Inventive principle local quality gaining importance these days
Inventive principle local quality is improving performance of an object or an area by identifying a special local quality and using it inventively.
This is our more open definition of inventive principle local quality whereas in TRIZ 40 principles is defined as,
- Adapt the individual properties or parts of an object to the required local conditions.
Using local quality in a new way can really improve overall performance
In generalized form, tinkering with local quality of an object or an area of activity inventively has gained immense importance these days.
Local quality can be used inventively for improving the functions of an object or overall performance in an area of activity. The area of activity may be as large as national poll, the business activity of a marketing campaign or as close to daily life as a modified spoon.
The modified spoon that may be used as a fork as well
Someone habituated to the use of a spoon and a fork must have noticed the tapering end of the spoon closely and wondered, can it not be split into thin sharp parts mimicking a fork, but shorter in length of fork teeth.
That way, the modified spoon can used as a spoon as before, but occasionally when needed, it can also be used as fork.
Such an inventive object is finally produced and was offered to me in a dinner party.
Observe that the spoon nearly ended as a normal spoon, but just before it ended, its tapering part was cut into a few short teeth. As the teeth are short, use of the spoon won't be hindered. But now, the teeth will be able to sink into soft food stuffs and lift it to your mouth just as a fork does.
Both a fork and a spoon have tapering ends. The local quality of taper of the ends was used in the spoon to add to it the function of a fork. This is inventiveness in daily life objects, innovations around us.
If you pay attention, you will notice with surprise, such small and inventive changes are appearing in objects around you time to time.
The modest nail-cutter: another example of using local quality inventively
I have noticed long ago the rough opposite side of a nail-cutter, but didn't pay any special attention to it. Things changed when accidentally my fresh cut nail pricked my skin. The nails were not smoothly cut.
How to make the fresh cut nail ends smooth so that they don't prick! That day first I noticed the fine-grained rough surface on the opposite side of the nail-cutter and was happy to polish my uneven freshly cut nails by scraping the nails on the rough surface of the nail cutter.
This nail-end polishing surface must have been first a smooth metal surface. With an intention of improving the function of the modest nail-cutter someone observed the smooth metal surface unused and waiting. The inventive person just made the surface rough with fine grains. Now with this additional eminently usable part, fresh cut nails will no longer remain uneven and pricking.
The hue and cry about an unfair polling campaign
It came in the news not long ago. A supposedly shady software tech company wrote a special software to pinpoint potential favorable voters in a geographical area to focus the customized poll campaign targeting those groups. Segmentation was done by identifying special behavioral pattern of would be voters. That was the use of local quality as an extreme.
Apparently, a large social platform database was shared and used for the segmentation as well as flooding the segmented would be voters with customized poll campaign that tilted the poll results in a number of poll units.
Developmental use of demographic analysis
For national developmental activities, the knowledge of distribution of population by gender, age, income, education among others is invaluable. These are all local qualities.
Digital marketing is mostly about customer segmentation
These days customer segmentation and innovative targeted digital marketing across multiple channels has gained immense importance for business success. Businesses are all out to know in fine-grain details, the customer profiles and behavior, that are nothing but local qualities.
As resources reduce, inequality increases, market competition proceeds at a breakneck pace, more are the fine-grained inventive use of local quality.
Look around and identify the innovations around us so that you can use the inventive principle used for your own benefit also.