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Philosophy, Strategy and Process for Connecting Engineering Design and Business Innovation

Linde, Hansjuergen; Herr, Gunther Hubertus • 2009

proceeding: Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED'09), Vol. 3
section: Design Organization and Management
editor: Norell Bergendahl, M.; Grimheden, M.; Leifer, L.; Skogstad, P.; Lindemann, U.
pages: 1-12

abstract: "Strengthening the Innovation Power" is one of the key challenges for gaining and maintaining leadership in modern industry. Nearly all companies would claim to strive for innovations, but hardly any has a fully developed, powerful innovation culture in place. Frequently there are "Innovation Management Processes" installed that focus on structuring the Process Management for Innovation Projects. In fast changing times, this is not enough. First it is crucial to identify the domain where it is most beneficial to the company as a whole to start initiating changes. Companies that are able to perform permanent transformations are rare. These successful companies connect all functions to develop a clear picture of the future. They derive roadmaps on how to bridge the gap from the current situation towards the desired future. They transform their business model for enhancing the value creation and they face the challenge to anticipate the right products for future and new customer demands. The question is: What are the hidden patterns of success of such companies that really to make the difference?

keywords: Innovation, Strategy, Process Model, Contradictions, INNOWIS

Planning Renewal of Product Platforms for Managing Technology Obsolescence of a Product Family

Kang, Changmuk; Hong, Yoo S. • 2009

abstract: In the rapidly changing world, technologies quickly become obsolete and a product should be rapidly innovated. Under the platform-based product development strategy, innovation of a product is dedicated to the innovation of a platform. This study handles the problem of determining the optimal timing of innovating or renewing a product platform. While the frequent platform renewal harms profitability of the whole product family, a long lasting platform makes its derivative products obsolete, and unable to create new demands. In order to find the optimal platform life-time compromising such trade-off, a model for estimating the expected profit gained from a platform during a given life-time is developed. This model assumes that a newer product substitutes the demand for older products, and a platform is less likely to be able to adopt a newly developed technology as its life-time is getting longer. The cumulative sales of derivative products are estimated by a diffusion model, and various cases that a series of derivative products is introduced are examined by dynamic programming approach.

keywords: Platform renewal, optimal platform life-time, technology obsolescence, diffusion model, dynamic programming

What’s a Good Idea? Understanding Evaluation and Selection of New Product Ideas

Gutiérrez, Ernesto; Kihlander, Ingrid; Eriksson, Joakim • 2009

abstract: This paper investigates how ideas for new products are evaluated and selected in industrial companies. It is based on an empirical and explorative study in three companies, using qualitative interviews. The findings indicate that a good idea is the result of a process in which at the same time the idea is generated, evaluated and selected. This process determines which ideas are further developed, which of them reach a formal decision-making forum and, to some extent, the decisions made in these official forums. This process is characterized by a social and a cognitive aspect, overlooked in normative literature. The social aspect is about interaction between people that makes possible to combine formal and informal processes, and rational and non-rational approaches for developing and evaluating ideas with different grades of ambiguity and uncertainty. The cognitive aspect refers to how ideas and company's context are interpreted, in individual and collective levels, for making evaluations on ideas. Implications of these findings for designing supporting methods for evaluation and selection of ideas are discussed; and general descriptions of a practical method suggested.

keywords: Product development, project selection, idea evaluation, decision making, cognition

Towards Linking Disruptive Innovations and BoP Markets

Jagtap, Santosh; Kandachar, Prabhu • 2009

abstract: The base of the world economic pyramid consists of 4 billion people typically earning less than 4 USD per day. This population is generally called the base of the pyramid (BoP). Much research on BoP markets focuses on motivating companies to enter these markets to create a win-win situation such that companies can gain benefits and BoP customers can satisfy their unmet or under-served needs. The reviewed literature suggests the need of innovations to successfully deploy products and services in these BoP markets. The reviewed research on disruptive innovations suggests that these innovations provide a good opportunity in new markets in contrast to companies' mainstream markets. This paper presents the findings of the initial phase of our research, and attempts to demonstrate that BoP can present a potential new market for companies to successfully employ disruptive innovations. This is shown by synthesizing the reviewed literature on: (1) design, development, marketing, and distribution of products and services in BoP markets; and (2) disruptive innovations.

keywords: Base of the pyramid (BoP), innovations, disruptive innovations

Product Development in the Financial Crisis

Ringen, Geir; Holtskog, Halvor • 2009

abstract: In the automotive industry product development has been a key for competitive advantage. Such projects are done in a value chain setting with many suppliers. The point of departure is a strategic supply model where key indicators for knowledge development and culture of competiveness, before and after the current financial crisis, are analyzed through case studies, in-depth interviews, internal documents, and survey. Researchers have spent two years inside the companies in a pragmatic research project. During this time the financial crisis hit the industry hard. Hence, degree of market turbulence is discussed according to the key indicators together with market and business implications to the product development process. During the initial shock phase the research shows significant changes in learning orientation, innovativeness orientation, entrepreneurial orientation, and knowledge acquisition.

keywords: Product development, value chain, automotive industry, financial crisis

Interactions-Based Clustering to Assist Project Risk Management

Vidal, Ludovic-Alexandre; Marle, Franck; Bocquet, Jean-Claude • 2009

abstract: Projects are dealing with bigger stakes and facing an ever-growing complexity. Project risks have then increased in number and criticality. Lists of identified project risks thus need to be decomposed, for smaller clusters are more manageable. Existing techniques are mainly mono-criteria, based on a parameter such as nature or criticality. Limits have appeared since project risk interactions are not properly considered. Project interdependent risks are indeed often managed as if they were independent. We thus propose an interactions-based clustering method with associated tools and algorithms. Our objective is to group risks, so that the interaction rate is maximal inside clusters and minimal outside. The final objective is to facilitate the coordination of complex projects by reducing interfaces when dealing with risks. We first model project risk interactions through matrix representation. A linear programming algorithm, two approximate iterative ones and possible refinement are then presented. A case study in the entertainment industry is finally presented, providing us information and points of comparison for global recommendations, conclusions and perspectives.

keywords: Project management, Risk, Complexity, Interactions, Clustering

A Methodology for Evaluating Technology Readiness during Product Development

Hicks, Ben James; Culley, Steve; Larsson, Andreas; Larsson, Tobias • 2009

abstract: In today's highly competitive global markets, where products are driven by rapidly advancing technologies and the ever-increasing expectations of the customer, methods for identifying new technologies and assessing their suitability and readiness within the context of product development are essential. Despite this there are few supportive techniques available with the exception of the nine Technology Readiness Levels developed by NASA. However, the generality and suitability of these are limited for the purpose of product design and development. To address this, the NASA model has been critically appraised and its generality enhanced. The more general model has also been extended to consider the technology lifecycle (refinement and development), multi-tech products and the criticality of each technology. The extended model of the Technology Readiness Level of the Product is then contextualized with respect to the product development process in order to provide a methodology for assessing the Product Readiness Levels (PRL). The paper describes the key stages of methodology development and illustrates the approach through consideration of the case of Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD).

keywords: technology management, technology lifecycles, product development, product design

Decision-Focused Resource Modeling for Design Decision Support

Liu, Shaofeng; Duffy, Alex HB; Whitfield, Robert Ian; Boyle, Iain M; Wang, Wenjuan; Mohamed, Khaled • 2009

abstract: Resource management including resource allocation, levelling, configuration and monitoring has been recognised as critical to design decision making. It has received increasing research interests in recent years. Different definitions, models and systems have been developed and published in literature. One common issue with existing research is that the resource modelling has focussed on the information view of resources. A few acknowledged the importance of resource capability to design management, but none has addressed the evaluation analysis of resource fitness to effectively support design decisions. This paper proposes a decision-focused resource model framework that addresses the combination of resource evaluation with resource information from multiple perspectives. A resource management system constructed on the resource model framework can provide functions for design engineers to efficiently search and retrieve the best fit resources (based on the evaluation results) to meet decision requirements. Thus, the system has the potential to provide improved decision making performance compared with existing resource management systems.

keywords: decision-based design, resource model framework, resource management system, design decision support, UML, EJB

The Product’s Degree of Maturity as a Measurement for the Efficiency of Design Iterations

Krehmer, Hartmut; Meerkamm, Harald; Wartzack, Sandro • 2009

abstract: In this contribution a framework for evaluating design iterations and for assessing the effects of design iterations on the product?s degree of maturity is introduced. Thereby, the product's degree of maturity is understood as being based on the products behavior since it is seen as the relevant measurement for the fulfillment of customers? requirements. Therefore, a distinction of the terms "function", "characteristics", "properties" and "behavior" is given and the product's behavior is described based on its characteristics and properties. Furthermore a differentiation between the terms "progress of the development process" and "product's degree of maturity" and a definition for these terms will be given. In addition, some fundamental challenges for evaluating the product's degree of maturity are depicted. An important connection between design iterations and the product's degree of maturity is drawn. Based on this, a framework for evaluating the effects of design iterations on the product?s degree of maturity is introduced. Finally, a specific value is purposed for the appropriate measurement and evaluation of the efficiency of design iterations.

keywords: product?s degree of maturity, iterations, efficiency of design iterations

A General Management System for Design Outsourcing

Dandache, Moustapha Rakan; Bocquet, Jean Claude • 2009

abstract: Industrial firms are recently turning to outsourcing design. Unlike in manufacturing the context in design is characterized by a lot of uncertainty. Technology and knowledge are critical when considering outsourcing in design. The firm's competitive advantage is subject to information leakage and loss of internal knowledge. The relationship between outsourcing and supplier firm is more complex due to human factors and innovation activities. Moreover outsourcing determinants in design must not be considered to be the same as in manufacturing. We focus in this paper on outsourcing in design phase and its interaction with other phases. We propose a general design outsourcing process in order to address the outsourcing question. The process approach will allow coordinating elements of the outsourcing problem (Make or Buy decision, supplier selection?) in a more complete manner thus covering all firm?s activities that can impact outsourcing. We expand our process on two axes. The first covers all the impacts of outsourcing during the life cycle of the product using horizontal processes. The second is internal to the design phase and allows alignment of strategic and operational issues.

keywords: design outsourcing, systems engineering, development process

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