by Ellen Domb
Unified Structured Inventive Thinking: How to Invent by E. N. Sickafus is a very
complete textbook for the USIT method, which was derived from TRIZ. Ed Sickafus is an
inventor and industrial scientist at Ford Motor Co., and a teacher and practioner of the
USIT method. The book’s introduction gives a short history of SIT and USIT, tracing
it from the work of Genadi Filkovsky to the work of Roni Horowitz and Yacob Goldenberg at
the Open University of Israel to the work of Sickafus, Craig Stephan, and their students
and colleagues at Ford.
I heard Ed Sickafus speak at the International TRIZ Conference (November, 1998) about
the success that he and his colleagues at Ford were having using USIT to solve a wide
variety of problems, which stimulated my interest in his book.
The descriptions of the USIT methods are clear, and the examples are easy to
understand. Many of the techniques are similar to those of TRIZ, such as formulation of a
jargon-free description of the problem, and identification of the zones of conflict of the
problem (called "Collection of Information" in USIT.) The "closed world
diagram" in USIT corresponds to the functional analysis diagram or table, but also
corresponds well with the problem formulator diagram. The USIT technique called the
"qualitative change graph" is a very explicit way of formulating contradictions,
if there are any in the problem. Although the USIT methodology uses the contradictions
differently from the methods used in TRIZ to remove physical or technical contradictions,
this is a method that TRIZ practioners could use to make it easier to understand
contradictions in their problems.
It is difficult to review this book for The TRIZ Journal’s audience, since it is
not a TRIZ book. USIT is different from TRIZ in many ways. However, this book is an
excellent, easy-to-read textbook. Because many of the TRIZ methods have common roots with
the USIT methods, the examples and explanations presented here may help students of TRIZ
understand TRIZ better, and TRIZ researchers may want to incorporate some of the USIT
methods into their work.
For example, the USIT diagram called OAF (objects, attributes, and functions) could be
very helpful to those who use functional analysis, problem formulator methods, or S-field
modeling in TRIZ, since it creates multiple dimensions of linkages between the attributes
of objects and their functions. This could overcome the arguments that students of these
methods have had about the artificiality of modeling everything using only pairs of
objects or pairs of elements. For example, when considering the problem of removing blocks
of ice from a mold, the mold has attributes of solidity, shape, and thermal conductivity,
the water has attributes of fluidity, location, shape (when it becomes ice), thermal
conductivity, heat capacity, freezing point, etc. The mold confines the fluid water,
transfers heat, etc. The matrix of objects, attributes, and functions makes all the
relationships very easy to see, and starts the problem solving process.
Sickafus has an excellent chapter on the definition of the problem, showing in great
detail how to remove all the extraneous information to get to the exact definition of the
problem to be solved. He introduces a method called "elevation to a puzzle" that
systematically removes everything from the situation that is not essential to the
solution.
"Systematic" is the key word in USIT. Each method or technique is accompanied
by definitions, diagrams, flow charts, etc., so the reader is never left wondering how the
author reached the conclusions.
USIT has 2 basic algorithms:
- The closed world algorithm, similar to the use of resources in TRIZ
- The particles algorithm, similar to the "smart little people" method in TRIZ
and 5 problem solving methods:
- Uniqueness (refers to features of the problem that distinguish it from generic problem
descriptions.)
- Dimensionality (refers to all the attributes of an object, not just spatial dimensions.
Includes time, scale, active/passive, state of matter, etc.)
- Distribution (of functions in time or space. They can be separated or brought together
as to solve a problem)
- Pluralization (multiplication or division of objects)
- Transduction (chains of attributes and function, including the scientific effects that
could be used to cause a function to happen)
The book has a chapter on each method as well as a chapter on Altshuller’s
Contradiction Matrix in Part I. Part II has over 100 pages devoted to 9 detailed problems
and illustrations of the application of USIT to each problem. There are 26 problems in the
book, and a matrix in the introduction that guides the reader to finding which problems
illustrate which methods. This is a great technique and I recommend it to anyone who is
writing a textbook!
Although I am obviously very impressed with this book, I will anxiously await a second
edition. The current version has many spelling errors (seven in one 2-page interval) and
after the first few, they become irritating. (Grooves is spelled groves and grroves
in one problem, and I wasted 10 minutes trying to figure out what the "ned" of
the problem was—it was the end!) This may not be a problem when the book is
used as a text in a course, but when the book stands on its own, the reader expects to be
able to understand the text as written.
The Ford Motor Co. is to be thanked for allowing the material from their classes to be
published in this useful book. Students of TRIZ will find many techniques they can use,
and those who are looking for methods of systematic invention will have a method they can
compare to TRIZ.
Title: Unified Structured Inventive Thinking: How to Invent
Author: Ed. N. Sickafus
Publisher: NTELLECK, PO Box 193, Grosse Ile,MI 48138 USA
ISBN 0-9659435-0-X
Author's Web Site:
http://www.u-sit.net/OrdrngInfo.html
Cost: Approximately US $44.50 plus shipping
(price as of May 1, 2004)
References:
- Functional analysis. See earlier articles by Ellen Domb and James Kowalick
in the TRIZ Journal or the "TechOptimizer Software" by Invention Machine Co.
- Problem Formulator: See "Step by Step TRIZ" by J. Terninko, A. Zusman,
B. Zlotin, or the "Problem Formulator Software" by Ideation International.
