CC BY
2DOI: 10.24412/cl-37100-2023-12-138-143
I.L. Misiuchenko, D. Gurkov, T. Kamlenok Life cycle and specific features of innovation TRIZ project
SUMMARY
The object of analysis is the life cycle of innovation TRIZ project, which is a «vortex», consisting of four consequent types of projects: exploratory, verificatory, innovative proper and the implementation project. In exploratory projects the search for ideas is performed as well as the evaluation of their potential economic efficiency, influence upon business, technical implement ability (contradictions are identified and resolved), presence of market and potential applicability for creating innovations. Conceptual trends are developed. Further on, the concepts are developed and the benchmarking of these concepts is carried out. In verificatory projects the actual check of implement ability of technical solutions is carried out within the frames, proposed at the preceding stage of leading concepts, secondary problems are identified and the solutions for solving them are developed, specification of their economic evaluations is carried out, market perspectives are evaluated and potential Customers are identified. As a result, leading verified concepts are identified, which are most applicable for creating innovations. In an innovative verified concepts are optimized until a new product and technology is created and based on them the model of new business is developed (or already existing business is substantially modified). And finally, the implementation project presupposes the implementation of developed innovations in the actual business. Milestones and stages of project types is described, typical benchmarks for milestones and stages are established. A two-level verification pattern is proposed. Also, the basic principles for controlling the portfolio of innovation TRIZ-projects.
Key words: TRIZ, resolving of contradictions, benchmarking, secondary problems, innovation, project, milestone, stage, benchmarks, economic efficiency, project portfolio.
WHAT IS AN «INNOVATION TRIZ PROJECT» (ITP)?
TRIZ community has accumulated large experience for performance of different projects, which contain TRIZ-related constituents, and on the whole the notion of TRIZ-project. Everybody understands that this is such a project, in which the role and significance of TRIZ tools and TRIZ approaches is rather great. It means that TRIZ project is a project, directed at creation/transformation of a system implying the use of TRIZ tools. Exactly in the same way the innovation community has already developed a crystallized notion of innovation project. Innovation project is a project, which is directed at creation and implementation of innovations. What is an innovation? There are many definitions, but we prefer to use the one, which is probably the most laconic: innovation is an invention, which has become a business. Then what is an «Innovation TRIZ-project» (ITP)? At a glance it might seem that this is simply a TRIZ-project, the result of which is an innovation. But in reality, this approach is too mechanistic, resembling the integration of two systems in one «box». It appears in reality that TRIZ and innovation activity are integrated at a much deeper level, at the level of project goals. We propose the following formulation: ITP is the creation/transformation of the system for the purpose of creation/transformation of business. If with the «ordinary» TRIZ-project the project goal is the creation or improvement of the system, the goal of ITP is first of all the creation/transformation of business, while the creation/transformation of the system using TRIZ methods is a means for solving business problems.
GOALS AND PROBLEMS OF ITP
Let us formulate more precisely the goal of ITP: creation of a more efficient business based on transformation within the system (not necessarily a technical system). Innovation TRIZ-project implies broad use of TRIZ tools both at the stage of creating the inventing basis of the project, and at the stage of creation (transformation) of business-part of the project, including its investment-related constituent.
ITP begins not with the analysis of the system proper, but with the search for and formation of an image of the future business. For example, we are planning to rather significantly transform some existing business. For example, to considerably reduce its part associated with expenditures. Then we assume that we manage it (via a method, which is as yet unknown) and analyze such changes, which will take place in its structure, its economic parameter values and other values characterizing it, what is going to take place in connection with the positioning of this product at the market, with the consumers, how the turnover will increase, etc. It is probable that the planned reduction of expenditure part will cause a whole cascade of changes in business, and not each of the changes is going to be desirable. It is probable that unexpected and non-trivial changes in the entire business structure will be required. And only after the pattern of the future modified business is created and starts to predict positive desirable transformations, it will be possible to start well-targeted modification of the system (systems). Which form the foundation of the business being modified? LIFE CYCLE OF ITP
Four types of the projects, which consequently drift one into another, are considered within the frames of life cycle of innovation TRIZ projects:
1. Exploratory.
2. Verificatory.
3. Development of ITP.
4. Performance of the project (implementation).
In practice even an exploratory project does not appear «from nowhere», it is based either on such business problems, which are already known or preliminary, non-refined statements of such problems, which are contained in the Register of ideas, which is constantly renovated and augmented. Such ideas, which pass through preliminary selection, become a starting point for performing an exploratory project, as a result of which the Concepts appear after the application of TRIZ tools. These concepts pass through minimum business-modeling for the purpose of understanding their suitability for business. Concept benchmarking is also carried out with regard from the positions of business. At the next stage the concepts, which passed through the procedure of benchmarking, get both technical and business detailing. The concepts, which passed verification successfully, are converted into projects for innovation development. If the customer takes the decision concerning the implementation of these innovations, an implementation project appears, which ends with the creation/transformation of a real business. LC proper of ITP is presented in Fig. 1.
r
Exploratory projects: preliminary ideas at tire input; exit concepts
r
Concept verification projects: al concept input: at the output: the assessment of key
com pone ni» of invtilnitpll pliijtcti
Registry of ideas:
Large business flows, bottlenecks in the development of promising areas, thoughts at the entrance.. raw tasks, proposals; al. the output, temp late d ideas
Employees
Management
Partners.
Marketing
department
(market analysis)
Development of innovative projects: 6 key components at the entrance: solutions, market, work plan, list of performers, cost assessment, economic efficiency assessment" al the
output, approved project documentation and business plan, general contractor
J v_
Implementation at innovative projects at the output compteted project, economic efficiency
Within the framework of the life cycle of innovative TRIZ projects, four types of projects are considered:
1. Search engines
2. Verification
3. Development of ITP
4. Project execution (implementation)
Fig. 1. Life cycle of innovation TRIZ project
STAGES OF ITP LIFE CYCLE (LC)
Stages of life of innovation TRIZ-project are reflected in Fig.2
1. Search project 2. Verification project
Formation of the product image Verification of developed technologies and products
3. Development of an innovative projec
Approval of technical and product solutions
Estimation of market volumes Clarification and expert confirmation of the volume and structure Confirmation of the planned sales system and business
model
of the market Solving Identified and predicted contradictions Clarification of the required personnel and their availabi|lt
Search for technologies
3 (methods + objects) Assessment of the availability/accessibility of
4 personnel, their qualifications
Estimation of financial flows Determination of the structure and volume of financial flows
Approval of the work schedule for the implementation of the project
Approval of the business plan (FEM and economic indicators are part of It)
Making a decision on financing and project implementation
Efficiency assessment, draft Preparation of FEM for concepts business mode
Preliminary concepts benchmarking
Benchmarking of verified concepts. Clarification of the list of persons for decision-making.
Preparation of project documentation for project
Implementation
Transfer of documents to the Customer and the Contractor and closing of the project
4. Support for the innovative project implementation
Project Consulting
Solving secondary problems that arise during Implementation Making changes to project documentation
Fig. 2. Stages of life cycle of innovation TRIZ-projects
SPECIFIC FEATURES OF ITP
Specific features of ITP are:
1. Enhanced level of indefiniteness and, as a consequence, enhanced risks of failures, especially at the initial stage of projects. For the purpose of diminishing the risks, the innovation projects are united in the Portfolio of projects in such a way, so that the risks are balanced and planned economic effect is ensured during the specified period of time.
2. Higher level of required investments (averagely) if compared to industrial TRIZ-projects.
3. Longer terms of development and implementation (averagely).
4. Complex nature of concepts and developed solutions (successful innovations seldom relate only to one certain aspect, more often it is necessary to introduce changes at once into several constituents both of the technical system and of business).
5. Dynamic nature of innovation projects (during the process of project performance economics, logistics, attained technical level could substantially change, which would require prompt revision of project solutions).
6. There is a broader range of opportunities for creating a successful business due to a broader envelopment of a field of ideas.
PORTFOLIO OF ITP
To attain successful functioning of the company and to provide for its successful development it is necessary to have in store several trends, variants and ideas concerning innovations, i.e., so called «portfolio» of innovation projects, which is constantly renovated and augmented. Portfolio of innovation projects should be balanced and should consist both of significant innovations with a high anticipated profitability and of less radical innovations, characterized by lower risk and expected profitability. The figure shows an example of a forecast for evolution of a project's portfolio.
Example of actually used metrics for controlling the Portfolio is given in Fig. 3.
Search ■Verification Development Innovative
Fig. 3. Example of controlling ITP Portfolio. Forecast made with the use of metrics
The following metrics are proposed as basic metrics of innovation projects and portfolio of projects:
with individual projects Present discounted value NPV Internal profitability rate IRR Profitability index PI Payback period PBP (DPP) - for the entire project's portfolio Present discounted value NPV Internal profitability rate IRR Profitability index PI
SPECIFIC TOOLS OF ITP
Early detailed business design.
Already at the stage of search the developed concepts get not only the evaluation of economic efficiency, but also the minimum business model, according to which the main investment parameter values of the would-be investment project are evaluated. To achieve this, a simplified business inventory is used, which is traditionally used for creation and express analysis of business plans. In this case the technical improvements, which are obtained as part of concepts are also formulated as «products». For example, such a product as «millivolts» or «kilograms» can exist, because such «products» have output and «market price», expenditures, raw material/supplies for their manufacturing, i.e., all attributes of such ordinary products as, for example, «footwear» or «car».
In fact, business plan for manufacturing and distribution of products (or «products») is developed, the number of necessary investments is identified, basic economic and investment-related parameters of the project are evaluated. This tool enables to evaluate the economic feasibility of a project or of an individual concept. Example of such detailed business-design is quoted in Fig. 4.
Fig. 4. Example of detailed business design
Express verification of concepts
Due to high expenditures and large number of concepts, developed in ITP, their full-scale verification requires long time and significant expenditures, while «survival rate» of concepts is decreased at early stages.
For the purpose of reducing expenditures the verification is performed in two stages: at an early stage, while the concepts are being developed, express verification is carried out implying the maximum use of such techniques as substitution of the object with the model of it, decrease of system scale, checking of the most significant hypotheses without the optimization of less important technical specific features, etc.
For such concepts, which were preliminarily verified and can be characterized as «survived concepts» their full-scale verification is carried out as part of Verification project.
SPECIFIC FEATURES OF LARGE ITP
Some projects (as a rule, large-scale ones, with high anticipated economic effect and high sci-entific-and-technical level) containing a large number of concepts, themselves constitute a miniportfolio of sub-projects.
Among the concepts of such projects, it is possible to single out the main concepts, which are destined to yield the highest effect (and these concepts can be both competing and mutually supportive), auxiliary concepts (as a rule, they are subject to main concepts and serve for solving emerging secondary problems) and additional concepts, which can be implemented as self-contained solutions or in combination with two preceding types of concepts. In fact, each of the concepts in such a set is an innovation project (sub-project).
Respectively the control over such a portfolio is carried out based on the same fundamental principles as the control over the portfolio of projects.
CONCLUSIONS
• Life cycle (LC) of innovation TRIZ-project is different from LC of the so called «industrial TRIZ project»
• In innovation project it is required to consider a large number of concepts in order to compensate for its decreased «survival rate»
• Business-analysis of the concepts should be carried out as part of a Search project, in order to leave out such concepts, which initially have low business parameter values and which are unsuitable for investment project performance.
• In order to carry out business modeling, it is necessary to reformulate technical effects (Watts, kilograms, minutes, etc.) as manufactured «products», then an opportunity appears to analyze them using typical business tools.
• It is necessary to carry out the verification of concepts in two stages: the first (simplified) stage is carried out during the performance of Search project, so that it might be possible to ensure the fundamental working efficiency of proposed concepts, effects and technical solutions. During the stage of verification project full-scale verification is carried out, but only of such concepts, which are preliminarily verified and went through the benchmarking procedure.
• It is necessary to take specific features of big ITP into account, in particular, by decomposing them into «sub-projects».
