Technical systems have eight evolutionary laws. These eight evolutionary laws can be applied to generate market demand, qualitative technology prediction, generate new technologies, patent layout and choose the timing of corporate strategy formulation. It can be used to solve difficult problems, predict technological systems, and generate and enhance creative problem-solving tools. These eight laws are:
1) The S-curve evolution law of technical systems;
2) The law of improving ideality;
3) Imbalance of subsystems Laws of evolution;
4) Laws of dynamic and controllable evolution;
5) Laws of evolution to supersystems;
6) Coordinated evolution of subsystems Laws;
7) Evolutionary laws applied to the micro level and increasing fields;
8) Evolutionary laws that reduce human intervention.
Eight major technological system evolution rules
1 The S-curve evolution rule of technological systems
Let’s first look at an example - an example of keyboard evolution:
As one of the important components of computer peripherals, keyboards can be seen everywhere. The currently commonly used keyboard is a rigid whole with a relatively large area and is inconvenient to carry. The U.S. Marine Corps is equipped with a foldable keyboard that is easy to carry on the march. Then there are some PDA products, which have keyboard input functions installed on their flexible outer packaging sleeves, which unfold into a keyboard. Now LCD touch screens can also be used as input devices instead of keyboards. Recently, an Israeli company launched a virtual laser keyboard that projects the image of a full-size keyboard onto a table surface, allowing you to directly enter text just like using a physical keyboard.
The input devices mentioned above basically represent the main development process of keyboards in the past few decades. A brief analysis shows the evolution of keyboards, from integrated rigid keyboards to foldable keyboards, to flexible keyboards, to LCD keyboards, and then to laser keyboards. When we abstract the evolution of keyboard core technology, we will find that it follows a development path from rigid, to hinged, to flexible, to gas, to liquid, and finally to the field.
In fact, the development of many products also continues to evolve along this route. For example, bearings have evolved from single-row ball bearings, to multi-row ball bearings, to micro-ball bearings, to gas and liquid support bearings, to magnetic suspension bearings. Another example is cutting technology, from original saw blades, to grinding wheels, to high-pressure water jets, to laser cutting, etc. In essence, they basically continue to develop along a similar evolutionary path as keyboards.
Obviously, once we have mastered these rules, we can, on this basis, confirm the current development status of the product, discover the defects and problems of the product, predict future development trends, and formulate product development plans. Strategy and planning. This is what we often call technology prediction.
Technology forecasting includes an important content, that is, the product evolution curve - the S-curve, which is used to represent the basic development process of a product's life cycle from birth to withdrawal from the market. In TRIZ theory, the evolutionary curve is divided into four stages, namely infancy, growth, maturity and exit. The infancy and growth stages generally represent that the product is in the stage of principle realization, performance optimization and commercialization development. When it reaches the maturity stage and exit stage, it means that the product's technological development has become relatively mature, and its profits have gradually reached the highest level and begun to decline, and new technologies need to be developed. Substitute products. With the continuous upgrading of products, an evolution curve family of this type of products has been formed. In this regard, the TRIZ theory provides a technology for identifying and confirming the status of the product, that is, first summarizing the basic changes in the number of patents related to the product in a specific period of time, patent levels, market profits and product performance, and then by analyzing the current product By analyzing the changes in relevant parameters, we can determine which stage of the life cycle the product is in, thereby providing a reference for formulating product development strategies.
2 Improve the ideality law
The ideality law of technical systems includes the following meanings:
A When a system realizes its functions, it must have 2 Aspects of functions: useful functions and harmful functions;
B Ideality refers to the ratio of useful functions to harmful functions;
C The general direction of system improvement is to maximize the ideality ratio;
D While establishing and selecting inventive solutions, efforts need to be made to improve the level of ideality.
In other words, any technical system, during its life cycle, evolves in the direction of improving its ideality and becoming the most ideal system. The law of improving ideality represents the law of evolution of all technical systems. final direction. Idealization is the main driving force behind system evolution.
The most ideal technical system should be: the physical entity tends to zero and the function is infinite. Simply put, it is "all functions and the structure disappears."
Improving the ideality can be considered from the following directions:
A. Increase the functions of the system;
B. Transfer as many functions as possible to the working components;
C transfers some system functions to the supersystem or external environment;
D utilizes existing available resources internally or externally.
Example: The invention of wide-angle glasses
Generally speaking, the human eye can only see objects within 180 degrees, so it is impossible to respond in time to potential dangers diagonally behind. How can we expand the angle range of human eyesight without basically changing the traditional structure of glasses. Nike designer Billy May has designed a new type of glasses that can help people expand their perspective. It adds two Fresnel lenses to both sides of ordinary glasses, allowing the cyclist to expand the viewing angles on both sides by 25 degrees, so that potential dangers can be discovered in time and the safety factor can be improved.
3 The law of uneven evolution of subsystems
Every technical system is composed of multiple subsystems that implement different functions.
The law of unbalanced evolution of subsystems refers to:
A The various subsystems contained in any technical system do not evolve simultaneously and in a balanced manner. Each subsystem evolves along its own path. S-curve moving forward
B This uneven evolution often leads to conflicts between subsystems
C The evolution speed of the entire technical system depends on the slowest development in the system The evolution speed of subsystems
A common mistake designers make is to spend energy focusing on important subsystems in the system that are already relatively ideal, while ignoring the shortcomings of the "barrel effect", resulting in the system The development is slow. For example, in aircraft design, there has been a situation where one-sided focus was on the engine, while the restrictive influence of aerodynamics was underestimated, resulting in a relatively slow improvement in overall performance.
4 Dynamic and controllable evolution rules
The evolution of technical systems should develop in the direction of increased structural flexibility, mobility, and controllability to adapt to environmental conditions or Changes in execution methods.
Mastering the "law of dynamic and controllable evolution" will help improve the high adaptability of technical systems. "The law of dynamic and controllable evolution" includes three sub-laws;
A law of improving flexibility
5 law of evolution to supersystem
6 subsystem coordination Laws of Evolution
The evolution of technical systems develops in the direction of greater coordination between each subsystem. That is, each component of the system can fully perform its functions while maintaining coordination. This is also a necessary condition for the entire technical system to perform its functions. The coordination between subsystems can be manifested in:
A Structural coordination
B Coordination of various performance parameters
C Coordination of work rhythm and frequency
7 Evolutionary Laws to Microscopic Levels and Increasing Field Applications
Technical systems tend to transform from macroscopic to microscopic systems. During the transformation, different energy fields are used to obtain better performance. or controlling.
7.1 Path to micro-level transformation
This path reflects the following stages of technological evolution:
1) Macro-level system;
2) Multi-systems of usual shapes such as planar circles or sheets, strips or rods, spheres or balls;
3) Multi-systems from highly separated components such as powders, granules, etc., sub-molecular systems (foams, Gels, etc.)→Molecular systems under chemical interactions→Atomic systems;
4) Systems with fields.
8 Rules for reducing manual intervention
The evolution of technical systems is from manual operation to reducing manual intervention to realizing automation.