Ideal final result IFR - a powerful concept of innovation and problem solving

Ideal Final Result – the most fundamental concept in TRIZ

 

Free your imagination

 The concept of Ideal Final Result (or IFR in short) introduced by Altschuller, the father of TRIZ effectively set the basis of the TRIZ philosophy itself. 

In simple terms, IFR is the target solution to the problem at hand that would remove all negative aspects without introducing any more new drawback while preserving all the advantages of the old system. How much cost for this effort would IFR allow? You and me won't believe this. IFR dictates that the all advantage no disadvantage solution must be achieved at zero additional cost.

Though it seems impossible to achieve, if you set such a goal, you will be forced to reject ordinary easy pathways and strive towards the highest goal that can be imagined. This special effort coupled with the host of powerful tools and concepts provided by TRIZ most times would take you very near to the all advantage zero cost solution. This would be your innovative solution that you couldn't have imagined without this special problem solving approach.

Though it is a little difficult to imagine, deep application of TRIZ in reality have achieved innumerable innovative solutions at cheaper cost and lesser time. Samsung is supposedly the front runner in deep application of TRIZ. 

Usually innovation is the concern of market sensitive competing organizations and not a concern of you and me, the common people. But if you continue thinking deeper, you will feel, "Why should it be so?" Power of innovation potentially can create a great improvement in the well-being of an individual. Won't you want your children and yourself to be able to visualize and achieve innovative solutions in every aspect of your lives?

TRIZ concepts and tools were created mostly for products in technology domains, but these are abstract enough to be equally useful in any thought domain that you can imagine.   

Ideality

Ideality is equal to the sum of the benefits divided by the sum of the costs plus the sum of the harm. To achieve the IFR, the benefits of the concept must be increased by the solution, while the costs and harm are decreased. The goal of the IFR is an infinite positive result which is your target. The IFR concept can be explained by the following two equations:

Ideality = ∑ Benefits / (∑ Costs + ∑ Harm), and

IFR =∑ Good effects/∑ Bad effects

where you strive for IFR to reach infinity.

The Ideal Final Result may seem unrealistic, but it is a powerful tool that gets people to think out of the box for ideas without getting bogged down by technical constraints and limitations.

The IFR focuses the creator’s attention on perfection as opposed to limitations. By aiming for a flawless resolution from the start, breakthrough thinking is encouraged and less than ideal solutions are rejected.

In many cases, developing a clear statement of the Ideal Final Result will lead directly to a solution to the problem, and frequently leads to a solution at a very high level, since the technology-independent definition of the Ideal Final Result will lead the problem solver away from traditional means of solving the problem.

The Ideal Final Result concept forces you to find ways to maximize the good things in a problem, concept, or idea, and minimize the bad. One way to apply IFR is to assume you have zero budget to accomplish a task. This approach forces you to look at the available resources you have on hand and brainstorm ways to make your idea happen without spending any money.

IFR driven solution search requires:

·      Proper formulation of the IFR itself.

·      Assumption that you have to reach the solution with zero budget, it means solution must use available free resources that you have.

·      Identify the invisible free resources such as gravitation, unused space and so on.

·      Focusing only on the ideal final state and NOT on the process by which you may reach that state. You have to free your mind from the bias of existing processes.

Let us look at a problem to see how IFR can help finding an innovative solution.

Problem example 1: Candy making

In a candy factory, small bottle shaped chocolate candy filled up with thick sugar syrup was produced. First the hollow chocolate bottles were produced and then the syrup was poured into each candy bottle. But as the syrup was thick the process of pouring in was slow. It was felt that productivity needs to be increased. This is a classic problem posed first by Altschuller.

If we consider the final state objectively, we may state our first Final State as:

·     Bottle shaped chocolate filled with thick sugar syrup

Usual method of filling up the chocolate body with thick syrup being slow, initial attempts of improvement were:

·      Heating up the syrup to make it thin for faster filling up, but it didn’t work as it melted the chocolate body and deformed it.

·      Alternatively, blown injection molding, where the pressurized syrup provides the propulsive force to shape the chocolate in a mould, was tried. But that increased cost considerably, violating the Ideality condition.

These failures prompted towards looking for a second Final State description:

·      Thick sugar syrup enclosed by bottle shaped chocolate body. This was the only other final state description left and is an unusual one. It does not talk about filling up, it talks about enclosing. If somehow we can reach this state at a cheap cost, this becomes the IFR. In describing this final state, how the state has been reached is delinked from the state. We are no longer bound to the idea of filling up that gave so much trouble.

Assuming this second final state description as the IFR, the challenge is to find out a way by which syrup comes first and then the chocolate body.

The ideal innovative solution proposed to freeze the thick syrup into a bottle shape, dip it into melted liquid chocolate for a measured time to form the chocolate body around it. In time the chocolate body hardens and the freezed syrup content becomes liquid again in normal temperature.

The processes involved are cheap with no extra harmful effects.

If we examine the process of arriving at the solution against the list of 40 Innovative TRIZ principles, immediately we find the principle: Other Way round – principle no. 13 in action here. Any other? Yes we have used Change of State or Parameter Change principle. Any other? Time separation also has been used.

In any new solution, always examine the process and the solution from every angle possible, try to find new processes or solutions and also link the principles with the process of arriving at the solution.

Remember, process of thinking in arriving at a solution is more important than the solution.

As always I would suggest that you absorb this IFR concept and start trying only the IFR definition activity on objects or concepts around you. It should be possible as, potentially all things are improvable. Though it is only definition activity, this will force you to analyze the defects and drawbacks closely. This deep analysis itself would be a strong learning.

Read my main blog on Innovation & Problem Solving and the other related blog on Innovation - Basic Principles

The powerful inventive principle segmentation - examples from everyday problem solving

Divide or segment a thing into smaller pieces and have your inventive solution

Common sense says: if you divide something into smaller pieces, value of the pieces taken together becomes less than the value of the whole. On second thoughts: am I right in saying so? Can it be otherwise? Sometimes I get really confused.
Surpassing all confusion though, TRIZ first principle of Segmentation boldly prescribes: Segment or fragment or divide suitable something into still smaller pieces and you will reach a totally new shining piece of innovation. Obviously,
           - we have to choose a whole piece of suitable something.
We cannot segment our large living room into small pieces of individual walled off spaces and increase the living room value or we cannot divide the deep joy of six days of continuous stay at Panchmari, the queen of hill stations in India, by moving from one tourist place to another six times and be still more joyous (or would we?).
If you start thinking about segmenting something and increase the value in totality, you might find it difficult to find a suitable thing at first.
But believe in principle of persistence and strive on.

Segmenting your grief

What about dividing a piece of something of negative value into smaller pieces and distribute it amongst multiple willing takers? The takers will have their own negative valued pieces, but won't probably mind having a little piece of extra one. Bearing the burden of a great worry is now shared by many. It becomes bearable.

1. Share your worry or grief: two principles come into play, principle of segmentation and principle of sharing. Sharing is a kind of distribution amongst willing people or agents. We are thinking of distributing the negative valued pieces amongst a group of individuals near you. They may may be your family members. That is the level of people nearby.
2. Share the load you are carrying in right hand between the two hands: this is distribution at a still closer level. What about increase the distribution scope globally? Today you can do that. You have the Web and google blogger (with plus google) or facebook.
3. Waking up in the morning just introduce your worry into your facebook consciousness stream and forget about your great worry altogether. People with faces and no faces world over will now share your burden, you know. 

Thinking at different levels

TRIZ introduced a valuable idea of looking at a problem at different levels - time-wise: past, present & future and physical presence-wise: micro, macro, global. Together these give rise to 3x3, that is, nine combinations of views possible. the following is the depiction of the idea. 

Nine screens of Inventive thinking

Segment now and here, that is the combination of Present and Here (Individual): segment space in a room to convert it to a classroom and earn from an altogether different use of the room.
Segment now and neighborhood (group): Segment a large plot of land into blocks and put the blocks into different uses - ultimately you get a high paying housing estate.
Segment now and global: Divide a country and conquer it. It was done with great innovation in the past and can be done now also.

Just the idea of thinking in nine thinking windows gives you totally new perspectives and sometimes highly innovative and gainful solutions.
So what did we do? We have combined the principle of segmentation with principle of sharing and also with nine thinking windows and examined the possibilities of the combinations.

Inventive Principle of Composite

Think for a moment about this process of thinking. You are basically merging three concepts together and examining your problem from the merged concept standpoint. It seems this is a very powerful way of thinking with lots of new possibilities. Is there any name to it? At this moment I can't think of a name, but I remember another powerful TRIZ principle number 40: Principle of Composite.
We would name this thinking from the standpoint of combined concepts as:

Principle of Composite thinking

What did we do here?
We just applied the principle of composite to our new thinking process itself. Principle of composite is a little different from principle of merging. Composite is a type of merging but the components are different or dissimilar whereas in principle of merging components are similar in nature.
Confused? You are not alone there, I am with you.

Simple applications of the great principle of segmentation in everyday life

1. The water jet from a fire fighter's hose damages the things and also is not so effective. 
2. Segment the water jet into water droplets: damage decreases and effectiveness of the jet in putting out the fire increases. Think of the sprinkler in your garden, think of the shower in your bathroom. Both are examples of segmentation with high benefits. Don't you think segmentation is a nice little weapon in your hand to breakdown a problem into smaller pieces? Well, the answer is a resounding yes. All these abstract principles are so powerful that if you incorporate these in your mindset deeper and deeper, that itself would make you a powerful problem solver. 
3. Segment the water jet into a spray of mist: it does practically no harm to the object and surprisingly is more effective in fighting the fire. It seems you have reached the end point of segmenting the helpless water jet. Just wait and see. 
4. Nowadays high pressure water jets are being used for environ friendly and precision cutting of sheets of steel and other hard materials. Don't believe it? Okay, watch the YouTube video. 

The use of segmentation has produced a totally novel and gainful way of cutting instead of the mundane task of putting off fire. That is what we call innovation.

The fish market is a nice place

I am lazy person. Not only have I delayed posting in this important blog, but also woke up as late as 9 yesterday morning. 
A commotion woke me up. My dear wife was in a rare distraught agitated state. I had to get up and join the party. I gathered that the house help will be a little late, my wife has to go out on an important business and Prince Potai, our dearest pet half-Bengal cat may come home any moment with his usual bellyful of hunger:- and his fish stock is empty. Someone has to go to the market to replenish stock of fresh fish for the Prince.

This is problem analysis and definition in action. I hope you could recognize this in its abstract form. Out of all the confusion arose the root or moot point: replenish the fish stock from the market, quickly.
I volunteered and won my bid without any competition. Our local fish market consists of a few local sellers sitting on the side of the road itself not under any shed. I reached there and was happy to find that the first fish-wallah had ample quantity of small fishes of type that I wanted.
I purchased all and he started the preparing and cleaning process. It was a rather lengthy process. I waited patiently. Gradually more buyers - an elderly gentleman and a lady with a kid appeared. They would have to wait for quite a bit of time.

This fish is called Bata

In the process of solving the problem, that is, purchasing the fish, a new situation had arisen. Defining it as a problem was optional. I could have taken it as problem or ignored it altogether because I was the first in the queue and had my rights of making others wait behind me.
I chose to define the situation as a problem.
My immediate instruction to the fish man was:

1. Stop preparing my lot and take up the requirement of the elderly gentleman.
2. Finish it and then take up my job again. 
3. But after 5 minutes, stop my job and take the case of the lady with a kid. 
4. Finishing her job, take up my job and finish it. You must not interrupt this last phase by serving any other customer.

Fish market - I feel comfortable here, I don't know why

There were faint smiles from the buyers and initial hesitation from the seller. But after a few moments the job was taken up as I intended. The buyers finally left with seemingly happier face. Even the fish monger seemed to be happy. I had to wait 10 minutes extra.
I acted on instinct, but while waiting I went on to analyze my action.

What did I do?
I segmented.
What did I segment?
I segmented the waiting times of the other buyers and distributed and shared it thus reducing the negative effect of waiting for the two buyers. For me waiting 10 more minutes was not a problem, more so when I was sure to feel the positive feeling that the elderly gentleman and the lady with a kid will feel. Their positive feeling I shared. That compensated my cost of waiting time. It was finally gainful for all.

Segment a negative aspect and distribute it. You will see unexpected things happening around.

What about segmenting a positive thing and distributing? It is your turn now to think. 




Read my main blog on Innovation & Problem Solving and the other related blog on Innovation - Basic Principles
   

Inventive TRIZ principle Local quality : examples from everyday life

Real life examples of applying the inventive TRIZ principle Local quality

Principles are the pillars on which our body of knowledge rests, not the methods, but the principles

 

By studying 200000 invention patents worldwide, Genrich Altshuller identified 40 inventive principles that he found to be behind all those inventions. This is the most widely known tool of TRIZ. Though Altshuller and his co-workers later developed a number of other tools in addition to the 40 principles, I believe:

“Principles are the pillars on which our body of knowledge rests, not the methods, but the principles.”

There is a reason for this: principles are abstract and so can be applied anywhere suitably. If you incorporate principles, be it inventive or be it value based, in your mindset, you are not bound by any set of processes prescribed by any method. Your own inherent problem solving ability will use the right principle at the right place to find the desired solution.

Awareness and practice of useful and believable principles make your whole mind more healthy and strong in decision making, the core function of mind (Sorry, is it preaching? If so, please pardon me, at this stage I don’t like to preach or teach, I like most to share that I know largely from my experiences).

I am a methodologist, but still I place methods below the principles layer because, a method kind of binds you in a step by step process restriction. As soon as you follow a step by step process, your mind loses the flexibility to think free. Your mind has enormous power. To unleash the power you have to give it food, take care of it and in return it will roam free and will give you unthought of treasures; such things that you never imagined possible.  

Of course you should follow a method, but follow it as a part of an approach that has much larger scope of analysis, option evaluation and generation of new ideas.

Without further delay we would now go straight into business talk. We would take up a rather less used principle:

Principle 3: Local quality

      Adapt the individual properties or parts of the object to the required local conditions: Handle grip of a motorcycle

This is just one description of the meaning of the principle, there can be similar others. It conveys the basic meaning in abstract form. You may wonder, even though you saw an example, how can I use it?

Remember,

“Before using a principle you must understand it” (for any principle this more abstract principle is valid).

How can you understand a principle? The first and foremost step is to find example around you where this principle is applied. The principle most probably has been applied unknowingly, but still it becomes clear to you that this is an example of application of the specific principle. Finding out yourself such examples is critically important to build knowledge that stays.

This is a very useful step for learning all concepts: first learn it in classroom, and then start finding its application or presence in the environment around you. Do not ignore the intangible environment at all—the domain of ideas. Tangible environment consists of the physical objects that you see or touch around you (Can you see air? Is it tangible?)

Story 1: Banknote denominations from ATMs

About seven minutes’ walk away from my house is the main junction in our place where the banks, shops, bus stand and other shops are available—though that is not exactly a commercial centre. Ours is a small place—most people, I perceive, do not belong to the high earner class (purely subjective statement; still it carries a sense of meaning).

One day first time I noticed a difficulty we were facing for the last few months:

The ATM at the main junction dispensed only 1000 rupee notes and it was a bother to get it changed into smaller denominations.

I tried another ATM nearer home, but it also behaved similarly. Though we were coping with it, it was still a bother. I made a written request to the bank manager regarding the difficulty, and then forgot the matter.

Recently I noticed that, as a rule:

The ATM at the main junction still dispenses 1000 rupee notes, but the ATM nearer to my house located in a not so affluent residential area, dispenses 500 rupee notes.

I was furthermore happy to discover a new ATM very near my home and it also dispensed 500 rupee notes only.

In short: The bank studied the demography of the localities and then tuned its banknote dispensing logic to the perceived affluence level of would be ATM customers in each locality.

Story 2: Interior house wall painting

Sometime back this happened, but still I remember it because of the surprise it gave me.

I was renovating my house. After all the activities I had reached the wall painting stage. There was no problem with the exterior wall painting, though colour choice was critical for the interior walls.

To keep things simple, I chose three colours for all the rooms: a colour like inside of oyster shell for the drawing room that opened up to a number of windows and doors, a deeper light cream yellow for a special room by the side of the drawing room and a still lighter cream yellow for the rest of the rooms. I wanted the special room colour to have a bit more yellow hue—it brightens up the room considerably that I have found through long experience.

The painting of the drawing room and the special room was finished simultaneously by the evening. Being a critical person, I examined the wall colour time to time and was satisfied. The subtle drawing room colour came out nearly exactly as I wanted. It looked slightly yellowish, but I accepted it.

When the painters had gone, it was evening. First I entered my lighted up drawing room. There was no yellow tinge—colour was wonderful. Then I entered the special room and switched on the light. It was bright white light and the room was smaller than the drawing room. I looked around with great astonishment. I couldn’t recognize the room—is it the room I saw in the morning? It looked awfully white—there was no hint of yellow at all. It was a real shock for me.

I called up my painter and invited him for a look-see. He lived nearby. We discussed and understood the behaviour of wall colour. Next day following a no-loophole method we rectified the situation completely.

Reason: The drawing room opened up to a lot of daylight during daytime. That made the oyster shell colour slightly yellowish. In the evening, in bright white light the yellow tinge disappeared.

In contrast, the special room was smaller and the bright white light in the smaller space made the light cream yellow purely off-white.

It was all local conditions—the size of the room, availability of daylight, and difference of colour effect between daylight and white light.

To generalize: if you understand local conditions very clearly (I call it also as context), you will be able to arrive at solutions that meet the desired objectives and make all concerned happy.   

In this space, I would go slow and sometimes a bit randomly. If you want to get a very thorough and exhaustive coverage on 40 TRIZ principles in business environment, please refer to the excellent article on the subject written by Darrell Mann and Ellen Domb, two of the leading teachers of TRIZ that we know of.

This article is very exhaustive article covers 40 Inventive (Business) Principles with Examples.

http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/1999/09/a/

TRIZ journal holds one of the richest resources in TRIZ domain and a must-see for any innovation specialist or a TRIZ practitioner or researcher.

Here I would like to differentiate between the general approaches and my approach. Generally and understandably all researches and pursuits of new knowledge, specially in the area of innovation, are targeted towards commercial domains. The reason is obvious: to carry out any serious pursuit of inquiry or research into a subject, one needs funding and the funding comes from commercial organizations with commercial interests.

I hold that innovation knowledge resources are for everyone, none excluded. A general awareness of and a few further inevitable actions on (such as practising finding out applications and actual application) innovation and problem solving using powerful principles, techniques or methods has the potential to increase the capability of any mind to solve problems. Innovation may not mean always a solution that is unique with least cost and great commercial importance. It can very well solve your personal problem!

TRIZ concepts should be very useful in the areas of research and development, business innovation, and also improving individual personal lives directly. 


Read my main blog on Innovation & Problem Solving and the other related blog on Innovation - Basic Principles