TRIZ/USIT Case Study: Japan TRIZ Symposium 2007 Paper
| TRIZ/USIT Case Study: Japan TRIZ Symposium 2007 Paper |
|
| How to Prevent Unauthorized Persons from Entering the Auto-locking Door of Apartment Building: Applying TRIZ/USIT to A Social & Technical Problem | |
| Toru Nakagawa and Arata Fujita (Osaka Gakuin Univ.) | |
| The Third TRIZ Symposium in Japan, Held by 'Japan TRIZ CB' on Aug. 30 - Sept. 1, 2007 at TOSHIBA Kenshu Center, Yokohama | |
| [Posted on Sept. 13, 2007] |
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Editor's Note (Toru Nakagawa, Sept. 9, 2007) (Translated from the Japanese page, Sept. 10, 2007)
This paper was presented at the Third TRIZ Symposium in Japan
, which was held two weeks ago on Aug. 30 - Sept. 1, 2007, by 'Japan TRIZ CB'. The Symposium was participated by 202 people (including 11 from overseas) and was very active in presentations, discussions, and communications. The organizer, Japan TRIZ CB, where I served as the Chairperson of Program Committee, is preparing for the summary and some official postings. I am also going to write my 'Personal Report' of the Symposium in English for sharing a lot of presentations and activities with the global TRIZ community; please give me several weeks. In the meanwhile, I would like to post my own paper in this "TRIZ Home Page in Japan".
The outline and intention of the present paper may be clear in the Abstract of the paper:
For securing the entrance of residential apartment buildings, the auto-locking door system is typically installed. Visitors without authorized keys have to communicate with the residents through the (video-)interphone to get the door unlocked. In reality, however, unauthorized persons can easily pass through the entrance door, simply by behaving just like a resident and following other residents. This problem is relevant more to psychology and social behavior of people than to technology. In the present case study, we analyzed the problem by using standard methods of TRIZ/USIT, represented the cause-effect relationship in the RCA+ method to find root contradictions, and generated various solutions. The solutions involve not only technical but also psychological and sociological aspects. The present study has demonstrated that TRIZ/USIT can be applied smoothly and effectively to non-technological problems.
The results in the paper have been developed in the following two steps:
(1) Thesis work by Arata Fujita (Faculty of Informatics, Osaka Gakuin University, Graduated in March 2007):
The thesis work started in June 2006 in Nakagawa's Thesis Seminar Class as a mandatory task for the graduation. In the class, Nakagawa supervised the discussions by Fujita and other four students throughout the course of problem solving. The structure of the problem, especially the root causes of the problem, has been clearly revealed and the solution directions have been outlined. The thesis work was submitted officially to the Faculty on Jan. 25, 2007 in the form of Abstract of Thesis (in 2 pages), which was later posted publicly
in "TRIZ Home Page by Students for Students" on Mar. 18, 2007. On the basis of this work we submitted the present paper to the Third TRIZ Symposium in Japan, by writing extended abstracts in Japanese and in English.
(2) Finalizing the manuscripts of presentation by Toru Nakagawa (during the last decade of July 2007)
In preparing the final manuscripts for the Third TRIZ Symposium in Japan, I thought it necessary to make the solution ideas clearer. Thus, in parallel to writing the full paper, I tried to build up the solution concepts step by step. Thus I obtained the solution concept "To keep the Physical control of the door in the conventional way for the sake of safety, but to Control the entrance of people Logically by constructing an IT control system based on a clearer rule". Then I made slides for presentation, where the solution concept is clearly demonstrated as a proposal of an IT based system with a clear rule of entrance.
As the results of the second step mentioned above, the present paper has proposed a clear conceptual solution which can well solve the current widely-known problem.
The unique feature of this paper is that it does not treat the security problem of the auto-locking door system merely as a pure technical problem. In the industries related to this topic, engineers knew it well as 'Accompanied Person Problem' without solutions. If one tries to solve this problem by technology, the doors are often become narrow, strict, and inconvenient, and the security of the building is in conflict with the safety at the gate. The present paper focuses on the psychology of people, by limiting the situations to the entrance door of apartment building. In case when one recognizes an unknown person happens to come just behind himself at the entrance door, one would not dare to tell the person "I am entering this door since I opened it. You should wait for the door once closed and use your key to open it to enter." Nobody can tell such a thing. Hence we should change our system so that we do not need to tell such an awkward comment, otherwise the system will not work practically. Thus the present paper tries to build a new rule which all the residents and visitors would follow smoothly and to build a new system to operate the door under such a rule. Please read the paper (or presentation slides) on the actual solution.
This paper is a big fruit for myself, as well as for TRIZ/USIT in Japan. "Making a good example of creatively solving an everyday-life problem" is important for education in universities and for training and practicing in industries. With such a case study, we can instruct the ways of thinking concretely for helping people understand it. The special merit of this case is that the problem related to human psychology and social rule is solved well with TRIZ/USIT. We are convinced that TRIZ and USIT can handle such problems outside technology.
However, since TRIZ and USIT are already mastered by the author as a part of his thinking, the readers may find it difficult where and how TRIZ/USIT is used actually. Besides the ones written explicitly in the paper, TRIZ/USIT gives influences on the direction of thinking in both analysis and solution generation stages. Such influences are not explicitly mentioned in the paper and sometimes they are difficult to recognize even for myself. For example, the essence of this solution is written in my conclusion of this paper as "According to TRIZ Inventive Principle 28, Substitution of Mechanism, the mechanical and physical door system has been transferred into the information-based and logical door system". This can be a nice slogan for promoting and penetrating the solution in society, but it was recognized clearly only near the end of my work, i.e., when I wrote the conclusion of the full paper. (While I was considering and building the solution, I have never mentioned such a principle explicitly but used it naturally as a part of my thinking behavior. And at a later stage the way of thinking has become clear for myself and expressed in the sentences.)
During the intermission just after my presentation at the Symposium, a participant who worked long in Police department and is now working in the IP field told me "It is a 'cool' solution. I believe it will work well in the real world." I really wish to penetrate this solution in society.
The present page is composed as follows [fully in Japanese but partially in English]:
(1) Introduction: Extended Abstract of the Paper Presented at the TRIZ Symposium
(2) Initial results: Abstract of Thesis by Arata Fujita submitted to Faculty of Informatics, Osaka Gakuin University on Jan. 25, 2007. PDF 2 pages in Japanese ; Posted in the "TRIZ Home Page by Students for Students"
(3) Full Paper: Published in the Proceedings (Japanese Edition) of the Third TRIZ Symposium in Japan. (Submitted on Aug. 6, 2007) Posted in Japanese
Contents:
1. Introduction
2. Problem Definition
2.1 Start of handling this problem
2.2 How to focus the problem at the initial stage
2.3 Defining the problem3. Analysis of the Problem
3.1 Analysis of the characteristics in space
3.2 Analysis of the characteristics in time
3.3 Current security solutions in the auto-locking door system and around
3.4 Managing to enter the door for the criminal's view point
3.5 Root cause analysis (1) long duration of the door opening
3.6 Root cause analysis (2) problems in psychology of the residents
3.7 Root cause analysis (3) what should we do when we meet other persons at the door
3.8 Understanding the overall structure of the problem (how to sum up the analysis)
3.9 Understanding the core of the problem (conclusion of the analysis)4. Generating the Solution Concept
4.1 Methods and Guidelines for generating solutions
4.2 Solutions for preventing 'residents allow the unauthorized to enter'.
4.3 Making rules for the cases of multiple groups happen to meet at the door
4.4 Solution to the problem of the long duration of the door opening
4.5 Solution outline: A new rule and system of controlling the auto-locking door5. Conclusion
References
(4) Presentation Slides: Presented at the Third TRIZ Symposium in Japan and Published in the Proceedings (in English Edition) of the Third TRIZ Symposium in Japan (submitted on Aug. 6, 2007).
Posted here in PDF (in English)
(18 slides, 2 slides/page, 81 KB) (Sept. 13, 2007)
Posted in PDF (in Japanese)
(1) Extended Abstract of the Symposium Paper
How to Prevent Unauthorized Persons
from Entering the Auto-locking Door of Apartment Building:
Applying TRIZ/USIT to A Social & Technical ProblemToru Nakagawa and Arata Fujita (Osaka Gakuin University)
Abstract
For securing the entrance of residential apartment buildings, the auto-locking door system is typically installed. Visitors without authorized keys have to communicate with the residents through the (video-)interphone to get the door unlocked. In reality, however, unauthorized persons can easily pass through the entrance door, simply by behaving just like a resident and following other residents. This problem is relevant more to psychology and social behavior of people than to technology. In the present case study, we analyzed the problem by using standard methods of TRIZ/USIT, represented the cause-effect relationship in the RCA+ method to find root contradictions, and generated various solutions. The solutions involve not only technical but also psychological and sociological aspects. The present study has demonstrated that TRIZ/USIT can be applied smoothly and effectively to non-technological problems.
Extended Abstract
The present paper is based on the thesis work of A. Fujita [1] in Faculty of Informatics of Osaka Gakuin University and further research by T. Nakagawa, carried out with the aim of applying TRIZ/USIT to creative problem solving of an everyday-life problem.
For analyzing the problem, the analysis of space characteristics and the analysis of time characteristics were carried out. The problem was further analyzed by considering various ways of passing through the auto-locking door without authentication from the standpoint of the unauthorized person (subversion analysis). This clarifies the fact that unauthorized persons can enter the door easily and smoothly by choosing the timing when the auto-locking door is kept open.
Reasons for such weak points in the system were discussed in the thesis group. All the observations discussed are grouped and rearranged in the scheme close to the RCA+ Diagram proposed by Valery Souchkov, especially for revealing the Cause-Effects relationships. As the result, the root causes of the problem and the root contradictions which have been prohibited appropriate solutions so far have been revealed.
For solving such contradictions, we have applied TRIZ/USIT thinking methods and have generated several directions of solutions. The outline of the solution directions are briefly summarized in the following:
(a) The existing auto-locking door is typically kept open for about 10 seconds. ==> For making the response quicker after the passing by the resident, small parts of the door are closed, or else any violation is detected with a sensor and noticed/alarmed by the system.
(b) At present it is often found that residents allow unauthorized persons to enter. ==> The principle that unauthorized persons are not allowed to enter should be enforced more among the residents. Residents are requested to tell to the System the number of company who are going to enter at every moment of opening the door.
(c) In the existing systems, the rule of action is not effective (or not clearly stated) in the cases when two groups happen to meet in front of the door and want to enter the door. ==> Enforce the rule of getting authentication individually for each group. Each group should tell to the System the number of people in the group.
The overall structure of the problem is illustrated in the following figure, which contains the description of current methods, causes of the problem, and directions to solution [1].
A clear set of solutions of a new IT control system is proposed in the paper.
Presenter's Profile: Toru Nakagawa
Professor of Informatics at Osaka Gakuin University. Since he was first exposed to TRIZ in May 1997, he endeavored to introduce it into Fujitsu Labs for which he was working. After moving to the University in April 1998, he has been working for introducing TRIZ into Japanese industries and academia. In November 1998 he founded the public WWW site "TRIZ Home Page in Japan" and serves as the Editor. He is currently working to present TRIZ in a simple, unified and yet powerful way for solving real industrial problems and for teaching students. He has been serving as the Program Chairperson of TRIZ Symposium in Japan, 2005 - 2007. -- In his carrier, he was a researcher in physical chemistry in a university, then was a researcher and managing staff in information science in an industry laboratory. -- E-mail: nakagawa@utc.osaka-gu.ac.jp
(2) Initial Results: Abstract of the Thesis by Arata Fujita
Thesis presented to the Faculty of Informatics, Osaka Gakuin University on Jan. 25, 2007.
Posted in Japanese in the Web site "TRIZ Home Page by Students for Students",
Re-posted in the Japanese page of "TRIZ Home Page in Japan",
(3) Full Paper Presented at the Third TRIZ Symposium in Japan
In Japanese: Published in the Proceedings of The Third TRIZ Symposium in Japan Held by Collaborative Board of TRIZ Promoters and Users in Japan, on Aug. 30 - Sept. 1, 2007, at TOSHIBA Kenshu Center, Yokohama.
Posted in the Japanese page of this site "TRIZ Home Page in Japan" in HTML
Posted in Japanese in PDF (8 pages, 382 KB)
English translation is not ready.
(4) Slides Presented at the Third TRIZ Symposium in Japan
In English: Published in the Proceedings (English Edition) of The Third TRIZ Symposium in Japan Held by Collaborative Board of TRIZ Promoters and Users in Japan, on Aug. 30 - Sept. 1, 2007, at TOSHIBA Kenshu Center, Yokohama.
In English: Posted here in PDF (18 slides, 2 slides/page, 81 KB)
In Japanese: Posted in PDF (18 slides, 2 slides/page, 159 KB)
Last updated on Sept. 13, 2007. Access point: Editor: nakagawa@utc.osaka-gu.ac.jp
