p.3 The ability to see and resolve problems is extremely important for engineers, managers, scientists,
politicians, and others in our competitive world. Thus the author hopes this book will be useful not only for engineers
but also for anyone wanting to improve his or her problem-solving skills.
A problem is a gap between an initial (existing) situation and the desirable situation.
Problem solving is a single- or multi-step transformation of the existing situation to the desirable situation or
to a situation closer to the desirable one than is the initial situation. The steps in the transformation span the gap.
p.4 TRIZ defines technical problems for which at least one critical step to a solution as well as the solution
itself is unknown as the inventive problems. The complexity of the initial situation, a poorly defined desirable
situation, or hidden search directions can lead to inventive problems... A creative problem is one whose resolution
is nonobvious. Inventive problems are a subclass of creative problems in fields of technique.
p.5 The problem-solving process itself depends on the ability of a solver. Two people with different
knowledge will have different ideas about the necessary steps in solving the same problem... The amount of time needed
to solve a technical problem should reflect the complexity and effort of determining the unknowns in the problem's possible
causes and the steps in the solving process.
p.7,9 Many surveys... have shown that the oldest and still most prevalent method for problem solving,
regardless of the class of the problem, is trial and error... The trial-and-error method is suitable for simple,
well-defined, routine closed problems... one considers variant after variant until all have been considered or a solution
is found... the best methods of creativity activation help reduce... [certain] disadvantages of the trial-and-error method.
Some of these methods are useful for suppressing the solver's psychological inertia.
p.9 The various checklists and control questions and objects or tasks are among the oldest methods for increasing
the efficiency of problem solving. They are still one of the most popular problem-solving aids.
p.17-18 There are three major requirements for a problem-solving methodology:
1. It should have a mechanism for directing the solver to the most appropriate and strong solutions...
2. It should signal the most promising strategies...
3. It should provide access to important, well-organized, and necessary information at any step
of the problem-solving process.
p.19 The knowledge of TRIZ is essential for any creative engineer and problem solver.
p.21 As a science, TRIZ addresses the problem of determining and categorizing all regular features
and aspects of technical systems and technological processes that need to be invented or improved, as well as of
the inventive process itself.
p.22 TRIZ is a human-oriented knowledge-based systematic methodology of inventive problem solving.
p.27 about 95% of the inventive problems in any particular field have already been solved in another
field.
p.40 A system is a set of orderly interacting subsystems intended for executing specific functions. It possesses
behaviors and properties that cannot be reduced to the behaviors and properties of its separate subsystems.
p.43,44 A goal, therefore, is a state of affairs that is thought to be possible, and this state
of affairs should preferably be realized... TRIZ presently does not resolve problems involving the achievement of
information goals (such as software development)
p.59 TRIZ ideology is based on two major ideas: Contradiction and Ideality. Contradiction is the basic law
of materialist dialectrics, whereas ideality is the essence of idealism. These two opposite philosophic approaches are united
in TRIZ, which uses their mutual cooperation. Perhaps this amalgam predetermines the unique power of TRIZ. The concepts of
Ideality and/or Contradiction should be consciously included in any process of solving inventive problems.
p.164 Typical Mistakes in Technical Problem Formulation and Methods to Eliminate Them: An old problem statement
directs a search in a way having no prospects [proposed solution] Reconstruct the original situation of invention and choose
another problem the solving of which is capable of providing the effect needed [and] Investigate the physical nature
of the process under consideration, not relying upon the explanation offered by specialists.
p.165 a solver should divide all information for such problems into the important and unimportant.
Important information is that which characterizes the problem to be solved: it makes clear the problem,
contradictions, and subsystems needed to define that problem. It is assumed that an analysis of functions and constraints
has been done, so that the root causes of problems in the system have been identified... Unimportant information is
not needed to characterize the problem, i.e., to understand the core of the problem to be solved... TRIZ recommends
suspending such engineering considerations until later stages of technique design.
p.166 The process of simplification of a problem is more effective if engineering details can be postponed
until the conceptual solution has been found... the essence of the problem should be isolated and all unimportant
information should be discarded... Today's conceptual solution that is rejected by presumptions can be tomorrow's
real solution after (or even without) small modifications.
p.167 a solver should
- recognize presumptions about the system and its possible improvements,
- eliminate special technical slang and replace it with simple generic names, and
- express the system via elementary sketches that contain only necessary subsystems and links
(energy/signal flows) presented as simply as possible.
These points depend strongly on the solver's inventiveness
