Creative Thinking

and ARIZ
heuristic program
CONNEK - Aug 2005
Long X. Nguyen

Outline

Introduction
What is Creative Thinking?
Trial-and-Error Method
Methods of Activating Creativity
TRIZ Theory
ARIZ heuristic program
A Case Study
Summary

Introduction

The aim of education should be to

teach us rather how to think, than
what to think. - James Beattie

Introduction
1st Wave
Hunter-gatherer =>
Agrarian society

2nd Wave
Industrial Society

3rd Wave
Post-industrial
Information Age

4th Wave?

Alvin Toffler

Introduction
4th Wave
Knowledge-Based Economy
Ideas engineering
Concept creators
What else?

Creative Thinking

Introduction
What is Creative Thinking?
Trial-and-Error Method
Methods of Activating Creativity
TRIZ theory
ARIZ heuristic program
A Case Study
Summary

Creative Thinking
Creativity = Newness + Usefulness
Problem: knows aim, but not know
Any way to reach it
The optimum way to reach it

Creative thinking
Innovation: implementation
If necessity is the mother of invention,
then resourcefulness is the father
- Beulah Louise Henry (U.S. inventor)

Creative Thinking
"PHNG PHP LUN SNG TO"
(Creativity Methodologies) l b mn
khoa hc c mc ch xy dng v
trang b cho mi ngi h thng cc
phng php, cc k nng thc hnh
tin tin v suy ngh gii quyt vn
v ra quyt nh mt cch sng to,
v lu di, tin ti iu khin c t
duy. - Phan Du~ng

Trial-and-Error

Introduction
What is Creative Thinking?
Trial-and-Error Method
Methods of Activating Creativity
TRIZ theory
ARIZ heuristic program
A Case Study
Summary

Trial-and-Error Method
Search concepts
=> search solutions randomly
What if we do like this?
Edisons workshop: 1000 men
9000 experiments => a bulb

Genius is one per cent inspiration and

ninety-nine per cent perspiration
Thomas Alva Edison (1847 - 1931) U.S. inventor.

Trial-and-Error Method

Trial-and-Error Method
Disadvantages

Wastes: time, energy, materials

# ideas: few
psychological inertia: block inventor
Right solution can reside beyound the trials
variants
Criteria for right or wrong variants are
subjective
No mechanism to direct the solvers
thinking towards the solutions

Activating Creativity

Introduction
What is Creative Thinking?
Trial-and-Error Method
Methods of Activating Creativity
TRIZ theory
ARIZ heuristic program
A Case Study
Summary

Methods of Activating
Creative Thinking

Brainstorming (Alex F. Osborn, US)

Check-listing
Morphological analysis (F. Zvikki)
Synectics (William Gordon)
Lateral thinking (Dr. de Bono, UK)
Neuro-Linguistic Programming

Methods of Activating

Methods of Activating

Lots of ideas
Productivity of idea generation
Simplicity and accessibility
Apt for the kind of problems having
a great number of possible trials

BUT they are not good enough

TRIZ

Introduction
What is Creative Thinking?
Trial-and-Error Method
Methods of Activating Creativity
TRIZ theory
ARIZ heuristic program
A Case Study
Summary

TRIZ
A heuristic program is
necessary for effective
solutions to the
requirements of
inventing at a higher
level that replaces the
continuously new
selection of variants with
a goal-oriented
movement into the area
of the solution

Genrich Altshuller
1926-1998

What is TRIZ?
TRIZ = Russian acronym for
Theory of Inventive Problem Solving

Through Knowledge, not Numbers

Scientific organization of the creative
process

1. Develop the theory

2. Develop a heuristic program based on
that theory

Levels of Creativity
Level 1: Utilization of one existing object
without consideration of other objects.
Level 2: Choosing one object out of several.
Level 3: Making partial changes to the
selected object.
Level 4: Development of a new object.
Level 5: Development of a completely new
complex of systems.

Levels of Creativity
% Inventions 1965-1969

19%
45%

4%
0.30%

32%
1

Levels
1
2
3
4
5

# Trial-Error
1-10
10-100
100-1,000
1,000-10,000
100,000

Levels of Creativity
1st Level
# elements is small
No unknown
elements
Simple analysis
Short time =>
solution

4th Level
# elements: large
# unknown
element: large
Difficult to analysis
Long time =>
solution

TRIZ Theory

IDEAL MACHINE
CONTRADICTION
RESOURCES
ANALOGIES

Directing Mechanism

Trial-Error: no directing mechanism

How? = The Ideal Machine

The Ideal Machine

Problem Formulation
Create a technical system for
whatever purpose
Improve such and such a system to
get such and such a result

Statement = Goal + Means

Goal: what must be achieved
Means: what must be done

Means = utilizing known means

The Ideal Machine

Separate: What > < How
Look at identical problems in other
areas
Consider Evolutionary Tendencies
Dimensions of systems: size, scale

Lines of development => converge

=> The Ideal Machine =>
illuminate the DIRECTION

Technical Contradictions
What make things difficult?
Tradeoffs
The essence of creativity
Find a way where compromise will
not be needed
Gain without loss
Remove technical contradictions.

40 Principles
An invention is the removal of
technical contradictions. BUT HOW?

G. Altshuller developed 40
principles for solving technical
contradictions

Summary of TRIZ
Scientific organization of the
creative process
The Ideal Machine => direction to
search
Technical Contradictions => the
obstacles that must be removed
40 principles => remove
contradictions

Outline

Introduction
What is Creative Thinking?
Trial-and-Error Method
Methods of Activating Creativity
TRIZ Theory
ARIZ heuristic program
A Case Study
Summary

ARIZ Heuristic program

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Choosing the Problem

Define the Problem more Precisely
Analytical stage
Analysis of the Arrived-at Concepts
Operative stage
Synthetic stage

1. Choose Problem
1. Determine the FINAL GOAL of a solution
2. Investigate a BYPASS APPROACH
3. Determine WHICH problem makes the
most sense to solve.
4. Determine the required QUANTITATIVE
characteristics.
5. Introduce TIME-CORRECTION into the
Qualitative Characteristics.
6. Define the requirements for the
SPECIFIC CONDITIONS in which the
invention is going to function.

2. Redefine Problem
1. Utilizing PATENT information.
2. Use operator (SIZE, TIME, COST)
3. Describe the CONDITIONS of the
problem in two phrases: (1) Types of
elements, and (2) Elements
4. Enter the above ELEMENTS into a
table.
5. Choose the easiest element from
the table to CHANGE, REDESIGN
or TURN.

3. Analytical Stage
1. Formulate the IDEAL FINAL RESULT.
2. Draw two pictures
(1) INITIAL, and (2) IDEAL
3. Highlight which part CANNOT perform the
required FUNCTION under the required conditions.
4. Why can this element NOT perform the required
action?
5. Under what CONDITIONS can this part provide the
required action?
6. What must be done so that this element attains the
characteristic described in Step 3.5?
7. Formulate a concept that can be practically realized.
8. Provide a schematic for realizing the first concept.

4. Arrived-at Concept
1. What is getting better, and what is
getting worse, during the utilization of
the NEW idea or concept?
2. Is it possible to PREVENT that which is
getting worse by changing the proposed
device or method?
3. What is getting WORSE (complicated,
expensive) now?
4. Compare GAINS and LOSSES
5. Go ahead or go back?

5. Operative stage
Find the principles for removing
the technical contradiction
Investigate how these principles
can be used

6. Synthesis stage
1. Determine how the SUPERSYSTEM to which our modified
system belongs must be changed.
2. Explore HOW our modified system
may be used DIFFERENTLY.
3. Utilize the NEWLY FOUND
technical idea to solve other
technical problems.

Outline

Introduction
What is Creative Thinking?
Trial-and-Error Method
Methods of Activating Creativity
TRIZ Theory
ARIZ heuristic program
A Case Study
Summary

Case Study: Icebreaker

Icebreaker
How to make it moving through ice
easily?
Icebreaker evolution: increase
engine power
Explosives, or vibrations, provides
no significant positive effects
Ice thick => 3 meters

1. Choose Problems
Final Goal: increase speed of
icebreaker and ships, reduce cost
Bypass approach
Icebreaker: make a channel through ice
Bypass: How to move through ice without a
channel?

Should this be done by the ice

breaker, or performed independently
of it? => bypass solution

2. Redefine Problem
Patent: breaking ice up from
underneath
Operator (Size, Time, Cost)
Size: Width of ships => 0, => 100m

Elements
Ship: can be changed
Ice: hard , but many patents

3. Analytical stage
Ideal Result: the ship, by it-self, moves
through the ice at high speed with a
normal consumption of energy

Which part cannot perform: the front

Why not? Press again the ice
Under what conditions? Width => 0
This part becomes flat.

Smaller strip of ice

4. Chosen concept
Knife-thin walls: 20-25 times
less than the usual width
No shortcoming
Gains vs. Losses
Break as little ice as possible

5. Operative Stage
Increase speed = increase power
of the engine
No contradiction

6. Synthetic stage
Super-systems
No need for an icebreaker

Might utilize other methods of ice

breaking instate of blades.
Might utilize this idea for earth
excavation work.

Final result

Summary
TRIZ = The Ideal Machine + Technical
Contradictions + 40 principles
Creativity = Newness + Usefulness
An inventor is not just someone who comes
up with ideas. Most people have ideas.
The difference between the average
person and the inventor is that the
inventor for some reason has the urge to
see his ideas through to fruition.
Clive Sinclair (1940 - )British inventor and entrepreneur.

References

TRIZ journals, www.triz-journal.com

Isak Bukhman and Stephen Brown, "The TRIZ give way
to the wind, and give the wind away: a repeatable
process for improving sustainable wind energy
generation", TRIZ journal, April 2005. (http://www.trizjournal.com/archives/2005/06/04.pdf)