Unit III

Creativity in Design
 Creativity and different models/states of mind
• Those days believe that a product manufacturing org was
successful only with few people who think creatively
• But nowadays the trend has changed
• Current business strategists believe that only organizations that
create the most innovative and advanced products and processes
will survive
• Psychologists have developed 3 levels of mind
 Conscious mind : the part of the mind where our current thinking
and objects of attention take place; Has relatively small capacity
for storage of information in its memory; Can be categorized as
immediate memory, lasting only milliseconds, and working
memory lasting about a minute
 Preconscious mind : the long-term memory, lasting anywhere
from about an hour to several years; Is a vast storehouse of
information, ideas, and relationships based on past experience
and education
Creativity and different models/states of mind
• Subconscious mind : the content of this mind level is out of
reach of the conscious mind; Acts independently of the
conscious mind; May distort the relation of the conscious and
preconscious through its control of symbols and the
generation of bias
 Vertical and lateral thinking
• Nobel Prize winner Roger Sperry studied the relationships
between the brain’s right and left hemispheres
• Found that the left side of the brain tends to function by
processing information in an analytical, rational, logical,
sequential way
• Right half of the brain tends to function by recognizing
relationships, integrating and synthesizing information, and
arriving at intuitive insights
• Thinking that utilizes the left hemisphere of the brain is called
critical or convergent thinking
• Other terms for left-brained thinking are analytic or vertical
thinking : It is generally associated with persons educated in
the technical disciplines
• Thinking that utilizes the right hemisphere of the brain is
called creative or divergent thinking
• Other terms for right-brained thinking are associative or
lateral thinking : It is found most often with persons educated
in the arts or social sciences
Critical Thinking (Left Brain) Creative Thinking (Right Brain)
Logical, analytical, judgmental process Generative, suspended judgment
Linear Associative
Leads to only one solution Creates many possible solutions
Considers only relevant information Considers broad range of information
Movement is made in a sequential, rule- Movement is made in a more random
based manner pattern

Embodies scientific principles Heavily influenced by symbols and

imagery

Classifications and labels are rigid Reclassifies objects to generate ideas

Vertical Lateral
Convergent Divergent
 Creativity and problem solving
• Creative thinkers are distinguished by their ability to
synthesize new combinations of ideas and concepts into
meaningful and useful forms
• A creative engineer is one who produces a lot of ideas which
can be completely original ideas inspired by a discovery
• More often, creative ideas result from putting existing ideas
together in novel ways
• A creative person is proficient at breaking an idea down to
take a fresh look at its parts, or in making connections
between the current problem and seemingly unrelated
observations or facts
• We may generally feel that creativity is reserved for only the
gifted few
• There is also a saying that creative ideas arrive with flash-like
spontaneity—the flash of lightning and clap of thunder
routine
 Creativity and problem solving
• But it is not so; Most ideas occur by a slow, deliberate process that can
be cultivated and enhanced with study and practice
• Initially an idea is only imperfectly understood
• Usually the creative person senses the total structure of the idea but
initially perceives only a limited number of its details
• Thus a slow process of clarification and exploration takes place as the
entire idea takes shape
• Process can be viewed as moving from an amorphous idea to a well-
structured idea, from the chaotic to the organized, from the implicit to
the explicit
• Training to be sensitive and sympathetic to these aspects of the
creative process becomes essential
• One should understand that the flow of creative ideas cannot happen
upon a command
• Therefore, we need to recognize the conditions and situations that are
most conducive to creative thought
• Also since creative ideas are generally vague, it is necessary to be alert
to capture and record our creative thoughts
 Aids to creative thinking
• Following are the positive steps to enhance creative thinking
 Develop a creative attitude :
• To be creative it is essential to develop confidence that
provides a creative solution to a problem
• Although the complete path through to the final solution is
not visualized at the beg of tackling the problem, one must
posses self-confidence
• Of course confidence builds with success, so start with small
successes
• Unlock your imagination :
• Must rekindle the vivid imagination
• Begin to question. Ask “why” and “what if,” etc
• Have practice of developing thought games that are designed
to unlock imagination and sharpening creative ability
 Aids to creative thinking
• Be persistent :
• Creativity does not occur with lightning strike, instead often
requires hard work
• Most problems will not yield at the first attack itself
• Must be pursued with persistence
• Edison tested over 6000 materials before he discovered the
species of bamboo that acted as a successful filament for the
incandescent light bulb
• He was the one who commented that “Invention is 95 percent
perspiration and 5 percent inspiration”
 Develop an open mind :
• Having an open mind means being receptive to ideas from
any and all sources
• Solutions to problems are not the property of a particular
discipline, or graduates
 Aids to creative thinking
• Problem solutions should not be concerned with company
politics
 Suspend your judgment :
• Creative ideas develop slowly, but nothing inhibits the
creative process more than critical judgment of an emerging
idea
• Engineers tend toward critical attitudes, so special
forbearance is required to avoid judgment at an early stage of
conceptual design
 Set problem boundaries :
• Emphasis is made on proper problem definition as a step
toward problem solution
• Establishing the boundaries of the problem is an essential
part of problem definition
• Experience shows that setting problem boundaries is critical
to achieving a creative solution
 4-stage process for creative thinking and
problem solving

• Preparation (stage 1): The elements of the problem are

examined and their interrelations are studied
• Incubation (stage 2): You “sleep on the problem”; Sleep
disengages your conscious mind, allowing the unconscious
mind to work on a problem freely
• Inspiration (stage 3): A solution or a path toward the solution
emerges
• Verification (stage 4): The inspired solution is checked against
the desired result
 Barriers to creative thinking
• Before taking steps to enhance creativity, let us have a look at
the mental blocks that stand as a barrier towards creative
thinking
• A mental block is a mental wall that prevents the problem
solver from correctly perceiving a problem or conceiving its
solution.
• A mental block is an event that inhibits the successful use of
normal cognitive processes to come to a solution
• Types of mental blocks:
• Perceptual blocks
• Emotional blocks
• Cultural blocks
• Intellectual blocks
• Environmental blocks
 Perceptual blocks
• Deals with not properly defined problem and not recognizing
the information needed to solve it
 Stereotyping :
• Thinking conventionally or in a formulaic way about an event,
person or way of doing something
• Not thinking “out of the box.”
• Brain just classifies and stores information in labeled groups;
When new information is taken in, it is compared with
established categories and assigned to the appropriate group
• This leads to stereotyping of ideas since it imposes
preconceptions on mental images
• As a result, it is difficult to combine apparently unrelated
images into an entirely new creative solution for the design
 Perceptual blocks
 Information overload :
• Become so overloaded that it is unable to sort out the critical
aspects of the problem
• It becomes a situation of engaging all the available short-term
memory so that there is no time for related searches in long-
term memory
 Limiting the problem unnecessarily :
• Broad statements of the problem help keep the mind open to
a wider range of ideas
 Fixation:
• People’s thinking can be influenced greatly by their previous
experience or some other bias that does not make to
alternative ideas
• Since divergent thinking is critical to generating broad sets of
ideas, fixation must be recognized and dealt with
 Perceptual blocks
 Priming or provision of cues/signals:
• If the thinking process is started by giving examples or
solution cues, it is possible for thinking to stay within the
sphere of solutions suggested by the initial starting points
• This is known as the conformity effect
 Emotional blocks
• Are obstacles that are concerned with the psychological safety
of the individual
• Reduce the freedom with which one can explore and
manipulate ideas
• Also interfere with one’s ability to conceptualize readily
 Fear of risk taking:
• Fear of proposing an idea that is ultimately found to be faulty
• This is inborn in us by the educational process
• Truly creative people must be comfortable with taking risks
 Unease with chaos :
• People in general, and many engineers in particular, are
uncomfortable with highly unstructured situations
 Unable or unwilling to incubate new ideas :
• Often no time is allotted to let ideas lie dormant so they can
incubate properly
 Emotional blocks
• It is important to allow enough time for ideas to incubate
before evaluation of the ideas takes place
• Studies of creative problem-solving strategies suggest that
creative solutions usually emerge as a result of a series of
small ideas rather than from a “home run” idea
 Motivation:
• Highly creative individuals seek creative solutions for
challenges problems for personal satisfaction than personal
reward
• However, studies show that people are more creative on
compulsion, so it shows that the motivation is not all self-
generated
 Cultural blocks
• People acquire a set of thought patterns from living in a culture
• Our educational system has suppressed us to ask “why” and
“how.”
• Certain industries are tradition bound and are reluctant to
change, even in the face of decreasing profitability
• Generally new top management leads them top the road of
profitability
• Countries differ in their attitudes toward creative problem
solutions in political and educational systems, and business
culture
• In many countries it is in fact a shameful disgrace for a business
leader to take his company into bankruptcy, while in others it is a
mark of creative entrepreneurship and normal risk-taking
 Intellectual blocks
• Arise from a poor choice of the problem-solving strategy or
having inadequate background and knowledge
o Poor choice of problem-solving language or problem
representation :
• Decision concerning the “language” for creative problem solving
is important
• Problems can be solved in either a mathematical, verbal, or a
visual mode
• If a problem does not yield readily to solution using, for
example, a verbal mode, can be solved by switching to another
mode such as the visual mode
• Such a change in the representation of a problem from the
original one to a new one is recognized as promoting creativity
 Intellectual blocks
o Memory block:
• Memory holds strategies and tactics for finding solutions
• Blocking in memory searches is highly problematic to creative
thinking
• A common form of blocking is maintaining a particular search
path through memory because of the false belief that it will
lead to a solution
• This belief may arise from a false hint, reliance on incorrect
experience, or any other reason that interrupts or distracts the
mind’s regular problem-solving processes
o Insufficient knowledge base :
• Generally, ideas are generated from a person’s education and
experience
• Persons with broad backgrounds tend to be more creative, and
it is a strong reason for working in interdisciplinary design
teams
 Intellectual blocks
• However, the search for related information could limit one’s
creativity as he is exposed to all of the assumptions and biases of
previous workers in the field
• A better approach to gathering information is to do enough to get
a good feel for the problem and then use this knowledge base to
try to generate creative concepts
• Later go back and exhaustively develop an information base to use
in evaluating the creative ideas
o Incorrect information :
• Using incorrect information can lead to poor results
• One form of the creative process is the combining of previously
unrelated elements or ideas (information)
• If part of the information is wrong then the result of creative
combination will be flawed
• Higher the number of elements in the combination, more is the
difficulty in sorting out correct combinations from the flawed ones
 Environmental blocks
• Are blocks that are imposed by the immediate physical or social
environment
 Physical environment:
• It’s a personal factor in its effects on creativity
• Some can work creatively with all kinds of distractions; others
require strict quiet and isolation
• Each person have to determine their optimum conditions for
creative work, and try to achieve this in the workplace
• Also, many have a time of day in which they are most creative
 Criticism:
• Non supportive remarks about your ideas can be personally
hurtful and harmful to one’s creativity
• It is common for one to be hesitant to expose his ideas, even to
his team, for fear of criticism
 Environmental blocks
• One has no basis of comparison as to whether the idea is good
• It is very important for the team to maintain an atmosphere of
support and trust, especially during the concept design phase
 Creativity thinking methods

• Over 150 nos of creativity thinking methods are available

• These methods are aimed at improving the following
characteristics of the problem solver:
 Sensitivity: The ability to recognize that a problem exists
 Fluency: The ability to produce a large number of alternative
solutions to a problem
 Flexibility: The ability to develop a wide range of approaches to
a problem
 Originality: The ability to produce original solutions to a
problem
• Generally these methods try to eliminate the most common
mental blocks that stand against creative thinking
 Brainstorming
• Brainstorming is the most common method used by design
teams for generating ideas
• Developed by Alex, it has been widely adopted in other areas
such as design
• It pertains to denote any kind of idea generation
• Brainstorming is a carefully orchestrated process that makes use
of the broad experience and knowledge of groups of individuals
• It helps to overcome many of the mental blocks that curb
individual creativity in team members who are left to generate
ideas on their own
• Active participation of different individuals in the idea
generation process overcomes most perceptual, intellectual,
and cultural mental blocks
• It is likely that one person’s mental block will be different from
another’s, so that by acting together, the team’s combined idea
generation process flows well
• To achieve a good brainstorming session, it is important to
carefully define the problem at the start
• Time can be spent here so as to avoid wasting time generating
solutions to the wrong problem
• It is also necessary to allow a short period for individuals to
think through the problem quietly before starting the group
process
• Participants in brainstorming sessions react to ideas they hear
from others by recalling their own thoughts about the same
concepts
• This action of redirecting a stream of thought uncovers new
possibilities in the affected team member
• Some new ideas may come to mind by adding detail to a
recently added idea or taking it in a different but related
directions
• This building upon others’ ideas is known as piggy-backing or
scaffolding
• This is an indicator of a well-functioning brainstorming session
• It has been found that the first 10 or so ideas will not be the
most fresh and creative, so it is critical to get at least 30 to 40
ideas from one session
• An important attribute of this method is that brainstorming
creates a large number of ideas, some of which will be creative
• Evaluation of ideas should be done soon after the brain
storming session i.e., one day time is allowed
• This allows incubation time for more ideas to generate
• Evaluation meeting should begin by adding to the original list,
any new ideas realized by the team members after the
incubation period
• Then the team evaluates each of the ideas, hopefully, some of
the ideas can be converted to realistic solutions
• Along with all these activities, the best approach is to think of
all the possible limitations or shortcomings of the product,
which may be termed as reverse brainstorming
• One way to help the brainstorming process is to break up the
normal thought pattern by using a checklist to help develop
new ideas
• The originator of brainstorming proposed such a list, which
Eberle modified into the acrostic SCAMPER
• Generally, the SCAMPER checklist is used as a stimulant when
the flow of ideas begins to fall off during the brainstorming
activity
• The questions in the SCAMPER checklist are applied to the
problem in the following way
• Read aloud the first SCAMPER question
• Write down ideas or sketch ideas that are stimulated by the
question
• Rephrase the question and apply it to the other aspects of the
problem
• Continue applying the questions until the ideas cease to flow
• Because the SCAMPER questions are generalized, they
sometimes will not apply to a specific technical problem
• Therefore, if a question fails to evoke ideas, move on quickly to
the next question
• A group that will be doing product development over time in a
particular area should attempt to develop their own checklist
questions tailored to the situation
 SCAMPER Checklist to Aid in Brainstorming
Proposed Description
Change
Substitute What if used in a different material, process, person, power source,
place, or approach?
Combine Could I combine units, purposes or ideas?
Adapt What else is like this? What other idea does it suggest? Does the past
offer a parallel? What can I copy?
Modify, Could I add a new twist? Could I change the meaning, color, motion,
magnify, form, or shape? Could I add something? Make stronger, higher,
minify longer,
thicker? Could I subtract something?
Put to Are there new ways to use this as is? If I modify it, does it have other
other uses uses?
Eliminate Can I remove a part, function, person without affecting outcome?

Rearrange, Could I interchange components? Could I use a different layout or

reverse sequence? What if i transpose cause and effect? Could I transpose
positive and negative? What if I turn it backward, upside down or
inside out?
 Random Input Technique
• Edward de Bono stresses the importance of thought patterns,
and he was the one to coin the term lateral thinking for the act
of cutting across thought patterns
• It is actually an act of provocation needed to make the brain
switch from one pattern of thought to another
• The provocative event interrupts the current thinking process
by introducing a new problem representation, providing a new
probe for a memory search, or leading to a restructuring of the
solution plan
• Suppose you are thinking about a problem and you have a need
for a new idea
• In order to force the brain to introduce a new thought, all you
have to do is to introduce a new random word
• It is like turning to a random page in a dictionary for selection of
a random word suddenly and the search would go on
• Now, the provocation is to find how the chosen word is related
to the problem under consideration
• Brain is a self-organizing patterning system that is very good at
making connections even when the random word is very
remote from the problem subject
• De Bono says, “It has never happened to me that the random
word is too remote. On the contrary, what happens quite often
is that the random word is so closely connected to the focus
that there is very little provocative effect.”
• It is also worth noting that the random input technique does
not apply only to random words but also works with objects or
pictures
• Ideas can be stimulated by reading technical journals in fields
other than one’ s own or by attending technical meetings and
trade shows in fields far from one’s own
 Synectics : An inventive method based on analogy
• In design, like in everyday life, many problems are solved by
analogy
• Designer recognizes the similarity between the design under
study and a previously solved problem
• One type of solution based on analogy recognizes the
similarities between an existing product and its design
specification and the design specification of the product under
study
• This most likely will not be a creative design, and it may not
even be a legal design
• In the 1940s the Cambridge Research Group, a diverse group of
inventors, began developing implementation ideas to improve
the invention process
• The group’s goal was to “uncover the psychological mechanisms
basic to creative activity.”
• One of their methods of study was to observe an inventor doing
a design problem
• The inventor voiced his thought process as he worked on the
design
• These comments were recorded and analyzed with a special
emphasis on the feelings that the idea generation process
evoked in the inventor
• The group developed and tested procedures and methods for
inexperienced people to use in problem-solving settings
• The method proposed for improving creativity was called
Synectics
• People were trained in the Synectics methods, and a sense of
confidence about the use of the method was developed
• Synectics (from the Greek word synektiktein, meaning joining
together of different things into unified connection) is a
methodology for creativity based on reasoning by analogy that
was first described in the book by Gordon
• It assumes that the psychological components of the creative
processes are more important in generating new and inventive
ideas than the intellectual processes
• Synectics is a formalized process led by a highly trained
facilitator that proceeds in stages
• The first stage of Synectics is to understand the problem
• The problem is examined from all angles with the goal of
“making the strange familiar. ”
• However, examining all aspects is likely to have blocked one’s
capacity for creative solution
• Second phase searches for creative solutions drawing heavily on
the four types of analogies
• Distance one’s mind from the problem using analogies, and
then couple them with the problem in the last phase of
Synectics
• This is done by force-fitting the ideas generated by analogy into
the various aspects of the problem definition
• Synectics can be a powerful method for producing creative
solutions
• Its requirement for specialized training and a trained team
facilitator, and the fact that the method requires a large
investment of team time, does not make it very useful for
student projects
• Synectics recognizes four types of analogy:
1. Direct analogy
2. Fantasy analogy
3. Personal analogy
4. Symbolic analogy
 Direct Analogy
• Designer searches for the closest physical analogy to the
situation at hand
• Ex: In describing the motion of electrons about the nucleus of
an atom it is common to use the analogy of the moon’s rotation
about Earth or Earth’s rotation about our sun
• The analogy is direct because in each system there are matched
physical objects behaving the same way—rotating about a
central object
• A direct analogy may take the form of a similarity in physical
behavior, similarity in geometrical configuration, or in function
• Beginners are likely to find analogies based on physical
similarities
• It takes special training to recognize analogies based on more
abstract characteristics like functional similarity
• Bio-inspired design is a specific type of analogy under increased
research in the past decade
• Bio-inspired design is based on the similarity between biological
systems and engineering systems
 Fantasy Analogy
• Designer disregards all problem limitations and laws of nature,
physics, or reason
• Instead, he imagines or wishes for the perfect solution to a
problem
• For example, suppose you enter a large parking lot on a cold,
windy, and rainy day, to discover where you have parked the car
• In a perfect world, you could wish your car to materialize in
front of you or to turn itself on and drive to where you are
standing when you call it
• These are far-fetched ideas but they contain potential
• Many cars now have a chip in their key ring that flashes the car
lights when activated to send you a locator signal
• Perhaps the design team used some aspect of the fantasy
analogy to solve the lost car problem
 Personal Analogy
• Designer imagines that he or she is the device being designed,
associating his or her body with the device or the process under
consideration
• For example, in designing a high-quality industrial vacuum
cleaner, we could imagine ourselves as the cleaner
• We can suck up dirt through a hose like drinking through a
straw
• We can pick up dirt and debris by running our hands across a
smooth surface or by combing our fingers through a thick and
fibrous material
• We could also lick the surface clean using moisture, friction, and
an absorbent material like we do when we lick frosting off a
cupcake
 Symbolic Analogy
• Designer replaces the specifics of the problem with symbols and
then uses manipulation of the symbols to discover solutions to
the original problem
• For example, there are some mathematical problems that are
converted from one symbolic domain to another to allow easy
processing
• LaPlace transforms are an example of this type of symbolic
analogy
• There is a method for the structural synthesis of mechanisms
that requires drawing a graph representing the joints and
linkages of the mechanism and then converting the graph into a
set of equations for solution
• Another form of symbolism is to use poetic metaphors and
similes, in which one thing is identified with another, as in the
mouth of a river or tree of decisions, to suggest ideas
 Concept Map
• A very useful tool for the generation of ideas by association,
and for organizing information in preparation for writing a
report, is the concept map and its close relation the mind map
• A concept map is good for generating and recording ideas
during brainstorming
• Because it is a visual method instead of a verbal one, it
encourages left- brained thinking
• Because it requires the mapping of associations between ideas
it stimulates creative thought
• It is also very useful in generating solution concepts
• A concept map is made on a large sheet of paper
• A concise label for the problem or issue is placed at the center
of the sheet
• Then the team is asked to think about what concepts, ideas, or
factors are related to the problem
 Write down team-generated thoughts surrounding the central
problem label
 Underline or circle them and connect them to the central focus
 Use an arrow to show which issue drives what
 Create new major branches of concepts to represent major
subtopics
 If the process develops a secondary or separate map, label it
and connect it to the rest of the map
• Process of creating a concept map builds a network of
associations around a central problem or topic
• Requirement to fit these into a coherent, logical map stimulates
new ideas
• To avoid messy map is to first write the ideas on file cards or
“sticky notes,” and arrange them on an appropriate surface
before committing to a written map
• Color coding may be helpful in improving the clarity of the map
 Write down team-generated thoughts surrounding the central
problem label
 Underline or circle them and connect them to the central focus
 Use an arrow to show which issue drives what
 Create new major branches of concepts to represent major
subtopics
 If the process develops a secondary or separate map, label it
and connect it to the rest of the map
• Process of creating a concept map builds a network of
associations around a central problem or topic
• Requirement to fit these into a coherent, logical map stimulates
new ideas
• Note that such a process can quickly produce a messy and hard
to read map
• One way to avoid this is to first write your ideas on file cards or
Concept map for recycling procedure of
Aluminium
Concept map for different Seasons
 Creative methods for design
• Motivation for applying any creativity technique to a design task
is to generate as many ideas as possible
• Quantity counts above quality, and wild ideas are encouraged at
the early stages of the design work
• Once an initial pool of concepts for alternative designs exists,
these alternatives can be reviewed more critically sorting out
infeasible ideas
• In general, team identifies a smaller subset of ideas that can be
developed into practical solutions
 Systematic methods for designing
 Functional decomposition and synthesis:
• Is a logical approach for describing the transformation between
the initial and final states of a system or device
• Ability to describe function in terms of physical behavior or
actions, rather than components, allows for a logical breakdown
of a product in the most general way, which often leads to
creative concepts of how to achieve the function
 Morphological Analysis:
• This approach to design generates alternatives from an
understanding of the structure of necessary component parts
• Entries from an atlas, directory, or one or more catalogs of
components can then be identified and ordered in the
prescribed configuration
• The goal of the method is to achieve a nearly complete detailing
of all feasible solutions to a design problem
• Often, the morphological method is used in conjunction with
other generative methods like the functional decomposition
and synthesis method
 Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ):
• Is a creative problem-solving methodology especially tailored
for scientific and engineering problems
• Genrich Altshuller in Russia started developing the method
around 1940
• From a study of over 1.5 million Russian patents they were able
to deduce general characteristics of technical problems and
recurring inventive principles
 Axiomatic Design:
• Articulates and explain Design Independence and Information
Axioms (i.e., maintain functional independence and minimize
information content)
• Provide a means to translate a design task into functional
requirements (the engineering equivalent of what the customer
wants) and use those to identify design parameters, the
physical components of the design
• Lead to theorems and corollaries that help designers diagnose a
solution which is represented as a matrix equation with
function requirements and design parameters
 Design Optimization:
• Is treating design as an engineering science problem and is
effective at analyzing potential designs
• There are many optimization approaches to design
• Range from single-objective and single-variable models to
multi-objective, multi-variable models that are solved using
different decompositions and sequences
• Methods are deterministic, stochastic, and combinations of the
two
 Decision-Based Design:
• is an advanced way of thinking about design
• DBD perspective on design differs from past design models that
focus on problem solving in two major ways
• The first is the incorporation of the customers’ requirements as
the driver of the process
• The second is using the design outcomes (e.g., maximum profit,
market share capture, or high-quality image) as the ultimate
assessment of good designs
 TRIZ
• Basis of TRIZ is that the solution principles derived from
studying novel inventions can be codified and applied to related
design problems to yield inventive solutions
• Altshuller and colleagues constructed their methodology for
generating inventive solutions to design and published the first
article on TRIZ in 1956
• TRIZ offers four different strategies for generating an innovative
solution to a design problem. They are:
 Increase the ideality of a product or system
 Identify the product’s place in its evolution to ideality and force
the next step
 Identify key physical or technological contradictions in the
product and revise the design to overcome them using
inventive principles
 Model a product or system using substance-field (Su-Field)
analysis and apply candidate modifications
• Altshuller developed a step-by-step procedure for applying
strategies of inventive problem solving and called it ARIZ
• Space considerations allow us to introduce only the idea of
contradictions and to give a brief introduction to ARIZ
• While this is just a beginning introduction to TRIZ, it can serve
as a significant stimulation to creativity in design and to further
study of the subject
 Invention: Evolution to Increased Ideality

• Altshuller and his colleagues reviewed around 200,000 author

certificates (similar to patents in the U.S.A.) granted by the
Soviet government
• Studied the proposed machines and systems to uncover the
nature of invention
• Wondered how machines change over time as new knowledge
and new technology are applied in redesigns and new models
that make old ones obsolete
• Examination of inventions led to his observation that systems
had a level of goodness he called ideality and that inventions
result when changes were made to improve this attribute of a
product or system
• Altshuller defined ideality as a mathematical construct defined
as the ratio of the useful effects of a system to its harmful
effects
• Like any ratio, as the harmful effects decrease to approach a
value of zero, the ideality grows to infinity
• Under this definition, a good product would perform only its
required function while interacting minimally with the user and
used environment
• Altshuller’s ideal product would be one that satisfied the
customers’ needs without even existing
• Improving system ideality is one of the TRIZ inventive design
strategies
• Six design suggestions required for improving the ideality of a
system are as follows:

1. Exclude auxiliary functions (by combining them or eliminating

the need for them)
2. Exclude elements in the existing system
3. Identify self-service functions (i.e, exploit function sharing by
identifying an existing element of a system that can be altered
to satisfy another necessary function)
4. Replace elements or parts of the total system
5. Change the system’s basic principle of operation
6. Utilize resources in system and surroundings (e.g., worms to
eat nuclear waste)
• Patent research led to second strategy for invention
• Redesigned patterns identified in TRIZ are as follows:

 Development toward increased dynamism and controllability

 Develop first into complexity then combine into simpler systems
 Evolution with matching and mismatching components
 Evolution toward micro level and increasing use of fields (more
functions)
 Evolution toward decreased human involvement

• Altshuller believed that an inventor could use one of the

suggestions to inspire inventive improvements in existing
systems, giving the inventor a competitive advantage
 Innovation by Overcoming Contradictions
• Altshuller’s group noted differences in the type of change
proposed by the inventor over the existing system design
• It lead to five very specific levels of innovation along with its
relative frequency
• Level 1: (32%) Conventional design solutions arrived at by
methods well known in the technology area of the system
• Level 2: (45%) Minor corrections made to an existing system by
well-known methods at the expense of some compromise in
behavior
• Level 3: (18%) Substantial improvement in an existing system
that resolves a basic behavior compromise by using the
knowledge of the same technology area; the improvement
typically involves adding a component or subsystem
• Level 4: (4%) Solutions based on application of a new scientific
principle to eliminate basic performance compromises; Will
cause a paradigm shift in the technology sector
• Level 5: (1% or less) Pioneering inventions based on a discovery
outside of known science and known technology
• In 95 percent of the cases, inventors arrived at new designs by
applying knowledge from the same technical field as the
existing system
• More innovative design solutions improved a previous
performance compromises
• In 4 percent of the inventions, the compromise was overcome
by application of new knowledge to the field: Inventions outside
of technology
• One example is the development of the integrated circuit that
replaced the transistor
• Altshuller focused his attention on analyzing Levels 3 and 4
innovations in order to develop a design method for inventive
solutions
• These inventions were improvements over systems containing a
fundamental technical contradiction
• This exists when a system contains two important attributes
related such that an improvement in the first attribute degrades
the other
• These technical contradictions create design problems within
these systems
• A compromise in performance is the best that can be obtained
by ordinary design methods
• Redesigns proposed by inventors for these problems were
inventive , meaning that the solution excels a basic
contradiction that occurs because of conventional application of
known technology
• TRIZ required a means to describe the contradictions in general
terms
• In TRIZ, the technical contradiction represents a key design
problem in solution-neutral form by identifying the engineering
parameters that are in conflict
• TRIZ uses a list of 39 engineering parameters to describe system
contradictions