in mind that these "a lot", "average", "little" are evaluated not for taste, but concerning how much is needed according to the conditions of a problem.

What is ranking for? If there are only 5-7 resources, then ranking is not needed, and the next step is a list of all resources. But, usually, there are a lot of these resources. We can use all of them in the next step, but the amount of work, given the resource combinations, will be very large. If you have a lot of time, you can do so.

The idea behind ranking is to significantly reduce the amount of work, while still ensuring that the solutions are as close to ideal as possible. So the probability of getting an “ideal” solution using insignificant resources is rather small and can be neglected.

Step 5. Recommendations and comments.

The material for this step is the list of priority resources from step 4.

Based on this list, you will formulate your perfect final results (PFRs). There can be a lot of them, perhaps a few dozen, a hundred, and they will all be different.

This is because, in addition to the resource, you substitute the properties of this resource into the PFR formula. There can also be many properties, and your task is to select a meaningful property according to the conditions of a problem.

For example, the resource “steel part” has the following properties: mass, thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity, heat capacity, elasticity, plasticity, oxidizability, etc. When compiling such a list, it is worth mentally choosing those properties that are significant in your task. If you are solving a mechanical problem, then the parameters should be mechanical, if they are thermal, then the parameters should be thermal, etc.

In addition, according to formula 3, combine resources: 1st with 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. Then 2nd with 3rd, 4th, etc. Then the 3rd with the 4th, etc.

The order in which PFRs are formulated is determined by their preference/ideality. That is, Formula 1 is preferable to Formula 2, and Formula 2 is preferable to Formula 3. And, only in the last turn are the PFRs with the X-element being formulated.

For further work, it is necessary to sort the formulated PFRs.

As a result, you get 4 main groups by the type of PFRs:

Type 1. A well-known solution, conditionally "Banality". Looking at the PFRs, you see that the system works as it is designed, you see     a ready-made known answer.

Type 2. New solution. Having formulated the PFR, you see that this is a ready-made answer, still unknown.

Type 3. Physical delirium. PFR violates the laws of physics. For example, "AA battery itself provides 100 km of the car's mileage." A clear violation of the law of conservation of energy, or a proposal to make a perpetual motion machine.

Type 4. Reading the resulting PFR, you think that it would be good, but either you do not know how to do it, or you see some kind of obstacle preventing you from doing it.

It is the 4th group of solutions that will be the material for the next step.

The line between the 3rd and 4th types of solutions may be fuzzy. One can assume that the laws of physics are violated unambiguously, but one can still think about how to bypass the violated one using other laws.

For example, The task is to reduce the resistance to the movement of a vessel. We formulate the PFR: "The vessel itself, when moving, reduces its volume, providing a decrease in resistance to movement." Initially, it looks like an absurdity: how does this large vessel suddenly become small in the water? After all, this is a violation of Archimedes' law, the main law of hydrostatics. But by looking at other laws, we will see that it is possible to create lift using hydrodynamics - at the expense of the speed of the vessel. Thus, we get a speedboat or a hydrofoil.

Note that the PFRs with the X-element are not included in any group. The X-element is not yet known to us, so it cannot be a ready-made solution. For the same reason, we cannot say whether this X-element violates any physical laws or not.

The X-element is a portrait of a solution. The answer is formed either from the portrait, or, if it doesn't work out right away, we look at it through techniques.

What is the X-element for? First, in step 4, we left some of the resources behind the priority list. Secondly, we deliberately cannot add ALL supersystem resources to the list. Accordingly, by composing a portrait of the X-element, we have a chance to find it either in the remaining low-priority resources or in the supersystem to find a resource that is not on our list.

X-element refers to functions. In the form of asking the question: "How to do it?"

Third, this X-element maybe something new to buy or to design and manufacture.

As a result of working in this step, you get:

1. New turnkey solutions.

2. A group of As a result of working in this step, you get:

1. New turnkey solutions.

2. A group of PFRs of the 4th type, which will be the source for work in the next step.

3. Solutions with X-element. In this case, we are talking about a specific object that we found from the compiled portrait of the X-element.

Step 6. Recommendations and comments.

The purpose of this step is to clarify the essence of a physical contradiction and select the principle of its resolution.

The material for working on this step is the list of PFRs for type 4 obtained in the previous step.

The adversary can enter the PFR, either obstacles to its implementation, or there is no solution for its implementation.

Using this list, you will formulate contradictions.

A contradiction is two opposite requirements for an element of a system. For example, the element must be hot to heat up and must not be hot so as not to burn. Or it should be large for A and should be small for B. The tube should not have thermal deformation so as not to collapse, but it does because there is a temperature difference. These are contradictions.

Your task is to find such a state or property or parameter of an element, upon the appearance of which the problem disappears. This will be the first part of the controversy.

In the second part, you indicate either the existing anti-state or the reason why the desired state is not achieved.

If there is no such contradiction, but there is simply an ambiguity of exactly how to achieve the desired result, then such PFRs are not reformulated into contradictions, but the problem is formulated: "How to get the desired result?"

The result of this step will be a list of contradictions that you identified and an additional list of tasks "How to get the desired result?"

This is an additional bonus lecture to clarify how to use another powerful TRIZ tool to resolve technical contradictions.

STEP 7. Recommendations and comments

The technique is a model for changing the problem object. Applying the technique, you try on a model of object changes to find a specific decision.

Even though the notion of "Techniques for resolving technical contradictions" indicates the main purpose of these techniques, they can be used for the functions of the system: to improve useful functions or to eliminate/reduce harmfully.

Here some examples of using techniques from the list of 40s

This lecture shows how to make analysis of received solutions

a. Divide the object into independent parts

b. Execute the object collapsible

c. Increase the degree of the object segmentation.

Separate from the object "interfering" part (interfering "property) or vice versa, to select the only necessary part or the desired property.

In contrast to the previous method, which dealt with the division of an object into single parts, it is proposed to divide the object into different parts

а. go from the homogeneous structure of the object or the external environment (external influence) to the heterogeneous.

b. different parts of the object must perform various functions

с. in each part of the object should be in the most favorable conditions for its operation.

а. Go from the symmetric form of the object to the asymmetric.

b. If the object is already asymmetric, increase the degree of asymmetry.

a. Connect homogeneous or intended for adjacent operations objects.

b. Combine in time homogeneous or adjacent operations.

The object performs several different functions, which eliminates the need for other objects.

а. One object is located inside the other, which, in turn, is inside the third, etc.

b. One object passes through the cavity in another object.

a. compensate the weight of the object by connecting with another object with a lifting force.

b. Compensate the weight of the object by interacting with the medium (mainly due to the aerodynamic and hydrodynamic forces).

If the conditions of the problem need to perform some kind of action, it is necessary to perform an anti- action beforehand.

а. Execute the required action in advance (completely or at least partially).

b. Pre-arrange the objects so that they can enter into action without spending time on delivery and with the most convenient location.

Compensate for the relatively low reliability of the facility in advance prepared by emergency means.

Change the working conditions so that you do not have to raise or lower the object.

a. Instead of the action dictated by the conditions of the problem, reverse action.

b. Make the moving part of the object or the external environment fixed, and the stationary one - the moving.

c. Flip the object upside down, unscrew it.

a. Go from rectilinear parts to curvilinear, from flat surfaces to spherical ones from parts made in the form of a cube or parallelepiped, to spherical structures.

b. Use rollers balls, spirals.

c. Go from rectilinear to rotational motion, use centrifugal force.

а. The characteristics of the object (or environment) must change so as to be optimal at each stage of work.

b. Splinter the object into parts that can move relative to each other.

c. If the object in the chain is stationary, make it movable, moving.

If 100 percent of an object is hard to achieve using a given solution method then, by using ‘slightly less’ or ‘slightly more’ of the same method, the problem may be considerably easier to solve.

a. Difficulties associated with the movement (or placement) of an object along a line are eliminated if the object acquires the ability to move in two dimensions (on a plane). Accordingly, the tasks associated with the motion (or placement) of objects in the same plane are eliminated when moving to the space of three dimensions.

b. Use a multi-storey layout of objects instead of a single-story layout in the Tilt object or put it "sideways".

c. Use the back of this area.

d. Use optical streams that fall on an adjacent area or on the back of an available area

Receipt 17a can be combined with methods 7 and 15b. A chain is obtained that characterizes the general trend of the development of technical systems from point to line, then to the plane, then to the volume, and finally to the reconciliation of many volumes.

а. Move the object into oscillatory motion.

b. If such movement is already taking place, increase its frequency (up to ultrasonic).

в Use the resonant frequency.

c. Instead of mechanical vibrators, piezo vibrators.

d. Use ultrasonic vibrations in combination with electromagnetic fields.

а Go from continuous to periodic (impulse).

b. If the action is already carried out periodically, change the frequency.

c. Use pauses between pulses for another action.

а. To conduct work continuously (all parts of the facility must always work at full load).

b. Eliminate idle and intermittent actions or work.

Perform harmful and hazardous operations at a very high speed.

a. Utilize harmful factors — especially environmental — to obtain a positive effect.

b. Remove one harmful factor by combining it with another harmful factor.

c. Increase the degree of harmful action to such an extent that it ceases to be harmful.

а. Enter feedback.

b. If there is feedback, change it.

а Use an intermediate object that carries or transfers an action.

б For a while, attach another (easily removable) object to the object.

a. An object must service itself and carry out supplementary and repair operations.

b. Make use of waste material and energy.

a. Instead of an inaccessible, complex, costly, inconvenient or fragile object to use its simplified and cheap copies

b. Replace an object or system of objects with their optical copies(images) Use this to change the scale (increase or decrease the copy).

c. If you use visible optical copies, go to copies of infrared or ultraviolet.

Replace an expensive object with a set of cheap objects with some quality (for example, longevity)

a. Replace a mechanical system with an optical, acoustical, thermal or olfactory system.

b. Use an electric, magnetic or electromagnetic field to interact with an object.

c. Replace fields that are:

    1. Stationary with mobile.

    2. Fixed with changing in time.

    3. Random with structured.

d. Use fields in conjunction with ferromagnetic

Replace solid parts of an object with a gas or liquid. These parts can now use air or water for inflation, or use pneumatic or hydrostatic cushions.

а Instead of the usual structures, use flexible shells and thin films.

б Isolate the object from the external environment with the help of flexible shells and thin films.

а. Execute the object porous or use additional porous elements (inserts, covers, etc.)

b. If the object has already been made porous, pre-fill the pores with some substance.

а Change the color of the object or the external environment.

b Change the degree of transparency of the object or the external environment. To monitor poorly visible objects or processes, use color additives. If such additives are already in use, use luminophore.

Objects interacting with this object must be made of the same material (or similar in properties).

а. Completed or an unnecessary part of the object should be discarded (dissolved, evaporated, etc.) or modified directly during operation.

b. The consumable parts of the object must be restored directly during operation.

1. A. Change an object’s physical state (e.g. to a gas, liquid, or solid.

   • Freeze the liquid centers of filled candies, then dip in melted chocolate, instead of handling the messy, gooey, hot liquid.

   • Transport oxygen or nitrogen or petroleum gas as a liquid, instead of a gas, to reduce volume.

2. Change the concentration or consistency.

   • Liquid hand soap is concentrated and more viscous than bar soap at the point of use, making it easier to dispense in the correct amount and more sanitary when shared by several people.

3. Change the degree of flexibility.

   • Use adjustable dampers to reduce the noise of parts falling into a container by restricting the motion of the walls of the container.

   • Vulcanize rubber to change its flexibility and durability.

4. Change the temperature.

   • Raise the temperature above the Curie point to change a ferromagnetic substance to a paramagnetic substance.

   • Raise the temperature of food to cook it. (Changes taste, aroma, texture, chemical properties, etc.)

   • Lower the temperature of medical specimens to preserve them for later analysis.

Use the phenomena that occur during phase transitions, for example, volume change, heat generation or absorption, etc.

а. Use thermal expansion (or compression) of materials.

b. Use several materials with different coefficients of thermal expansion.

a. Replace conventional air with enriched,

b. Replace the enriched air with oxygen.

c. Exposure to air or oxygen by ionizing radiation

d. Use ozonized oxygen

e. Replace the ozonized (or ionized) oxygen with ozone.

a. Replace the usual environment with inert.

b. Lead the process in a vacuum.

This technique can be considered the antipode of the previous one.

Replace homogeneous materials with composite ones.