Refine
Year of publication
Document Type
- Conference Proceeding (23)
- Part of a Book (5)
- Article (reviewed) (4)
- Article (unreviewed) (4)
- Book (1)
- Other (1)
- Working Paper (1)
Conference Type
- Konferenzartikel (23)
Is part of the Bibliography
- yes (39)
Keywords
- TRIZ (9)
- Innovation (5)
- Kreativität (3)
- TRIZ Inventive Principles (3)
- TRIZ methodology (3)
- eco-innovation (3)
- Eco-Innovation (2)
- Ecodesign (2)
- Engineering Creativity (2)
- Engineering creativity (2)
Institute
- Fakultät Maschinenbau und Verfahrenstechnik (M+V) (39) (remove)
Open Access
- Open Access (22)
- Closed Access (12)
- Closed (4)
- Diamond (2)
- Bronze (1)
The paper is addressing the needs of the universities regarding qualification of students as future R&D specialists in efficient techniques for successfully running innovation process. It briefly describes the program of a novel one-semester-course of 150 hours in new product development and inventive problem solving with TRIZ methodology, offered for the master students at the Beuth University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. The paper outlines multi-source educational approach, which includes a new product development project (about 50% of the complete course), theory, practical work, self-learning with the software tools for computer-aided innovation, and demonstrates examples of the students work. The research part analyses the learning experience, identifies the factors that impact the innovation and problem solving performance of the students, and underlines the main difficulties faced by the students in the course. It describes a method for measurement of education efficiency and compares the results with educational experience in the industry. The presented results can help universities to establish the education in new product development or to improve its performance.
Using patent information for identification of new product features with high market potential
(2014)
The process of establishing an industry standard for TRIZ has been initiated: VDI Guideline 4521 will cover TRIZ. Work is going on on the first part of the standard which will define and explain basic TRIZ vocabulary and notions. A first draft of a list of terms has been compiled by V. Souchkov and is currently being discussed at MATRIZ. The standardization committee consists of TRIZ specialists of various degrees together with TRIZ users from industry. It is working in close connection with MATRIZ. In parallel, translations for the elements of TRIZ terminology into several languages are being sought. According to schedule, work on the first part of the standard may be finished by July 2014 and may go into print by the end of the year.
Systemic Constellations are a phenomenological approach to resolving personal, professional and organizational issues. They offer a way of mapping a present reality, working at the source of the hidden dynamics and moving to a resolution. This systemic approach often delivers surprising and unexpected insights while also offering the possibility to analyze and solve organizational problems. Rational analysis provides the whole picture of the problem which often turns out to be too complex for a decision making. Systemic constellations can help to simplify and clarify the situation and inform what has to happen next [8], [17]. The outcomes of systemic constellations as an additional resource for solving comprehensive technical problems have not yet been sufficiently investigated. In structural constellation work dealing with technical problems, the individuals who are involved in the problem situation are used to represent different system components, substances or fields. A moderator voices the feedback from the representatives concerning their feelings or intuitive movements, and points to possible solutions. For example, a moderator places the representatives somewhere in the room, develops a three-dimensional picture of the constellation of the analyzed situation and tries to expose the factors empowering or blocking the way towards constructive solutions [13]. This paper explores the theoretical background and practical outcomes of the systemic constellation method for technical problem solving. It presents some case study work which has been conducted in recent years, and then discusses its findings and implications. The research outlined in this paper demonstrates that the noteworthy contribution of structural constellation work for problem solving is typically the result of a combination of functional analysis and the feeling-as-information principle. The constellation work helps, at first, to reveal the subjective experiences, such as feelings, moods, emotions, and bodily sensations, and then to accept them as a source of objective information relevant to the decision making process. In accordance with the latest research [19], the use of feelings as a source of information follows the same principles as the use of any other information. This paper provides the structures of some standard templates and types of constellation work for technical problems, and discusses the preconditions for their application.
VDI Standard 4521: Status
(2016)
VDI Guideline 4521 Part 1: “Inventive problem solving with TRIZ: Part 1 – Fundamentals and definitions” has been published on 2015-04-01. The standard will sharpen the image of TRIZ, facilitate cooperation, and support studying and teaching. It is not a textbook but concisely summarizes basic assumptions of TRIZ and its terminology. It gives an overview on specific methods and tools which will be described in the following parts.
This paper presents the results of the idea generation experiment that repeats the study originally conducted at RMIT. In order to establish the influence that the experimental treatments make on the number and the breadth of solution ideas proposed by problem solvers with different knowledge levels, students from different years of study were recruited. Ninety students from the Offenburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany were divided into three groups. All students were asked to generate ideas on cleaning lime deposits from the inside of a water pipe and were given 16 minutes to record their individual ideas. Students of two experimental groups were shown some words for two minuted each. The Su-Field group was exposed to the eight fields of MATCEMIB. The Random Word group was shown eight random words every two minutes. The Su-Field group outperformed both the Control group and the Random Word group in the number of ideas generated. It was also found that the students from the Su-Field group proposed significantly broader solutions than the students from the Control and Random Word groups. The overall results of the experiment support the conclusions made by the RMIT researchers that simple ideation techniques can significantly improve idea generation and that the systematised Substance-Field Analysis is a suitable heuristic for engineering students.
The effective executing innovation projects requires multiple estimation of market success of new product features in the early stages of customer-centered innovation process such as strategy formulation, evaluation of ideas and concepts and also at a stage close to the market launch. The attempts to integrate customers for estimation of the market success often result in time-consuming customer interviews or lengthy field research. For this reason, industrial companies usually try to skip customer surveys even if they risk that their innovations will fail to bring the anticipated economic outcomes. In many practical cases, the customer surveys are simply not feasible or too expensive. As a result, the internal assessments within companies are frequently the only resource available in innovation process in the industrial environment. The paper discusses the possibilities of the fast identification of promising innovation opportunities and new product features based on the internal competences of companies. It compares the results of customer surveys with the estimation of internal company-experts and analyses the accuracy and validity of the expert assessments. The presented case studies demonstrate the accuracy rate between 43% and 77% for prediction of new product features with high market potential by company-internal experts. The paper proposes the evaluation methods to increase the accuracy rate and outlines that one of the essential requirements for reliable forecasting by the experts is their profound understanding of the customer working process, the ability to estimate the importance of customer needs and to assess the level of customer satisfaction with current products on the market.
The paper is addressing the needs of the universities regarding qualification of students as future R&D specialists in efficient techniques for successfully running innovation process. In comparison with the engineers, the students often demonstrate lower motivation in learning systematic inventive techniques, like for example TRIZ methodology, and prefer random brainstorming for idea generation. The quality of obtained solutions also depends on the level of completeness of the problem analysis, which is more complex and time consuming in the case of interdisciplinary systems. The paper briefly describes one-semester-course of 60 hours in new product development with the Advanced Innovation Design Approach and TRIZ methodology, in which a typical industrial innovation process for one selected interdisciplinary mechatronic product is modelled.
Process engineering focuses on the design, operation, control and optimization of chemical, physical and biological processes and has applications in many industries. Process Intensification is the key development approach in the modern process engineering. The proposed Advanced Innovation Design Approach (AIDA) combines the holistic innovation process with the systematic analytical and problem solving tools of the theory of inventive problem solving TRIZ. The present paper conceptualizes the AIDA application in the field of process engineering and especially in combination with the Process Intensification. It defines the AIDA innovation algorithm for process engineering and describes process mapping, problem ranking, and concept design techniques. The approach has been validated in several industrial case studies. The presented research work is a part of the European project “Intensified by Design® platform for the intensification of processes involving solids handling”.
The Advanced Innovation Design Approach is a holistic methodology for enhancing innovative and competitive capability of industrial companies. AIDA can be considered as an open mindset, an individually adaptable range of strongest innovation techniques such as comprehensive front-end innovation process, advanced innovation methods, best tools and methods of the TRIZ methodology, organizational measures for accelerating innovation, IT-solutions for Computer-Aided Innovation, and other innovation methods, elaborated in the recent decade in the industry and academia
Erfinderisches Problemlösen mit TRIZ : Zielbeschreibung, Problemdefinition und Lösungspriorisierung
(2017)
Die Theorie des erfinderischen Problemlösens, TRIZ, ist eine Systematik von Annahmen, Regeln, Methoden und Werkzeugen zur innovativen Systemverbesserung z.B. von Produkten, Prozessen, Dienstleistungen oder Organisationen. Diese Richtlinie erläutert TRIZ-Werkzeuge und -Methoden, die insbesondere in den Phasen "Zielbeschreibung", "Problemdefinition" und "Lösungspriorisierung" des Problemlösungsprozesses eingesetzt werden. Die Detailtiefe der Beschreibung erlaubt eine Einschätzung der Werkzeuge und Methoden hinsichtlich Einsatzzwecken, Ergebnissen und Funktionsweise. Die jeweilige Beschreibung der Methoden und Werkzeuge enthält konkrete Aussagen über Zielsetzung und Ergebnis ihres Einsatzes.
The European TRIZ Association ETRIA acts as a connecting link between scientific institutions, universities and other educational organizations, industrial companies and individuals concerned with conceptual and practical questions relating to organization of innovation process, invention methods, and innovation knowledge. In the meantime, more than TFC 1000 papers or presentation of scientists, educators, and practitioners from all over the world are available at the official ETRIA website. Numerous research projects were supported or funded by the European Commission.
CONTEXT
The paper addresses the needs of medium and small businesses regarding qualification of R&D specialists in the interdisciplinary cross-industry innovation, which promises a considerable reduction of investments and R&D expenditures. The cross-industry innovation is commonly understood as identification of analogies and transfer of technologies, processes, technical solutions, working principles or business models between industrial sectors. However, engineering graduates and specialists frequently lack the advanced skills and knowledge required to run interdisciplinary innovation across the industry boundaries.
PURPOSE
The study compares the efficiency of the cross-industry innovation methods in one semester project-oriented course. It identifies the individual challenges and preferred working techniques of the students with different prior knowledge, sets of experiences, and cultural contexts, which require attention by engineering educators.
APPROACH
Two parallel one-semester courses were offered to the mechanical and process engineering students enrolled in bachelor’s and master’s degree programs at the faculty of mechanical and process engineering. The students from different years of study were working in 12 teams of 3…6 persons each on different innovation projects, spending two hours a week in the classroom and additionally on average two hours weekly on their project research. Students' feedback and self-assessments concerning gained skills, efficiency of learned tools and intermediate findings were documented, analysed, and discussed regularly along the course.
RESULTS
Analysis of numerous student projects allows to compare and to select the tools most appropriate for finding cross-industry solutions, such as thinking in analogies, web monitoring, function-oriented search, databases of technological effects and processes, special creativity techniques and others. The utilization of learned skills in practical innovation work strengthens the motivation of students and enhances their entrepreneurial competences. Suggested learning course and given recommendations help facilitate sustainable education of ambitious specialists.
CONCLUSIONS
The structured cross-industry innovation can be successfully run as a systematic process and learned in one semester course. The choice of the preferred working teqniques made by the students is affected by their prior knowledge in science, practical experience, and cultural contexts. Major outcomes of the students’ innovation projects such as feasibility, novelty and customer value of the concepts are primarily influenced by students’ engineering design skills, prior knowledge of the technologies, and industrial or business experience.
The comprehensive assessment method includes 80 innovation performance parameters and 10 key indicators of innovation capability, such as innovation process performance, innovating system performance, market and customer orientation, technology orientation, creativity, leadership, communication and knowledge management, risk and cost management, innovative climate, and innovation competences. The cross-industry study identifies parameters critical for innovation success and reveals different innovation performance patterns in companies.
Accelerated transformation of the society and industry through digi-talization, artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies has intensified the need for university graduates that are capable of rapidly finding breakthrough solutions to complex problems, and can successfully implement innovation con-cepts. However, there are only few universities making significant efforts to com-prehensively incorporate creative and systematic tools of TRIZ (theory of in-ventive problem solving) and KBI (knowledge-based innovation) into their de-gree structure. Engineering curricula offer little room for enhancing creativity and inventiveness by means of discipline‐specific subjects. Moreover, many ed-ucators mistakenly believe that students are either inherently creative, or will in-evitably obtain adequate problem-solving skills as a result of their university study. This paper discusses challenges of intelligent integration of TRIZ and KBI into university curricula. It advocates the need for development of standard guidelines and best-practice recommendations in order to facilitate sustainable education of ambitious, talented, and inventive specialists. Reflections of educa-tors that teach TRIZ and KBI to students from mechanical, electrical, process engineering, and business administration are presented.
Economic growth and ecological problems have pushed industries to switch to eco-friendly technologies. However, environmental impact is still often neglected since production efficiency remains the main concern. Patent analysis in the field of process engineering shows that, on the one hand, some eco-issues appear as secondary problems of the new technologies, and on the other hand, eco-friendly solutions often show lower efficiency or performance capability. The study categorizes typical environmental problems and eco-contradictions in the field of process engineering involving solids handling and identifies underlying inventive principles that have a higher value for environmental innovation. Finally, 42 eco-innovation methods adapting TRIZ are chronologically presented and discussed.
The modern TRIZ is today considered as the most organized and comprehensive methodology for knowledge-driven invention and innovation. When applying TRIZ for inventive problem solving, the quality of obtained solutions strongly depends on the level of completeness of the problem analysis and the abilities of designers to identify the main technical and physical contradictions in the inventive situation. These tasks are more complex and hence more time consuming in the case of interdisciplinary systems. Considering a mechatronic product as a system resulting from the integration of different technologies, the problem definition reveals two kinds of contradictions: 1) the mono-disciplinary contradictions within a homogenous sub-system, e.g., only mechanical or only electrical; 2) the interdisciplinary contradictions resulting from the interaction of the mechatronic sub-systems (mechanics, electrics, control and software). This paper presents a TRIZ-based approach for a fast and systematic problem definition and contradiction identification, which could be useful both for engineers and students facing mechatronic problems. It also proposes some useful problem formulation tech-niques such as the System Circle Diagram, the enhancement of System Operator with the Evolution Patterns, the extension of MATChEM-IB operator with Infor-mation field and Human Interactions, as well as the Cause-Effect-Matrix.
Process engineering (PE) focuses on the design, operation, control and optimization of chemical, physical and biological processes and has applications in many industries. Process intensification (PI) is the key development approach in the modern process engineering. The theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ) is today considered as the most comprehensive and systematically organized invention knowledge and creative thinking methodology. This paper analyses the opportunities of TRIZ application in PE and especially in combination with PI. In this context the paper outlines the major challenges for TRIZ application in PE, conceptualizes a possible TRIZ-based approach for process intensification and problem solving in PE, and defines the corresponding research agenda. It also presents the results of the original empirical innovation research in the field of solid handling in the ceramic industry, demonstrates a method for identification and prediction of contradictions and introduces the concept of the probability of contradiction occurrence. Additionally, it describes a technique of process mapping that is based on the function and multi-screen analysis of the processes. This technique is illustrated by a case study dealing with granulation process. The research work presented in this paper is a part of the European project “Intensified by Design® platform for the intensification of processes involving solids handling”.
The research work analyses the relationship of 155 Process Intensification (PI) technologies to the components of the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ). It outlines TRIZ inventive principles frequently used in PI, and identifies opportunities for enhancing systematic innovation in process engineering by applying complementary TRIZ and PI. The study also proposes 70 additional inventive TRIZ sub-principles for the problems frequently encountered in process engineering, resulting in the advanced set of 160 inventive operators, assigned to the 40 TRIZ inventive principles. Finally, we analyse and discuss inventive principles used in 150 patent documents published in the last decade in the field of solid handling in the ceramic and pharmaceutical industries.
Identification of Secondary Problems of New Technologies in Process Engineering by Patent Analysis
(2018)
The implementation of new technologies in production plants often causes negative side effects and drawbacks. In this context, the prediction of the secondary problems and risks can be used advantageously for selecting best solutions for intensification of the processes. The proposed method puts primary emphasis on systematic and fast anticipation of secondary problems using patent documents, and on extraction and prediction of possible engineering contradictions within novel technical systems. The approach comprises three ways to find secondary problems: (a) direct knowledge-based identification of secondary problems in new technologies or equipment; (b) identification of secondary problems of prototypes mentioned in patent citation trees; and (c) prediction of negative side effects using the correlation matrix for invention goals and secondary problems in a specific engineering domain.