TRIZ tools to enhance risk management

This paper discloses an innovative step by step method based on TRIZ tools used according to the general approach suggested by FMEA. The aim of the proposed method consists in building an improved risk management model for design and to enhance the capability of anticipating problems and technical solutions to reduce failure occurrence. The method adopts tools used to model the system, such as functionality, Su-Fields models, resource evaluation and tools dedicated to problem solving such as standard solutions. The resulting method allows a better definition of the system decomposition and functioning and provides a sharp definition of the events and failures potentially occurring into the system, which is not provided by standard FMEA. Moreover, the high importance given to resources since the beginning of the method is extremely effective for understanding system evolution and to generate resource-based solution to problems dealing with product risk. The overall method has been developed so that technicians are not supposed to have a high level expertise in TRIZ tools. In order to evaluate the method it was tested with students with basic level TRIZ education and some application with industrial case studies were performed.