Invention Machine
Encyclopedia
Invention Machine Corporation is software company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts with offices in Paris, London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, and Minsk and a global network of partners and resellers.
knowledge to accelerate problem solving, increase productivity and deliver better performing and more competitively differentiated products.
) and processes (innovation trend analysis, root cause analysis
, device/process analysis, function modeling, FMEA
, FMECA, HACCP or HAZOP), collaboration capabilities, and semantic search
technology. Goldfire is typically used by engineers, scientists, inventors, and researchers at global manufacturers, as well as research facilities and universities worldwide.
, a Soviet engineer and inventor.
Altshuller sifted through reams of patents covering successful inventions, organizing them according to the physical principles and basic mechanisms they contained. Using this analysis, he developed a set of what he called ‘Inventive Principles’ that could be taught to engineers, scientists, and inventors who wanted to be more productive. Altshuller's method became known by the acronym TRIZ
, which is Russian for "the theory of solving inventor's problems." Invention Machine’s innovation software is based on this methodology, among others.
Since its inception in 1992, Invention Machine’s efforts have been solely focused on the development and implementation of innovation software designed to aid manufacturers with identifying, validating, and ranking ideas, streamlining the ideation to productization process, and fueling pipelines with competitively differentiated products.
In late 2002, Mark E. Atkins joined the company as Chairman, President, and CEO. Since that time, Atkins has overseen a broadening of the features of Invention Machine’s innovation software, Goldfire. Today, the company is growing, profitable, cash-positive, and debt-free.
Company Information
Invention Machine is a provider of software that helps companies create innovative products. The company is headquartered in Boston, MA. The company’s software, Goldfire, helps companies leverageknowledge to accelerate problem solving, increase productivity and deliver better performing and more competitively differentiated products.
Platform
Companies use the Goldfire software to rapidly translate ideas into market-leading products. Goldfire helps organizations understand market or technology trends, design new products, identify potential failure points in new products, and find new markets for existing Intellectual PropertyIntellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
) and processes (innovation trend analysis, root cause analysis
Root cause analysis
Root cause analysis is a class of problem solving methods aimed at identifying the root causes of problems or events.Root Cause Analysis is any structured approach to identifying the factors that resulted in the nature, the magnitude, the location, and the timing of the harmful outcomes of one...
, device/process analysis, function modeling, FMEA
Failure mode and effects analysis
A failure modes and effects analysis is a procedure in product development and operations management for analysis of potential failure modes within a system for classification by the severity and likelihood of the failures...
, FMECA, HACCP or HAZOP), collaboration capabilities, and semantic search
Semantic search
Semantic search seeks to improve search accuracy by understanding searcher intent and the contextual meaning of terms as they appear in the searchable dataspace, whether on the Web or within a closed system, to generate more relevant results. Author Seth Grimes lists "11 approaches that join...
technology. Goldfire is typically used by engineers, scientists, inventors, and researchers at global manufacturers, as well as research facilities and universities worldwide.
History
The story behind Invention Machine dates back to the late 1980s when a flock of technologies made their way out of the dissolving Soviet Union into the rest of the world. One of the technologies that emerged was the product of decades of research conducted in Russia since the late 1940s by Genrich AltshullerGenrich Altshuller
Genrikh Saulovich Altshuller , was a Soviet engineer, inventor, scientist, journalist and writer. He is most notable for the creation of the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, better known by its Russia acronym TRIZ...
, a Soviet engineer and inventor.
Altshuller sifted through reams of patents covering successful inventions, organizing them according to the physical principles and basic mechanisms they contained. Using this analysis, he developed a set of what he called ‘Inventive Principles’ that could be taught to engineers, scientists, and inventors who wanted to be more productive. Altshuller's method became known by the acronym TRIZ
TRIZ
TRIZ is "a problem-solving, analysis and forecasting tool derived from the study of patterns of invention in the global patent literature". It was developed by the Soviet inventor and science fiction author Genrich Altshuller and his colleagues, beginning in 1946...
, which is Russian for "the theory of solving inventor's problems." Invention Machine’s innovation software is based on this methodology, among others.
Since its inception in 1992, Invention Machine’s efforts have been solely focused on the development and implementation of innovation software designed to aid manufacturers with identifying, validating, and ranking ideas, streamlining the ideation to productization process, and fueling pipelines with competitively differentiated products.
In late 2002, Mark E. Atkins joined the company as Chairman, President, and CEO. Since that time, Atkins has overseen a broadening of the features of Invention Machine’s innovation software, Goldfire. Today, the company is growing, profitable, cash-positive, and debt-free.
Recent Awards
- 2011 Frost & Sullivan Best Practices in Innovation Management award
- 2010 AlwaysOn: East Top 100 Companies
- Blogging Innovation: 2010 Top 40 Innovation Bloggers
- 2009 AlwaysOn: East Top 100 Companies
- 2009 Managing Automation: Progressive Manufacturing PM100
- 2009 Bell Ringer Awards: Product/Service Launch: High-tech Business-to-Business Campaign entry "Driving Sustainable Innovation with Invention Machine Goldfire 5.0"
- 2009 MBT Innovation Insight Award: Customer Award, MAGNET Siphon Flush
- Managing Automation: A Company to Watch