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Innovative Cases of TRIZ Application in the Automotive Industry
Article in Applied Mechanics and Materials · December 2014
DOI: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.735.326
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Applied Mechanics and Materials Vol. 735 (2015) pp 326-330
© (2015) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland
doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.735.326
Submitted: 29.08.2014
Revised: 21.11.2014
Accepted: 01.12.2014
Innovative Cases of TRIZ Application in the Automotive Industry
A. R. Zulhasni1, a and A. B. Nooh2,b
1
Razak School of Engineering and Advanced Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Kuala
Lumpur, MALAYSIA
2
Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia,
Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA
a
b
zulhasni@gmail.com, noohab@gmail.com
Keywords: TRIZ; Automotive; Design to Cost; Optimization; Patent.
Abstract. It is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore that cost reduction in the product system
does not support the development of innovation. This contradiction becomes a great challenge for
any type of industry in order to improve the competitive level. This research focused on the
mechanism of cost reduction using Design to Cost (DTC) strategy to achieve cost improvement and
innovation. The contradiction was solved using the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ)
that was integrated into the Design to Cost Innovation framework. Two types of cases were
introduced in this research that highlighted the application and the outcome of TRIZ in DTC
framework. From the case studies, the results show that the magnitude of cost improvement and
innovation achieved is more than the application of conventional tools in the DTC strategy. These
change the limitation of mindset in cost reduction without compromise or trade-off, and open up
new possibility of research for reducing cost in processes and services for various industries.
Introduction
In the world of automotive industries, the competition focuses critically on product cost and
technology advancement. The biggest challenge is the contradiction to achieve a win-win situation
for the product manufacturer and the customer. It is common conflict in producing cost effective
product and provides the highest satisfaction to the target customer at the same time. The
conventional approach to balance-up between the new technology for customer and the incurred
cost from the manufacturer is known as trade-off. TRIZ methodology is proposed to bring higher
value to the customer by engaging neither trade-off nor compromise. TRIZ methodology already
adopted in the automotive industry in various areas such as product design [1], product performance
[2] and technology management [3]. However, every industry will always relate improvement
activity with cost impact in business processes.
Using other research on Design-To-Cost (DTC) framework integrated with TRIZ [4], cost
improvement and reduction able to achieve further compared to conventional approach. This
research presents several innovative cases, applying TRIZ in automotive industry to generate
innovative solutions. From the literature, there are a lot of tools that are currently being used in the
DTC program [5] [6]. The most commonly used tools are Brainstorming, Value Analysis, Trade-off,
Pareto analysis and others [7]. Those tools are applied in specific phases throughout the DTC
processes and activities. The common four phases of the DTC program are ‘Prioritization Phase’,
‘Idea Generation Phase’, ‘Idea Evaluation Phase’ and ‘Implementation Phase’. Each of the DTC
phase requires a systematic approach to ensure that the innovation in the product design can be
executed and simultaneously achieving cost reduction. An implementation framework is proposed
to synergize the TRIZ methodology as a systematic innovation in order to develop DTC Innovation
framework as shown in Fig. 1.
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Applied Mechanics and Materials Vol. 735
327
Fig. 1 The proposed Design-To-Cost Innovation (DTCI) framework [4]
Case project for the DTCI framework using TRIZ
The implementation of the proposed framework has been executed upon several breakthrough
cases in the automotive industry. Previously, there was a research on complexity planning for
automotive components through this framework [8]. In this study, another two case projects were
presented. The first case project is about pushing the boundary of component optimization using
TRIZ to achieve weight and cost reduction. A wiper system was studied to explore the conventional
and TRIZ methods to provide the best weight reduction idea and concept for the system. The second
case project explored new tools from the TRIZ known as ‘Patent Circumvention’. In the automotive
industry, patent plays a critical role in securing new findings and discovery that bring high impact to
product competitiveness [9]. It aims to create an opportunity to develop own patent, alongside cost
reduction on the benchmarked systems.
An automotive OEM was selected where several case studies were developed by adopting the
proposed framework. The company was selected because of their capability in conducting a full
cycle product design process. 14 case studies were developed by utilizing the proposed framework,
and involved both the OEM itself and several suppliers. The duration of each case study was around
1 to 3 months to be completed at the conceptual level, and it took further 6 to 12 months to actually
implement the concept into the product for market. The cost improvement results were recorded
after the case implementation was completed.
Case project 1: Weight optimization on automotive components
In the automotive industry, weight becomes a strong characteristic in the automotive design.
Weight gives a significant impact on engine performance, stability and most importantly, fuel
consumption. The team from the body equipment section chose wiper bracket component as shown
in Fig. 2 for the comparison with the case study to identify the results of the conventional
optimization process and the DTCI framework. The ultimate goal for this case study was to reduce
the material used to manufacture the component. This indirectly reflects the cost reduction outcome
on the material consumption related to the bracket design.
The team started by optimizing the wiper bracket using special and expensive Computer Aided
Engineering (CAE) software to assist them on identifying the area with high potential to be
discarded through the stress-strain flow colored mapping analysis. Then, the engineer redesigned the
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Technology and Engineering Reviews and Research Advances I
bracket by excluding some portion of the component and re-ran the analysis to validate the modified
component. The component was fabricated as a prototype and the data of weight reduction was
measured.
Fig. 2 The wiper bracket in a wiper system for automotive
The same team member was trained and certified with TRIZ level 1 to ensure they have the
competency to use certain type of tools such as the contradiction matrix. The team started to identify
the contradiction parameters based on the function of the wiper bracket. By focusing to reduce the
weight of the stationary object, the affected parameters were force, strength, stability, reliability and
ease to manufacture. The contradiction matrix shows the recommended inventive principles to the
engineers to develop a better concept of wiper bracket with better weight reduction. After the
solution was analyzed and then adopted into the wiper design, a new wiper bracket was fabricated
as a prototype and the weight was measured, similar to the previous one.
The analysis of inventive principles was done based on the cost impact and the total concept
feasibility level evaluated by the experts. Fig. 3 shows there are four inventive principles that have
low cost impact and high feasibility to develop. The evaluation matrix filtered the recommended
inventive principles specifically related to the project scope and budget. Those recommended
concepts have been discussed and reviewed in detail by the designers.
Fig. 3 TRIZ inventive principles in the technical and commercial evaluation matrix
A new design was created based on the concept of inventive principles known as segmentation
and change parameters. For detail design features, the designer changed the body of the wiper
bracket into three parts, which are the main body as a hollow type shaft, and both mountings were
smaller and used lightweight material, such as alloy. With both products were developed until the
prototype level, the comparison could be simulated to identify the outcome of this project case. Fig.
4 shows the physical design for both wiper brackets to be analyzed.
Applied Mechanics and Materials Vol. 735
329
Fig. 4 The optimized design concept modified with adopted Inventive Principles.
As shown in Table 1, the result achieved using the current optimization method was 22.1%
weight reduction against the existing design. Meanwhile, the optimization method using TRIZ
achieved 75.3% of weight reduction against the existing design. This clearly shows that TRIZ gives
a higher impact in component weight optimization than the existing method.
Table 1 Weight comparison for optimized design and TRIZ design solution
Level of bracket design
Current design
Optimized design
Adopting TRIZ optimized design
Weight improvement (kg)
1.504
1.172
0.371
% of weight reduction
22.1%
75.3%
Case project 2: Patent development with cost reduction
As we all know, patent brings a new level of competitiveness, especially in the automotive
industry. Innovative Benchmarking may open up a new possibility to create another innovation.
This can be achieved using Patent Circumvention. However, in the real situation, things may be
more difficult when cost reduction is also a part of the target, which people normally compromises
for the long-term goal. DTCI was used to explore this situation and to demonstrate how the results
can be achieved, and later a comparison was made to the normal patent development process.
A team that specialized in the automotive power-train and transmission explored the patent on a
cylinder deactivation system. Four types on patents related to cylinder deactivation system were
benchmarked by the team, which included patents filed by Bentley, Audi (cylinder on demand),
Bosch and Volkswagen. The activity requires a strong teamwork between the group of designers
and the group from the legal unit, from the very beginning of the project. For the mechanism of the
selected system, the patent circumvention process used was trimmed out, and the secondary
problem was solved using Technical Contradiction. Fig. 5(a) shows the process of TRIZ application
for patent circumvention.
Fig. 5 TRIZ trimming process (a) and patent circumvention (b)
Using the feasible concept generated, a new system of cylinder deactivation was created as
shown in Fig. 5(b). However, the concepts need to be further refined in terms of technical ground
and also legal perspective. This creates a patentable solution that is different from others competing
patents.
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Technology and Engineering Reviews and Research Advances I
Results and Discussions
The result from both case projects shows that the application of TRIZ methodology in the DTC
generates a significant impact towards cost reduction in the automotive components and enhance the
innovation level of the existing system [10]. The application of TRIZ in the DTC program has
achieved effective cost saving through product or component design improvement. TRIZ methods
change the thinking process to extract more innovative ideas and expand new inventions that
produce a significant impact on cost reduction. In the same financial year (2011/2012), the
organization really shows significant results in cost reduction performance. Those initiatives are
continued by adopting the proposed framework and eventually achieved further cost reduction in the
following financial year.
Conclusions
These project cases explain the central importance of the DTCI framework that adopted TRIZ to
enhance the result of cost improvement through innovation. The present study was designed to
determine the effect of adopting TRIZ in cost strategy and compared to any existing available
method. One of the more significant findings that emerges from this study is that all limitations and
contradiction in reducing cost at the product design level can be solved using the DTCI. The result
of this research supports the idea that the cost reduction achievement can be better enhanced using
the TRIZ method [10]. The findings of this study have a number of important implications for future
practice beyond product design, for example, process design or service design in cost reduction
initiatives.
References
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