TRIZ Paper: Japan TRIZ Symposium 2009 Paper


Engineers' Understanding of TRIZ As a Consequence of Questionnaire Survey
Yojiro Fukushima, Tsutomu Hata (Panasonic Corp.)
The Fifth TRIZ Symposium in Japan, Held by Japan TRIZ Society on Sept. 10-12, 2009 at National Women's Education Center, Ranzan-machi, Hiki-gun, Saitama, Japan
Introduction by Toru Nakagawa (Osaka Gakuin Univ.), Dec. 13, 2009
[Posted on Jun. 9, 2010] 

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Editor's Note (Toru Nakagawa, Jun. 8, 2010)

This paper was presented at the 5th TRIZ Symposium in Japan, 2009 in an Oral session. 

The Authors have promoted TRIZ in the Corporate R&D Division of Panasonic Corp. since 2003 and have applied TRIZ to 156 real projects of their jobs in the field of IT & Software field (See Fukushima's presentation at Japan TRIZ Symposium 2008 ).  Questionnaires have been carried out whenever a TRIZ project finishes its activity.  Answers to the Questionnaires in the form of free description have been analyzed in the present paper.  The engineers' answers well address the keypoints and are mostly positive. 

The number of patents issued by each employee every year was examined and demonstrated the fact that the employees who had TRIZ experiences (together with their senior colleagues) in their first year of employment have produced much larger number of patents in the 2nd and 3rd years of emloyment than those without such TRIZ experiences.

On the present page are posted (a) presentation slides in PDF in English, (b) and in Japanese . [In the official Web site of Japan TRIZ Society, only the Japanese presentation slides are posted in the members-only page.]  Nakagawa's introduction to this paper was written as a part of his "Personal Report of Japan TRIZ Symposium 2009" (Part E).  The introduction is extracted and posted here in English (no Japanese translation is ready). 

Top of this page Abstract Slides PDF Slides in Japanese PDF Nakagawa's Introduction Personal Report of Japan TRIZ Symp. 2009 Official page of Japan TRIZ Symp. 2009 Japanese page

[1] Abstract

Engineers' Understanding of TRIZ As a Consequence of Questionnaire Survey

Yojiro Fukushima, Tsutomu Hata (Panasonic Corp.)

Abstract

In Corporate R&D Division of Panasonic Corporation, we have been using TRIZ since 2003 for the purpose of solving technological problems in our real jobs.To the engineers who were involved in such problem solving, we regularly conducted a questionnaire survey.Since we got about 300 sets of answers for these 6 years, we have analyzed them recently.. The contents are related to the results by using TRIZ, how to use TRIZ, difficulty in TRIZ usage, and so on. We found that by using TRIZ on their real jobs many engineers have come to think more deeply or with some different perspectives. The universal thinking process of TRIZ is found effective by the engineers. An effect using TRIZ has appeared clearly on new employees. TRIZ will produce satisfactory results by educating new employees and by serving as a stimulus to old hands.


[2]  Presentation Slides in PDF

Presentation Slides in English in PDF (19 slides, 127 KB)

Presentation Slides in Japanese in PDF (19 slides, 170 KB)


[3]  Introduction to the Presentation (by Nakagawa)

Excerpt from: 
Personal Report of The Fifth TRIZ Symposium in Japan, 2009, Part E. Promotion of TRIZ in Industries
by Toru Nakagawa (Osaka Gakuin University), Dec. 13, 2009
Posted on Dec. 24, 2009 in "TRIZ Home Page in Japan"

Yojiro Fukushima, Tsutomu Hata (Panasonic Corp.) [J24 O-7] gave a fine Oral presentation on "Engineers’ Understanding of TRIZ As a Consequence of Questionnaire Survey". 

The Authors have promoted TRIZ in the Corporate R&D Division of Panasonic Corp. since 2003 and have applied TRIZ to 156 real projects of their jobs in the field of IT & Software field (See Fukushima's presentation at Japan TRIZ Symposium 2008 ).  For each project, a joint team is formed by engineers (2 to 7 persons), a TRIZ specialist, and a manager as shown in the slide (right).  Questionnaires have been carried out whenever a TRIZ project finishes its activity.  Answers to the Questionnaires in the form of free description have been analyzed in the present paper.  Among 372 answers from the engineers, simple and trivial comments are dropped and the remaining 262 comments are analyzed here.

In the analysis, a text mining method has been applied to find the frequencies and correlations of nouns/verbs/etc. (with Text Mining Studio 3.1 by Mathematical Systems Inc.)  The Authors have thus found that the core messages of the comments are:

  -  TRIZ is Effective
  - Clarification of the Problem is important but difficult
  - Using TRIZ is difficult
  - Efficiency is good

Examples of comments implying "TRIZ is effective" and "TRZ is efficient" are demonstrated in the slide (right).

The Authors list up examples of comments in a similar manner for all the steps of problem solving in TRIZ.  The slide here (right) deals with the problem definition stage.  The users clearly distinguish the problems suitable for TRIZ from the unsuitable ones.

Suitable for TRIZ:
   - Problems for which understandings are proceeded by discussion.
   - Concrete and clearly defined.
Unsuitable for TRIZ:
   - Problems for which understandings are not proceeded by discussion
   - Abstract and vague problem

*** These descriptions by engineers are quite right, I think.

Comments by the engineers are demonstrated similarly in the following five slides (below).

 

 

Having these comments from the engineers, the Authors have built and applied a model of their problem solving with TRIZ.  The model is shown in the following two slides.

 

The actual effects of TRIZ on the engineers were clearly revealed in an objective records. As shown in the slide (right), the Authors have checked the patents issued by their employees.  The number of patents issued by each employee are checked for each year.  Special attention was paid to distinguish the employees whether he/she has or has not the experience of TRIZ problem solving in their freshman year in a TRIZ activity team together with non-fresh persons.  The graph shows the number of patents issued per year per person (in an arbitrary scale) against the years of employment.  The black square marks are for ordinary employees without TRIZ experiences in their freshman years, while the red diamond marks for employees with TRIZ experience in the first year of employment.  In the second and third year of employment, the employees with TRIZ experiences have issued much more patents.  The Authors evaluate this observation highly and interpreted as 'Earlier contribution is stimulated by the TRIZ experiences'.

*** The Authors' TRIZ activities in Panasonic Corp. has been done very actively and steadily with the cooperation of several TRIZ experts and the managers in the Corporate R&D division in the field of IT & software.  The answers to the Questionnaires well address the keypoints and are mostly positive.  The graph of resultant effects on the employees in the patent issuing is very interesting. I recall Klaus-Juergen Uhrner's work of showing the numbers and levels of inventions in his company with and without the TRIZ experiences (ETRIA TFC 2005; TRIZ Home Page in Japan ).  In the present paper, experiences of TRIZ on the job in the early years of employment (together with active older employees and guided by TRIZ experts) have revealed so much effects.

We should notice that this activity is not a seminar/class, not a training with textbook examples, not a training of a team of freshmen, not a guidance by outside consultants, not an experience of receiving a contract research, but is a real project of ordinary job.  In a sense, this kind of team activities can be carried out everywhere and every time.  A TRIZ expert (or a USIT expert in my sense) should just join them with the cooperation of their managers. 

 

Top of this page Abstract Slides PDF Slides in Japanese PDF Nakagawa's Introduction Personal Report of Japan TRIZ Symp. 2009 Official page of Japan TRIZ Symp. 2009 Japanese page

 

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Last updated on Jun 9, 2010.     Access point:  Editor: nakagawa@ogu.ac.jp