Much of innovation involves avoiding making engineering trade-offs. This means resolving a technical contradiction (i.e. something must be made stronger, but lighter; faster, but more fuel efficient; harder, but flexible).  These technical contradictions arise when one parameter (i.e. power) is improved but then negatively impacts another parameter (i.e. weight).

The process of innovation often involves creating applications for new technologies that originate outside of a specific industry.  This makes the discovery process challenging, especially when new technologies emerge in industries that, on the surface, bear no similarities or synergies to the need at hand. 

Product development is knowledge-intensive and characterized by multiple  iterative phases of situation analyses, research, collaboration, problem-solving and decision making. 

Tech-Clarity, an independent research and consulting firm that specializes in analyzing the true business value of software technology and services, has released a new white paper detailing the challenges and benefits of knowledge-enabling technical professionals in order to inform decision-making.

This is no small challenge given the growing complexity of products, the overwhelming volume of information required to make the right decisions, and the failure of traditional tools to make relevant knowledge available to product development teams.

How does your organization stay on top of tried-and-true best practices and engineering technologies affecting product or process design and development?

FMEA is a best-practice methodology for analyzing potential reliability problems early in the product or process development cycle when they are easier to correct.  It’s used in product development, systems engineering, reliability engineering, and operations management to help teams identify possible failure modes based on past experience or to design products and processes so as to remove potential weaknesses.

40 percent.  Just four out of every ten manufacturers claim they have the decision-making capabilities necessary to innovate.

A recent survey, sponsored by Supply & Demand Chain Executive and IHS, explores the roadblocks organizations face managing the ever-increasing amount of critical business information flowing inside and outside their organization.