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…

We all remember the well-known aphorism by Robert Atkins “Don’t fix what’s not broken.” The meaning is clear – do not change something that works well. Let’s take it to the next level as innovators and problem-solvers: “Don’t fix what’s broken.” Indeed, do we really need to fix something that is not working well? Why should not we fix what’s broken? Fixing something is the most expensive and the least productive process. The only goal of fixing the broken part is to get it back to where it was before, to return it to the previous state. Fixing is an…

The term Kaizen originated from Japan. The meaning of the word Kaizen is “change for the better.” Over time, Kaizen became one of the leading business philosophies and converted into a competitive strategy – continuous improvement. Both words are critical For a better chance to succeed with your business, you should implement Kaizen as a way of life. PRIZ Innovator & Kaizen PRIZ Innovator helps organizations to implement and adopt Kaizen. All Creative thinking tools that the Innovator offers are driving our thinking in a direction of better organizational performance. As we all know, time is the most expensive commodity….

As we already discussed in one of our previous blogs (What is the problem?), the main issue in the problem-solving process is to identify the right problem and to separate between a failure and the actual problem. We should always be concentrating on problem-solving and not wasting the time on fixing the failure. As a quick reminder, a single failure can, and usually does cause several different problems.Some recommendations on how to define a problem statement described in the blog How to define a problem statement? The concept The concept is that failure can cause a wide variety of problems….

As problem solvers, we are typically surrounded by a “wall” of psychological inertia. This keeps us within the boundaries of the previous experience. In other words, psychological inertia always pushes a problem solver to “look for a lost wallet under a streetlight.” In this post, we want to show how problem-solving (or creative thinking) tools can help us break through this wall of psychological inertia. What are these problem-solving tools for? As mentioned above, problem-solving tools, or sometimes referred to as creative thinking tools, help us break through the “wall” of the psychological inertia and enter the field of new…

Read the news, blog posts, many articles, from companies and investors; the whole world is talking about innovations. Why do we need Innovation, and how does it impact a business anyway? In this article, we analyzed a business’s functional structure and shown that consistent (not occasional) Innovation & Problem-solving must be in place to ensure business success.  Business Functional Model We have already shown an example of Functional Modeling in our blogs “Take a customer’s function away to satisfy the customer“, and “A problem solver is the main roadblock in problem solving processes“. Functional Modeling is an analytical tool built…

As one might think, a problem solver is not a person who solved a lot of problems or continues solving one or two problems a day. Not at all. A problem solver is a person who thinks as a problem solver. In this post, we want to try and shed some light on how you can become a problem solver, and share some of my personal experiences of being a problem solver. Who is a problem solver? Because of the way the problem solver thinks, he can recognize a problem – he knows how it looks like. A problem-solver knows…

In today’s world, businesses must innovate to maintain a competitive advantage. If we think about it, even the simplest conventional projects require innovative, or, out of the box, thinking. But when we deal with the more complex matter, like product design, excursion prevention, cost reduction, production yield improvement, or many others, innovation is the only way forward. For these types of projects, the managers need the appropriate tools to operate efficiently and remove destructions. In general, the process of innovation project management is quite typical. Managers with the team define the targets and expectations on timelines. The whole team builds…

Have you ever asked yourself where in the world people are the most interested in problem solving and investing in innovation? If you try searching this topic on the internet, you will find a lot of interesting information with statistics and indexes. There are bunch of complex calculations to get these indexes and scores based on many different parameters, such as R&D Intensity, Patent Activity and so on. Here, we want to take a different look at this, and show what our statistics show. Our website, PRIZ Guru, is fully dedicated to problem-solving & innovation. The blogs and other content…