Innovation Management

[ccochran]

Howdy, friends:

Hope all is well. I've attached a long article (actually a book chapter) entitled "Innovation Management." It proposes a comprehensive model for the design and development process, all way from idea generation to a completed product. I would very much like to hear feedback on this piece, especially from those of you who have experience in a design environment. I've also included the 3 appendices that go along with the chapter. Thanks in advance for your input.

Craig

 

[Dr. L. Ramakrishnan]

Howdy, friends:

Hope all is well. I've attached a long article (actually a book chapter) entitled "Innovation Management." It proposes a comprehensive model for the design and development process, all way from idea generation to a completed product. I would very much like to hear feedback on this piece, especially from those of you who have experience in a design environment. I've also included the 3 appendices that go along with the chapter. Thanks in advance for your input.

Craig

The article is good and comprehensive. I would like to suggest the following for your consideration. Since you have included environmental impact review under "Design Verification", would you consider including concepts of Design for Environment (or EcoDesign) at an early stage, say Phase I. In my opinion, a good product design has to necessarily take into consideration "end-of-life" issues, packaging issues and eco-efficiency (resource productivity) issues at an early stage of product creation process. Your "Inside-outside" review may include apart from Business, technical and marketing reviews, an environmental review, bringing out the environmental risks and opportunities as well as competitive advantages of the product being designed/developed. Since "prevention is better than cure", this is the appropriate stage to check the potential product liability issues and legislative compliance issues. With best regards, Ramakrishnan

 

[ccochran]

Thanks a bunch

Ramakrishnan,

Excellent advice. Yes, I need to include environmental considerations in Phase I. Waiting until Design Verification to address this is much too late. I didn't think of environmental considerations until I was writing the later sections of the article, and it never dawned on me to go back and put the concept where it needs to be: on the front end. This is very ironic because I consider myself to be very environmentally conscious. Oh, well...

Thanks for your feedback. I'll make sure I include you in the Acknowledgments if this book ever sees the light of day. Where in India do you hail from?

Thanks again,
Craig

 

[Dr. L. Ramakrishnan]

Thank you Ccochran for considering my suggestion. I am from Pune near Mumbai and I work for Philips Electronics; I have some experience in EcoDesign (teaching and practice). Best wishes, Ramakrishnan

 

[Jim Howe]

I have only read the first 12 pages on idea management, hope to read the rest soon. I agree that the enviromental issue needs to be pushed up into the idea management phase.
The scrap yards are filled with great ideas that would not sell. As a member of a privately owned enterprise I had to push like **** to implement a design control program patterned after ISO. I certainly could have used your article two years ago. It is my intention to pass this article on to our New Product Development Manager for review. If I get any feedback I will forward to you.
I recall attending a new product review, in a past life, where the product manager gave glowing reviews from the companies that had agreed to test the product and how much they loved it. The VP asked if the companies loved the product enough to buy one to which he replied, NO!
As I see it a company like mine could benefit from your article! Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing!

 

[ccochran]

Jim,

Thanks for passing along the chapter to your team. I hope it's helpful. Yes, I wish I had written on this subject earlier, too. I could have really used the concepts and tools at an old company of mine. We struggle constantly with new product ideas. Much time, money, and energy wasted...

Hope you're doing well.

Craig

 

[Greg B]

Craig,

Ialways look forward to your articles as they make me think and look at how we would tackle an issue. At first glance this looks like another impressive article. I'll have to print it out and give it a thorough read this weekend.

 

[ccochran]

Greg,

I'd recommend an adult beverage if you have to read this thing over the weekend... ;-) Let me know what you think about it.

Craig

 

[45fan]

Good Stuff

Thanks for the documents that you posted to the Cove. I'm up to page 10 of "Innovation Management". These are excellent and summarize my experience in new product development, especially the first 3 stages of idea management. They represent the exact steps that I have been advocating for the stage that I call Feasibility Review. Not that I'm claiming that I created this, but I've found that it really works. Many sources have been used to refine the system that I am creating. (Probably too many by now, its time to **** or get of the pot.)

Because I am dealing with medical devices that also incorporate new technologies, there are a few more details that I like to include explicitly in the "Idea management" such as initial risk evaluation, some additional regulatory questions, and some statements about the status of the new technology so my feasibility review stage becomes a little more involved and asks a few more pointed questions regarding patient safety. The feasibility stage is preceeded by a concept stage in which the "mile high" planning is done and customer requirements are developed so that the concept from the customer's perspective is defined. These two stages seem similar to Govind's "Opportunity Assessment gate", and are likewise followed by a detailed planning stage.

Early development, i.e. research, consists of cycling between concept and feasibility stages in a way that concept designs are defined and evaluated to ensure feasibility of any new technologies in the device and to try to ensure that the market will want the new device. The final result of these two stages should be a comprehensive design input document. Then we get down to the serious planning and design of the marketable device.

Any comments are welcome.

 

[ccochran]

45fan,

I agree: in a medical devices environment, the phase that I'm calling Idea Management would need to be quite a bit different. In fact, I'd say that Idea Management would need to be customized for nearly every business environment, depending on the special design risks. The whole phase culminates in design inputs, as you so aptly pointed out. Thanks for your feedback.

By the way, does your screen name refer to 45 RPM records?

Craig