There is enormous pressure for companies to continually come up with new products and ideas to stay competitive. In some instances, a single individual may be credited with a companies’ innovative output, however other companies, including Samsung and Intel, are taking a less risky approach by using a repeatable, algorithmic process called TRIZ. As noted by Forbes, “In 2003 TRIZ led to 50 new patents for Samsung and in 2004 one project alone, a DVD pick-up innovation, saved Samsung over $100 million. TRIZ is now an obligatory skill set if you want to advance within Samsung.”
The TRIZ process is the focus of a new module called, Systematic Innovation, taught for the first time this fall by Irina Sigalovsky, Ph.D. at Tufts Gordon Institute as part of the M.S. in Engineering Management curriculum. Dr. Sigalovsky is a principal at GEN3 Partners, a Boston-based innovation consulting company. GEN3 works with a variety of clients from medical devices to industrial products to develop new products or solutions.