I have always been fascinated by the evolution of processes and products. When one begins to study creativity, it is clearly seen that where it is most hierarchical is in the field of Advertising, Film and Marketing.
It has struck me that in these three areas what is called Brief is common, which would be the advertising or Marketing script, and that in cinema it is called Storyboard when the different scenes have been outlined.
The Brief is the "request" of what the User wants, that is, the director of the advertising, the film or the marketing campaign must abide by the user's mandate.
Now, if one investigates the Brief, it is an Anglo-Saxon term used by war pilots since 1943, and which lists the target, scope, time of the actions, potential problems, strategy and expected result of the military campaign.
It is not by chance that these same words are used in Advertising and Marketing, when speaking of campaign, strategy, target and other military terms.
The phases of the CPS Creative Problem Solving or De Bono's DISCO tool, which are creative tools, agree with the stages of the closed advertising Brief, that is, when the user knows your product perfectly and delivers it in the Brief to the advertising agency, with its fairly detailed attributes and the market target it targets.
As you know, advertisements are usually divided into advertisements with rational positions such as detergent or car advertisements, where the aim is to convince the public and where the aforementioned methods work very well. The reason is that a rational, clear, concrete and simple message is needed here.
In summary, these tools already mentioned solve the problem by looking for its definition, the reliable facts of the context, the alternative solutions, the evaluation and selection of the best solution option and finally the detail of the action plan.
In this case the advertising agency is very limited by the closed Brief. This is common because the user knows in detail his image, his target and brand.
The second group is that of advertisements with emotional positions such as advertising for perfumes, women's clothing and sometimes also for cars, where words and images are sought to seduce the public. Here you need a message that evokes sensations, beauty and emotions with great symbolic weight and a little explicit message that corresponds to an open Brief.
But the things that appear before our eyes sometimes are not what they seem and we have serious errors of perception. De Bono points out that facilitating lateral thinking and the habit of practicing it is only possible through deliberate techniques, as generators of new ideas and modifiers of that misperception. His theory is also based on the collective thinking of society, framed by design and analysis, two contradictions that determine the productivity of lateral thinking.
Innovation comes from innovat'io which means doing something already thought out and different, and as a plausible function of business practice it was proposed by the economist Shumpeter in the 1960s, and still continues to be the most successful management model in business economics.
Now, what will be the evolution of the lawn mower product, is something that we can study with TRIZ and that has perfectly defined phases.
We know that from 1950 to the present the mowing has gone from the manual hoe, to the horse-drawn mower, to the manual mower, to the electric or diesel machine, to the mini tractors used in the golf greens.
And all this in less than thirty years, although in Japan mini driverless tractors are already used, and almost fully automated.
I ask you based on the evolution of the TRIZ systems, what future progress will there be? Are we at the top yet?
No, it is impossible to stop the process of product evolution.
There are still evolutions to make, and problems or complementary actions to take out of this product.
Recall that in TRIZ, the evolution of products follows certain common characteristics and has several accelerators such as:
a).- The advance in science and technology, without it, innovation would not be possible. For example, until the laser beam was developed it was not possible to have high speed optical readers.
b).- The market is another accelerator since it forces manufacturers to develop technological systems that satisfy the wishes and aspirations of consumers in a more ideal way.
c).- The consumer himself can demand technological systems that better meet his needs, including fashion.
In TRIZ there are a series of evolution trends from which the main and most used by experts have been taken, they are:
1st trend Change from a solid monolithic system to a flexible one with multiple cavities, example: the soles of a sports shoe, which were in one piece, later were transformed into soles with a cavity to increase the comfort level, that cavity contained air.
Currently, multi-cavity soles have been produced that still contain air. The trend suggests that in the future cavities may be reduced in size and filled with some less dense gas than air.
2nd trend: The immobile monolithic technological system, with a single function transforms a system with multiple functions and more flexibility, example: a conventional knife was transformed into a spring knife and is currently on the market as the popular Swiss Army knife.
3rd trend: Transformation from a single system to dual and multiple, example: conventional curtain of one piece, two pieces and finally multiple, as in the case of blinds.
4th trend: Refers to the fact that technological systems have a tendency to incorporate more and more user senses, example:
Senses involved: Example:
One way. Silent cinema, in black and white.
Two senses. Cinema with sound in black and white.
Three senses. Cinema with color sound.
Four senses. Cinema with sounds, in color, in 3rd. dimension.
Five senses. Cinema with sound, in color, in 3rd. dimension and adding smells.
Six senses. All of the above but adding seat movement (also used in flight simulators).
Seven senses. All of the above adding sense of touch (in very advanced research)
5th trend: Refers to packaging, mainly food as they are; fruits, vegetables, meats and dairy. The trend indicates that evolution follows the following stages:
• Passive opaque packaging.
• Partially transparent packaging.
• Fully transparent packaging.
• Partially transparent but “active” packaging, that is to say that, by means of colors, informs the buyer of the state of the food, that is, its freshness. At the time of publishing this book, these packages are already in Europe and Japan.
6th trend: Refers to the evolution of the technological system towards its physical disappearance to become a virtual component, examples:
• Basic wired manual operation: “mouse” of the conventional computer.
• The same system but now wireless using some kind of field, for example, the optical "mouse".
• Virtual, that is, it no longer exists physically and is projected onto some appropriate surface.
• Disappearance of the system as it is no longer necessary since its function is taken over by another component of the technological system.
7th trend: Decreased human involvement in the operation of technological systems that are dangerous or unpleasant to use, examples:
• Human being plus technological system. Wood stove.
• Human being plus technological system. Solid, liquid or gaseous fuel stove.
• Human being plus technological system. Electric stove. Use of a field.
• Human being plus technological system. Microwave. Use of another more sophisticated field.
• Human being plus technological system. Remote controlled microwave oven.
8th trend: Increase in the degree of ideality, remembering that an ideal technological system is one that has a greater number of desirable attributes and fewer unwanted attributes, example:
• First computers. Large, low data processing capacity, expensive and with very few users.
• Current desktop computers. Smaller, with great data processing capacity, cheaper and with many users.
•Laptops. Small, with great data processing capacity, cheap and of massive use.
• Computers of the near future. The physical computer, as it is known, disappears, integrating itself with television, on the one hand and on the other, the personal computer becomes smaller and smaller until it becomes virtual, with the central processing unit located somewhere remote from any service provider and wireless operation.
9th trend: Merger of several systems, example: Convergence of the telephone line with that of electrical energy, with TV and Internet in a single cable.
10th trend: Changing the structure from macroscopic to microscopic, example: the first primitive bulbs gave way to modern high-tech semi-conductors.
11th trend: Change of structure from small to giant, example:
• First small planes for few passengers.
• Large planes for more than 150 passengers.
• Large airplanes for 500 passengers.
12th trend: Decrease in density but increase in resistance of the system, example:
• Thick and heavy steel plates.
• Titanium and aluminum alloys, lighter but more resistant.
• Composite materials (composites) such as modern carbon fiber with metals. It is lighter and stronger than the previous ones.
13th trend: Reduction in the number of stages in energy conversion, example:
• With the use of energies obtained from the environment such as solar or wind, the stages are further reduced, increasing net efficiency and, above all, reducing environmental impacts.
There are already lawnmowers powered by solar cells and others with compressed air.
Returning to our lawn mower, we consider that its robotization would be expensive for private users, which should even clean it, fill it with fuel and do blade sharpening maintenance.
What can we do to save energy and time on golf courses, gardens and greens?
We see that trends 2, 3, 7, 8 and 13 have been implemented, which mean:
1-go from manual hoe to horse-drawn cut, 2-to the manual cutter, 3-to the electric or diesel machine, 4-to the mini tractors used in the vast fields
5-to the mini tractors without driver
6-to fully automated equipment with solar cells
Using the TRIZ principle of time reduction for greater added value we can increase the cutting speed (with a power or a greater transmission radius) and save time.
However, this is not the optimal solution because large computers are not useful to private users due to their high price. It is useful to make a functional analysis table of the cutter:
So there are several complementary actions that we can perform and even predict on the future lawn mower.
There are experimental lawn mowers where the blade does not physically exist and has been replaced by a short-range laser beam, but it is not completely safe and is undergoing testing.
Let's see more alternatives:
a-A creative alternative is to combine cutting grass with incorporating fertilizers and herbicides, or
b-aerate the soil or weed it, of course, for this you must use a common base and various accessories, or
c-We can attach accessories to throw snow, drain wells or swimming pools, current generators, leaf blowers, etc. thus private users will compensate the higher cost, or
d-Incorporate growth inhibitors to the lawn instead of fertilizers, or better yet
e-Use fertilizers on greens that need thick grass, and growth inhibitors with private users.
What is certain is that those companies that do not evolve accompanying the evolutionary trends are in lawn mowers or in the maintenance services of greens or in accessory equipment, they will have their days numbered.
Questions:
Will it be possible to reach the ideal final result, that is to say, to cut the grass alone?
Or that the grass grows only up to a certain height?
Or to remove the lawn mower?
Everything indicates that it is highly feasible.
Interestingly, the two largest Japanese lawn mower companies and three other North American mowers have invested a lot of money in biogenetic developments to get a lawn height of about an inch in height and no more.
It is the end of lawn mowers. If they are successful we will have reached the ideal end result of not having to mow the lawn, but that does not mean that we will not have to investigate the impact on the environment that will bring new challenges and extend the evolution of our products to other technological frontiers.
Let us not forget that the use of polluting equipment, cars and deforestation have brought climate changes that raise the temperature of the seas, encourage pests, eliminate hundreds of arable land and generate genetic changes in many species. It was not the strongest being, neither the most intelligent nor the most reproductive, but the most adaptable that finally conquered the Earth, and that balance and exchange with the environment can be cut, if it is not properly regulated but it is certain that the evolution of the products will not stop.
Bibliography
Electronic edition of the book Generación y Desarrollo de Ideas creativas at:
www.ideas-marketing.com.ar/
Applications of systematic inventive thinking at:
www.monografias.com/trabajos32/pensamiento-inventivo-sistematico/pensamiento-inventivo-sistematico.shtml
