The Boeing debacle: Seven lessons every CEO must learn

This article by Steve Denning published by Forbes is doing the rounds at present. It's highlighting the mechanical problems faced by the 787s that is costing Boeing more money on a project that was already over budget. But it's not specifically a Boeing bashing piece.

It highlights the 787 project as one example as part of the broader issue of offshoring.

1. Use the right metrics to evaluate offshoring
2. Review whether earlier outsourcing decisions made sense
3. Don't outsource mission-critical components
4. Bring some manufacturing back
5. Adequately assess the risk factors of off-shoring
6. Adequately value the role of innovation
7. Get to the root of the problem: maximising shareholder value

You can read the whole article here and while I believe it provides a good rationale for approaching the question of offshoring for enterprises, it also provides some good foundations for an industry policy.

The diffusion of the Maker Movement and how anyone can get involved

While getting back into the social media swing of things, I've noticed a bit of talk around about the Maker Movement. The Maker Movement is a typical culmination of technology diffusion. Actually that is wrong! It is really evolving rather than culminating because we cannot be 100% certain of the path the technology will take from here.

Nevertheless, the Maker Movement has sprung from additive manufacturing technology, which in turn sprang from the rapid prototyping technology that was used by larger companies to test parts and new product concepts. Additive manufacturing is a technology similar to stereolithography (SLA) as introduced to Australia by our company QMI Solutions in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The interesting thing here is the rate of innovation diffusion and the technology adoption cycle. Dr Tim Kastelle has a great blog post on What Makes Innovation Diffusion Difficult. But the Maker Movement, while new in name, has been under development for at least 20 years and it is really only because the technology has been proven, has increased uptake, has consumer-friendly platforms that it is now becoming a movement that is accessible and affordable.

Late last year, Editor of Wired magazine Chris Anderson left this position to write a book on the Maker Movement subject Makers: The Third Industrial Revolution but also to run his own company 3D Robotics. The third industrial revolution was the subject of a previous post. In this interview with Tech Crunch, he says "hardware is the new software" and evidences the power of the Maker Movement when the CAD file of an IPhone case was open sourced - taking customisation to a new stratosphere it allowed customers to put "their own DNA" into the design process of the finished product.

His story about how he got involved in the Maker Movement via LEGO is great too.

And while it's great to see a new movement in manufacturing the best thing about the Maker Movement is that anyone can be involved.

Top 100 innovation articles for 2012

Happy 2013! I thought I'd start the year by looking back at some of the great innovation content from 2012. Innovation Excellence has profile the 100 best innovation articles from 2012. Click here to read their whole  list.

Suffice to say, there is a wealth of content here for any business wanting to improve, however even just the Top 10 prove interesting reading:

1. Beyond Stage Gate – Repeating Disruptive Innovation – by Jose A. Briones, Ph.D.
2. Top 40 Innovation Bloggers of 2011
3. The Rise of Social Innovation – by Nicolas Bry
4. Five Tech Trends Impacting Business Innovation in 2012 – by Tim Sweeney
5. Has Microsoft Leapfrogged Apple – by Greg Satell
6. 10 Success Principles of Apple’s Innovation Master Jonathan Ive – by John Webb
7. Tips for Crowdsourcing, Innovation, and Savings – by Jessica Day
8. Boosting Personal Innovation Capacity – Iterate! – by Dennis Stauffer
9. What’s the Difference between Creativity and Innovation? – by Paul Sloane
10. Top 50 Innovation Tweeters

It's great reading I hope you enjoy.

Why manufacturing matters - the difficulty in disconnecting

Tim Mazzarol blogs on The Conversation about some of the reasons why manufacturing matters. He reasons that it is almost impossible to disconnect manufacturing from its flow-on benefits to other sectors in terms of innovation and productivity specifically, but this doesn't mean propping up unsustainable industries either.

Both government and industry have a role to play to ensure we don't lose manufacturing as a key enabler for economic growth and become too reliant on a finite mining boom. He also refers to the US commitment to rebuild their manufacturing industry and the reports that underlie the movement. It's quite a good read.

Click here to read the full story.

Advancing Australian manufacturing

Attached is an article by Craig Milne, Executive Director of the Productivity Council of Australia, that gives a potted history of manufacturing in Australia and the associated problems it has faced over time. He also attributes the negative effect economic reform has had on the industry, however my favourite part is this:

"There are strong arguments for Australia staying in manufacturing, and being prepared to pay a high price to do so. Manufacturing is the sector that contains and advances the skills and capabilities that prescribe membership in the ranks of the advanced nations of the world. For research and innovation, manufacturing provides the essential ground from which future streams of products and incomes can emerge. Whatever form the economy of the future may take; manufacturing will provide the enabling foundation for it."

Click here to read the whole article.

Anyone can be a manufacturer

Another interesting post from Derek Singleton on the Software Advice website discussing the next manufacturing revolution - and how it's driven by individuals not corporations. For me, the most interesting part was his list of enabling technologies to help this revolution:

• Crowdsourcing – Crowdsourcing is an approach to idea generation and product development, not a technology. However, there’s a variety of tech resources available that enable crowdsourcing for any kind of project; check out Open Innovation for a great list.
• CAD Software – 2D and 3D designs created with CAD software can be saved in a sharable file format before production. You can access professional-grade CAD software on a subscription basis for $19.95/month from Local Motors.
• 3D Printing – 3D printers are rapidly decreasing in price, making it affordable to create a prototype model of a CAD design. Some 3D printers are already powerful enough to make small numbers of finished items. As this technology advances, the hope is that individuals will be able to produce larger batches of finished products.
• Manufacturing-as-a-Service – Manufacturing is following software’s lead and becoming an on-demand service. Online manufacturing directories like Alibaba and ThomasNet can connect you with a manufacturer that will build for you so you don’t have to invest in any equipment.
• Cloud Computing – The Cloud isn’t a manufacturing-specific technology but it deserves a mention because of how cost-effective it makes running a product business. Cloud solutions like NetSuite and Plex provide affordable solutions for managing orders, inventory, accounting and other business functions.
• E-commerce – Of course, the Internet is a critical enabler for any business these days. Sites like eBay, Amazon, or your own e-commerce website, make it easy for customers to find and buy from you. If you’re interested in running your own e-commerce site, you should check out Volusion and BigCommerce.

 Click here to read the full article.

How to save manufacturing - well, some good starting points anyway

Following is an article in last week's Huffington Post. It's a little misdirected in its approach, implying that the manufacturing industry is faced with challenges caused by the recent onset of technological advances and globalisation. In fact, the manufacturing industry has arguably had ot be the most adaptive being particularly more sensitive to the booms and busts of past decades. Fuel prices go up, manufacturing has to adapt. Mining booms occur, manufacturing has to cope with the talent drain. GFCs, natural disasters etc have made manufacturing an industry chameleon that has had to adapt or die. The industry's resilience is not to be underestimated and most companies have had to inmplement, in some form, the 'next generation' points made by the author, which are:

• anticipate customer needs
• innovate around the core
• focus on collaboration
• pre-solve problems
• inform and communicate
• do continuous de-commoditisation

This is a good start for sure and more details abouts each of these points is provided in the link below, however SME manufacturers need more guidance.

Being time and resource poor, they need (external) assistance to validate their strategies. This where government should play a role as funding the enablers for a more globally competitive and sustanaible industry.

Click here to read the full article. 

Manufacturing and innovation - tied together

Detroit is synonymous with the US auto industry and as such, experienced the worst of the industry's downturn over the past 30 years. So you may be excused for thinking an article on manufacturing from The Detroit News may carry baggage, but the author Mark Benvenuto uses the past troubles as a good example of the importance of an intrinsic link between innovation and manufacturing.

The most salient point for me was the theory that didn't work - namely the practice of shipping production overseas, whil hoping to retain the idea factories locally.

"To believe that is to misunderstand something fundamental: many of the most valuable innovations happen close to production, where scientists, engineers and researchers have tangible problems before them to solve."

He also mentions an admirable initiative from the American Chemical Society, which is awarding chemical scholarships to encourage innovation and job creation in the chemical sciences.

There are plenty of lessons we can learn from Detroit.

Click here to read the full article.

The Principles of Lean Innovation

We've been operating in the Lean Manufacturing sphere for over ten years and during that time we've seen Lean methodologies permeate beyond operational implementation in manufacturing environments to be applied in sales, healthcare, finance and administration.

We believe that Lean itself is a form of innovation where managers can make the most out of existing resources, but below is a post on Lean innovation, which applies Lean thinking to the innovation process.

Click here to read the post - or contact us about Lean implementation.

To Innovate We Must Make

While this has a distinctive US flavour, it does reinforce the inextricable linkage between manufacturing and innovation. The post comes from John B Rogers on INC.

* * * *

One of my favorite quotations is from Thomas Edison, who said the "value of the idea lies in the using of it." I never understood it as deeply as a student, but now running a car company in America today, I see the brilliance of Edison's simple aphorism shining through.

Innovation—the art of coming up with something that, moments before, was not there—is a mercurial process. Just look around today at the country's fastest-growing companies, you see a new kind of CIO springing up. Not the "information"-warden-type CIO, but rather, a Chief "Innovation" Officer. It's a sign that corporations and governments are wringing their hands and sharpening their focus, all on the hunt for new ideas.
Click here to read the full article.

Co-creation is today's most accepted model for innovation

From Forbes online....

Innovation has been around since the early days of civilization, and the processes have evolved from lone crusaders – Edison comes to mind – to the independent teams holed up in the back rooms of medium- and large-scaled organizations, such as early adopters like Ford.  And lately, having customers actively participate in coming up with new ideas. Indeed, innovation approaches have changed and taken on many different forms very rapidly over the past 150 years.

Click here to read the full article.

Tools of the Green Manufacturing Trade

Environmental Leader has run a series of articles on greener manufacturing, or as I prefer to call it 'Sustainable Manufacturing'. This is Part 1 of that series. Author David Dornfield argues 'sustainability' is the destination and 'green manufacturing' is the journey. Certainly in our experience with SMEs, the term 'green manufacturing' has more of a stigma than 'sustainable manufacturing'.

This article mentions two key obstacles to implementing sustainable manufacturing initiatives: the business model and in-house capability and then identifies some useful tools, as recommended by the OECD, in approaching the sustainable manufacturing challenge.

Click here to read the full article.

Willing to be weird?

A post from Dr Tim Kastelle:

I think that to successfully innovate, we have to be willing to be weird. We must be prepared to succeed unconventionally, namely:

1. Reward people that come up with the weirdest ideas
2. Be extra vigilant for conventional failures
3. Make it risky to not test out new ideas

Click here to read the full article.