INNOVATION-TRIZ,INC. THE FUTURE OF ORGANIZATIONAL PROBLEM SOLVING World Future Society July 19, 2003 Jack Hipple, Principal Innovation-TRIZ, Inc. www.innovation-triz.com.
Download ReportTranscript INNOVATION-TRIZ,INC. THE FUTURE OF ORGANIZATIONAL PROBLEM SOLVING World Future Society July 19, 2003 Jack Hipple, Principal Innovation-TRIZ, Inc. www.innovation-triz.com.
INNOVATION-TRIZ,INC. THE FUTURE OF ORGANIZATIONAL PROBLEM SOLVING World Future Society July 19, 2003 Jack Hipple, Principal Innovation-TRIZ, Inc. www.innovation-triz.com OVERVIEW AND TOPICS INNOVATION-TRIZ,INC. Brief history of organizational problem solving What’s changed? What’s different? New tools Old tools used in new ways The future and recommendations ®Innovation-TRIZ, 2002 INNOVATION-TRIZ,INC. THE HISTORY OF ORGANIZATIONAL PROBLEM SOLVING TOOLS Thomas Edison (early 1900’s) Mass trial and error Osbourne and Parnes (1940’s, 50’s) Creative problem solving/”brainstorming” Myers and Briggs (1950’s) “Styles” of approaching problems and people Michael Kirton/KAI (1960’s) “Styles” of problem solving can be measured TRIZ (1950’s/Russia, 1990’s US and West) Knowledge management/patent mapping ®Innovation-TRIZ, 2002 RECENT ORGANIZATIONAL ATTEMPTS AT “INNOVATION” Early 1980’s to 1997 INNOVATION-TRIZ,INC. Do “different” things, focused on R&D function Joint with acquisitions and ventures Study of these programs published and presented in the 20002002 time frame 1995-2002 The arrival of quality, Six Sigma, statistical analysis, minimization of cost 2000-Present Low cost alone is not enough Innovation is important again Have we learned anything? Many of the presentations are like 20 year old reruns! ®Innovation-TRIZ, 2002 WHAT’S CHANGED? OVERRIDING ISSUES INNOVATION-TRIZ,INC. Globalization of businesses and markets Cross cultural teams and enterprises Alliances of many different sorts Acquisitions Mergers Joint ventures Temporary alliances and ventures Temporary employees as well as alliances and ventures—loyalty is not there anymore ®Innovation-TRIZ, 2002 WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED? WHAT’S DIFFERENT? INNOVATION-TRIZ,INC. Learned Breakthrough problem solving and innovation is not the sole responsibility of the research organization Customer input Technology licensing and venturing Different Cultural and business issues just discussed Recognition of the need for “knowledge management”—cost of wheel reinvention is exhorbitant In part driven by lack of long term personnel commitments ®Innovation-TRIZ, 2002 OLD TOOLS USED PROACTIVLEY IN NEW WAYS INNOVATION-TRIZ,INC. MBTI/related tools Used typically only for personal growth and development of individuals Not normally used proactively in the innovation and problem solving arenas Some concerns are legitimate Example: Different perspectives on the future of health care Doctors/nurses/patients/insurers/government/ AARP ®Innovation-TRIZ, 2002 INNOVATION-TRIZ,INC. USING MBTI PROACTIVELY Insuring total involvement (E/I) Impact vs. possibilities (S/iN) Data and economics as well as human impact (T/F) Closure and additional thought (J/P) ®Innovation-TRIZ, 2002 OLD TOOLS USED PROACTIVLEY IN NEW WAYS INNOVATION-TRIZ,INC. Kirton KAI™/Buffalo BCPI™ Measures problem solving styles (adaptive/innovative) Not normally used proactively in the innovation and problem solving arenas Some concerns are legitimate Example: breakthrough vs. incremental ®Innovation-TRIZ, 2002 Kirton KAI is a registered trademark of M.J. Kirton, BCPI is a registered trademark of Gerard Puccio INNOVATION-TRIZ,INC. USING PROACTIVLEY Three subscales Originality Long term vs. short term Rule and group conformity Importance of consensus Efficiency Manner of problem solving ®Innovation-TRIZ, 2002 PLANNING, FUTURE FORECASTING, AND PROBLEM SOLVING WITHOUT THESE TOOLS IS LESS THAN COMPLETE AND NON-OPTIMUM INNOVATION-TRIZ,INC. NEW TOOLS TRIZ Patent and knowledge mapping software ®Innovation-TRIZ, 2002 INNOVATION-TRIZ,INC. I HAVE TO REMOVE CORES FROM A MILLION GREEN PEPPERS…. How would I do this? PATTERNS OF INVENTION Processing Sweet Peppers ®Innovation-TRIZ, 2002 INNOVATION-TRIZ,INC. WHAT IS THE INVENTIVE PRINCIPLE (OPERATOR) ? INNOVATION-TRIZ,INC. “Slowly raise pressure and suddenly reduce it” A path to a solution An approach to solving a problem A direction towards an answer ®Innovation-TRIZ, 2002 INNOVATION-TRIZ,INC. PATTERNS OF INVENTION • Removing stems from bell peppers • Removing shells form sunflower seeds • Cleaning filters • Unpacking parts wrapped in protective paper • Splitting diamonds along micro-cracks (+27 years after pepper patent) • Producing sugar powder from sugar crystals • Explosive depulping ®Innovation-TRIZ, 2002 HOW WOULD THINGS BE DIFFERENT IF INDUSTRIAL DIAMOND GRINDING TECHNOLOLGY HAD BEEN AVAILABLE 27 YEARS EALIER? INNOVATION-TRIZ,INC. Lean Times: With Airbus on Its Tail , Boeing Is Rethinking How It Builds Planes Old Hay Loaders, New Resins Play Roles as Firm Tries To Build Faster, Cheaper Hitting a `Rescue Me' Button By J. Lynn Lunsford 09/05/2001 The Wall Street Journal (Copyright (c) 2001, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) RENTON, Wash. -- Not far from the steady blatt-blatt of the rivet guns on its 757 assembly line just outside Seattle sits what Boeing Co. calls its moonshine shop: The people here distill work-saving ideas into contraptions that make it easier to build jets. Consider the hay loader next to an almost-completed 757. Normally, this cross between a ladder and a metalspiked conveyor belt would be dumping bales of hay onto waiting trucks. But to veteran mechanic Robert Harms, the hay loader is the perfect way to get bulky passenger seats from the factory floor up 13 feet to the door of a plane without having to use an overhead crane. "It might look funny, but when you see it work, you wonder why we didn't do it this way all along," he says. Moonshine shops -- so named because they work outside traditional channels and use whatever materials are available -- are the essence of Boeing Chairman Phil Condit's campaign to boost profits by driving out costly manufacturing techniques and the decades-old thinking behind them. From using materials developed for military aircraft to putting its big planes onto moving assembly lines for the first time, Boeing is retooling itself to confront tougher times. Boeing's struggle to streamline the making of one of the biggest and most complicated industrial products mirrors what's happening on factory floors across the country, as manufacturers confront the economic slowdown. The difference for Boeing is that it's trying to accomplish this while still cranking out planes, not in the downtime between models. Boeing executives are counting on this revamp to enable the company's commercial-airplane division to continue posting double-digit profit margins despite the slowing world economy and sharp decline in aircraft orders from the major airlines. At the same time, Europe's Airbus is increasingly becoming a formidable competitor. At the end of July, Airbus had a backlog of 1,602 orders, compared with 1,451 for Boeing, according to the companies. ®Innovation-TRIZ, 2002 THE CAVIAR EGGS AND BALL BEARING STORY THE CONTACT LENS STORY “I not only use all the brains I have, but all I can borrow” Woodrow Wilson LESSONS FOR ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING INNOVATION-TRIZ,INC. Always look in parallel universes Never assume your problem is unique because it probably isn’t Don’t talk to just your customers—who might put them out of business? ®Innovation-TRIZ, 2002 COMMENT ON PARTNERSHIPS AND JOINT VENTURES INNOVATION-TRIZ,INC. Frequently based on a joint commercial approach to solving a unique problem At recent IRI/PDMA meeting on joint ventures: “What assessments are done prior to entering a working partnership? 4 answers: “Nothing” 1 answer: “Take my fellow VP to lunch and see if we get along” Organizational culture can be measured and openly discussed ®Innovation-TRIZ, 2002 INNOVATION-TRIZ,INC. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT Large sums of money generating it Low sums of money to collect it in a retrievable fashion New software tools from many companies Storage and retrieval Searching and retrieval Some based on the TRIZ generic principles Patent mapping ®Innovation-TRIZ, 2002 INNOVATION-TRIZ,INC. KEYS TO SUCCESS For data to be retrieved, it must be entered Willingness to admit that “it might have already been done” “Six months in the lab will save at least an hour in the library” ®Innovation-TRIZ, 2002 INNOVATION-TRIZ,INC. THE FUTURE….A CHECKLIST Proactive measurement and use of: Cultural and individual differences Within organizational teams Within joint ventures and collaborations Knowledge of parallel universes Past knowledge Ability to capture new knowledge ®Innovation-TRIZ, 2002