|
|
|
GGI RapidNews R&D Product Development eZine: Volume 9, Issue 9 - September 10, 2008
In This Issue 2008 GGI BIENNIAL SURVEY FINDINGS - Part 3 of 5 - Innovation Identity MANAGEMENT PRODUCTIVITY - Potential Game-Changing Nano Discovery MANAGEMENT PRODUCTIVITY - Fall 2008 Intellectual Property Public Auction BOOK REVIEW - Lean Product & Process Development GGI 2008 BIENNIAL SURVEY - Results Released May 15, 2008 THE WISDOM iSTORE FEATURED PRODUCT 40% OFF - 2004 Survey Summary THE WISDOM iSTORE NEW LISTINGS - No New Listings This Month BIENNIAL PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT SURVEY - 2004, 2002, 2000, 1998 Results GATEWAYS TO KNOWLEDGE - A Monthly Feature CALENDAR OF INDUSTRY EVENTS - A Monthly Feature TELEVISION EVENTS - Alexander Haig's World Business Review --------------------------------------------------------------------- 2008 GGI BIENNIAL SURVEY FINDINGS - Part 3 of 5 - Innovation Identity
Research Execution: The study was conducted by a combination of mailer surveys, and e-mails with links to download web sites. 7094 mailer surveys were distributed, 476 surveys were downloaded from web sites. Of the total of 7570 surveys distributed, 1256 mailer surveys were returned as undeliverable. Net total surveys distributed was 6314. A total of 218 completed surveys were received. Four (4) surveys were determined to be invalid and were eliminated. Five (5) duplicate responses were eliminated, yielding a total of 209 valid responses included in the 2008 results database. The response rate was 3.31%.
Research Participants: About two-thirds of respondents were from public companies, about one-third were from private companies. Over fifty percent had a title of Director or greater, less than 20% held a title of Manager or lower. Over eighty-five percent of respondents were from R&D-Product Development and/or Senior Management. About half of respondents were from companies with sales less than $.5B, forty percent were from $.5B to $5B, and twelve percent were greater than $5B. All industries were represented, including a number of software-only companies.
Research Description: The research was focused on areas in the Innovation Body of Knowledge where Innovation is "tangible," meaning that "it can be directed by executives and is actionable by employees." GGI's focus since 1998 is to investigate the actual processes and practices that companies use that cause their results. The five subjects GGI researched between August 2007 and February 2008 were:
1. Innovation Environment [RN July 08 Issue]
2. Innovation Processes [RN August 08 Issue]
3. Innovation Identity [This RN Issue]
4. Innovation Tools [RN October 08 Issue]
5. Top Corporate Metrics Used in Industry RD&E [RN December 08]
Research Findings - Part 3 - Innovation Identity: First GGI researchers investigated whether the nomenclature of the names of company "innovation/product development processes" were slanted towards "execution" or towards "innovation." Given the numerous DFSS, Lean Engineering, Lean Product Development, The Toyota Product Development System, and other execution-based initiatives that have moved up stream from operations into product development over the past ten years, GGI researchers were looking to discover the extent to which innovation had taken root. Innovation has only been receiving a great deal of attention and investment since 2004. Overwhelmingly, 81%, "execution" was the intent communicated by the names of corporate product development processes. Only 29% of companies even utilize the words Invention, Innovation, Creation, Ideation, or other synonyms in the name of their product development process. Second, we investigated the degree to which there are any formal innovation activities required by the product development process. To be sure, FMEA, DOE, DFM/A, GANTT/PERT, and a host of other execution tools are required. Were any innovation tools required? About 33% of respondents said they had at least one required innovation activity. Again, execution reigns. Almost every tool/activity required by product development processes is execution-oriented. Finally, whether execution-oriented or innovation-oriented, we researched the degree to which companies actively promoted their "innovation process" to the outside world. Only 16.5% attempt to externally brand their innovation process. Our analysis is that execution is "expected" whereas innovation is a "delighter." If more companies communicated innovation in their process nomenclature, likely we would see higher external branding of innovation-based product development processes. Brands that communicate invention and intellectual property are high value assets in this age. Marketing organizations have a harder time promoting things that are expected, they go without saying for the most part.
Research Conclusions: The message that corporations are giving through the nomenclature of their product development process is clearly one of execution. The process names, and most all the required activities and tools, are execution-oriented. Improved execution has been the goal for product development processes since the advent of stage-gate theory in the mid-1980s and it is definitely now well entrenched. Four years of industry hyping "Innovation" has not yet resulted in any significant modification of pipeline nomenclature, or more importantly the activities required of product developers.
MANAGEMENT PRODUCTIVITY - Potential Game-Changing Nano Discovery
Condensation of "Carbon tubes leave nano behind," ScienceNews, Volume 174, Number 5, August 30, 2008, Page 9, Published by Society for Science & the Public, 1719 N Street NW, Washington, DC 20036, USA, ISSN 0036-8423.
"While trying to grow better, longer nanotubes, researchers accidentally discovered a new type of carbon filament that's tens of thousands of times thicker. Christened, colossal carbon tubes, they aren't quite as strong as nanotubes but are 30 times stronger than Kevlar per unit weight, and are potentially easier to turn into applications, suggests a study to appear in Physical Review Letters."
Short nanotubes are exceptionally strong, but exceptionally difficult to weave into fibers that can then be woven into fabric or clothing. If the length of the tube limitation were overcome, a number of applications could move forward rapidly. The article gives "bullet proof vests" as an example. Lightweight, very strong, and much better than Kevlar if the technology is realized.
"Recently, at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, materials scientist Huisheng Peng and colleagues were trying to grow forests of long nanotubes from carbon gas in a vacuum oven. When Peng opened the door, he saw a scene that could be compared to a barbership floor: Thin, black hairs were scattered everywhere. "At first, I thought they were a lot of carbon nanotubes bonded together," says Peng, who recently moved to Fudan University in Shanghai, China."
"Tests revealed that the filaments, which were centimeters long and .1 millimeter thick, were not clumps of nanotubes," but tubes which had the same type of carbon bonds arranged in the same types of hexagonal webs except that there were two connected concentric cylinders and not a single nanotube. The two concentric layers are are 100nm apart and the cross section looks like corrugated cardboard and runs unimpeded the length of the tube. "The tubes are easily bent and stretched, and are at least twice as strong as the strongest fibers made from carbon nanotubes to date, the researchers report. The larger tubes are also good electrical conductors."
The article does represent one or more skeptics about the realness of the discovery. "More research is needed to understand how the tubes form and grow, admits senior author Quanxi Jia of Los Alamos."
For more information on ScienceNews and this article, please visit the ScienceNews web site.
MANAGEMENT PRODUCTIVITY - Fall 2008 Intellectual Property Public Auction
Intellectual Property pioneer Ocean Tomo will conduct its sixth Live IP Auction this October in Chicago, with offerings including patents, trademarks, copyrights and domain names. GGI editors have been doing our best to keep RN readers appraised of this emerging market for the exchange of intellectual property.
Excerpt From Recent Email Announcement: The Ocean Tomo Fall Auction & Conference is a full 2-day event that includes a 1 1/2-day conference on cutting-edge IP issues, including "Managing IP Risk", "Buying and Selling IP", and "IP Finance" followed by the Live IP Auction. The events will be held on October 29th & 30th at the Trump International Hotel and Chicago Cultural Center.
We hope you can join us for the CLE-approved courses, the Gala Dinner at the historic Stock Exchange Room in The Art Institute of Chicago and, of course, the Live Auction where hundreds of IP assets will be transacted.
For more information, please visit the Ocean Tomo Fall 2008 Auction web site.
BOOK REVIEW - Lean Product & Process Development
Lean Product and Process Development, by Allen C. Ward, Copy right 2007 The Lean Enterprise Institute, Inc., The Lean Enterprise Institute, Inc., One Cambridge Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, 208 Pages, ISBN-13: 978-1-934109-13-7.
Over the years, many colleagues of GGI have commented admirably on the work of Allen Ward on "lean" and the "Toyota Product Development System". Last RN issue, we reviewed Product Development For The Lean Enterprise to which Allen Ward had written the foreword. This month we review what is likely to be the last manuscript published by Allen Ward. The manuscript was written in 2001 and was pending publication when Allen Ward died in a plane crash in 2004. Two of his colleagues brought it to fruition after his death and it was published in 2007.
The book is organized into four parts. Part 1 describes six measures for evaluating product development effectiveness. Part 2 establishes the opportunity in front of many companies that are in downward spirals in product development. Part 3 is Allen Ward's articulation of his vision for a totally new approach to product development, which includes his "LAMDA" principles for approaching the learning cycles required to achieve the vision. Part 3 continues, almost half the book, and delves into four "cornerstones" of lean: Entrepreneurial Systems Design [ESD], Team of Responsible Experts, Set-Based Concurrent Engineering, and Cadence, Pull, and Flow. Part 4 closes the book by suggesting how one might get started on the changeover to lean methods.
The book is logically structured and well written. The reader easily flows from one subject to the next. The author's style is simple and not verbose, sentences and paragraphs are short and make their points quickly. Underlying many of the points made in the book is the contrast to stage-gate theory where the author argues that stage-gate is a push system whereas everything that Toyota does is based on a pull system, including product development. It may not be an accurate assessment, but it is the author's belief and it gets the reader thinking. There are also a number of useful "call outs" in the book in light blue that really codify the points being made in a few sentences for folks that may not have the time to read the entire manuscript.
This book is useful to practitioners across the industries and across all levels. It covers the fundamental principles of lean elegantly, without all the spin that authors often add in to tout what Toyota has achieved. It is a good practical reference on lean across both product and process development. The only drawback to the book is that it starts just after the fuzzy front end activities have largely concluded. There is little that describes what has to be done before a project actually exists to develop a specific product and process.
For more information about Lean Product and Process Development or to order a copy of the book, please go to GGI Book Store & Amazon.com.
GGI 2008 BIENNIAL SURVEY - Results Released May 15, 2008
Thank you to the 209 people who responded for their companies in our biennial primary research project of North American industry. We appreciate the time it took you to respond accurately to our robust survey questionnaire. All participants should have received their complimentary "Summary" copy of the results at this time. If you participated and did not receive your "Summary," please contact Ervin Kule at eak@goldensegroupinc.com. Ervin is GGI's Manager of Market Research. He can also be reached at 781-444-5400 x202.
The 2008 Biennial Survey theme was "Tangible Innovation." Much is said and written about the "perceived to be somewhat soft" topic of innovation. GGI's research focused on selected aspects of the innovation body of knowledge that are tangible and can be actively managed by companies and their executives. We also refreshed our ongoing biennial research of the past decade regarding the usage of R&D and product development metrics by industrial and high tech companies. Industry Week has recently published the "Top 10 Metrics In 2008" and contrasted them to our research from 1998 to identify the changes during the past decade.
John Teresko, "Metrics Matter [Top 10 @ 1998 vs 2008]," Industry Week, Penton Publishing, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, WWW Posting April 17, 2008.
http://www.industryweek.com/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=16116
Our research covered 88 different metrics that measure the overall results obtained from investments in R&D and Product Development. It is clear that the measurement emphasis is changing to reflect industry's initiatives in intellectual property, innovation, productivity, lean, and other areas. In a few years there are likely to be a number of metrics that will move up to become Top 10.
Industry Week also asked us to write a small piece about some of these trends in metrics that we observed during our research. Most of these trends occur below the Top 10 Metrics which have stayed fairly constant over time. This piece was also recently published.
John Teresko, "Seven Emerging Trends In R&D Metrics," Industry Week, Penton Publishing, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, WWW Posting April 17, 2008.
http://www.industryweek.com/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=16115
The majority of the research effort focused on "Tangible Innovation" versus "Metrics". To date, we have not made any of these findings public and will likely do so only sparingly in public media. We will be providing selected highlights to RapidNews readers in the coming months starting with this issue, see above first section.
The major subject areas we researched are:
Innovation Environment
Innovation Processes
Innovation Identity
Innovation Tools
Top Metrics Used By Corporations For R&D-Product Development
We have two reports available for sale to companies that might be interested. Our flagship report is "MR42" which is a summary of all questions across the population of respondents. It includes full color graphics of each question. We are also offering a less expensive scaled-down version, MR41, which is text only at about half the price.
For more information please visit our 2008 Biennial Survey web site. Here you can find our Research Description, Product Description, Product Brochure, Tables Of Contents for the reports, and/or place an order for one of these publications. Pricing and ordering information may also be found in The Wisdom iStore in the "Primary Research" section. All reports are available in hard copy, or electronic.pdf format for posting on company intranets.
THE WISDOM iSTORE FEATURED PRODUCT 40% OFF - 2004 Survey Summary
Discounted Item: Periodically, GGI's iStore features one item that we discount 40%. We are now offering our 2004 Survey Summary Report, MR32c, in pdf format.
2004 Survey Summary [Electronic Copy - Corporate License], Goldense Group, Inc., Needham, MA, USA, $715.00 [List Price $1,192.00]
This primary research focused on the following five areas of product selection and intellectual property management:
* Product Selection Process
* Product Selection Tools
* IP Management Process
* IP Management Tools
* Top Corporate Metrics Used in Industry RD&E
GGI's Featured Item changes approximately every other month and is always offered at 40% discount. To order this material, please go to GGI's Featured Item on the GGI Home Page or find this item in the Primary Research section of The Wisdom iStore.
THE WISDOM iSTORE NEW LISTINGS
There are no new listings this month.
2004 Product Development Metrics Survey - Product Selection, IP Management, and Top Corporate Metrics: The Summary Report (MR32h) and Highlights Report (MR31h) for GGI's 2004 Biennial Product Development Metrics Survey are now available for purchase by the public through GGI's Wisdom iStore. These reports are completely based on primary research performed by GGI researchers. The research includes 202 respondent companies. There was a 5% response rate. McKinsey & Company, Texas Instruments, Rockwell, Kimberly Clark, JDS Uniphase, Shure, Curtiss Wright Flight Systems and Datacard are representative of companies that purchase market research from GGI. The 2004 Survey focused on the following five areas of product selection and IP management:
We have already shared many results with GGI RapidNews readers since we began this line of business in 1998. 2004 Survey results ran in six RN issues, RN V5I11 - RN V6I5, which may be found in the RN archives, along with results from prior years. Some additional complimentary information about the survey is available: The three commercial versions of the survey results that we currently offer for public purchase are:
1. 2004 SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS: A text-only report (75 pages), including the full text of all the results and analysis of the survey population analyzed as a whole, and Individual sections of the research reports, as well as logical combinations of sections are also available. All reports are available in printed or electronic versions. These reports are available in the Market Research Section of The Wisdom iStore. 2002, 2000, 1998 Product Development Metrics Survey: The Summary and Highlights Reports for GGI's prior Biennial Product Development Metrics Surveys are also available for purchase by the public through The Wisdom iStore. Information about the purpose and focus of prior surveys may be found in our Biennial Survey Archives. GATEWAYS TO KNOWLEDGE GTK- Gateway To Knowledge is a DIRECTORY OF THOUSANDS OF LINKS to providers of engineering, purchasing, and manufacturing technologies and services. If you hit the right subjects, it is more useful than a search engine! The "main entrance" to GTK can be found at: http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/gateway/index.shtml For those of you that do not want to go through the main entrance above, some of the Gateways that we believe you will find useful or entertaining are highlighted below. Technology Providers
CALENDAR OF INDUSTRY EVENTS GGI's Calendar of Industry Events contains an up-to-date listing of links to Conferences, Seminars, Distance Learning Centers, Colleges & Universities, Executive Education, and Corporate-Sponsored Universities. The calendar has just been updated with 60 upcoming conferences and seminars throughout 2007. The categories we follow are: The categories of conferences, seminars, and distance learning are further organized into the following subject areas: If you are looking for a conference or other learning opportunity, check out the Calendar. This free service for our readers is front and center on GGI's Home Page. Or, go directly to the Calendar of Industry Events MEGA Gateway.
TELEVISION EVENTS Alexander Haig's World Business Review: Brad Goldense has made several appearances on Alexander Haig's World Business Review. Streaming video is available for all shows, which aired on August 4, September 29 and December 15, 2002 and on May 20, 2003. See below for details. May 20, 2003 Broadcast of September 29th In-Studio with Alexander Haig (22.5 minutes): Streaming video for this segment is available on GGI's web site. December 15, 2002 In-Studio with Alexander Haig (7.5 minutes) on CNBC paid programming: Streaming video for this segment is available on GGI's web site. September 29, 2002 In-Studio with Alexander Haig (22.5 minutes): Streaming video for this segment (as well as the entire 30-minute show) is available on GGI's web site. August 4, 2002 On-Location at GGI (3.5 minutes): This On-Location field report is available in streaming video on GGI's web site. The web page includes links to download a streaming video player, if you do not currently have one installed on your computer. For more information on any of Brad's appearances on television, go to: http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/ggi-goldense-product-development-tv-television-broadcast.shtml. --------------------------------------------------------------------- GGI RapidNews is an e-mail publication from Goldense Group, Inc (GGI). Its subject matter includes survey findings, company news, book and article reviews, key industry conferences and R&D information of interest to clients and associates. Please send communications to rn(at)goldensegroupinc.com. Thank you. | |||