Facilitating the development of TRIZ in Malaysia
“I have developed a TRIZ based game. It is a simple game based on Android Operating System and can be ported to a simple computing or communication device. I based the game concept on 40 inventive principles, in the hope to generate interest with children at young age and pursue TRIZ later in life. It is a self-funded initiative and has managed to complete the first ten of the forties. Maybe we can seek some fund to complete the game and launch it for free as a contribution back to the TRIZ community.” Dr. Tan Wee Hoe, UPSI“Sometime in 2009, my organization has established the initial step into TRIZ. It took a software approach and the interest to proliferate the methodology was limited. Most senior engineers could leverage their experience over the method introduced and did not find it that powerful. But with better understanding of the concept and thinking process, the challenge now is to run an innovation community. We need to look at the value generated and maybe we can launch this method for engineers, similar to the ICC/QCC activities for operators and technicians.” En. Zarak Zamrah, Proton“The journey of introducing TRIZ has been quite lonely in the business and management faculties. Most folks still see this as a technical subject. We see great opportunity for the non-technical folks to leverage the thinking process mapped by TRIZ. We look forward to collaborate between two business schools and impart the knowledge.” Dr. Mohd Fauzi Shaffie, MMU and Dr. Sofri Yahya, USM.
With these inputs, a group of leading TRIZ practitioners gathered at the Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC) Northern Region Office (NRO) for a Roundtable Discussion on furthering TRIZ development in Malaysia. Thanks to the effort championed by Dato’ Mohd Razali Hussain, Director General, MPC and Cik Sarimah Misman, Director of Northern Region Office, MPC, 28 TRIZ practitioners from the northern and central regions were invited for the discussion on 1st August 2013.
Two organizations were invited to share their learning on TRIZ. Mr. Long Theng Chao from Infineon Melaka gave a good insight into “Jumping on the TRIZ Bandwagon – the Infineon Melaka Journey”, and En. Zulhasni Abd Rahim from Proton gave a wonderful review of the “TRIZ journey at Proton”. Both organizations aimed to increase their focus on people, encourage human centered productivity and enable autonomy to innovate. Key challenges are limited knowledge, inexperienced coach and lack of time. But once the knowledge and experience are gained, the challenge will be limited to time and priority of problems to be solved. All in, there is a need to seek real knowledge, invest in real practice to achieve real impact.
The Roundtable Discussion was best summarized by Dato’ Razali. He says that best practices such as TRIZ must be enjoyed by as many people as possible if not everyone. MPC will remain as the facilitator to encourage adoption and application of the methodology. MPC has 30 years of experience since 1983 to facilitate the productivity tools and will pursue the same path albeit faster to encourage the usage of the innovation tools. He stressed that it is imperative that Malaysians innovate to achieve greater value for the nation.
Malaysia Productivity Corporation has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with MyTRIZ and Al Biruni Solutions Sdn. Bhd. to promote TRIZ to the industry in Malaysia. MPC has dedicated their Northern Region Office to be the Center of Excellence for TRIZ since the partnership back in 1st Feb 2013. Lots of TRIZ resources have been installed at the MPC Northern Region Office at Bertam. The Roundtable Discussion is one of the many initiatives by the partnership to encourage the adoption and usage of TRIZ or Theory of Inventive Problem Solving methodology in Malaysia.
