Reviewing TRIZ from the perspective of Axiomatic Design

TRIZ is a Russian acronym for the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, which is a little-known algorithmic system for solving engineering problems. It has been developed by Altshuller and colleagues for over 50 years in the former Soviet Union (he started his work on an algorithm for the solution of inventive problems in 1946). Axiomatic Design has been developed by Suh and colleagues at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the USA for about 20 years (their first paper was published in 1978; Suh et al. (1978)). Both theories have lately gained popularity due to the need for a science-based design methodology. Interestingly, many concepts of the two design theories seem to be in coincidence, even though they have been developed quite independently for a long time. In this paper, several concepts of TRIZ are reviewed from the standpoint of Axiomatic Design. The concept of ideality, the concept of conflicts (or contradictions) and the Sufield model of TRIZ are studied and explained using the Axiomatic Design framework.