Protocol
Trim a component and reassign its useful function
Removing a component is easy; removing its job is the actual design problem.
When it fits
- A component adds cost, delay or failure risk but also performs a function the system still needs.
When to avoid it
- Do not trim redundancy that exists for safety, independence, resilience or control without understanding why it was added.
Why it matters
Pretend the component no longer exists. List the useful functions that would disappear, then ask whether the object itself, another existing component or the surrounding system can perform those functions instead. Keep the component removed only if the reassignment preserves required outcomes with lower total burden.
Steps
- Choose one component that creates meaningful cost, delay or risk.
- Remove it conceptually from the model.
- List the useful functions that disappear.
- Try to reassign each function to the object, another component or the environment.
- Compare the simplified design's new risks and dependencies.
An example
Remove a manual spreadsheet handoff and ask whether the source system can generate the validated import format directly.
Check your result
The proposed trim removes a component while preserving or deliberately redesigning every required function it performed.
Keep this limit in mind
- Do not trim redundancy that exists for safety, independence, resilience or control without understanding why it was added.
Evidence and sources
The TRIZ Body of Knowledge includes function analysis and trimming as system-analysis methods, and the 2025 systematic review identifies both among tools used in process-improvement work.
The literature is heterogeneous and often case-based; the card does not claim a universal effect size.
Tools of Theory of Inventive Problem Solving Used for Process Improvement—A Systematic Literature Review · Tool categories and process-improvement case literature