Innovation Management and New Product Development for Engineers, Volume I

Basic Concepts

Rob Dekkers

• Publisher: Momentum Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781946646859
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Project Management in Engineering
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Whereas innovation has become part of daily language, in practice, realizing new product and new service development is a complex and daunting task for engineers, design engineering managers, managers, and those involved in other functions in organizations. Most books on innovation management approach this topic from a managerial or economic perspective; this text takes the actual design and engineering processes as starting point. To this purpose, it relates product design and engineering processes and their management to sources of innovation, collaboration with suppliers, and knowledge providers (for example, inventors and universities), and users.

The managerial aspects get ample attention as well as the socioeconomic aspects in the context of product design and engineering. For this wide range of topics, the book provides both theoretical underpinning and practical guidance. Readers and students will benefit from this book by not only understanding the key mechanisms for innovation but also by the practical guidance it offers. The author uses diagrams, models, methods, and steps to guide readers to a better understanding of innovation projects. This practical approach and the link to theory make the book valuable to practitioners as well as engineering students.

CHAPTER 1

WHY INNOVATION MANAGEMENT AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT FOR ENGINEERS?

Technology and innovation have played a central role in social-economic development of societies for a long time, at the level of nations, commercial organizations, and individuals. A few examples are the development of agricultural methods and steam-powered engines during the 19th century; these are often associated with what is called the First Industrial Revolution. The use of electric power and more advanced production techniques, such as the production line, among other inventions characterized the Second Industrial Revolution. The Third Industrial Revolution manifested itself through the expansion of mobile (technology) for communication and information systems at the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st century; all three revolutions have shaped the society, as we know it now. These changes came along with new methods, products, and services, during later eras propagated by companies¹. Nowadays, companies and governments have put technology and innovation high on their social-economic agenda. Bringing about technological developments and innovations is not restricted to governmental agencies, institutions (such as universities and research institutes), and companies, but also includes individual inventors. Think about Leonardo da Vinci (official name: Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, 1452–1519), who was an inventor and artist at the same time (his creations still have a resounding influence today). This brief introduction can only touch on the importance of inventions, new processes, new products, and new services and how their inventors and companies have contributed to the socio-economic development of society over the course of centuries.

In this (historical) context, engineers have played an important role for inventions and technological advances that resulted in innovations (Section 1.1 will provide more detail on the difference between inventions and innovation). Among those engineers who are famed for their innovations is Jan Leeghwater (1575–1650), a hydraulic engineer, mill builder, and architect in the Netherlands. He was involved in the reclamation of the first polder in the world from a lake by using windmills; the name of this lake is now Beemster Polder, and the extraction of water took from 1609 to 1612. Another well-known British engineer is Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859), builder of dockyards, the Great Western Railway, the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship, and numerous important bridges and tunnels in the United Kingdom; each of these often contained innovative solutions to long-standing engineering problems. Nicolas Grollier de Servière (1596–1689) was a French inventor and ornamental turner who became well known for creating a series of fantastic machines. As an engineer, he specialized in deploying movable bridges in the field for the military. After he retired to his home in Lyon, he worked on ornamental lathe work and built a series of fantastic models. He displayed his work in a cabinet that he opened to the public once a week and which became famous enough to attract politicians, scholars, artisans, and other inventors. This cabinet featured model water pumps and Archimedes’ screws, siege engines, designs of floating bridges, and clocks regulated by balls traveling down inclined planes or along spiral tracks, machines to trace landscapes, and to convert plan images into perspective, odometers with reducing gears, wheelchairs, many intricate pieces of lathe work in ivory and wood, and an improved version of Agostino Ramelli’s reading wheel that allowed many books to be read by means of a rotating wheel. Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) was a Serbian–American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, physicist, and futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current electricity supply system. This non-exhaustive list of engineers and inventors demonstrates the contribution that engineers have made to society by creating solutions to its infrastructure, equipment for processing materials, machines for production, novel products, and artifacts.

Building on this contribution to society and the role of engineers, this introductory chapter starts by looking at what innovations are and how they differ from technology in Section 1.1. Then, it moves on to look at the innovation funnel in Section 1.2 before it discusses the role of so-called business models in Section 1.3; these business models play an important role in the commercialization of new products and services, and sometimes depend on innovation for their processes. After presenting the basic concepts for innovation, the role of engineers in the context of innovation management is discussed in Section 1.4. This is followed by Section 1.5, which presents the content and outline of the book, and Section 1.6, which describes how to use this text.

1.1 WHAT ARE INNOVATIONS?

Returning to the importance of innovation and technology management, it is almost impossible that a day goes by without talking about innovation or without being confronted with announcements by companies about new products and services. These announcements by firms might be about breakthroughs for new products and services, improvements of existing products and services, and new ways of their delivery, among other changes. This makes one wonder whether these are really new products and services, just simply revamps or just rebranding. Sometimes these announcements by companies mention technology that is being used for those products and services. This makes it necessary to first look at what technology and innovation are all about.

1.1.1 DEFINING TECHNOLOGY

The first key concept—technology—can be seen as the know-why and know-how in the form of techniques, methods, or processes used in the creation and production of goods or services. For example, the technology for information and communication systems constitutes all the equipment, infrastructure, software, interfaces, and auxiliary devices to exchange data and information between computers, storage devices, and humans (note that this is not a formal definition, but merely a description for the purpose of this book). The methods and processes for information and communication technologies extend from design to use in operations and to maintenance, which might even include the transition to new information systems. This instance also shows that an important characteristic of technology is that it can be embedded in machines, computers, devices, factories, and infrastructure; these objects can be operated by individuals who might not necessarily have detailed knowledge of the working of such artifacts and contraptions. In this particular case, it also means that quite a number of (scientific) disciplines are working together to realize those information systems. The processing power of microchips depends on advances in physics and electronics, among others, and the integration of the relevant knowledge in these disciplines to create these electronic circuits. However, a software architect, working on software tools and platforms, will be limitedly aware of all the knowledge from physics and electronics, but still make a major contribution to the proper functioning of information systems. Hence, technology is not confined to a narrow domain of knowledge, but in general, covers a wide range of techniques, methods, and processes from several disciplines to make product, services, artifacts, and other contraptions work.

In a more formal sense, there are many definitions about what technology constitutes, see Box 1.1; however, hardly any of these brings about a better understanding of the processes for generating technological knowledge and applying technologies in products and services. In this sense, Ramanathan (1994, pp. 224–28) recognizes four perspectives on technology embedded in definitions:

• Technology from a transforming and enabling perspective. This means that technology is seen as the application of scientific knowledge, sometimes in terms of fitness of purpose and suitability for economic transactions. The definition of Galbraith (1967, p. 12), see Box 1.1, fits with this perspective.

• Technology from a tool perspective. In this point of view, technology is seen in a more limited view as being an apparatus, machine, piece of equipment, or anything similar. Schön’s (1967, p. 1) definition in Box 1.1 fits in this category.

• Technology from a perspective on knowledge, which places the emphasis on know-how (the capability to use knowledge in action). The definition of Volti (2006, p. 6) is an example of this perspective on technology (see Box 1.1).

Box 1.1. Definitions of technology

• Technology is the systematic application of scientific or other organized knowledge to practical tasks (Galbraith 1967, p. 12).

• Technology is any tool or technique, any product or process, any physical equipment or method of doing or making by which human capability is extended (Schön 1967, p. 1).

• “... a system that uses knowledge and organization to produce objects and techniques for the attainment of specific goals” (Volti 2006, p. 6).

• Technology is scientific, engineering, and managerial knowledge, which makes possible the conception, design, development, production, and distribution of goods and services (Gibson 1976).

• Technology as embodiment, which could be considered a synthesis of the three previous perspectives. That blending together also implies that each of the three preceding definitions has limitations. How Gibson (1976) describes technology is a case in point for this encompassing point of view; see Box 1.1.

These distinctive perspectives also mean that, when reading literature on technology management and technology cycles, it is imperative to pay attention to how authors view technology, even if they do so implicitly. In this book, the fourth perspective, the broadest interpretation will be followed.

1.1.2 DEFINING INNOVATION

This latter, broad definition of technology is very close to what one could call innovation: the successful commercialization of technological advances and inventions. Looking at the definitions in Box 1.2, innovation adds to technology that a product or service is new. These definitions are just a few of many; for example, Baregheh, Rowley, and Sambrook (2009) have examined 60 definitions that all differ substantially. However, what comes to the fore is that innovation is about something new, either to an organization or industrial sector. It can be new because of the product or service, the technology with which they are produced, the application (and market) or even the organizational system; this broad definition is often associated with management guru Peter Drucker (1985), though his role has been limited to advocating the discipline of innovation rather than advancing its practice. For an example of an organizational system, you can think of the Toyota Production System, that is now called lean production (see Holweg 2007); this way of producing consists of (i) tools, for example, statistical process control; (ii) methods, such as single-minute exchange dies; (iii) production planning and control, just-in-time deliveries are a case in point; and (iv) management approaches, for instance, total quality management....