Editor’s note: This article continues the series exploring structured innovation using the TRIZ methodology, a problem solving, analysis, and forecasting tool derived from studying patterns of invention found in global patent data.

A special meeting of the TRIZ executive committee had been called because Dwain McMullin was in town, and Henrietta, the committee facilitator, had arranged for him to share a case study with the group.

McMullin was one of the TRIZ coaches at a center of radiological research and nuclear fuel fabrication called Washington Hanford Closure in Richland, Washington. The work performed there had created highly contaminated facilities and waste sites as well as a large inventory of radioactive material. McMullin agreed to share his team’s process in coming up with an inventive solution to resolve the problems encountered during the cleanup project.

At the outset Henrietta told the committee that McMullin was not prepared to share the project outcome at this short notice, but the important thing for them was to understand how the Hanford team got to the recommendation stage.

 …