TRIZ Paper: Japan TRIZ Symposium 2010


TRIZ for Managers -- Approach and Management Using Scientific Methods --
Kazuya Yamaguchi (MOST, LLC)
A Special Interest Lecture presented at
The Sixth TRIZ Symposium in Japan,
Held by Japan TRIZ Society on Sept. 9-11, 2010 at Kanagawa Institute of Technology, Atsugi, Kanagawa, Japan
[English translation by Yoshihisa Konishi]
Introduction (from "Personal Report of Japan TRIZ Symosium 2010" ) by Toru Nakagawa (OGU), Dec.14, 2010
[Posted on Dec. 30, 2010] Updated: Sept. 25, 2011

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Editor's Note (Toru Nakagawa, Dec. 28, 2010)

This article was given by Kazuya Yamaguchi as a Special Interest Lecture, i.e. an Invited Lecture, at the 6th TRIZ Symposium in Japan, 2010 PDF files of the presentation slides were posted (on Dec. 1, 2010) in the Official Web site of Japan TRIZ Society  

I have just written an introduction to it as a part of my "Personal Report of Japan TRIZ Symposium 2010"  and am going to post it in the TRIZ Forum section of this Web site. 

For the purpose of easier access to the presentation, the present page is made to contain the followings:

English page (the present page) Japanese page
Abstract (in HTML) Extended Abstract (in HTML)

Presentation slides in PDF [English translation by Yoshihisa Konishi]

ibid  (Link to the Official Site of Japan TRIZ Society)

Presentation slides in PDF

ibid (Link to the Official Site of Japan TRIZ Society)

Nakagawa's Introduction (Excerpt from the "Personal Report") --

[1] Abstract

TRIZ for Managers
-- Approach and Management Using Scientific Methods --

Kazuya Yamaguchi (MOST, LLC)

The 6th Japan TRIZ Symposium 2010
Held by Japan TRIZ Society on Sept. 9-11, 2010
at Kanagawa Institute of Technology, Atsugi, Kanagawa, Japan

Abstract

Since 2000, TRIZ activities have been expanding gradually, but the speed of expansion is slow. From the viewpoint that TRIZ is very effective, the gap between the above and how it should be seems to be tremendous. The main reason for this seems to be that TRIZ has been used just as a mere tool for “Inventive Problem Solving” by engineers, and people including managers up to the top executives of companies have failed to recognize it as an indispensable part for the company’s organized activities.

And, taking the changing times into account, most of the top executives of companies usually braced themselves in a dashing manner and produced good results without finding a great tool like TRIZ. Consequently, they have no thought about TRIZ or things like that at management, and firmly believe that to brace oneself in a dashing manner is the fundamental for producing good results. Managers are required to learn the current status well, define their roles for themselves as managers in the companies, and take active procedures to break out of the status quo. And for that, it becomes important how to think about TRIZ as a manager, how to talk around the top executives and/or subordinates, and how to set the environment to utilize TRIZ. These points will be presented together with the combined application with QFD and quality engineering as “TRIZ for Managers” useful for management through the present writer’s experience.


[2]  Presentation Slides in PDF

Presentation Slides in English in PDF [English translation by Yoshihisa Konishi] (54 slides, 570 KB)

      ibid (Link to the Official Site of Japan TRIZ Society)

Presentation Slides in Japanese in PDF (54 slides, 1.3 MB)

ibid (Link to the Official Site of Japan TRIZ Society)


[3] Introduction:

Excerpt from:

Personal Report of
The Sixth TRIZ Symposium in Japan, 2010
Part E. Promotion of TRIZ in Industries

Toru Nakagawa (Osaka Gakuin University)
Dec. 14, 2010 (Posted on Dec. 30, 2010)

 

Kazuya Yamaguchi (MOST, LLC) [JI05, L-5] gave a Special Interest Lecture (i.e. an Invited Lecture) on the second day afternoon, with the title of "TRIZ for Managers -- Approach and Management Using Scientific Methods --".  He was Deputy General Manager of Development Process Management Department at Panasonic Communications Co. and led the company-wide movement of process/product innovation.  He promoted the set of QFD-TRIZ-Taguchi-CAE methods, calling them "scientific methods" for QCD (Quality, Cost, and Delivery).  He was an energetic manager who had actually mastered all these methods on the basis of his engineering background.  After his retirement from PCC at an age-limit in 2007, he has been operating a consulting firm MOST.  Now we should read his Abstract first:

Since 2000, TRIZ activities have been expanding gradually, but the speed of expansion is slow. From the viewpoint that TRIZ is very effective, the gap between the above and how it should be seems to be tremendous. The main reason for this seems to be that TRIZ has been used just as a mere tool for “Inventive Problem Solving” by engineers, and people including managers up to the top executives of companies have failed to recognize it as an indispensable part for the company’s organized activities.

And, taking the changing times into account, most of the top executives of companies usually braced themselves in a dashing manner and produced good results without finding a great tool like TRIZ. Consequently, they have no thought about TRIZ or things like that at management, and firmly believe that to brace oneself in a dashing manner is the fundamental for producing good results. Managers are required to learn the current status well, define their roles for themselves as managers in the companies, and take active procedures to break out of the status quo. And for that, it becomes important how to think about TRIZ as a manager, how to talk around the top executives and/or subordinates, and how to set the environment to utilize TRIZ. These points will be presented together with the combined application with QFD and quality engineering as “TRIZ for Managers” useful for management through the present writer’s experience.

*** Listening to his presentation and reading his slides again for the present review work, I am much impressed with his messages.  This lecture contains deep thoughts and powerful messages based on his experiences to managers in industries and to the people who want to learn and apply any of methodologies for improving QCD and for innovation.  Since his slides are rich and well organized, I feel it rather difficult to reduce them in number.  I am going to use 24 slides among the original 54 slides.  See the original set:  .

The slide (right) shows the contents of the lecture.  The most important point here is that TRIZ is promoted as one of the three principal methods in "Trans-disciplinary Fundamental Technologies".  The Author puts much stress on the necessity that company activities should be addressed to meet the request of QCD (Quality, Cost, and Delivery), as stated in JQA (Japan Quality Award).  And for this purpose, he promote the application of scientific techniques, especially the trans-disciplinary, all-round, fundamental technologies.   He recommend to use QFD, TRIZ, and Taguchi Method (or so-called Quality engineering, in Japan) together in a set, because their roles are complementary with each other.  He explains the essence of these methods one by one in the main sections of this lecture, and summarizes their roles again in the concluding section.

In the following slide (below-left) the Author criticizes the conventional ways of management of product development in industries.  In the conventional management, inefficient activities of our own ways are prevailing without using scientific methods, and hence we waste money, waste time, and lose the trust of customers.  Thus (in the slide (below-right)), we should aim at the direction of 'scientific management approach'.  We have to realize the products 'Good, Early, and Cheaply', by using rational scientific technical method, the Author says.

By the management using scientific technical methods, the people in the company will change in the manner as shown in the slide (right), the Author believes.  Since tools/methods are good, there arise technical discussions involving many people and the abilities of engineers can be drawn to the maximum.  The power of people will be shown at 130%, instead of 30% in the conventional management.  This will improve QCD (Quality, Cost, and Delivery) of the products.  And hence, it will strengthen the product competitiveness and increase sales and profit of the company.
In the slide (right), the Author discusses what to study for products creation.  In the traditional approach, (a) expertise in specific fields of science & technologies and (b) traditional QC techniques (e.g., 7 tools for QC, TQM, FMEA, FTA, etc.) are used.  Since around 1990, all-purpose technologies for product development processes have been developed well.  Hence, in addition to the traditional tools (a) and (b), we should use (c) Development Process Technology.  The most important methods in (c) are QFD, TRIZ, and Taguchi Method.  Usage of IT, e.g. CAE/CAD/CAM etc., is also required.  These methods support intellectual creativity and assist problem solving.  The emergence of (c), the Development Process Technology, urges managers to make a paradigm shift in the management in industries.   
The slide (right) illustrates the company activities for product creation, in the form of production cycle.  Corresponding to the activities in each stage, the Author shows relevant, effective method of Development Process Technology.  QFD is effective in the stages of Marketing and R&D.  TRIZ is effective in the stages of R&D, Product development, and Fabrication method development.  Then Taguchi method is effective in the stages from Product development to Production and Verification.  At the later stages of Sales and After-the-sales service, QFD is effective again.  Overlapping of methods in a stage and covering multiple stages of a method come from the Author's experiences.

The Author now explains the 3 scientific methods by turn.  QFD (Quality Function Deployment), first.  The purpose of QFD is shown in the slide (below-left).  It is for accurately understanding the customers' requests; clarifying the goal, the task, and the action items.  The method is based on the matrix-type representation as shown in the slide (below-right).  The process of using QFD is shown as the sequence in (1) to (5) in the slide: They are: (1) Customers' requests are broke down into the required quality; (2) For fulfilling the customer request what characteristics should be considered technically? and (2a) the relationships between (1) and (2) are to be marked in the matrix in the center of the sheet; (3) Importance of the requests are evaluated, and (4) the strategic plan should be decided for making the customers happy; and (5) the design quality is evaluated on the basis of the information in the matrix (2a) and their degree of importance (3)(4).  The Author writes the secret of using QFD at the bottom-right corner of the slide: "Don't assess the feasibility in the evaluation of (4) planned quality and (5) design quality.  Difficulties are to be solved in the next stage, where TRIZ is applied.

Then the Author illustrates the usage of TRIZ in the next stage.  Even though the Author explains several Knowledge-based standard tools of TRIZ here for the managers novice in TRIZ, I will omit them and put more stress on the managemental/philosophical side of TRIZ.  In the slide (below-left), the Author explain the thought pattern in TRIZ as "analogical thinking using excellent problem solving cases derived from the past in other fields/industries".  Even though the present technical problem seems quite new for us, there should be some cases similar in its essential nature in other field.  And at the same time we should pursue to make the maximum use of ideality and resources.  The slide (below-right) places emphasis on the advantage of TRIZ as the ultimate method with 'Knowledge management', or well-accumulated and well-organized knowledge bases in science and technology.

In the following two slides (below), the Author summarizes the features of ideas obtainable with TRIZ.  Ideas can be generated in all the directions and they can be converged into the best concepts.  The concepts of ideality, resources,

Using the generated ideas, the Author advises to develop multiple conceptual solutions, e.g. solutions for new products in a short term, conceptual solutions for next generation and future generation products, etc. (See slide (below-left).)  It is the Author's recommendation to develop strategies for next and future generation products by keeping the ideal solution in mind.  The slide (below-right) makes the position of TRIZ clear in the 'scientific methods'.  As is described above, the product goal has to be decided by using QFD.  The higher the goal, the better, the Author says.  Then in the R&D stage TRIZ is used to solve the technical problems for embodying the goal.  Concrete conceptual solutions must be the results.  We should foresee the future and decide not only tactics but also strategies.  The TRIZ process can be done on the desk by using our brains.  Then in the next step, by using Taguchi Method, structure of the products are to be determined so as to make the system tolerant to error conditions and perfect in the QCD requirements.

Now the Author starts the explanation of the third of the 'scientific methods', i.e., Taguchi Method (or Quality Engineering).  The slide (below-left) states the general idea of TM as 'to control the characteristics of control factors to minimize the influence of noise factors'.  The procedure of TM is illustrated in the slide (below-right).  First, choosing the control factors and their values (of two to four levels), combined experiments are designed according to the orthogonal arrays.  Then the results of the experiments are plotted in the factor-effort chart.  And then the optimal control factors are estimated so as to minimize the variation (or larger S/N ratio) and to match the mean (or adjust with the sensitivity).

In the slides (below-left), the Author summarizes the advantages of using Taguchi Methods.  'Companies have to make good products early and cheaply.  TM is a theory for creating little variation (good quality) products from much variation (cheap) parts.  This makes the companies strong in cost.  Dr. Taguchi's wise remark: "Quality first" crushes the company.  [Because high quality products from high quality parts are expensive and cost burden.]  In the slide (below-right), the Author compares the conventional experiments with the TM experiments.  In the conventional experiments we try to make a thing most suitable and good quality (by choosing supposed-to-be-optimal parameters).  However, the resultant thing is defective in some points, and we have to carry out experiments with some revised (but still trial-based) parameters.  We often run into the devil's cycle.  On the other hand, in the experiments in TM, the design is made in two phases.  In the first phase, a wide range of control parameter values are tried without being afraid of making defective products; this first phase is to estimate the parameters of minimum variation and to learn the problems beforehand.  In the second phase, optimum parameters are found.  This does not run into a never-ending cycle, but goes straight to the result with much shorter time.   

The Author, Kazuya Yamaguchi, introduced the Taguchi Method into the field of testing embedded software and developed the MOSTEST method.  Since there are many input factors (e.g. sensor inputs), testing the embedded software is difficult especially in the combination tests, where the number of possible cases much exceeds the number of realistically testable cases (see the slide (below-left)).  Thus in reality combination bugs inescapably remain.  In the MOSTEST method, a software verification tool is used to generate the orthogonal array in TM suitable for the target software.  User has to enter the relationships between condition factors and configuration factors, simple factors and their levels, and state-transition relations. Using the orthogonal array thus automatically generated, the test cases for bug verification are automatically generated.  This method covers two-factor combinations 100%, and unintentionally three-factor combinations 80-60% and four-factor combinations 50-30%, the Author says.

In the slide (right), the Author criticizes the predominant 'Standard' way of doing research/development /design by people who do not use Taguchi Method.  The conventional way is essentially trial-and-error cycles (of process 1)-6)), even though various methods/tools are used in the process of each cycle.  The Author states: "Let's immediately stop with such an inefficient approach and management that lacks logic!"

The Author is now concluding the Keynote by using three slides. 

The slide (right) shows his statement of the position of TRIZ in the creative problem solving process.  I will quote the Authors statement here:

To use TRIZ well, "QFD" and "Taguchi method" must be used well changing the time.  The relation among the 3 major methods is that none of them is superior to the others.  There are only time lags in their activities.

 

The slide (right) summarizes the purposes and usages of the three major methods.
QFD is to clarify the product concept (or goal of the product development); the higher the goal, the better.
TRIZ is then to be used for developing the concrete product concept, which must be technically possible overcoming technical difficulties and also impressive for customers.  This process is done on the desk (with brain only).
And then Taguchi method is used for creating products which are tolerant of error conditions. 

On these bases the final slide (right) illustrates the way of management of product development with scientific methods, in comparison with common management.  The manager should tell to their people:

"Bring me the result of QFD review!" (instead of just saying 'Review closely' in the common management)
"Utilize the scientific methods!" (instead of saying 'Play full out!' or 'Give it your all!')
"Show ideas generated with TRIZ!" (instead of saying 'Combine the wisdom of all!)
"Bring me the data of Taguchi method review!" (instead of saying 'Reduce defects radically!')

With use of such a management, input energy (in terms of man, things, and money) can be reduced, while the outcome (i.e. profit) can be increased.

*** This Keynote Lecture states the Author's belief very clearly and logically.  Since he summarizes his talk well, I will not repeat it.  This is really a strong message for managers and engineers, not only those who do not know TRIZ but also those who know TRIZ well. 
During 2001-2007 the Author actually built and led a strong group of process innovation using these scientific methods and promoted a company wide movement in PCC and in Panasonic Corp. It is interesting that he established the scientific methods in the reverse way, i.e., TM, TRIZ, and then QFD, when he organized the movement in PCC.  See the Author's Invited Talk at Japan TRIZ Symposium 2006 .

[The original presentation slides of this Special Interest Lecture are already posted in the Official Web site of Japan TRIZ Society   .  In this Web site "TRIZ Home Page in Japan", I have posted a new HTML page of this presentation for convenience of reference . (Dec. 30, 2010) ]

 

 

 

 

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Last updated on Sept. 25, 2011.     Access point:  Editor: nakagawa@ogu.ac.jp