Towards risk-aware roadmapping: Influencing factors and practical measures

In spite of the significance of uncertainty and risk in strategy, there is still a general lack of attention to their explicit consideration in strategic planning processes. This lack of attention is also obvious in roadmapping in its application to strategic and innovation planning. This paper introduces and explores the concept of risk-aware roadmapping, which explicitly manages uncertainty and risk in roadmapping, and sheds light on what such a process will entail given the factors that influence it. The study adopts a qualitative approach involving in-depth interviews with roadmapping experts and case studies of roadmapping exercises. This paper contributes to knowledge by providing a process that adds three significant steps to the standard risk management process, to suit roadmapping and strategic front-end innovation planning and identifying the risk of missing valuable innovation opportunities, which is very often overlooked in practice. Theoretical implications for organisational sensemaking are identified especially in the use and management of constraints for sensemaking activities such as innovation planning. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd

A review of TRIZ, and its benefits and challenges in practice

TRIZ (the theory of inventive problem solving) has been promoted by several enthusiasts as a systematic methodology or toolkit that provides a logical approach to developing creativity for innovation and inventive problem solving. The methodology, which emerged from Russia in the 1960s, has spread to over 35 countries across the world. It is now being taught in several universities and it has been applied by a number of global organisations who have found it particularly useful for spurring new product development. However, while its popularity and attractiveness appear to be on a steady increase, there are practical issues which make the use of TRIZ in practice particularly challenging. These practical difficulties have largely been neglected by TRIZ literature. This paper takes a step away from conventional TRIZ literature, by exploring not just the benefits associated with TRIZ knowledge, but the challenges associated with its acquisition and application based on practical experience. Through a survey, first-hand information is collected from people who have tried (successfully and unsuccessfully) to understand and apply the methodology. The challenges recorded cut across a number of issues, ranging from the complex nature of the methodology to underlying organisational and cultural issues which hinder its understanding and application. Another contribution of this paper, potentially useful for TRIZ beginners, is the indication of what tools among the several contained in the TRIZ toolkit would be most useful to learn first, based on their observed degree of usage by the survey respondents. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Translating technology management research into practice: System Design Characterization as an example

The importance of translating research into practice is well established. Research has shown that management consultancies and other intermediaries provide a key mechanism to disseminate academic knowledge to industry. This paper presents a process for, and lessons learned from, translating a research output into a business improvement tool

Integrating the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving with Discrete Event Simulation in Supply Chain Management

Part 7: TRIZ Combined with other ApproachesInternational audienceSupply chain challenges require not only effective management, but also a new innovative strategy to reduce costs and maximize its efficiency. Traditional problem-solving methodologies specific to the areas of supply chain management (SCM) find their limits when confronted with an inventive problem or a problem containing a contradiction. TRIZ (theory of inventive problem solving) is an effective theory for systematizing innovation and solving complex problems containing contradictions. Thus, the use of the theory TRIZ can be considered as a way to meet future challenges in SCM fields and get innovative solutions. This paper presents a method for solving supply chain problems and achieving a low-cost, based on complementarities between TRIZ and discrete event simulation and specific methods for solving supply chain problems. In the proposed model, a witness simulation model of the initial problem is developed to optimize the problem and find the system limits. Then, specific problem solving methods are applied to change the original description of problem and move towards a space in which a solution can be found. The discrete event simulation allows for experiments on the system to be created and analyzed. Thus, an experimental design was developed to establish the cause-and-effect relationships between the parameters of the system in order to formulate a generalized system of contradictions. And finally, ARIZ 85C, the most mature meta-methods of TRIZ, is used to address related contradictions for searching for an innovative solution, which must be subsequently implemented and evaluated in the discrete event simulation. The suitability of this new approach is finally proven through an industrial case study conducted in a company specialized in the manufacture of electronic devices for automobiles

On the Efficiency of TRIZ Application for Process Intensification in Process Engineering

Part 4: TRIZ and FunctionsInternational audienceIn recent years, the application of TRIZ methodology in the process engineering has been found promising to develop comprehensive inventive solution concepts for process intensification (PI). However, the effectiveness of TRIZ for PI is not measured or estimated. The paper describes an approach to evaluate the efficiency of TRIZ application in process intensification by comparing six case studies in the field of chemical, pharmaceutical, ceramic, and mineral industries. In each case study, TRIZ workshops with the teams of researchers and engineers has been performed to analyze initial complex problem situation, to identify problems, to generate new ideas, and to create solution concepts. The analysis of the workshop outcomes estimates fulfilment of the PI-goals, impact of secondary problems, variety and efficiency of ideas and solution concepts. In addition to the observed positive effect of TRIZ application, the most effective inventive principles for process engineering have been identified

Facilitating Engineers Abilities to Solve Inventive Problems Using CBR and Semantic Similarity

Part 6: TRIZ and PatentingInternational audienceOur industry currently undergoes a period of important changes. The era of computerization implies to companies to change not only through their organization, but also in automating as much as possible their internal processes. Our research focuses on the computerization of the problem-solution couple when facing inventive situations in R&D. The method used is based on Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) that has already been proven to be useful in routine design. On the other hand, CBR is hardly used in inventive situations because the latter require reasoning outside the circle of knowledge recorded in a database. Our proposal consists in coupling CBR with semantic similarity algorithms. The aim is to resolve a new problem based on its semantic similarity with the old problems. Then the old solution can be adapted to solve the new problem. We postulate that a multidisciplinary case base sufficiently populated of multidisciplinary problem-solution couples is likely to considerably improve the performance of R&D engineers to solve inventive problems. This being possible by bringing them alternative solutions based on the semantically similar problems, which are distant from their field of origin. In this way, we provide the possibility to enhance the inventiveness of solution. This type of reasoning, largely inspired by the TRIZ theory, is the subject of this paper. The methodology, the experiments and the conclusions that we develop here validate that this type of approach produces the claimed effects on designers although limited to the context where it has been conducted

The application of computational thinking and triz methodology in patent innovation analytics

atent is the most high-level document that involved technical inventive solution and legal value for intellectual property protection. Every patent documented will explained about their system in solving a specific problem. This document has critical information that can be used for various purposes such as patent innovation, technology forecasting and developing patent strategy. This paper is focusing to explore the methodology in using the innovation to enhance patent innovation and competitiveness. The proposed methodology uses computational thinking model and TRIZ methodology. It consists of innovative processes such as anatomization, schematization and tabulation of a patent. This research shows new approach to create innovation and develop analytics study of case study patent for continuous improvement and strategy development

A Method to Formulate Problem in Initial Analysis of Inventive Design

Part 6: Tools to Support Early Design PhasesInternational audienceInitial Analysis is one of the most important phases of Inventive Design, where designers apply the existing methods to formulate a problem. One of these methods is problem graph, which is a powerful tool to translate the knowledge, collected from available documents and data, into a graphical model. However, this graph, by considering today’s competitive world, does not have the agility to present the essential information for applying in the next phase of Inventive Design. The aim of this article is to introduce a new method, which makes a designer able to formulate an appropriate problem, according to the objectives, without wasting time. This method, along with TRIZ, could create an agile design process. An example is done to illustrate better the process