“Our life would never be as advanced and comfortable as it is if not for the application of tantalum and niobium.” And this is right. This is what I wrote at the very beginning of my book about tantalum and niobium chemistry. Tantalum capacitors are everywhere: in our cellphones, computers, in about any electronic device you use. Due to the unique properties of tantalum, these capacitors provide a champion performance within the smallest size. Defibrillators and pacemakers contain tantalum capacitors because of their reliability. Tantalum is the only material that is fully compatible with the human body; therefore, parts made…

We are excited to announce that we have recently released an additional creative thinking tool: Perception Mapping (PMap). In this post, we want to describe what is it good for and why should anyone use it. What is Perception Mapping? Perception mapping (PMap) is a creative thinking tool that allows finding blockers (barriers) that prevent achieving a certain goal. When one creates a plan of how to achieve something, he will typically build a list of things needed for it, list of actions to be taken. It is no doubt that all these actions (perceptions) are good and aim to…

The problem-solving tool is a paradoxical concept. Ask people: “Do you know that problem-solving tools speed up a problem-solving process?” A typical answer will be:  “Yes.” If you continue and ask: “Do you always use problem-solving tools?” The most common answer is: “No, I do not have time to use any tools when I solve a problem.” This is a really puzzling situation. Think about it, people don’t play chess without knowing how to play, don’t make a statistical analysis without learning math, don’t perform surgery without relevant education, etc. In the case of problem-solving, more often than not, even…

In today’s world, every company is trying its best to innovate. Some are very successful at that, but the majority are not so much. In this article, I wanted to share some of my personal experiences with how many people solve problems and innovate. A typical example Here is a common situation in many problem solving workshops I am conducting. Teh audience is split into small groups. Each group is working on a certain problem. As a facilitator, I am moving from one group to another to see how are they doing and to provide guidance. I am approaching one…

Have you ever tried to understand what an Innovation Platform is? Do we really need an Innovation Platform in the business? What is its position and function in the business system? In this post, we’ll try to answer these questions. As we have already proved in our previous blog (You can’t buy yourself an innovation), the innovation level of a company is not correlating with the R&D expenses. Here, we want to use the same data and look at this from a bit different angle. The top 40 innovative companies We picked 40 of some of the best and well-known…

The expenses on R&D is the most popular indicator of company innovation level. And many organizations are following that. They dump money on R&D with the hope to innovate more. But the question is, Is there a correlation between innovation rank and R&D expenses? There is a lot of related information you can find on the web, we, however, made our own analysis that confirmed that high R&D spending does not mean high innovation level of a company. In short, you can’t buy yourself an innovation. High innovation rank at low R&D cost should be the preferable target for a…

Root cause analysis is one of the most popular tools in the problem solving process. And, the majority of people, honestly believe that once the root cause is found, the problem is solved. That is an incorrect statement. In this article, we want to explain why. What is the root cause? First, we should understand what the root cause actually is. In our vision, the root cause is not necessarily the fundamental reason for the problem. We like to split the definition into two reasons: Root cause analysis in PRIZ Innovation Platform PRIZ Innovation Platform offers two instruments for root…

When exploring how to improve the manufacturing process, managers focus on two critical parameters: production yield and product cost. Tasking their teams with reducing costs and enhancing yield, managers must address these elements, which are closely interconnected, much like a child’s swing. Despite the well-known link between yield and cost, efforts to improve these parameters often occur in isolation. This article explores two significant strategy vectors: improving production yield and reducing product costs, providing you with more resources to tackle the problem of how to improve a process. Management strategies to improve process designs of services focus on several key…

A microchip processing consists of only two types of operations to either deposit something or remove something. Nothing more than that. Modern microelectronic production is mainly based on processes using plasma. Even if we take into account diffusion and some other wet processes,  plasma remains the main instrument in microelectronic manufacturing. In this article, we want to analyze the plasma-based processes using 9 Windows and predict what will replace the plasma in microchip manufacturing. 9 Windows is an excellent tool that helps us think in space and in time. This tool helps us to predict the future. Analysis using 9…