Abstract
Unlike the great majority of TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) device trimming where components within a system are trimmed, this research proposes a trimming process for multiple systems through integration of components from various systems. The 9-window and Scenario Analysis processes identify potential relevant systems to form a super “virtual” system. Then components of the virtual system were transformed into an integrated system using the proposed affinity measures and the TRIZ trimming method. Affinity measures were proposed to calculate “tendency” of ease of integration between components. An affinity relationship matrix is built to manifest the affinity between components in 6 aspects. A dendrogram is then built to determine the best component set for integration through trimming. The integrated system has fewer components than the sum of the original systems with the same function. Contributions of this research include: 1) Establishing a multi-system trimming process through integration; 2) Establishing a mathematical method to identify the components for trimming through integration;