Koren Y. The Global Manufacturing Revolution: Product-Process-Business Integration and Reconfigurable Systems
Подождите немного. Документ загружается.
Chapter 2
Product Invention Strategy
Because globalization has brought so many new competitors, manufacturers face a
great struggle to hold onto the share of business that they had (their piece of the pie)
before the global manufacturing revolution began. Only by enlarging the global
economic pie, manufacturers might regain the share of the economic pie that they had
before globalization. Creating new markets for new products that do not currently
exist can “enlarge the pie.” Developing an innovative product in a timely manner and
harvesting a huge profit from it is the dream of every manufacturer. But getting to that
product is not easy. How does a designer find a product that is needed but hasn’t
already been invented? There are some even more basic questions: What drives the
process of invention? Is it driven by new technologies when they come on line? Or,
does a company’s management drive it when they decide to go after a competitor’s
business? Should a product aimed at global markets be designed differently than a
product aimed at just one region? Is your company even capable of inventing new
products? And what role should the customer play in developing new products? This
chapter will explore these questions and more.
Before you make the investment to design, manufacture, and market a pro-
duct you have examine the market opportunity. How does one recognize a market
opportunity in the first place? There have been volumes written on where market
opportunities come from new technologies, customers’ perceptions, or ideas
that can change our daily life. All of these sources and more can create market
opportunit ies. T he f unda me nt al que st ion fo r man ufa c ture rs is : Which opportunities
are worth pursuing?
The Global Manufacturing Revolution: Product-Process-Business Integration and Reconfigurable Systems
By Yoram Koren
Copyright 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
41
Companies recognize three drivers that motivate new product ideas:
.
Technology-driven Products: Ideas for new innovative products that come
from within a firm’s own techn ology, experience, and core-competencies, also
called Company-driven Products.
.
Customer-driven Products: Responses to customer testimony based on
in-depth market research.
.
Competition-driven Products: Reaction to successful products already
introduced by competitors.
Whatever the motivation, the new product must be perceived as benefiting the
customers, that it creates a cle ar value for them. The new product must deliver
economic value to the customer by relating their needs (functional or emotional ) to
design features of the product.
2.1 TECHNOLOGY-DRIVEN PRODUCTS
Technology-driven products are those made possible by applying new technology
that, in many cases, originated within the company. Some legendary examples include
the Walkman by Sony, the iPod and i-Phone by Apple, and the mini-van by Chrysler.
The Walkman created a whole lifestyle change for users who wanted to listen to
recorded sound in new arenas of physical activity. It is hard to remember a time when
people did not wear headph ones or ear buds as they jogged around the park. When Lee
Iacocca, a man fam ous for driving new products into the market, introduced the
Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager, he created an entirely new segment of the auto
market. In 1984, Chrysler earned $2.4 billion from its mini-vans, and an additional
$3 billion in the next 2 years.
Technology-driven produc ts can radically change the world we live in. The
creative genius of product innovators within a company can be a powerful and
profitable driver for fulfilling perceived market opportunities and creating new ones of
their own. But can employees be taught to innovate? Are there techniques that
stimulate creative thinking aimed at product innovation? “At my employer, Ford
Motor Company,” wrote our student Christopher Mazur in 2004, “the entire orga-
nization in both its structure and its culture are being shaped to encourage innovation.
Such a strategy raises several questions: In what way does the company define
innovation? Is it only in ground breaking new products or does it include business as
well? And, how does the company become innovative overnight?”
We will elaborate on six methods that can stimulate ideas for new products.
2.1.1 Paradoxical Products—Products of Creative Thinking
One approach is the concept of “paradoxical products” as a way of inspiring product
innovation.
*
Usually, the main function of a product is communicated through its
*
The author coined the term “paradoxical products.”
42 PRODUCT INVENTION STRATEGY
name. If we eliminate the main function of a product, it seems like we would be left
with a product that does not make sense. Nonetheless, in some cases we might come
up with a new product that has a new application and even a new market. We call this a
Paradoxical Product.
Consid er this example from above. Tape recorders were invented many years
ago to record, store, and playback sound. One day, an employee from Sony
wondered if there might be a use for a tape recorder that does not record? Sounds
paradoxical, doesn’t it? And yet, this was the first step toward the invention of
the Wal kman.
The Walkman lacked the main function of a tape recorder—recording. It created an
application different from the original tape recorder. When Sony pursued the idea of
the small portable tape “player,” they crea ted a paradoxical product that revolu-
tionized the ability to carry recorded sound almost anywhere. By considering
commonplace things and then removing (or repurposing) some basic feature, we
can sometimes come up with entirely new product ideas, and who knows, perhaps
even whole new industries.
A paradoxical product is a product that may seem to be absurd because a main
function is missing, but in fact it may be a new, marketable product. Examples of
paradoxical products are shown in Figure 2.1.
Can you “invent” a paradoxical product? If you do, try to elaborate on the
following points:
1. What is the produc t good for?
2. What would the product look like?
Figure 2.1 Examples of paradoxical products.
TECHNOLOGY-DRIVEN PRODUCTS 43
3. Would it be cheaper or more expensive to build than the conventional
counterpart product?
4. What do you think the market and estimated annual demand would be for your
idea?
5. Does the U.S. patent database include similar products? (You’ll be surprised
what’s in there.)
Dreaming up paradoxical products can be an amusing and sometimes profitable
exercise.
2.1.2 Products with Supplemental Functionality
We presented paradoxical products as a methodology for generating new pro-
duct ideas by subtracting obvious, even primary features. Another approach
is to think about an existing product and adding a new functionality that is
completely unrelated to its mai n functi on. This can open another new range of
applications.
A profound example of this is the cell phone. Cell phones originated as simply
a portable telephone. Now, cell phone manufacturers are integrating cameras
web browsers and TV controllers into phone units, a nd there is no end in sight!
In Japan you can buy a soda from a soft-drink machine with your cell phone, and
in Israel you can pay for parking. It is clear that your cell phone is gradually
becoming some kind of a credit card. Was anyone thinking about such applications
in 1990?
Can you think about other current products to which you might add completely new
functions that supplement their original use?
2.1.3 Transferring Known Ideas to New Products—Crossover Techniques
A. Hargadon and R. Sutton have studied the innovation process.
1
They have
documented that innovators systematically use old ideas as the raw materials for
new product ideas. Taking an idea that is commonplace in one area and moving it to
a completely new context is another way to spark creativity. This method is a
“crossover technique.”
Hargadon and Sutton describe that design companies like IDEO in California and
Design Continuum in Boston use crossover to create new product ideas by observing
users of similar products. This method engendered an innovative surgical skin stapler,
as well as other tools used in knee surgery.
Toys can also be a source for serious product ideas. Toys have inspired the external
design of laptop computers for Apple and Dell.
2
Toys are cheap and mass-p roduced,
and have many neat things to offer. Among groups of designers, team brainstorming
with toys can often generate great ideas.
The U.S. federal R&D budget on defense is larger than all other federal R&D
combined. If there were a systematic way to transfer defense technology for the
44 PRODUCT INVENTION STRATEGY
benefit of society, our lives would be continuously enriched with very little invest-
ment. The next section elaborates on one such example.
Example: Patients Swallow High-tech Capsules In May 2000, I read an article in
Nature
3
describing a new capsule containing a camera that patients can swallow in the
morning and have the pictures of their digestive tract displayed on a monitor the next
day. It may sound like science fiction, but it is a real capsule being produced by Given
Imaging of Israel, and was approved for use by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration
in August 2001.
The high-tech capsule is an alternative to the endoscope—the 1–5-m-long tube that
is inserted to examine the intestine (the part of the digestive system between the
stomach and the anus) for inflammatory bowel diseases or cancerous polyps. The
endoscopic exam can be a bit pain ful and embarrassing so many patients refuse to take
it, and risk fatal illness for lack of proper diagnosis.
Although the invention of this high-tech capsule is based on missile technology
(see Figure 2.2), it is subject to additional design constraints because of its tiny
size and the limited electrical source. The inventor of the high-tech capsule,
Dr. Gavriel (Gabi) J. Iddan, was my roomm ate during my doctoral studies.
Prior to this project, he worked for Rafael (a defense company) and worked
on missile developmen t. Below is Gabi’s story about his invention of the high-
tech pill.
Figure 2.2 The high-tech capsule includes elements of missile technology: an optical
dome, lens, digital imager, transmitter, and antenna. The patient swallows the device like
a pill. The tiny camera inside the single-use capsule captures two images per second, for a
total of 50,000 pictures. The digital imager has a resolution of 0.1 mm. The capsule
dimensions are 10 mm in diameter and 25 mm (1 inch) in length.
1. Transparent dome
2. Lens
3. Headlights: Six LEDs emitting white light
4. Digital imager
5. Two batteries (1.5 V, each)
6. Transmitter, operates at 433 MHz
7. Antenna, 1 mW (1% of acell phone’s power)
TECHNOLOGY-DRIVEN PRODUCTS 45
“In the late 1980s, endoscope manufacturers incorporated a small CCD (used in
video cameras) in the endoscope to replace the fiber bundle that was used for image
transmission until then. In the early 1990s, I started to think about the possibility of
separating the CCD head of the endoscope by attaching a mini-transmitter to the
CCD head, thus letting the head move free of any physical connection. However, I
encountered three main challenges:
.
Contamination of the optical window in the intestine
.
Long hours of viewing time for the doctor
.
Short lifetime of the batteries needed for the CCD, illumination, and
transmission
First, I figured out that in order to avoid the optical window contam ination
and obscuration, the optics will have to be designed in a way that will guarantee
constant rubbing of the tissue on an arch-shaped window that is contact
imaging and self-wiping of the transparent window. The next problem of long
viewing hours was solved by separating the system into three components: a
capsule containing im ager and transmitter; a recorder containing antenna and
recording medium; and a workstation incorporating a reader, processing
software, and a monitor. In 1997, I was awarded the first U.S. patent on a
video capsule.
In October 1999, the first real capsule was swallowed; clear images were
received—the video capsule turned into reality. Given Imaging was issued to the
public as the first issue at NASDAQ after the 9/11/2001 disaster.”
The product offered by Given Imaging includes the capsule ($450 per caps ule),
an 8-Gb hard drive worn on the patient’s belt, and a workstation with software to
which the hard drive is connected for diagnostics. The market for Given Imaging
is global; it includes 1 1 mil lion Americans who endure endoscope exams every
year to look for suspicious abnormalities in the small intesti ne. (See UMHS
web site below.)
In 2003, the FDA expanded its approval of the pill to the diagnostics of
Crohn’s disease. In December 2004, the British National Health Service (NHS)
approved the device. ( Great Britain has a population of 58 million.) By the end
of 2004, G iven Imaging was selling 10 thousand capsules globally per month.
In 2004–2006, the pill of Given Imaging got substantial Internet a nd media
coverage.
“A short time ago, I was watching Today on NBC and they had a live demonstration
of one of the anchors swallowing the exact camera that is discussed above,”
wrote our student Rachel Krueger in March 2006. “They showed the entire
process on TV.”
46 PRODUCT INVENTION STRATEGY
The following story was taken on August 4, 2004 from the University of Michigan
Health System (UMHS) web site.
ANN ARBOR, MI
4
—One pill, a glass of water, and about 8 hours is all it takes to
produce nearly 60,000 high-resolution digital photos. And patients are finding that
the latest in high-tech, digital photography is very easy to swallow. Using this new
non-invasive technology, known as a capsule endoscopy system, physicians at the
UMHS now have the ability to explore uncharted, and often unseen, territory
within a patient’s small intestines.
Capsule endoscopy is providing physicians with a clear view of obscure
gastrointestinal disorders such as bleeding or Crohn’s disease, which were
previously difficult to visually detect.
The tiny capsule records its entire journey through the digestive tract while
closely examining the 15–18 feet of the small bowel. The capsule sends two images
per second to sensors attached to a Walkman-sized digital recording device
strapped to the patient’s waist. The stored images are transformed into a digital
movie. It takes gastroenterologists about 45 minutes to review the series of images .
2.1.4 Disruptive Technologies—Will the World be Changed?
Disruptive technologies—a phrase coined by C.M. Christensen
5
—refer to any new
emerging technology that gradually replaces an established, matured technology in
the same basic application. Examples include the transistor that replaced the vacuum
tube, the digital camera that replaced the conventional film camera, cell phones that
are replacing the wired phone, as well as capsule and virtual colonoscopy, which may
eventually replace the real colonoscopy. Fuel cells in the automotive industry, which
may 1 day replace the internal combustion engi ne, the personal digital assistant (PDA)
or i-Phone that may take a significant market share from laptops and cell phones, may
also be defined as disruptive technologies.
In many cases, an innovative replacement technolog y may emerge at a time when
an established company struggles to improve the performance of their current
product. If the company ignores the new technology, it may eventually lose its entire
share of the market. The transistor came into use in the late 1950s, but its early
performance was poorer than that of vacuum tubes that had equivalent functions (e.g.,
in radios). RCA, Philips, and General Electric controlled the vacuum tube market in
the 1960s. RCA does not exist today, and GE is not making microprocessors, the
industry that evolved from the transistor industry.
Early digital cameras suffered from poor picture quality and low resolution.
Kodak, with more than 60% of the photographic materials industry, did not believe
that digital photography performance could improve to a degree that it would replace
conventional photography. Therefore, Kodak entered the digital camera business too
late, and consequently fell from its pre-eminent position at the top of the photographic
industry in 2003.
TECHNOLOGY-DRIVEN PRODUCTS 47
The dilemma for an established company is whether to invest in a new technology,
and how many resources to commit to developing it. If you were the CEO of General
Motors in 2001, how much would you want to invest in fuel-cell engine technology,
how much in plug-in electric cars, and how much in hybrid cars? Fuel cells do not yet
have any national infrastructure (equivalent to gas stations), although electric cars
have some. The main obstacle to electric car has been the poor performance and high
cost of the battery that runs the ele ctric motor. Earlier, the battery was very heavy
and limited the range they could travel. The CEO may know that the market for
small electric cars will explode if there is a breakthrough in battery technology within
the next 10–15 years, but how can he/she be certain that battery technology will
improve. And how could the CEO foresee that oil prices would increase five times
between 2001 and 2008? How can a manufacturer know which new ideas will catch
on, and when?
The critical decision point for a company is illustrated in Figure 2.3. At the
beginning, the performance of a product with the new technology is usually worse
than that of the established technology (e.g., the early low-resolution digital camera)
and its related products capture only a small share of the market. It may take years to
replace the existing product technology and who is to say if a new product’s
performance will actually surpass that of the existing technology? In some cases,
an emerging technology will fade if the expectations never materialize. That
investment is lost. For all these reasons, established companies hesitate to invest in
disruptive technologies. Some of them prefer to wait until a new product (even a
competitor) captures a new market (e.g., Kodak entering to the digital camera market
late); but a late entry into an emerging market can be expensive and still may fail.
Even if one comes to the market late, if their product is marketed well, people may
buy it. VHS entered the market after Betamax videotapes were introduced. Even
though Beta was a more advanced format, VHS was a better fit with customers. VHS
tapes were cheaper to make and therefore cost less. More movies were available in
VHS, and so more people bought VHS players. VHS became the dominant product.
Beta died out.
Figure 2.3 The dilemma of investing in a disruptive technology: Will its performance
surpass that of the existing technology or will its performance just improve a bit?
48
PRODUCT INVENTION STRATEGY
2.1.5 Making Lemonade— When the Market Giv es You Lemons
Markets Change: That which everyone in the world wanted last year, couldn’t get
enough of last season, and was willing to pay any price for is now worthless.
Overnight, your factory, instead of a vibrant engine of commerce and profit,
becomes a museum to an obsolete past. As a manufacturer, you have two choices:
install a gift shop and try to sell tickets, o r c onvert your factory t o build something
that you can sell.
To appre ciate the last statement, see if you can answer the following questions:
A company that sold a product that became obsolet e when Thomas Edison
invented the light bulb had sales of $1.2 billion in FY 2000.
What is the company?
What is the product?
The company is Blyth Inc. and it makes and markets candles. Blyth is a major
producer of home d
ecor and fragrance products, supplying candles, aromatherapy,
and even food service heating products all over the world. The company took what
they were good at, melting and mixing waxy fluids, and directed it to markets that
were previously underserved, and in some regions, did not exist at all.
Many manufacturers think they can learn what customers want by allowing them to
determine what products will fill a market niche. The main difficulty in predicting
what customers will buy is that...
It’s hard to predict which product people will like in the future
2.1.6 Emulating Animal Motions—Fly Like a Bird? Crawl Like a Snake!
Emulating the motions of animals is an exciting variation on the crossover
innovation, and a useful approach for inventing new locom otion devices. If you
look at the conventional uses of wheels and theway airplanes are propelled, you may
think such innovations are impossible. Nevertheless, it may be worthwhile to
observe animal motion in nature and try to emulate them. Imagine, for example,
if a mechanism that emulates the spring action of a grasshopper’s legs was
invented—objects that are hundreds of times heavier than the device could be
propelled.
An example of emulating animal motions is the mechanical snake robot that was
invented at the University of Michigan in the early 1990s by Y. Shan and Y. Koren.
6
The structure of the snake robot enables it to move without wheels. It was constructed
of a series of articulated links, each one with a DC motor and a solenoid break.
Although each link had only one motor, as shown in Figure 2.4, this structure allowed
TECHNOLOGY-DRIVEN PRODUCTS 49
the robot configuration to be easily controlled, and allowed the snake robot to move in
very cluttered environments.
The motion planning system provided the snake robot with a basic movement
pattern that can be easily modified for varying tasks and environments. The me-
chanical snake did not avoid obstacles on its way, but rather “accommodated” them
while continuing its motio n toward the target even while in contact with those
obstacles. In each motion stage the snake used a different number of degrees of
freedom, providing the robot with great adaptability.
Such robotic devices may have many applications, especially for crawling into
places that are too dangerous or too small for people. Commonly used wheeled robots
cannot fulfill many tasks because of their large size. The snake robot demonstrates that
emulating animal locomotion may have advantages over conventional locomotion
methods—wheels, tracks, and even legs. And, mimicking animal movement can
inspire a whole new range of design possibilities.
Yansong Shan (my former Ph.D. student) opened a start-up that implemented the
snake principle for medical testing of the small intestine. The snake -like device that
he developed utilizes the natural contraction wave of the small intestine to propel
the device. The device is equipped with a video camera and illumination source. A
communication and power cable is wound within the device and unwinds through an
aperture in the rear of the device as it moves through the small intestine.
7
2.1.7 Adding Comple x Features Appalls Consumers
Designers of high-tech products have to be watchful about adding too many “cool”
features in the products they offer. An article in the USNWR from January 2001
discussed the December 2000 electronics exhibition in Las Vegas and commented:
“The technology industry is enduring its first bear market. Many companies are
scrambling to find out why consumers aren’t falling in love with the latest stuff.”
Figure 2.4 The mechanical snake invention (Inventors: Y. Koren and Y. Shan).
50
PRODUCT INVENTION STRATEGY