A New Innovation Design Process Combining TRIZ, TOC and Logic

The Theory of Innovative Problem Solving (TRIZ) is a great approach to stimulating fresh, new ideas for new beginnings in designs. In keeping with TRIZCON2010’s theme, “TRIZ for new Beginnings,” this paper will demonstrate ways to take TRIZ to a completely new level.

TRIZ is a wonderful device to generate conceptual ideas to solve a problem, improve a design, or introduce a new product. The problem with TRIZ is that it is too good at generating ideas. In most any design there are enough technical and physical contradictions to generate thousands of ideas.

Theory of Constraints (TOC) is a wonderful device to narrow the focus of a process to the weakest link- the area holding a system or product back from meaningful improvement. The problem with TOC is that it offers no systematic methodology to solve the weakest link it identifies.

Merging TRIZ and TOC is a logical choice and has been done many times. In this paper, TRIZ and TOC are joined with a logical framework in which not only the weakest link can be analyzed further, but the area that affects most of the process can also be identified for TRIZ idealization.

This paper is a summary of the results of my Doctoral Dissertation and will be submitted with real-life examples of application of its principles.

Dr. Stephen Luke is a professional engineer residing in Chesapeake, VA with his wife, the former Amy Stewart, and two sons, James and Malachi. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute (1983), a Master’s Degree in Engineering Management from Old Dominion University (1993), and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Old Dominion University (2002). Steve has authored over twenty technical papers, mostly in the field of Reliability Engineering, and has written over 100 books in the area of Chord theory for musical instruments. Steve has worked for the U.S. Government and in the private sector. He currently works for AMSEC LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding where he serves as a logistics engineer.