The Theory of Inventive Problem Solving

TRIZ was first introduced to the United States in 1991 and is based on the study of 1.5 million patents, 400,000 of which are considered the world's most inventive.

TRIZ offers a revolutionary knowledge-based way of thinking. It verbalizes and quantifies the basic human experience in inventing. It creates analytical discipline for inventive problem solving that overcomes basic engineering contradictions step by step to achieve breakthrough concepts.

Dr. Genrikh S. Altshuller

TRIZ was developed by Dr. Genrikh S. Altshuller, a brilliant Russian inventor.

His work began in the late 1940s when he systematically studied and catalogued patents looking for principles of innovation. His intent was to learn how to apply these principles methodically to increase a problem solver's creativity and efficiency.

The "inventive principles" he developed helped him formulate the "Laws of Evolution of Engineering Systems." These laws help solve paradoxical engineering problems quickly and without compromise.

Altshuller also discovered that the laws of evolution could be used to develop future product scenarios and then to solve any problems with those predicted products. From these findings,Altshuller developed an extensive, scientifically-based problem solving method which codifies numerous inventive principles, and incorporates the laws of engineering system evolution. These inventive principles and laws of evolution have been unknown and overlooked by engineers, until now!

There are Five Levels of Solutions to Problems:

1.The Standard Solution - The solution that resides within the discipline of the engineer.

2. Change of a System - pertains to more difficult problems that require trade-off studies, but a good engineer can solve this type of problem.

3. Innovation - the solution is outside of the box, in another field of engineering. TRIZ

4. Invention - the solution is found in science, among rarely used physical or chemical phenomena. TRIZ

5. Discovery - the solution is based on recently discovered phenomena. TRIZ