Commentary by Ellen Domb

Iberoamerican Innovation Congress, Day 3

News: See the Facebook page for Ametriz for pictures and election results. The next Ametriz congress will be in Queretaro, a city 200 km from Mexico City, that has more than 30 technology-oriented industrial parks and major university centers for TRIZ activity. There may be both an Ametriz congress AND an Iberoamerican Innovation Congress (maybe in Brazil?) so stay tuned for news.

Marco de Carvalho was the lead speaker, sharing his research on new product ideation, combining TRIZ with other elements of business planning. The research incorporated an extensive review of both the popularity and effectiveness of many idea generation techniques (IGTs) and original research carried out over 10 years with students and professionals in mechanical, electrical and civil engineering and product design. Marco found that the heuristic methods were most productive, but they had the problem of low connection to customers and markets. He used his own methodology of value creation to develop the method that hybridizes the best of all techniques. The five strategies for increasing value use ideality as a basic guide: increase functions while decreasing connectivity (which is a stand-in for cost and harm) is the most stressing strategy. Five test sessions were conducted at the university, and the method showed 50% useful ideas, compared to 20% for brainstorming and 30% for trends of evolution. Tests with automotive, dental, and wood products companies are now underway. Marco showed a very effective example done with a manufacturer of window opening mechanisms for automobiles, being stressed by the manufacturer's demands for low cost products, where the system generated ideas that the company has implemented, increasing value by adding services to their product rather than cutting costs, and the company has successfully sold the idea to major manufacturers.

Darrell Mann fascinated the audience with his approach to business innovation, showing the primarily engineering-oriented group what the questions are that management must answer to manage innovation. He defines innovation as value-adding, successful (implemented, profitable in the private sector, meeting needs in the public sector) step change (not optimization--that's needed in the business, but it is not what Systematic Innovation does.) Darrell started with an extensive review of businesses' failures in the introduction of new products/services--the depressing news for the TRIZ audience is that only 20% is due technical solutions. The two leading causes of failure are route to market and market demand, where small and medium companies and also universities are particularly vulnerable.

Darrell spent the rest of the morning on the current research into intangibles, and how intangible elements of products/services influence the customers' buying decisions. We did group exercises (with considerable humor) looking for new functions that could add intangible benefits to existing products, and self-assessment to find our levels of thinking in the Spiral Dynamics model, that Darrell thinks has a strong influence on all the trends that affect successful innovation. He concluded with the "Fourth Turning" model of Strauss and Howe, that claims an 80 year cycle of generations, with very different decision-making patterns. Exaggerating the characteristics of each generation makes contradictions visible, which then makes it possible to find solutions that will be successful products/services.

René LópezFlores, Antonino Salas López, Daniel Hernández Marín, Guillermo Cortes Robles, and Giner Alor Hernández presented their work on integration of web-based services to assist companies solving innovation problems. TRIZ methods and social network ideas have been combined to give teams an environment for problem-solving, based either on contradiction removal or on Su-field modeling and the 76 standards.

Ibarra Ladrón de Guevara Ingrid Eunice, Reyna de León Luis Alberto, and Zoila Libertad García Santos presented their research on the learning styles of students, evaluated in terms of theories of Gagne. They found that students who explore topics on their own have a deeper level of understanding than those who just memorize what the teacher presents.

Laura Lorena Ballesteros Medina and Heriberto Aranda Gutiérrez presented their work on the evaluation of the management of technology in micro, small and medium enterprises in the city of Piedras Negras. Laura reports that there is considerable resistance to innovation, which many businesses view as a lottery, not a controlled process. The evaluation instrument was the national innovation model, amplified by additional detail in th management section, producing 6 categories of evaluation. It was surprising that the weight for contribution to the community was higher than the weight for commercial success, but the 4 case studies showed that the measurement is practical for identifying areas for improvement.

Application of TRIZ to problems in environmental engineering was the theme of the presentation by Rafael Muñoz Gómez. He has used current environmental initiatives to create examples of several of the 40 principles for environmental problems that threaten global climate, pollution of the oceans, and air quality in all parts of the world.

Marcos García Salgado presented his work with Edgardo Córdova López on industrial maintenance problems, and their proposed "System of intelligent maintenance" based on TRIZ concepts and lean concepts of prevention of problems with minimum inventory. Continuous monitoring and maintenance when the evaluation of the data indicates in incipient problem replaces maintenance at scheduled times, and in many cases, such as lubrication, the maintenance activity itself can be automated. The SIM can monitor temperature by means of IR cameras, vibration by means of accelerometers, etc. This can result in more continuous use of the machines and improved use of maintenance functions.

The event concluded with much hugging and promises to collaborate on projects and to meet at the next Congress.

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