Goldfire Innovation
Software- Recent Developments
September 2011
The 7th TRIZ Symposium in Japan
Kiyoshi Shikakura
Invention Machine Japan K.K.

What is Goldfire• Software solution platform, developed by Invention
Machine Corporation, to assist companies to achievesustainable innovation,• Goldfire integrates the following product features• Proven problem analysis and idea generation methodologies• Patented semantic knowledge research capability to help
engineers be knowledge-enabled in analyzing problem andopportunities, and generating solutions• Capture, share and re-use engineers‟ thought process ascorporate knowledge

Goldfire as TRIZ software
Putting TRIZ tools/contents into the enterpriseinnovation processes, as an engine to drive
systematic innovation
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“Innovation without Methodology is Just Luck”• “There are lots of creative people in your company, andgiven half a chance they’ll probably create some great
innovations.
• But if you rely on their random efforts then you’re risking
your success on chance, and that’s not enough.
• You have to develop and apply methodologies, the rightmethodologies, to make the shift from luck toconsistency, predictability, and sustainability”.
-“Permanent Innovation” (Langdon Morris, 2006)

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Key Capabilities to Achieve Innovations
3 Challenges for Manufacturing Companies
New product/technology
pipeline which can sell

Proposed in the Dec
2009 issue of “Nikkei
Monodukuri”
Knowledge-enablement
Leverage internal andexternal knowledge forfaster and quality problem
analysis and solutions

Limited „Time‟, „Budget‟and „Human resources‟

Maintain product quality(avoid quality issues)

Strong Product andTechnology Development
Capability

Analytical capability
Logically analyze
problems to find new
angles for problem
analysis and solutions

Conception capability
Foresee potential issues,generate and selectpromising concepts forsolutions

Call for Methods/Tools to empowerengineers on these 3 criticalcapabilities
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3 Key Elements for Innovation

Information

Innovation
Activities

Communities

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The Innovation Solution
Get the rightinformation within
the right time

Capture & reuse
expertise & new
intellectual capitalWork collaboratively withrepeatable & effective methods
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Recent enhancement of Goldfire (1)• Introducing “Tasks” (Ver. 5)• Provides “Best Practice” workflow utilizing various Goldfirefeatures for most-common innovation activities

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Recent enhancement of Goldfire (2)• Knowledge Navigator（Ver. 5.5）
• Enable engineers to quickly become „knowledge enabled‟ andmake „informed decisions‟ around topics and technologies

Goldfire‟s Knowledge
Navigator provides more than
40 “Concept Lenses” to assist
with topic exploration

Page 8Recent enhancement of Goldfire (3)• Problem sharing/discussions, Expert Finder（Ver. 6）
Promote collaboration for innovations

Allows engineers to share problems intheir organizations, have discussions
online. All discussions are semanticallyindexed and captured as new‘corporate knowledge’

Page 9Conclusions• Product and technology ideas are needed at every
phase of product development cycles• Planning, R&D, Product and production engineering, Q/A, etc.

• Need to leverage “information” as “knowledge”, allow“people” to work collaboratively in various “innovationactivities”, to establish process to achieve sustainable
innovations• Goldfire puts TRIZ methodologies (tools/contents) intoenterprises‟ innovation processes, allowing engineers tobenefit from TRIZ.
Goldfire as TRIZ software
Putting TRIZ tools/contents into the enterpriseinnovation processes, as an engine to drive
systematic innovation
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