How to use TRIZ's ideas and methods to carry out product innovation?

Editor's lead: when developing and designing products, we need to find our own position in the market, understand the needs of users and reduce the cost of development and design. Among them, products need to find contradictions when developing and designing. The author of this paper summarizes how to solve the product development problem by using the project TRIZ contradiction definition method. Let's have a look.

I. Introduction

In the process of new product development and design, the main problems to be solved are as follows:

Confirm the real needs of customers, be accepted by the market, and increase sales.

It is necessary to introduce new products to the market faster than other competitors.

Reduce the problems caused by development and design time, reduce design changes and customer market complaints, thus avoiding the extension of development cycle and the increase of development cost.

Use (invent problem solving theory; TRIZ (Russian abbreviation) derives innovative ideas from 40 invention principles, material field analysis methods, 76 standard solutions, scientific effect knowledge base, evolution rules of technical systems and other related tools, thus generating patents and unique and realizable concepts to solve technical problems in development and design, which have been widely used in many industries and companies in China and proved to be feasible.

Second, how to apply the principle of 40 inventions?

When solving the problems in the actual R&D project, how to choose the principles corresponding to the problems from 40 invention principles and generate ideas is the first test that students must face.

Below I will put forward four common practices:

(1) In the face of vague problems, problems with inconspicuous contradictions or in the initial stage of problem analysis, the "browsing method" is often used to select the invention principle.

② Technical contradiction can be described by 39 general engineering parameters, 48 engineering parameters of TRIZ new version contradiction matrix TRIZ 2003 and 24 engineering parameters of software, which can be transformed into standard conflict of TRIZ. Then find the corresponding invention principle in the contradiction matrix to solve, and the invention principle is the standard solution of the problem.

(3) In 2003, the new version of the contradiction matrix table separately listed the invention principles for solving physical contradictions, and a "guide table for solving invention problems" can be made, which can more efficiently and orderly solve the physical contradictions caused by the system's opposite requirements for the same parameter, as shown in the table.

(4) For physical contradictions, the separation principle can also be directly used to solve them, and the separation principle and the invention principle are often combined to solve them. The relationship between the separation principle and the invention principle is shown in the table.

Third, how to define contradiction?

Therefore, how to find the core contradiction in the problem model is very critical. Common methods include system function model analysis, material field model analysis and causal analysis, and can also be combined with other innovative methods, such as QFD, AD, TOC and other theories, as shown in the figure.

1.QFD

Key points of correlation matrix analysis:

If a design requirement is positively related to many other design requirements, there is no negative correlation-it means that this design requirement has great potential efficiency and can be given priority.

There is a negative correlation-one function cannot be optimized to make another function worse, so we should pay special attention to the design requirements when considering the design.

Negative correlation means further research and adjustment-TRIZ technical contradiction! This is an important reason why R&D projects often lead to delays, budget increases and low customer satisfaction.

Image source: https://www.cyut.edu.tw/~lschen/om/om5.pdf

2. Causal analysis

Case discussion: In order to prevent the ultra-high-speed fan impeller from bursting to produce fragments, the system consists of the following components: fan, fan cover (used to control the airflow direction) and armored steel plate retaining ring.

The urgent problem is that the protective ring is too heavy, so the weight must be reduced by 50%. The guard ring must prevent the debris from splashing, so the guard ring is thick and heavy.

The reason why the impeller bursts is as follows: The rotation of the fan will "pull" the centrifugal force of the impeller parts. Material defects and fatigue will destroy the strength of impeller materials. Therefore, the impeller may burst, causing the impeller fragments to fly away. Due to the fast running speed of the fan, the flying debris has high energy, which may hurt people and other parts of the plane.

Image source: IWB software

In this case, there are the following four contradictions (three technical contradictions and one physical contradiction):

If the plane needs to speed up the flight; The faster the propeller fan needs to rotate, the easier it is to produce tiny fragments (deterioration) of the fan blades.

If the plane needs to speed up the flight; The faster the propeller fan needs to rotate, the easier it is for the blades to deform (deteriorate) outward.

The stronger the metal outer ring is, the thicker it is; The less the aircraft is threatened by tiny fragments of fan blades and propellers, the less easy it is to maintain and test (deteriorate).

It is hoped that the metal outer ring will be stronger and thicker in flight, but lighter in maintenance test.

3. Functional model analysis

Case discussion: the noise problem of vacuum cleaner is improved by improving the air duct and fan blade system, and the problem model is established by using the problem formulation mode (called chart in IWB software). The graph consists of two important elements: function and link.

These functions are divided into two categories, represented by the colors and shapes on the box:

Useful functions: presenting with green box and right angle;

Harmful function: red box with rounded corners.

The source of the contradiction will appear in the yellow box.

Relevant results are useful: the arrow is green, and the relevant results are harmful: the arrow is red.

According to the analysis results of innovation direction, three colors will be produced for you to choose from:

Red: means to eliminate harmful functions;

Green: indicates that useful functions need to be improved;

Yellow: stands for physical contradiction;

Yellow is connected with red and green at the same time: it stands for technical contradiction.

In this way, the problem can be clearly expressed, the contradiction can be clearly defined, and it is more convenient to use the contradiction matrix to find the corresponding invention principle to solve it. Functional model construction analysis is an important problem description and analysis tool in TRIZ theory, which is used to establish functional models related to existing system or new technology system problems.

Four. conclusion

Only the correct question can have the correct answer, the accurate analysis of the question can clearly correspond to the corresponding contradictory parameters, and the found invention principles can be closer to the real answer of the question, that is, the application of these principles can make the solution of the problem converge to the right direction quickly, and then combined with professional knowledge and field experience, the truly grounded technical scheme can be obtained.

Author: Zheng Daxing; Editor: illa

This article was originally published by @ Fasino Innovation. Everyone is a product manager. Reprinting is prohibited without permission.

The title map comes from Unsplash and is based on CC0.