Law Of Non Uniform Evolution Of Subsystems

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

TRIZ (Theoria Resheneyva Isobretatelskehuh Zadach) is the Russian acronym for the "The theory of inventive problem solving" and this theory was developed in USSR by a bright patent examiner of Russian navy, Genrich Altshulle in 1950. TRIZ was originated based on extensive research and study of huge numbers (initially thousands and now millions) of the world’s most inventive patents. After going through expensive research and analysis of inventions, Altshuller concluded that evolution formation of the technology follow a specific set of repetitive patterns. These repetitive patterns can be applied or used for problem resolution and technological advancement. Genrich Altshuller recognized that the development of technological systems always predictable and follow a specific patterns that cut aboard all areas of technology and the pace of technology evolution can be expedited. Genrich Altshuller also acknowledged that problem solving fundamentals are also predictable and repetitive. Initially TRIZ was used in the Soviet defense industries but later the benefits of this concept became available in USA and used by lot of big corporations (Fey & Rivin, 2005).

Technology innovation is very old and every time some new technology is invented it is said that that’s the last innovation in technology, but it’s a wrong perception and innovation is an ongoing process to invent the new product to help our life, and it will never stop. We have seen that most of the great innovation happened in past did not have any systematic or organized approach and took lot of time for creator i.e. wheel, automobile, light bulb, airplane and the computer etc. TRIZ tells us that evolution of technology o system does not follow random path and it’s governed by certain laws and we are going to discuss these laws in following section of essay.

Let’s first see how the new concepts or products are developed. Necessity is the mother of invention is an English proverb which means difficult situation or need always help create new innovations. We can also see and correlate this saying in TRIZ prospective also as in when problems exist during a product development process, already developed system new functionality is required or introduced. Every new product development starts with recognition of need. Once we have need in place we will transform into clearly defined problem or set of problems.

I am working in SAP BI (Business intelligence) and every day user comes up with their need of automating business process and reducing the overall time for analysis and running the report. Let me take example in terms of TRIZ, where we had to develop customer portal for Toyota dealers and customers and Toyota wanted an automate process for dealers and customers to see a dashboard for their invoice, vehicle data and maintenance cycle. Constraints were that we had to develop a system where dealers and customer should be able to see a report in less than 5 second and we had budget constraints, existing technology use and security concern not to see each other data. So we had a need for customer/dealer reporting portal and constraints were dynamic security, budget, and make use of existing technology. Since security was very dynamic as whenever any new dealer or customer is added or deleted front end customer should be able to handle it without going in back end process and doing heavy IT coding for security adjustment We have developed a table in SAP R/3 which can be interacted with web and data can be maintained by Toyota customer care based on dealer’s and customer’s requests. This table will have user id and location data associated for them and it will be used in SAP BI solution to restrict the overall reporting data so that user will see data associate with them. Based on this table maintenance we were able to save huge development and maintenance in backend design in order to make changes for new customer, changes into existing and deletion. If we had to use standard functionality of SAP BI security it would require custom security profile to be changed or created for every user i.e. if we have 5000 customer and 2000 dealer it would require 7000 profile to be created in back end and a dedicated team to maintain the same.

So I can correlate TRIZ product development process here as whenever there is a need we identify the clearly defined problem for the same with constraints. Next process is to generate various conceptual solutions to the problems. Generate concepts are evaluated against various criteria and the most favorable concepts are selected for a prototype. Finally the detailed design phase is fully developed and dimension of all components are determined.

Example1

Need (Toyota Customer/Dealer Portal)

Problem Definition Performance reporting with Constraints: - Dynamic Security, Budget, and Use of existing technology

Concept Development

A-Create 7000 user security profile in SAP BI

B-Create SAP R/3 table to be maintained be Customer service

Concept verification, evaluation and Prototype

B-Create SAP R/3 table to be maintained be Customer service is less development, no maintenance in long run and cost efficient.

Detailed Design and Development

B-Development of option B with detailed design of customer and dealer requirements

We can also compare the above model with Basic model of TRIZ as follows.

We have lot of powerful engineering tools and analytical methods available in the market which can help in efficient evaluation of new concepts? If look backward there was no efficient way to test and predict outcome of an idea without testing it. Thomas Edison performed 6000 experiments with a vast variety of material before inventing a satisfactory filament. In today’s world of advancement of technology and science we can avoid weak idea with the help of technology and concentrate on strong idea which can be developed as in innovation i.e. with the help of computer based system such as computer-aided design (CAD), Computer-sided manufacturing (CAM), finite element analysis (FFEA), computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and others that help facilitate the product development. (Fey & Rivin, 2005).

TRIZ addresses both as a theory of technology evolution and also a method for effective development of new technology system. It is not specific to any technology specific and can be applied to any technology. Main concept of TRIZ is that it use two major subsystems based on the law of technological system evolution which can be identified as a set of methods for developing conceptual design system and other is a set of tool for the identification and development for new advance technology innovations.

TRIZ foundation is based on 9 laws of evolution. Law of evolution work as if we are providing the input based on existing technology, and by following the law we can forecast and predict future configuration of technology. Altshuller’s opinion is that if these laws were known earlier and we follow them, the next generation tech advancement can be predicted and can be used for better and faster system. Please find the overview of the laws of evolution as follows:-

Law of increasing degree of ideality

Law of non-uniform evolution of subsystems

Law of transition to a higher-level system

Law of increasing flexibility

Law of transition to a micro-level

Law of completeness

Law of shortening of energy path flows

Law of increasing substance-field interactions

Law of harmonization states

1) Law of increasing degree of ideality: System follow a tendency to progress with advance and increased functionality and decreased cost along with problems. Let’s take an example of headphone, in past they were large, uncomfortable and expensive but with technology advancement they are now cheap and have more functionality. Another good example is that I was going through my personal site hosting details and realized that hosting of the website earlier used to be 100US/Month couple of years ago and now it has come down to 5-10USD/month with added functionality of added features like free email id’s.

Systems with higher degree of ideality have more chances to be successful in long run and will capture the market segment. Technological systems are developed to do certain functions and a better system would require less material to build and maintain. If we see the Exaple1given above regarding the development of SAP BI solution, you will see that it was developed with less development hours and it would require less maintenance going forward and reason being it’s a good example of ideal technological system with less material to build and maintain.

Ideality is the final result that can be achieved by TRIZ. As systems evolve over a period of time it will increase scale of ideality. The degree of useful effects will go upward and the scale of harmful effects will go downward. Systems will become more effective and efficient over a period of time however it will rarely reach perfection but we should not obsolete that possibility. Ideal Final Result (IFR) was developed by TRIZ from the same ideality concept. The useful process will improve and the harmful effects will be reduced to zero.

The concept of an ideal technology was discovered by Altshuller; which states that a system who’s mass, dimension, cost, energy consumption etc. are approaching zero however whose capability to perform the specified function is not diminishing. The ideal system does not exist as a physical entity while its function is fully performed (Fey & Rivin, 2005).

The aspect of TRIZ is the identification that technical systems evolve following the degree of increased ideality by overcoming contradictions mostly with minimum addition of resources. When IFR is accomplished, the system goes away and it is not required to perform the function. Ideality is the state in which fulfilling a aspire function or effect happens without the need for the system. IFR is the achievement of ideality.

Let’s take an example of ideality which will demonstrate that ideality is achieved and IFR is real goal. I was reading an article long back where a meat plant in South America needed a refrigeration system in Cargo planes. Later on it was discovered that weight of refrigeration was increasing the weight and less meat was shipped and which was increasing the overall cost of shipment. They wanted to increase the amount of meat shipped per cargo ship and same was achieved by avoiding the instillation of refrigeration system on cargo plan and flying it at an altitude of 15,000 – 25,000 feet where air temperature is below 32 degrees F. By using this idea existing resource was used to achieve the system ideality.

Another example may be fuel efficient cars where while running the car and wheels mechanical energy is transformed into charging battery which will operate the car in turn and save the fuel.

Another example which I can think of is solar energy panel where cost and instillation was saved by using windows and doors based solar panel to create electricity.

2) Law of non-uniform evolution of subsystems The law of non-uniform evolution of subsystem states that various sub system of parts of a system grows at non-uniform rates. Any technical system fulfills some demand which usually evolve at faster rate than the advancement of the system. This will eventually create system conflicts resulting in scope for innovation.

If we observe that conventionally improving one system attributes usually resulting in compromising on another attribute. For example if we equip a computer with double processor it can enhance speed and efficient but it will also generate lot of heat which would require more powerful cooling system. Altshuller discovered lot of methods for resolving system conflicts which means satisfying both conflicting requirements.

A system conflict is present when a useful action simultaneously causes a harmful effect or the introduction of useful action or the elimination of the harmful action cause an inadequacy, or an unacceptable complication of either one part or of the whole system (Fey & Rivin, 2005).

We can find the solution of a problem affiliated with a system conflict either by finding a settlement between the contradictory demands, or by fulfilling all of them. If we talk about settlement or compromising between the contradictory demands it will only soften the system conflict and will not completely resolve them. TRIZ prospective is to resolve the system conflict without settlement or compromise in order to make a good invention and technological system.

In order to resolve the system conflict we should be able to eliminate the harmful action along with retaining the useful action. If we can eliminate the harmful action it will equalize to introducing the useful action.

Resolving system conflicts is an important and integral part of problem solving and helping development of new technological systems. There are three generic approaches which are used for resolving system conflicts.

Eliminate of either the tool or the object (using the ideality concepts)

Changing the conflicting components such that the harmful action disappears.

Introducing a special component intended to eliminate or neutralize the harmful action (Fey & Rivin, 2005).

I will take a real example of problem for one of my friend’s startup company. During the startup of company board of director decided to invest aggressively in marketing team to expand the company and maximum number of exhibitions to promote their products. After some time there was some budget constraints and marketing budget was cut and marketing department have a big problem now. Marketing team already forecasted the number of marketing persons to hire in order to meet the target but due to budget constraints they will not be able to conduct all exhibitions that were planned. Also, if they try to reduce the number or marketing professional and increase the exhibition it will affect the overall marketing performance and they will miss their target goal.

It was not possible to increase the budget and there may be two solution of the problem one way to apply optimization method and we can optimize the number of marketing professionals and secondly we can optimize the exhibitions. Both of these solutions will not help the existing problem as these are tradeoffs and does not resolve the original problem.

A contradiction in TRIZ is demonstrated by positive vs. negative affects and both are presents as results of certain condition. For instance, if we have small size of marketing professionals and high numbers of exhibition it will result in poor marketing performance. If we have large size of marketing team and with less exhibitions it will result in low number of exhibitions with less product marketing.

(Negative)

Poor performance

(Positive)

More Exhibitions

(Positive)

Marketing Performance

(Negative)

Fewer Exhibitions

Marketing Team- BIG

Marketing Team- Small

An innovative solution was presented to resolve the conflicts instead of settlement and compromising. Marketing team did not change the plan for hiring number of marketing professionals and they decided to participate fully only in important exhibitions. Whenever a new marketing professional will join they will be working to search for the businesses that are willing to share booth and co-promote products. It did resolve the problem and it was win-win situation for the company. Company was able to increase the marketing team as planned along with exhibited their products at all exhibitions.

3) Law of transition to a higher-level system This law defines the evolution of technological systems forward into multi-functionality of the system and complexity. Technological system follows the path from mono-system to bi- or poly-system. Mono system initially developed to perform single function and gradually it will acquire capability of performing more and more complex function as technology evolve; however they may have same or different physical properties.

An example of mono-system may be a printer initially was only performing printing jobs but these days they are coming as printer, scanner and fax also.

Another example of a mono-system may be a single lens. It evolved into two lenses constitute as bi-system and later on three or more lenses combined to make up a poly-system.

One of the outcomes of this merging of mono-systems into a bi- or poly-system is the growth of system hierarchy, or development of new hierarchical levels; hence, the name of this law of evolution.

Bi-System

Poly-Systems

Mono system

Following are some examples of BI and Poly-systems.

Bi-systems: Following are some examples of Bi-systems.

Scissors (grouping of two knives),

Binoculars (pair of two telescopes),

Two-barrel hunting rifle,

Candy with liquor; etc.

Smart TV with internet

Poly-systems: Following are some examples of Ploy-systems

Multi-ink pen

Multi-drawer filing cabinet

Printer with Fax and Scanner

4) Law of increasing flexibility As per law of increasing flexibility more complex and stiff structures evolves into flexible and adaptive ones. A new system is generally created to work in a specific environment and to solve a specific problem or to perform one function.

System design accommodate the specific need system has to perform. Such type of system demonstrates the feasibility of main design concept, but its applications and performance parameters are limited. During the course of evolution, the system becomes more adaptable to the changing environment. Lot of studies for numerous evolution proved that process of evolution has a flexibility phase and during that time structure of the system move slowly towards more adaptability to the changing environment and become multi functional.

In the beginning, our ancestors slumbered on the hard ground. If we go long back our ancestors used to sleep on hard ground and then they used furs and tree branches. Gradually they used mattresses made by fabrics and filling them with cushion material as straw and animal hairs. Recently we have so many varieties in mattress where it uses coil, pad and gel etc. We have sleep number types advanced mattresses which can be adjusted based on comfort of people on each side.

5) Law of transition to a micro-level: The law of transition from macro to micro level says that technological system evolves follow a path of increasing fragmentation of their components. In other technical words we can say that functions which are generally performed by such macro-objects as shafts, levers, gears, gradually assigned to micro-objects like molecules, atoms, ions, and elementary particles.

We can also say that during the transition to micro level we will use lower level physical structure. Lot of conflicts can be developed during the evolution process but all these can be resolved by micro level transition (Fey & Rivin, 2005).

Let’s take an example of computer mouse, few years ago mouse used to have a ball that will convert mechanical movement into electrical signal. Current generation of mouse has only has a touch plate where finger movement is directly transformed into electrical signal.

6) Law of completeness The law of completeness explains that a working technological system has four principal parts (Fey & Rivin, 2005).

Working unit

Transmission

The Engine which will generate energy from outside resources

The Control element

During the initial stages of development of technological system, people will perform some critical task to perform the action but as the system evolves human components are gradually eliminated.

Examples can be as follows:-

Air force has developed some air drone plan where it does not require any human pilots.

During early days of car manufacturing we did not have automatic transmission and we have to change the gear manually by hand but with evolution of automatic transmission this process is eliminated and automatic transmission change the gear automatically based on speed.

Cruise Control in Cars

Autopilot in aero planes

7) Law of shortening of energy path flows: As per this law technological systems evolve toward shortening the distance between the energy sources and working means. This can be a reduction of energy transformation stages between different forms of energy. Transmission of information also follows this trend (Fey & Rivin, 2005).

For example, transition of text from physical transmission (i.e. books, newspaper) to its electronic transmission (i.e. tweets, blogs, mobile text message) which requires less transformational stages than physical transmission.

Another example may be cloud computing where application or data may be stored in cloud and it can be accessed anywhere without using traditional hard disk storage.

8) Law of increasing substance-field interactions: It’s also known as the Law of Increasing Controllability. It captures and controls the evolution of controlled interactions among each of the systems elements (Fey & Rivin, 2005).

For example in current car models every part of the car is controlled by a control panel.

9) Law of harmonization states The Law of Harmonization describe that the necessary condition for the existence of an effective system is the coordination of the periodicity of actions of its parts. The most successful and viable technological systems are developed by coordination of their principal parts when actions of these parts are supporting each other and are synchronized with one other. This law is very similar to JIT (Just in time) methodology used in production environment o reduce the inventory level and increase the productivity. If there is any problem in synchronization in that case system parts will interfere with each other and performance will deteriorate (Fey & Rivin, 2005).

Example can be SAP ERP integrated system where all module from sales, production planning , finance and purchasing are synchronized and linked with each other and it’s imperative that if they don’t coordinate with each other we cannot implement a integrated SAP system.

TRIZ knowledge and methodology help us build and forecast an innovative technological system with better chances of survival. TRIZ innovative methods, problem solving techniques and law of evolution are applied for prediction of new technology and innovation. Prediction mechanism will produce qualitative outcome with quantitative results. We have discussed various methods and laws which can be used in technology management and forecasting.