TRIZ-based Anticipatory Design of Future Products and Processes

The capability of anticipating the main features of future products and related manufacturing processes is more and more a critical asset in industry, due to the innovation-based competition of markets and to the extremely reduced lead time of modern product development cycles. The paper presents a survey of TRIZ, the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, as a reference methodology to support design activities driven by the forecasted evolution of technical systems. TRIZ postulates, models and tools are described in the scope of technology forecasting and discussed within a more general design science perspective. The discussion highlights strengths and weaknesses of the theory and suggests relevant directions for further research in the field.