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What is TRIZ?
TRIZ, also known as the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, is a problem solving technique developed by Genrich S. Altshuller in 1926. Born in the former Soviet Union in 1926, Altshuller developed an approach, relying not on psychology but on technology. Altshuller felt a theory of invention should satisfy the following conditions:

  • be a systematic, step-by-step procedure
  • be a guide through a broad solution space to direct to the ideal solution
  • be repeatable and reliable and not dependent on psychological tools
  • be able to access the body of inventive knowledge
  • be able to add to the body of inventive knowledge
  • be familiar enough to inventors by following the general approach to problem solving
In the next few years, Altshuller screened over 200,000 patents looking for inventive problems and how they were solved. Of these (over 1,500,000 patents have since been screened), only 40,000 had somewhat inventive solutions; the rest were straight forward improvements. Altshuller then more clearly defined an inventive problem as one in which the solution causes another problem to appear, such as increasing the strength of a metal plate causing its weight to get heavier. Usually, inventors must resort to a trade-off and compromise between the features and thus do not achieve an ideal solution. In his study of truely creative patents, Altshuller found that many described a solution that eliminated or resolved the contradiction and required no trade-off.

What Altshuller tabulated was that over 90% of the problems engineers faced had been solved somewhere before. If engineers could follow a path to an ideal solution, starting with the lowest level, their personal knowledge and experience, and working their way to higher levels, most of the solutions could be derived from knowledge already present in the company, industry, or in another industry. Altshuller distilled the problems, contradictions, and solutions in these patents into a theory of inventive problem solving which he named TRIZ.

Altshuller also found that over 90% of the problems faced by inventors had been solved in various technical fields using any of only about forty fundamental inventive principles.

For a slightly more in depth look at TRIZ, please click HERE