Not all engineering problems are inventive problems. The presence of a contradiction (conflict) in a problem makes it an inventive problem.

Usually the patents at the first level are solved by trading off one thing for something else (as it traditionally make most of engineers). When the problems with conflicts and contradictions are solved at the levels 2-4 thus making the problem solver an inventor in TRIZ ideology. TRIZ provides a structured approach for solving the conflicting elements of the problem simultaneously and FCA chooses the economically effective solution.