Topic of the Month: TRIZ, the Safety Pin, and Albert Hunt
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Who was Albert Hunt? The inventor of the safety pin! We recently celebrated its patenting in 1825. Shortly thereaftger, he sold the invention to W.R. Grace for the sum of $400 to repay the cost of the $15 patent filing fee which he had borrowed. Billions of these pins have been made over the years and this simple invention illustrates two very basic TRIZ principles:

1. Separation in time and upon condition. We want to "pin" things at times and then, at other times, we want the material to become "unpinned".

2. Dynamism. The design is very flexible, allowing it to be easily pinned and unpinned.

These two inventive principles are illustrated over and over again in so many different innovations. Airline pricing (the way it is currently practiced) illustrates the same two basic principles. Seat prices change by the second as the capacity of a particular flight changes or the pricing of a competitor changes. Seats are priced according to location, leg room, aisle/window vs. center, and front vs. back of the plane. Hotel pricing works the same way. If we pay in advance and/or we are frequent "stayers", the price is different. All pricing is dynamic and responsive to the occupancy rate.

Of all the TRIZ principles, these two are the most often used and impactful. Whenever you are thinking about your current products, just ask yourself these two questions:

1. How could you make your product or service more dynamic and responsive? To what? Don't limit your thinking by what your customers tell you because they don't know what is possible. The latest version of a consumer dispensing machine from Coca Cola(R) allows approximately 150 different beverage combinations! Remember the "almost" commercial soda/pop machine for the Atlanta Olympics that was going to change price as a function of the outside temperature? Which way do you think it correlated?

2. How can you separate product functionality? In time? In space? As a function of need or condition? How can you separate your organization and business functions in the same way? Toll way fees are set based on traffic volume in TX and CA. Computer chip power is varied with the number of programs that are running.

Don't sell your ideas for $400---expand them, patent them, and use them!