Preprints of Integration of TRIZ problem solving tools

Preprints of REGAZZONI, DANIELE, PEZZOTTA, GIUDITTA, PERSICO, STEFANO, CAVALIERI, SERGIO, RIZZI, CATERINA, (2012). Integration of TRIZ problem solving tools in a product-service engineering process. The Philosopher's Stone for Sustainability: Proceedings of the 4th Cirp International Conference on Industrial Product-Service Systems, Tokio, Japan, November 8th-9th, 2012 Springer.

Integration of TRIZ problem solving tools in a product-service engineering process Daniele Regazzoni2*, Giuditta Pezzotta1, Stefano Persico,Sergio Cavalieri1, Caterina Rizzi2 1CELS, Research Center on Logistics and After Sales Services - Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Bergamo, Viale Marconi,5 – Dalmine (BG) Italy 2Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Bergamo, Viale Marconi,5 – Dalmine (BG) Italy ([email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected])

Abstract The development of a new service proposed by Service Engineering relies largely on inspiration and past experiences of service designers. This article illustrates the viability of applying TRIZ, the theory of inventive problem solving, to services engineering proposing a new approach to traditional service design. By integrating TRIZ system modelling and problem-solving tools , the authors propose a new TRIZ-based approach to cover this weakness in service design. This integration has been evaluated by theoretical study of the key concepts of both methods, and practically, through the application to a real case study. The proposed integrated process shows the relevance of TRIZ for service design and the possible use of it as a support tool in the traditional service design. Keywords: PSS, TRIZ, integration, Service Engineering

1

INTRODUCTION

The recent macro‐economic events have contributed to an increased awareness of the strategic relevance deriving from the provision of services related to products as an economic remedy for facing the sharp downfall of the markets [1]. This transition has been supported by the change of customers’ purchase habits [2]: they do not buy more goods or services in the traditional sense, perceiving them as two separated entities. Nowadays, many service outputs rely also on substantial material components and, conversely, many artefacts have embedded intangible attributes. In this context, the Product-Service System (PSS) concept finds its root. The first definition of Product Service appears in the literature in the sixties; even if a sharp distinction between the two concepts due to the intangibility of one compared to the other was still present, it portended a new perspective that allows mutual integration of the two concepts aiming at improving customer satisfaction. Later, in the seventies the idea of integration of physical products and additional services grew up and it was crucial for many companies. Today this concept has a new meaning, and the idea behind the PSS concept is that it ensues from an innovation strategy, shifting the business focus from the design and sales of physical products to the design and sales of a more complex system. Product-Service System is generally defined as a ‘product(s) and service(s) combined in a system to deliver required user functionality in a way that reduces the impact on the environment’ [3]. . The design and development of a PSS raise new issues since the service component introduces further requirements than traditional product engineering. Today one of the biggest barriers that is experiencing to adoption of a PSS is related to the design and development of the service component [4]. In fact, compared to physical products, services are generally underdesigned and inefficiently developed. Many approaches have been developed during the years to support the design and development of service either as a system itself or as a constituting element of a Product-Service System. The first scientific

studies about service development were introduced in Anglo-American publications as early as the 1970s and 1980s, when terms such as “New Service Development”, “Service Design” and “Service Engineering” appeared in literature.[1] Today, Service Engineering is becoming a predominant field. Sharing the definitions provided by [5] and [6] it can be termed as a technical discipline concerned with the systematic development and design of services aiming at increasing the value of artefacts. Most of the available Service Engineering models, methods and tools derive from the adaptation of traditional engineering, business and computer science approaches to the Service System (SS) or Product-Service System (PSS) sector [7]. In the last years, one of the most studied methods was the theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ). Initially proposed for supporting technical innovation, it has been recently also applied to a range of non-technical fields such as social relations, business and management and, in particular, to services [8]. This paper aims to verify the effectiveness of the adoption of TRIZ tools along the engineering process of a PSS. The paper is organized as follows. In section 2 the Service Engineering (SE) is described. Section 3 reports a short overview of TRIZ tools relevant for this study. Section 4 illustrates the state of the art of existing PSS-TRIZ integration and the authors’ contribution in the creation of an integrated paradigm. Section 5 shows the application to the case study of Canon copy machines and in section 6 some conclusion remarks are discussed. 2

SERVICE ENGINEERING PROCESS

The engineering process of a PSS is a topic not deeply discussed in the literature. As a result, the actual knowledge of the critical activities in the design and development of a PSS is inadequate, even if this process can be considered as a competitive factor in the market. Most of the companies do not have a formalized and structured process to develop a new PSS. In this sense, to engineer properly a Service or a Product-Service System, it is important to follow a structured and systematic engineering process. Generically, an engineering process describes the sequences and the iterations process phases and of the engineering activities. Such a kind of process is quite complex since it involves multiple functional groups and considers different perspectives. Almost all acknowledged service engineering processes are based on the waterfall shape models [5]. Due to their straightforward nature, waterfall processes are presently the most widespread ones among theoreticians and professionals. A service engineering process is relevant because it can be considered as a reference model that contains information on the project flows, the facilities and people responsible, and are thus able to support the project schedule, the implementation and monitoring. This process follows the ones existing in new products development and it is adapted to the specific characteristics of the service sector. In particular, in the context of developing new services processes define what activities are required to successfully develop the services and determine their interrelationships and the execution order. These processes can effectively reveal the need of specific resources and methods and define the interfaces with the company processes. In order to accurately and efficiently develop new services there are several methods which include specific instructions or guidelines in order to achieve the goal [9, 5]. One of the most famous and adopted engineering design processes for a PSS is the one hereafter described, which is a 6 phases waterfall engineering process. Idea Search and Evaluation Requirements Analysis Service Concept Implementation and Introduction Service Provisioning Displacement Figure 1 : SE process model (According to [5, 10]) However to properly engineer a system, the definition of the process is not enough, it is fundamental also to select the engineering methods considering the engineering phases, the business situation, the complexity of the service and on the employee’s experience in using engineering methods. In the literature there are only a reduced number of methods developed to engineer a PSS, most of them derive from engineering, economic and computer sciences. Some of these methods may in part be adapted and others need to be modified to be used in the service sector. At various stages of the engineering process of the PSS, may use various methods [1], for example, support the quality of service or productivity of the services, customer surveys or feedback technical reports are used to identify the needs of customers during the service planning. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is adopted in the Requirements Generation and identification to translate customer requirements into engineering characteristics in product or service design (and to measure the contributions of new service ideas to strategic service objectives and to detect gaps in the existing portfolio. While Service Blueprinting is used to clarify the influence of service processes on the receiver and to model all processes, actions and interactions inside and outside the company [11]. However the innovative level of the adoption of engineering methods is still low.

Until this moment, due to a certain psychological inertia, the only techniques considered adequate to support innovators were psychological, such as brainstorming. TRIZ proposes a systematic set of tools that makes the innovation process less dependent on intuition and creativity of the individual. 3

TRIZ METHODOLOGY

TRIZ can be defined as a structured process of problem solving [12, 13, 14], whose basic concept says that if there are universal principles of creativity that can be identified, coded and reused, then the process of innovation can be structured and made schedulable [15]. Tipically, during a problem solving task you might not be able to have a complete view of the problem. This is due to psychological inertia that pushes innovators to look for solutions only in their field. To overcome this drawback the search toward the solution must follow a path represented by one of the basic models of TRIZ, the four scheme model further implemented also in the Hill Model [16]. This model forces the innovator not to seek immediate specific solution, but forces him to abstract the problem to a general model, to solve it and to contextualize the solution to the specific problem domain. While problem solving with TRIZ, possible ways to represent a problem and its resolution can be identified. Actually, either you have an insufficient interaction between two or more elements of the system, or there is a contradiction affecting a couple of parameters or a single parameter. The paths to create e model of the problem and to solve it are several depending on the situation. In order to face a problematic situation a possible strategy may be to identify key elements of the system and their properties, building the model using the functional analysis and then proceed with the most appropriate strategy. Main TRIZ concepts and tools candidate for the integration along the service engineering process are briefly described in the followings. Functional Analysis is a basic tool of preliminary problem definition, it examines the system as a whole by dividing it into its constituent elements and then considering their interrelationships. The functional analysis highlights not only the useful but also the harmful functional relationships existing inside a system. To solve efficiently the problem it needs to define innovative relationships of cause and effect among the associated problems. Once established these cause-effect relationships, it is likely that it is sufficient to solve even one of minor problems to completely solve the main problem. Su-field Analysis is a TRIZ technique for modeling used to represent the behavior of a Technical system in terms of elements and interactions that characterize the behavior of a technical system. It is especially useful for analyzing problems in terms of interactions missing, inadequate or undesirable, or failures in the system. Contradictions and inventive principles: as usual, a contradiction refers to a conflict situation in which due to opposite requirements no solution seems to exist. Contradictions have a central role and arise when improving a parameter or a characteristic of a technical system, a harm is created on the same or other characteristics or parameters of the system. The identification of the right contradiction in a technical system is the key step for solving the problem. The contradiction definition also shows “where" (Operative Zone) and “when” (Operative Time) there is a conflict so that resources available can be found to build the solution. Ideality and Ideal Final Result: The degree of ideality is a measure of how the system can perform the required tasks without implying harms and costs. A pure ideal system provides the desired function without the need to exist, the difference between a current and ideal system should be reduced to zero. The ideal model becomes a goal to strive for, thus destroying the traditional concepts of efficient system. The ideal system is a very broad concept, while the ideal end result depends on the particular situation that we are facing. The resources are in fact different for different people and places. Resource: in TRIZ, resource are simply defined as anything existing in the system or in its environment that is not yet completely exploited. A structured search for these resources reveals new opportunities through which we can improve the system. According to the definition also harmful elements such as wastes produced by the system (material, heat, etc.) must be taken into account. Resources can be classified according to the space, time, information and substance, and exhaustive checklists are available not to miss important elements. Laws and Evolutionary Trend: if the target is to generate a competitive advantage through a radical innovation compared to existing products, then the most effective tool to be used are the trends of technological evolution. At a certain level of abstraction system evolution can be described by universal laws and, thus, prediction potential future development of the system can be done. Trends have a level of abstraction which allows their effective use even in non-technical fields. Evolutionary models of product / technology may open a window on the future of other products, placing the current product to inside of a trend in which is possible to predict future steps. The chance to apply these tools within the service engineering context is potentially leading to a much more systematic and repeatable process. Nowadays, TRIZ is not a mere means for solving a product technical problem but it is appreciated even in non-technical fields for its ability to manage knowledge with simple models, to highlight conflicting solutions and to provide effective tools to face them. 4 THE ADOPTION OF TRIZ AS A METHODOLOGY FOR SERVICE ENGINEERING 4.1 Analysis and interpretation of the current literature This paper aims to verify the effectiveness of the adoption of TRIZ as a methodology to support the different phase of the Service Engineering activities along the engineering process of a PSS. An extensive literature analysis has been carried out aiming at identifying the level of adoption of TRIZ techniques and tools along the PSS engineering process phases. The analyzed literature has been classified by a scheme developed considering the Service Engineering process phases reported in Figure 1 and the previously analyzed TRIZ tools. Journal articles were sourced from Scopus, ISI Web of Knowledge academic databases and web investigation. An initial keyword search for articles containing keywords such as “TRIZ” AND “Service Engineering” OR “Product-Service System” was performed. The result of the literature analysis and selection is reported in the following table.

Table 1: Papers analyzed 1

K.-H. Chai, J. Zhang, K.-chuan Tan, A triz-Based method for new service design, [17]

2

M. Kaner, R. Karni, Engineering design of a service system: An empirical study, [18].

3

M. Kaner, R. Karni, An Ideation Framework for Service Process Improvement, [19]

4

R. Karni, M. Kaner, Integration of a Service Taxonomy and the 40 Inventive Principles for Conceptualizing the Components of a Service System, [20]

5

G. Retseptor, 40 inventive principles in quality management, [21]

6

M.K. Low, T. Lamvik, K. Walsh, O. Myklebust, Manufacturing a Green Service: Engaging the TRIZ Model of Innovation [22]

7

M. Low, T. Lamvik, K. Walsh, O. Myklebust, Product to service eco-innovation: the TRIZ model of creativity explored [23]

8

[D. Mann, E. Jones, Sustainable Services & Systems (3s) through systematic innovation methods,[24]

9

J. Zhang, K.-H. Chai, K.-chuan Tan, 40 Inventive Principles with Applications in Service Operations Management, TRIZ Journal. 4 (2003).[25]

10

J. Zhang, K.-chuan Tan, K.-H. Chai, Systematic innovation in service design through TRIZ,[26]

11

X. Zhao, Integrated TRIZ and Six Sigma Theories for Service/Process Innovation [27]

The limited number of publications reflects the novelty of the research area even if it is becoming gradually more and more important. Each paper has been carefully analyzed and it has been classified according to the TRIZ tools cited for each step of the service engineering process.

Figure 2 : Figure 2: Scheme Tools vs Process Analyzing the outcomes of the classification, it is possible to identify some common understanding concerning the issues raised during the Service Engineering process. Figure 2 shows literature proposal for an integrated use of TRIZ tools along the process. The first thing to notice is that known approaches mostly rely on a single TRIZ tool (e.g. Inventive Principles) and refer to a specific part of the process. Almost all contributions refer to problems without stressing the importance of problem modeling. Solving tools, they being either separation or inventive principle or standard solutions, cannot be used efficiently if they are not referred to the right problem model, coming from a deep analysis and modeling of the situation. Trying to apply inventive principles as 40 random triggers to solve a problem is not a more structured method as psychological helpers are. Moreover, solving a contradiction properly depends on the specific situation we are facing because resources available will determine the real implementation. Literature is oriented toward using TRIZ for mere problem solving neglecting the potentiality of tools for knowledge acquisition and coding and for strategic analysis of the evolution of technology. Laws of evolution and trends are less present than other tools even if they may provide concrete help in several steps. At last, the concept of ideality and the Ideal Final Result are used for evaluation purposes of solutions and design, but not to define the goal or to establish a direction of development.

4.2 Research gaps and improvement ideas To properly engineer a PSS it is relevant to split the process into several phases, starting from the concept stage itself, to the implementation until the disposal. The analyzed literature is mainly focused on the idea generation and selection and on the concept development. However, as shown in Figure 2, TRIZ tools are low adopted in supporting the engineering of both the conception phase and all the service delivery activities. The only technique used in these phases refers to the inventive principles for the resolution of problems. However, tools such as functional analysis, using functional models, diagrams and charts which allow to hierarchically structure the system knowledge, and the evolutionary trends used to collect past experience and evaluate the evolution of other products-services in similar situations and environments, can be useful tools to be adopted along the SE process. In our understanding, it is therefore necessary to deeper analyze the SE process phases and verify if and which TRIZ tools can be adopted as an innovative approach to define the service implementation, service provisioning, or displacement. For the sake of argument, hereafter a short list of possible applications is reported. Maintenance services: in the definition of these services, it is important to engineer all the issues related to the planning of maintenance schedules that can minimize the total operating costs. In this sense partitioning the problem into sub macro intuitive and solvable problems can be helpful. Functional modeling can help fulfilling this goal and it also create a base of knowledge suitable for rapid solving eventual new issues that should emerge. Upgrade Service: to support the update of an existing service a series of TRIZ tools can be adopted: for example a structured analysis of the feedback collected from customers, or from the local market can be translated into new functions our system may be asked to perform, or into harmful functions to be removed. Moreover, a functional analysis can be useful to understand and represent problems and finding quick and low impact solutions. Another useful tool can be the evolutionary trend analysis: analyzing the progressive development of similar solutions, or simply observing the evolutionary trend of the industry relevant improvements and updates can be foreseen and implemented. Service recovery and disposal: TRIZ tools can be used to analyze problems encountered during the repair and disposal of the solution. Carrying out an analysis of the functions performed and of the resources used for the scope we can deal with emerging problems managing the operations in a similar way to those conducted in similar circumstances. Disposal is a new phase to be enclosed in the engineer process of an integrated PSS. Define which tangible or intangible parts can be reused and which must be disposed can create a series of business issues that can be fulfilled through a series of functional modeling, analysis or conducting patterns of decomposition in minor problems in order to avoid a series of economic and environmental wastage. 5

CASE STUDY

In the previous paragraph, it has been shown how the literature has adopted TRIZ tools to engineer a PSS. Therefore, in order to assess the accuracy of the available literature a case study, namely in the Copy Printer Machine industry, has been proposed to test if TRIZ tools are suitable to engineer a PSS along its phases. The case study under investigation represents the PSS design processes of a B2B printer manufacturer. The company works in a global context, and has offices both at continental and national levels. Its customers are public administrations, companies, which use the printer/copier as an office tool and companies which use the printer/copier as a working tool. Starting from a simple Printer & Copy business model, the company has incrementally developed a set of services and systems able to add value to the equipment. The new business model of the companies is related to the sale of the number of photocopies instead of the number of copy machines. Due to the company structure, the product and service engineer processes are partially separated. The company has a structured service engineer process defined at national level for the design and development of the intangible elements of the solution. Services are generally developed to answer to local customer needs, moreover they represent an important competitive lever for the local branch. However, the product is engineered and defined at the global level and only partially integrated with the service portfolio. Hereafter, a short description of the process used by the company to engineer their solution is reported.

Service concept:

Requirem ents analysis

search Idea and evaluation

Table 2: Company SE process A new service engineering project starts as a consequence to an explicit request of a local branch coming from a series of customer feedback collected by the countries service manager. This is possible due to the close relationship between the country service structure and the end user.

The requirements are collected through satisfaction questionnaires. The analysis of the collected data sometimes has pushed the managers to change their prospective on the idea previously identified.

Considering the new idea and the requirements identified a conceptual design of the system is carried out. This stage is devoted to the development of new concepts. However, re-modeling activities on services which result not aligned with users’ requirements can be also done at this stage. The service concept is therefore shared with the central level.

Displacem ent

Service provisionin g:

Implement ation and introductio n:

The implementation of the identified service concept which required physical changes on the product is evaluated and defined by the central level and then customized by the local level. Only few services, which do not require product change or big organizational efforts, are directly defined and implemented by the national unit.

The service is therefore launched on a global or local scale. It can be sold either with the product or independently and it can be supplied either directly by the local branch or by intermediaries, depending on the type of contract with the customers. During the service provisioning it is fundamental to consider possible improvement and upgrade requests. This step is not taken into consideration by the service engineering process adopted by the company

Identified the Service Engineering process and activities adopted by the company analyzed, the goal is to recognize opportunities to adopt TRIZ tools to properly support the process. 5.1 TRIZ’S INTEGRATION Once defined all the phases constituting the process of developing a service in the company, it is now necessary to understand how they can be integrated with TRIZ's tools. In the first phase functional language can be adopted to create models highlighting criticalities and their eventual interdependencies. Contradiction model can be used to ease the following step of solving problems. Actually, inventive principles and separation principles can be adopted to eliminate contradictions. Evaluate the resulting solutions can be made by a variety of instruments going from functional description and assessment, to inventive principles and separation tools use to solve the contradiction. Trends of evolution can be used as well to assess eventual enhancements of solution found and changes in the degree of ideality are proportional to the quality of solutions. Moreover, market requests may be conflicting and instead of accepting a compromise solution, contradictions formalism can be used to manage them and inventive principles can be used to solve them. Next step consists in the service concept design, a key activity for the success of the entire process. In order to avoid criticalities due to planning issues, inventive principles can be used to proper concept overcoming issues appeared so far. The ideal final result can be a precious means to understand whether to direction of development is correct and to assess the improvement reached. After concept definition, implementation and introduction phase took place and in this step we do not envisage the use of any TRIZ tool. For what concerns feedback management inventive principles can be used for analysis and evaluation while functional diagrams can support service planning for maintenance. In service provisioning activities, after the customer has purchased the system, updates and improvements are needed and a study of evolutionary trend can help understanding and implementing solutions to keep systems up to date and competitive towards competitors. In case conflicts appear inventive principle can be used to eliminate them. At last ideality can provide a term of comparison for determining whether we are developing good technical solutions. Last phase is displacement and it has the goal to implement the plan for material and service disposal. In this step no contribution is foreseen. 6

CONCLUSIONS

This work reached the objective of defining a preliminary paradigm to improve Service Engineering process by means of integrating it, in almost any step, with some TRIZ tools. Starting from a critical review of the still limited literature concerning PSS and TRIZ the authors have proposed a reasoned integration path to gather a more repeatable and systematic process. Service Engineering and the theory for systematic innovation and problem solving traditionally deals with different issues and fulfill to different goals. Anyway the rationale for their integration is robust: during SE process technicians are not supported enough by structured tools and their subjectivity may affect repeatability and the quality of final results. Modern TRIZ comes from decades of refinements of tools focused on the management of problematic situations to support designers and inventors. However, TRIZ tools are not intended originally to perform different tasks from solving issues and forecast technology and a deep understanding of both disciplines is necessary to provide a meaningful enhancement. This paper shows the way concepts as functionality, ideality, resources, contradiction and solving principles can be used in many ways. Functionality is a powerful tool for knowledge formalizations and allows creating models that can be used along several phases. We can fix ideas, describe at the desired level of detail any system and share the results with other technicians. Ideality provides a measure of the overall quality of a system and can be used as compass not to miss the right direction to follow to reach effective improvements. Resources are the building block for our solutions and force to an efficient evolution of products and services. In literature sometimes solving tools are proposed to be used without any means for previously formalizing the problem: this betrays the aim of TRIZ and lead to random results. To avoid this issue contradiction modeling is a key means to understand whether and when real problems arise and lead to a proper use of inventive and separation principles. Moreover TRIZ has a less known branch devoted to technology forecasting and tools such laws and trends of evolution can contribute to enhance all the activities in which a strategic evaluation and choice must be performed.

The case study carried out using the new integrated paradigm has highlighted some interesting points. The most important refers to the fact that companies’ SE process may be quite different one from another and, thus, in general a preliminary study phase must be considered. Anyway differences do not create any major difficulty in applying the TRIZ tools. The implementation on company copy machines was performed without any serious problem but operators must be trained on TRIZ at least at basic level to manage properly the tools mentioned. By the way TRIZ education helps also to the proposition of prompt replies to an unexpected event during the SE process. This research work will proceed with the application on other industrial case studies in order to gather a wider set of feedback to refine the process, fix bugs and eventually introduce new tools. 7

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