Every design engineer knows that new products are the lifeblood of every
successful manufacturer. But where do great new product ideas come from? Florida
management expert James Higgins points out several paths to bell-ringer products
in his book, Innovate or Evaporate (New Management Publishing Co.)--
Find out what's happening in the rest of the company. At Rubbermaid, for example, engineers adapted a blow-molding technique used to produce picnic coolers to production of a fast-selling line of lawn furniture.
Listen to your distributors. Think about how you can repackage or modify products to make them more appealing to distributors and others who deal with the customer.
Develop brainstorming techniques. Hold regular, no-holds barred sessions that encourage the spontaneous exchange of ideas. An individual can even hold a private "mind mapping" session that starts by writing down the name or description of a central object or problem. Then he or she records all the random facets or issues that branch out from that central concept.
Provide formal training in creativity. A survey by Training Magazine finds that 40% of the nation's 2,500 largest companies now offer such training--double the number ten years ago.
Shake up the organization. If success means developing a product fast to servean important customer, form a skunk-works team with the authority to buck yourinternal bureaucracy and get the product out the door.
Leave room for mistakes. People will never feelcomfortable about exploring new paths if organizations punish them for taking risks that don't yield immediate payoffs.
Reward creativity. Innovative firms recognize that bright employees need more than just the satisfaction of doing a good job. So they have instituted systems of awards, bonuses, and formal "dual track" ladders that allow engineers to receive greater compensation for technical contributions without transferring to management ranks.
Higgins places a special value on "speed" as a trigger for innovation. "Give a designer a year instead of three to develop a product," he says, "and you'll be surprised at the creative things that can happen."
This issue of Design News showcases products that major OEM vendors believe are their most innovative offerings of 1995. Take some time to review these products, not just for their value to your next design, but for the creative touches that they employ. Finally, please help us pick the best of these products by marking the ballot you'll find on page 85.
Plastic may not be the most beloved of materials to the more environmentally minded, but Plasti 2012 aimed to mold a different opinion of the material in people's minds.
The rare earth element market has become steadily more rational, and new sources coming online will continue to reduce costs. Still, it is unlikely that prices will drop to their former lows.
Against a backdrop of mounting product complexity and a need to keep a lid on development costs, companies are recognizing a need to make simulation a more integral part of the design process. In response, vendors in the CAD world are building out CAE functionality as part of their CAD suites while simulation vendors are building tighter integrations to leading CAD tools. Keith Meintjes, Ph.D., Practice Manager, Simulation and Analysis at CIMdata, Inc., joins Design News CAD Editor Beth Stackpole in this radio program to explore the new face of integrated CAD and CAE, how companies are benefitting from this tighter partnership between platforms, and how integrating CAE earlier in the development cycle pays off in optimized product designs.
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