The role of TRIZ as an inventive tool in technology development and integration in China

The Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ), first developed by a Russian engineer in late 1940's, is a combination of concepts and tools that has been applied by many of the top 500 companies in the United States and Europe. It is a proven algorithmic approach to solve system problems and provides a systematic approach for "innovation". The application of TRIZ in the engineering and scientific community in solving manufacturing problems and helping to create new product design has been vigorously studied and applied since it was introduced in United States a few years ago. TRIZ has been applied successfully to a wide range of industries from bio-medical to engineering and management. It is now taking shape in Asia Pacific with Korea and Japan taking the lead. Companies like Samsung and LG have been applying TRIZ for a few years and has achieved significant results in cost saving and new product development. China is fast becoming the manufacturing hub of the world with major efforts put into new product design for reliability and development. This paper discusses the role of TRIZ in driving for systematic innovation process. Discussion on the status, implementation and future development of TRIZ in China is presented.