Indexing and Mapping Examples of Heuristics Compiled from TRIZ

TRIZ is recognized as an effective and systematic approach for inventive thinking and includes several tools, including Inventive Principles, Standard Solutions and Separation Principles. These tools are what we term Inventive Heuristics. Heuristics are cognitive strategies that direct problem solvers to areas of the solution space where promising solutions are more likely to be found. Examples of Inventive Heuristics are the Inventive Principle ‘Dynamization’ and the Standard Solution ‘1.2.2’. TRIZ contains a relatively high number of Inventive Heuristics (469 were found in a previous study), which requires significant time to be understood, selected and applied. Another problem concerns the existing repetitions of heuristics, which entails significant practical demands, especially for newcomers to TRIZ. To address the last issue, a compilation of Inventive Heuristics was created, thus reducing the total number of Inventive Heuristics to 263, leaving only the original heuristics and eliminating overlaps. This chapter presents an index and examples build on the created compilation, which is structured in a catalogue, thus facilitating its learning and use. This chapter describes the research strategy, the mapping examples, index structuring and the practical use of the Heuristics Catalogue in a case study that is related to solving classical TRIZ problems. The authors expect that the use of the catalogue will simplify the process of applying TRIZ and will result in faster invention and innovation cycles.