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Innovation
7

Innovation

Innovation

(OP)
"noun 1 the action or process of innovating. 2 a new method, idea, product, etc."
(Oxford English Dictionary)
A recent workshop I was involved in recently brought some interesting responses.
What is your own description of innovation? I'm keen to understand other replies from those who are not indoctrinated in our own company's way of thinking...

RE: Innovation

When my local pub landlord is very happy to see me.

RE: Innovation

I think its mostly taking existing technology and applying it in a new method or application.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

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RE: Innovation

2
A novel solution to an existing problem.

A solution to a novel problem.

Either or both.

"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."   
Albert Einstein
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RE: Innovation

Ashereng said it well.  Anything more just cheapens the meaning of the word into x amount of vacuous corporate cheerleader double-speak.

RE: Innovation

Another vote for Ashereng

Bill

RE: Innovation

blush

Thanks.

"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."   
Albert Einstein
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RE: Innovation

(OP)
Thanks for the thoughts. Trying to define a "wow" factor into a tangible idea then into a plan and finally back into a customer "wow" when surrounded by 'cheerleaders' has been my task for a few months. The basic lines from Ashereng seems to cut the cr@p well.

RE: Innovation

Thinking outside the box.

RE: Innovation

Quote:

Think outside the box.
Usually uttered by those who are unaware of the size or shape of the box, or even where the box is.

The overwhelming number of sound solutions are still found inside the box.  The first step in solving any problem is measuring the "box" and determining its size, location and orientation.  Too many people skip this step.

Too often "functional" and "effective" are traded for "innovative".

RE: Innovation

When brainstorming here, there is no Box.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

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RE: Innovation

TheTick,

Good point, but it depends on what you mean by the box. If you think of the box as the laws of physics then you should always stay inside this one. But if you think of the box as 'standard practice and standard ways of doing things' then thinking outside the box is often a good thing.

I do agree that the vast majority of designs should be done as standard as possible and innovate only when the standard items do not give the required results.

csd

RE: Innovation

There is a study on the 'wow' factor in giving client value but I'm not sure this is what you want.  I can't recall the name of the study or general method but it's been around since the early 70s.  

Which is another thing that applies to our work: what comes around goes around.  Stick around long enough and you'll start to see people sneaking ideas in to management that have been around forever.

Regards,
Qshake
pipe
Eng-Tips Forums:Real Solutions for Real Problems Really Quick.

RE: Innovation

Trouble is, while thinking outside the box occasionally pays off, 9 times out of 10 the box is there for a good reason.

RE: Innovation

Ashereng great and memorable bite. Gets my vote.

Forget boxes! This defines people too much.

Innovation is a buzz term that lets you find an acceptable proposal. Innovation is an opportunity for engineers to quit moaning and do something. I say look I have developed an innovative process blah blah..........  and managers listens.

It's a du jour keyword, probably only has a shelf life of three years, use it or lose  it. The next one will be managineers......

RE: Innovation

innovation is to solve the absurd

RE: Innovation

Third, innovative, option:
Redefine the problem out of existence.


Example:
Cutting louvers in and painting the fascia panel between the windshield and the hood of automobiles was a headache for a long time.
Hidden windshield wipers eliminated the panel, and the problem.

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: Innovation

Quote:

The first step in solving any problem is measuring the "box" and determining its size, location and orientation.

And dimensionality.  Finding an unexpected "knob" that can be cheaply turned can work wonders.

RE: Innovation

The corporation under which I work has innovation and creativity thoroughly under control!

From top to bottom, a NPI (New Product Introduction) has been implemented for all stages of the product life cycle from the initial concept to full production. Sales and marketing are suppose to define and write the specifications for the product. Product development engineering is to implement what sales and marketing have defined. Production is to build what engineering has designed. At each point in the process, people are to do the roles defined for them - no more and no less. Checks are exercised at each point in the process verify no unexpected ideas have crept into the process.

For those of you not familiar with it, NPI is one of the lingo terms that comes with "stage-gate" or "Toll-gate" type approach to product development and production. Ideas and products are part of a defined process, much like a production line. The various disciplines in this process are similar to machinery, robots, or tooling fixtures of a manufacturing operation. At each point in the process, people are to do the roles defined for them - no more and no less.

Yes, where I work, they are even coming up with a process and procedure that one only needs to follow to have innovation.  After all, gotta nip any real creative thought in the bud - can't have any wild ideas or free thinking to run unchecked and allowed to grow into a product.

Funny thing is that in the past two years since the NPI was introduced, no really new products have gone to production - only a few re-treads of existing products. Several pre-existing new product development teams have been shut down, and in some cases the individuals laid-off.

RE: Innovation

Yeah, I remember when NPI came to a former employer.  It brought the rate of new product introduction to zero, instantly.

One particular senior manager seemed to be a champion of NPI.  He had come from a competitor, and I never caught him doing anything inconsistent with being a mole.  

The company was absorbed, and it took another five years for the new bosses to get rid of him ... long after he had gotten rid of me.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: Innovation

I'm not inclined to argue with bitter experience, but isn't there a preliminary phase where the ideas get generated? Perhaps that phase is not being done properly? Perhaps the project team at that point do not realise how much authority and influence they will have?

To be honest that very first part of the project is the most interesting to me, after things have settled down it is just cranking the handle.

Cheers

Greg Locock

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RE: Innovation

In automotive, many possible paths have been explored already, and the associated technologies are mostly mature, so it's possible to write a complete specification for a vehicle up front.  The challenges come with prognosticating whether it will find a market at what cost, and with designing it to that cost and volume.  I don't intend to minimize the difficulty.

We were in medical electronics, which is much less mature, and the back room gang was kicking around ideas about stuff that we didn't know how to do at any price, and nobody else did either, because no one else had done it, anywhere, ever.  
The market works a little differently from automotive, too.

Maybe an example would help.  Nuclear Magnetic Resonance is used as a whole-body imaging tool.  Suppose you could do NMR on individual cells, one at a time, while they were flowing through a (small) pipe?
Could it be done?  I don't know.
Could it be automated?  I don't know.
What could it measure?  I don't know.
What disease states could it detect?  I don't know.
Could it detect a disease earlier than other technology?  I don't know.
Not my idea.  A software engineer asked the first question, possibly just because it sounded like fun to do.  I thought the questions deserved answers.

In the days before NPI, we'd have just formed an ad-hoc team   and stolen whatever resources we needed from the regular Product Development bureaucracy, kluged up a prototype, and showed it to the Chairman, even if it didn't work.  If he thought it was worth a crap, he'd put us in touch with other people from around the globe who could help solve our problems, stealing resources from their own bureucracies to do so.  We'd make a few, less crude, prototypes, and put them in the hands of medical researchers, who would figure out if what the machine did could be of any use.  If it turned out to be  useful, we'd turn over our findings to the actual bureaucracy, which would be charged with turning the crank to make the prototypes into actual products.  

At any given time, there were probably a hundred such pre- projects in gestation and detected by the bureaucracy, and probably several hundred more that were not detected.  The bureaucracy, of course, kept trying the usual accounting measures, and could never figure out where its resources went, or why it was so inefficient.  

Since participation in a pre- project was entirely voluntary, the loser ideas got weeded out automatically, because nobody would help if they thought the core idea couldn't work.

I'm not sure if he crafted the process by intent or by accident, but it worked, and it made the Chairman a billionaire.  

Then he got sick and lost control and the bureaucracy took over.  The bureaucracy that was intended to be inefficient and porous in order to provide resources for the real PD process to steal, tightened up and got efficient ... and basically killed the company.

NPI assumes that you know up front:
- that you can do what you propose.
- how to do it.
- what it does.
- to whom you will sell it.

But for a truly new product, you don't know any of those things, so NPI's gatekeeping murders innovation.

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: Innovation

Ah, OK, that makes sense. FWIW I'm no great fan of structured product innovation/development myself, but I suppose the syetems engineering guys have a point when they say it can be done, at least if you were NASA in the sixties.

I certainly react with gloom whenever anyone mentions TRIZ, or DFSS, for a project that is any more than a rehash of old technology (which would be a cruel but accurate description of most automotive programs).


Cheers

Greg Locock

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RE: Innovation

We had it drummed into us in our business courses that innovation included both invention and successful exploitation.  We were shown examples where a seemingly excellent invention fell flat on its face (e.g. the Sinclair C5).

RE: Innovation

SomptingGuy,
I don't think the C5 was an innovative idea as it was just basically an electric powered cake trolley on wheels. It was perhaps innovative in that it attempted to repackage an existing idea. Innovation should therefore be split into two. Innovation in the initial concept/idea, or innovative in furthering other ideas. Exploitation of an inovative idea is another matter entirely and is just one more step on the process route, or value stream map as our idiot managers refer to it.

corus

RE: Innovation

Is the C5 even worth analysing? In automotive terms it completely failed to meet customer requirements. Do you need to say more than that?

Cheers

Greg Locock

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