| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
Is it possible to learn to be an inventor? Russian engineer and scientist Genrich S. Altshuller believed that it is -and to prove it, he developed TRIZ, a theory and practice of the art and science of invention. His results are being applied to solve creative invention problems in all branches of engineering and even in non-technical fields.
G. S. Altshuller began to develop TRIZ methodology while working in USSR patent office at the time of Stalin. He and his colleagues analyzed in detail over 200,000 patents in order to find out in what way the innovation had taken place. Incarcerated under political charges, he continued his work in TRIZ while in Gulag. He eventually developed 40 Principles of Invention, several Laws of the Evolution of Technical Systems, the concepts of Technical and Physical Contradictions that creative inventions resolve, the concept of Ideality of a system and numerous other theoretical and practical approaches; together, this extensive work represents a unique contribution to the development of creativity and inventive problem-solving.
A problem, says Edward de Bono, is simply "the difference between what we have and what we want". Altshuller believed that problems stem from Contradictions (one of the basic TRIZ concepts) or tradeoffs between two or more elements, such as "If we want more acceleration, we need a larger engine -but that will increase the cost of the car". That is, more of something desirable also brings more of something else undesirable, or less of something else also desirable. These are called Technical Contradictions by Altshuller. He also defined so-called Physical or inherent contradictions: we may need at the same time more and less of something. For instance, we may need higher temperature in order to melt a compound more rapidly, but less temperature in order to achieve a homogeneous mixture.
An inventive situation might involve several such contradictions. The inventor typically does not resolve a contradiction by stepping in the middle of the tradeoff -for that, no special inventivity is needed. Rather, he develops some creative approach for dissolving the contradiction: for instance, he would invent an engine that does produce more acceleration without increasing the cost of the engine.
Genrich S. Altshuller screened patents in order to find out what kind of contradictions were resolved or dissolved by the invention and the way this had been achieved. From this, he developed a set of 40 inventive principles and later a Matrix of Contradictions. Rows of the matrix indicate the 39 features that one typically wants to improve, such as speed, weight, accuracy of measurement and so on. Columns refer to typical undesired results. Each matrix cell points to principles that have been most frequently used in patents in order to resolve the contradiction.
For instance, Dolgashev (see its "Table of Contradictions" java script) mentions the following contradiction: to increase accuracy of measurement of machined balls without incurring in expensive microscopes and control equipment. The matrix cell in row "accuracy of measurement" and column "complexity of control" points to several principles, among them the Copying Principle, which states "Use a simple and inexpensive / optical / copy (with a suitable scale) instead of an object which is complex, expensive, fragile or inconvenient to operate". From this general invention principle, the following idea might solve the problem: take a high-resolution image of the machined ball. A screen with a grid might provide the required measurement.