TRIZ Principles in Bowling!
Download the PDF

Take a close look at these adjacent bowling lanes. One is "normal" and one has guard rails to prevent gutter balls and allow the ball to continue rolling and allow the possibility of hitting the pins, despite a very poor initial roll or someone just dropping the ball on the lane. Who might do this? A CHILD! And if this happens often, the child will lose interest.

How does this happen? The parent of the child inputs list of bowlers in the group and indicates “adult” or “child”. When a child bowler steps up, the “guard rails” rise, preventing the ball from becoming a gutter ball. It may ricochet back and forth, but it will inevitably knock down some pins, reinforcing the child’s efforts. Isn’t this a TRIZ IFR (Ideal Final Result)? But put on your TRIZ hats and ask how we could apply some principles to this scheme to make it even better. Why does the parent need to program? Why not put a sensor in the lane that measures weight and cause this to happen automatically? The parent could turn this on or off if desired. Exactly where the guard rails would appear could also be adjusted, possibly as the score improves.

This is a fantastic example of the use of TRIZ separation principles in a pro-active way!

Don’t forget! Next public TRIZ course with 2.3 CEU’s and 23 PDH’s for ASME is in is in San Diego, November 12-14. Go to https://www.asme.org/products/courses/triz--the-theory-of-inventive-problem-solving to register.