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TRIZ Method of Problem Solving explained
TRIZ Method of Problem Solving: this article explains the TRIZ Method of Problem Solving , developed by Genrich Altshuller in a practical way. Next to what it is, this article also highlights the founder, the reason of it’s excistenc, and the five basic principles and the 40 principles including practical examples. After reading you will understand the basics of this powerful problem solving tool. Enjoy reading!
What is TRIZ Method of Problem Solving?
In the 1980s the Russian engineer Genrich Altshuller developed the TRIZ theory which is an acronym for Teorya Resheniya Izobreatatelskikh Zadatch . The literal translation is: “theory of inventive problem solving” .
The most important result of the research was, that the evolution of technological progress follows a number of predictable patterns. It is an innovative way of looking at problems and solutions.
TRIZ Method of Problem Solving is not a coincidence
As a patent examiner Altshuller refused to accept the fact that inventions and creativity were random or chance acts.
His goal was to develop a standard process for successful innovations. This is how he discovered that 98% of patented innovations were based on an already known principle. Only 2% of all patents were really new innovations.
The TRIZ Method is universally applicable!
TRIZ starts from a number of principles and processes of innovation that are universally applicable. Large multinationals such as Hewlett-Packard , Boeing and Samsung have used the TRIZ method to develop new products, optimize processes and gaining a better understanding of developments and trends in the market for decades.
TRIZ has become an umbrella that covers a host of inventive concepts, tools and processes that are often used to solve difficult problems.
The TRIZ Method of Problem Solving: the basic principles
To arrive at improvement, the TRIZ method uses 5 basic principles and 40 inventive principles. It forces us to look at problems differently.
1. The ideal end result
Thinking out of the box is a good principle to achieve an ideal end result. The TRIZ Method of Problem Solving encourages people not to be satisfied too quickly with the solutions to a problem, but to be always open to even better ideas.
2. Less is more
There is not always a need to invest a lot of money to arrive at the best idea. Innovation can be realized with existing materials and sometimes the solution is close at hand.
3. Solutions already exist
The TRIZ Method of Problem Solving helps people define problems in terms of frequently used and general principles, which enables searching for solutions outside their primary field of expertise.
4. Search for fundamental contradictions
Innovating equals problem solving, which mostly exist of contradictions. When these contradictions are defined, the solution is often imminent.
5. Lines of evolution
Systems do not evolve randomly. There are fixed patterns that make the evolution of technology predictable,
The TRIZ method 40 inventive principles
Genrich Altshuller arrived at 40 inventive principles to solve complex problems. According to the TRIZ Method of Problem Solving, each innovation can be traced back to the application of one or more of these principles.
To arrive at the right application of the 40 inventive principles, it is important to formulate the right contradiction very clearly with respect to what should be improved and what should not get worse.
After this, the problem solving process can be started up.
1. Segmentation
Segment the product into independent parts as a result of which a useful or damaging quality is isolated (shop in shop).
2. Extraction
Extract a disturbing part or property from an object and/or single out the only necessary part or property (sugar free biscuits).
3. Local quality
By changing the structure of products in a specific place, the desired product is created (cap on milk carton).
4. Asymmetry
Change the shape an object from symmetrical to asymmetrical (trendy kettle).
By merging functions, properties or parts of a product in space or time, a new or unique result is created (day cream with UV filters).
6. Universality
Make a product more uniform, universal, extensive and multi-functional (hair-dryer).
7. Nested doll
Place multiple objects inside others (paper insulated coffee cups).
8. Counterweight
Compensate the negative property of the product by combining it with another object that provides a lifting force (hovercraft).
9. Preliminary counteraction
Analyse beforehand what can go wrong and take preliminary counteraction (sun milk).
10. Preliminary Action
Place object before it is needed so that it can go into action immediately from the most convenient location for their delivery (Emla numbing cream).
11. Cushion in advance
Because nothing is perfectly reliable, prepare emergency measures in advance (metallic car coating – anti-contamination).
12. Equipotentiality
Eliminate tension in or around an object’s environment (cling film).
13. The other way round
Implement an opposite or reverse action (reversible clothing).
14. Spheroidality
Replace linear parts with spherical parts (round brush head for hoover).
15. Dynamics
Make a product or property temporarily flexible or flexible for a short while (possibility to buy a car with unique stripes).
16. Partial or excessive actions
Use a little more than necessary or use a little less of the same product (high active enzymes in laundry detergents).
17. Transition into another dimension
Change the orientation of a linear product from vertical to horizontal etc. Use a different dimension or multi-storey arrangement (layered cake).
18. Mechanical vibrations
Use vibrations to achieve a positive effect (massage cushion).
19. Periodic Action
Instead of continuous actions use periodical or pulsating actions (electric toothbrush).
20. Continuity
Carry on work continuously and eliminate all idle or intermittent actions (boarding pass such as e-tickets).
21. Rushing through
Conduct a process at high speed to prevent errors (DSL internet versus fibre optic internet).
22. Blessing in disguise
Use harmful factors to add value. (3M yellow post-its with low tack adhesive).
23. Feedback
Introduce feedback by using output as a means of input, output audits can be improved (telephone number of service desk on packaging).
24. Intermediary
Merge one object temporarily with another (oven bag for cooking chicken).
25. Self-service
Make an object serve itself by performing auxiliary helpful functions (self-checkout at supermarkets).
26. Copying
Instead of a valuable or fragile object, use inexpensive copies (zirconia jewellery).
27. Cheap objects
Use inexpensive and/or disposable objects to reduce costs (disposable cutlery).
28. Replace mechanical system
Replace a mechanical system with a different shape, action or function (folding electric bikes).
29. Pneumatics and hydraulics
Replace solid parts of an object with pneumatic (air) or hydraulic (water) parts (barber chair).
30. Flexible shells
Replace traditional constructions with flexible shells (water repellent, breathable sports clothing).
31. Porous materials
Make properties of objects, systems or materials porous (read-to-use iodine band-aid).
32. Colour changes
Change the colour or other optical property of an object (Polaroid sunglasses).
33. Homogeneity
Make objects interact with a given object with identical properties (two-component adhesive).
34. Discarding and recovering
By making objects or parts of objects that have fulfilled their usefulness go away and by subsequently restoring them, they can be reused.(reusable make-up packaging)
35. Parameter changes
Change the properties of an object (steam shower).
36. Phase transitions
Use phenomena occurring during chemical phase transitions (pregnancy test).
37. Thermal expansion
Convert heat energy to mechanical energy (solar panels).
38. Strong oxidants
Reinforce oxidative processes to enhance a function or process (cryotherapy for warts).
39. Inert atmosphere
Replace a neutral environment to support a desired function (vacuum wine saver pump).
40. Composite materials
Change from homogeneous to composite materials (thermos flask).
The TRIZ Method of Problem Solving is all about Creativity
The TRIZ Method of Problem Solving stimulates creativity and the 40 inventive principles could inspire product development. Compare the TRIZ method to a brainstorming session in which participants are encouraged to emerge with ideas. The effects of the session are limited because only those attending the session make creative contributions.
It’s Your Turn
What do you think? Is the TRIZ Method of Problem Solving still applicable in today’s business companies? And if so, how do you use it and what are the general results and learning lessons? Are the basics principles the same or are there new ones?
Share your experience and knowledge in the comments box below.
More information
- Altshuller, G. , Shulyak, L., & Rodman, S. (2002). 40 Principles Extended Edition: Triz Keys to Technical Innovation . Technical Innovation Center, Inc.
- Altshuller, G. , & Shulyak, L. (1996). And Suddenly the Inventor Appeared: Triz, the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving . Technical Innovation Center, Inc.
- Chen, J. L., & Liu, C. C. (2001). An eco-innovative design approach incorporating the TRIZ method without contradiction analysis . The Journal of Sustainable Product Design, 1(4), 263-272.
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Published on: 12/09/2016 | Last update: 07/09/2024
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Patty Mulder
Patty Mulder is an Dutch expert on Management Skills, Personal Effectiveness and Business Communication. She is also a Content writer, Business Coach and Company Trainer and lives in the Netherlands (Europe). Note: all her articles are written in Dutch and we translated her articles to English!
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3 responses to “triz method of problem solving explained”.
Congratulations! An excellent article! Very well built! Once again Congratulations! Teach “Innovation Management in Education at the Christian University” Dimitrie Cantemir, Bucharest, Romania. In the course support we included a dedicated TRIZ module. Sincerely, Univ. Lecturer. Remus CHINA
This is really good article and would like to learn more. Looks very much useful in our industry.
Thank you for your comment, Bala Krishna.
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TRIZ is a systematic approach for understanding and solving any problem, boosting brain power and creativity, and ensuring innovation.
We regularly run live webinars to provide an overview of TRIZ processes and tools, register for free to find out more?
Watch with German subtitles / Mit Deutschen Untertiteln >>
The Origins of TRIZ
Beginning in 1946 and still evolving, TRIZ was developed by the Soviet inventor Genrich Altshuller and his colleagues. TRIZ in Russian = Teoriya Resheniya Izobretatelskikh Zadatch or in English, The Theory of Inventive Problem Solving. Years of Russian research into patents uncovered that there are only 100 known solutions to fundamental problems and made them universally available in three TRIZ solution lists and the Effects Database .
Through enabling clear thinking and the generation of innovative ideas, TRIZ helps you to find an ideal solution without the need for compromise. However it is not a Theory - it is a big toolkit consisting of many simple tools - most are easy to learn and immediately apply to problems. This amazing capability helps us tackle any problem or challenge even when we face difficult, intractable or apparently impossible situations.
TRIZ helps us keep detail in its place, to see the big picture and avoid getting tripped up with irrelevance, waylaid by trivial issues or seduced by premature solutions. It works alongside and supports other toolkits, and is particularly powerful for getting teams to work together to understand problems effectively, collectively generate ideas and innovate.
Developed by Oxford Creativity, Oxford TRIZ™ is simpler than standard or classic TRIZ. Its tools and processes are faster to learn and easier to apply. Oxford TRIZ is true to classic TRIZ (neither adding nor removing anything) but it delivers:
More powerful results
Faster and easier ways to learn and apply triz, step-by-step processes for applying triz toolkits, 'at a glance' understanding, supported by our hallmark commissioned cartoons (from clive goddard), philosophy of making every session effective, efficient and fun, gap-filling where other toolkits fall short.
TRIZ enthusiasts who have failed to use TRIZ effectively or to embed TRIZ into their organisations hail Oxford TRIZ as revelatory.
Very impressed with how Oxford Creativity has been able to create a methodology for applying TRIZ that can be widely used.
"I have learnt new and powerful ways of looking at problems differently to come up with new and viable solutions. It is a toolset that I think all engineers would find useful. "
Michelle Chartered (Aeronautical) Engineer
Join one of our free webinars to learn more about TRIZ, its tools and how they can help you create innovative solutions to your problems.
Alternatively, sign up for Oxford TRIZ Live - Fundamental Problem Solving, our new online course that will give you a solid foundation in TRIZ concepts, tools and techniques and get you using them from day one.
History of TRIZ
How did triz start who was the founder - genrich altshuller.
It seems unfair that the work of Genrich Altshuller (1926-1998), perhaps one of the greatest engineers of the twentieth century remains quite obscure; especially as the his powerful findings enhances and transforms the work of managerial and technical teams in most countries of the world. He was a remarkable and charismatic man who innovated innovation and inspired many, as an inventor, teacher, and science-fiction author (Altov). The stories about Altshuller, founder of TRIZ, derive mostly from those who worked with him, a community of Jewish intellectuals from Ukraine, Russia, and other countries once part of the Soviet Union. Many of these left Russia when they could, in the early 1990’s, taking TRIZ with them, to reach business and technical communities all over the world. Although TRIZ is a Russian acronym*, in today’s troubled world it is worth emphasising that TRIZ is much more Zelensky than Putin – as it was developed in a Siberian Gulag by those who stood up to Stalin.
Altshuller's groundbreaking work in the field of creative problem-solving derives from analysing the patent database and identifying and sharing the patterns of success in the world’s published knowledge. This is unlike most other creative techniques which cluster round brain prompts to improve brainstorming. TRIZ contains all these too, but they seem less significant than the power of the unique solution techniques uncovered by the TRIZ community in the last century.
Altshuller’s life
Genrich Saulovich Altshuller was bought up in Baku, Azerbaijan, but was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on October 15, 1926, at those times both countries were a part of the Soviet Union. Just too young to serve in World War II, Altshuller was patenting his inventions from 1940 when he was just 14. He trained as a diver and electrician and later at the Azerbaijan Oil and Chemistry Institute in Baku. Altshuller joined the Soviet Navy as a mechanical engineer in his early twenties and worked in the Baku patent department, interacting with the Caspian Sea flotilla of the Soviet Navy where, as in all wars, creativity and invention flourished; this had a profound impact on his thinking and future endeavours. It was here that he began to formalize his Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, together with his colleague Raphael Shapiro. TRIZ was born out of the pair's aspiration to create a systematic approach to problem-solving that could replace the hit-or-miss strategies often used by inventors.
Altshuller’s genius observation of the frequent occurrence of identical solutions in different industries
Altshuller ’bottled’ the inventive process. He identified how frequently inventors duplicate each other’s work as they unknowingly reinvent the wheel. They fail to recognise that their efforts are repeating work already achieved (and documented), because their results are published in their own specialist technical language. Altshuller could see how science and engineering (by this time segmented and specialised) had become a ‘Tower of Babel’** because each discipline had its own different technical jargon. It was as if there were now many tribes in technology, with their own tribal language, which they used to write their papers and patents; (Chemists spoke chemistry and physicist spoke physics etc.). Altshuller showed that by stripping out details (which removed most technical jargon) both the problems being solved and their answers were revealed. This research showed that there are only about 100 fundamental ways to solve any problem. Altshuller and his teams gave these ‘ hundred answers to anything’ in three overlapping lists which show us how to:-
- Resolve contradictions (40 Principles)
- Invent future Products (8 Trends)
- Deal with Harms, boost insufficiencies and measure or detect (76 Standard Solutions)
These concept solutions underly all inventive problem-solving and they help us solve particular problems through using the TRIZ Contradiction Matrix and Separation Principles and TRIZ Function Mapping. Also there is the TRIZ Effects Database which answers ‘how to’ questions – so if we wanted to know how to ‘change viscosity’ it would show us all published ways and give an explanation of each. (see https://www.triz.co.uk/triz-effects-database )
Development of TRIZ:
Altshuller and his TRIZ community created their database of technical problems and solutions from various industries by undertaking an exhaustive study of patents, scientific literature, and innovation history. TRIZ ‘uncovered’ all the ways humankind knows to tackle tough challenges and was a vast collaboration of many (including Rafael Shapiro) to formalise the TRIZ methodology by identifying patterns and principles common to all successful inventive solutions. TRIZ aimed to stop needless time-wasting duplication by providing a systematic approach to enable anyone to overcome problems and recognise and resolve contradictions, deal with harms and barriers in their work.
Once built the TRIZ foundations were their gift to the world distilling a vast store of human wisdom into the 3 simple lists of TRIZ concepts. Some erroneously describe TRIZ as complicated because it derives from more rigour and research than all other toolkits put together, but its power is its logical steps and simplicity. It is as easy as learning chess - each tool is can be quickly understood to see how it can be ‘played’ in specific ways – the challenge is knowing how to combine the tools together. There are as many solutions to problems as outcomes in chess – mastering both takes quick learning (and talent?) and then as much practice as possible.
Soviet Suppression:
Despite its immense potential, TRIZ was not initially well-received by the Soviet government, Altshuller's claim that scientists and engineers duplicated each other’s work was unacceptable "non-conformist" thinking, and TRIZ was initially labelled as "bourgeois pseudoscience." Altshuller, along with several of his colleagues, often faced oppression, and their work was kept underground in several different periods. By the late 1940s Altshuller was arrested on political charges and spent time in the infamous Vorkuta Gulag in the Russian Arctic before being released in 1954 (after Stalin’s death). On his arrest the KGB ‘interviewed’ his widowed mother, killing her by pushing her from the balcony of her flat. Despite these setbacks, his determination to pursue his theories did not wane even in the Gulag which he described as his university of life.
Upon his release, Altshuller returned to his work with renewed vigour, working through thousands of patents, extracting their patterns of problem-solving into the TRIZ lists, and also uncovering the contradiction toolkit and the other creative concepts essential to tackling problems such as the Ideal and Ideality, Thinking in Time and Scale (9 boxes) plus many other tools for idea generation.
Recognition and success
Altshuller's determination prevailed, and in the 1960s, he managed to publish some of his TRIZ-related works. He also conducted lectures and workshops to disseminate the principles of TRIZ across the Soviet Union and beyond. His community expanded to include school children from his fortnightly TRIZ comics and his most famous book ‘And Suddenly the Inventor Appeared’. His ideas gained traction among engineers, leading to the formation of TRIZ associations and study groups. After 1990 the political reforms which swept the Soviet Union and its territories enabled TRIZ to surge in popularity and recognition. Altshuller's efforts were finally acknowledged, and he received numerous awards and honours for his groundbreaking work.
TRIZ Today?
Genrich Altshuller's legacy lives on through TRIZ, which continues to influence problem-solving and innovation processes worldwide. TRIZ has been integrated into various industries, including engineering, product development, and management, allowing practitioners to find inventive solutions efficiently. It has proved an essential innovation toolkit in countries like South Korea, China and Japan where they have moved to the top of Patent league tables, pushing aside counties like the UK where there is no official or university take up (exceptions include the universities of Imperial and Bath). However one the world’s leading TRIZ consultancies is based in the UK and created the popular Oxford TRIZ TM. Russian TRIZ development seems to be detailed and complicated (the opposite of TRIZ simplicity)
Altshuller's Legacy
Altshuller’s income derived more from his writings than his TRIZ work because he made TRIZ free to the world and public domain. Altshuller published so many books, articles, and scientific papers, which inspire and clarify the thinking of generations of inventors, innovators, and problem-solvers. In his later years he developed Parkinson’s disease, and he worked on sharing all the habits of geniuses and his last book was called ‘How to be a genius or heretic’ and he died on September 24, 1998, in Petrozavodsk, Russia. Altshuller's work has influenced numerous fields, including engineering, business strategy, and software development. Despite TRIZ being less known than other toolkit , his impact on the world remains undeniable if still largely under-appreciated. The power of TRIZ for boosting genius brain power, inventive problem-solving and innovation could change the world for the better if only it was known and accepted everywhere.
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