Matching TRIZ engineering parameters to human factors issues in manufacturing

An overview of the development of the TRIZ problem solving approach is provided in the first part of this paper. Having emerged in Russia in 1946, the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving Technique (TRIZ) has been commonly used in the USA and Europe in the last few decades. TRIZ, as a method, has been used successfully to solve problems such as many of those typically arising during the process of product development, as reviewed in the second part of the paper. While the TRIZ method is also considered fit to address human factors problems in manufacturing, straightforward application would benefit from a resource gathering supporting knowledge and techniques. In the third part, analysis of previous work leads to suggest that new TRIZ method users might benefit from specific guidance in the interpretation of the engineering parameters in the contradiction matrix, considering human factors problems in manufacturing. A tentative correspondence is proposed in the fourth part between human factors issues in manufacturing and the engineering parameters in the matrix. The paper concludes emphasizing the need to further extract and categorize human factors and ergonomics principles and understand and analyze them under the light of the 40 inventive principles of TRIZ. Key-Words: Industrial engineering, Inventive principles, Contradiction, Resource for new users.