Innovation

The purpose of this paper is to show how corporate strategy can be aligned with the production system of an enterprise to derive an operations strategy. Consequently, the operations strategy is employed to define prospective needs of agility. The research methodology builds upon action research that is realized in a long-term approach with two joint manufacturing companies. Both can be classified as small and medium sized enterprises (SME). The preliminary findings underline the importance of a holistic view towards agility emphasizing organization and people as major drivers of agility. These drivers are addressed by means of a playful intervention with LEGO-bricks.

What makes Austria sufficiently interesting as a manufacturing location so that companies continue to invest, while other locations in the world offer more advantageous conditions which are relevant to manufacturing? It will always be possible to find regions offering cheaper labor, lax rules of operation in terms of environmental criteria or fewer regulatory stipulations. Yet, highly successful enterprises continue to count firmly on sites here. It must surely be down to the driving spirit of change as so aptly defined in the Economist „...to take part in a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress...“. As clear and as simple as this may seem, the difficulty lies in translating this into everyday corporate life. It takes courage to look beyond the boundaries of one’s own experience, while we are always immersed in a framework defined by people of different characters. Only by seeking and accepting what ...

The research project “Open Innovation in Life Sciences” (project duration May 2008-April 2011) aims at the development and implementation of new innovation strategies and concepts for SMEs in the life sciences segment. In particular inside-out and outside-in processes in joint innovation projects beyond firm boundaries are analyzed. The life sciences segment is known as being highly research intense and interdisciplinary. As a result of the growing complexity of innovation processes, the development of cooperative, i.e. open innovation strategies for SMEs has become more important. SMEs can gain the capability to tap crucial innovation potentials by bundling distributed complementary knowledge. The article describes the development of a method which might help to evaluate opportunities and risks of different innovation concepts. This may serve as basis for decision-making regarding the implementation of a predefined innovation process. Project outcomes are expected to be an ...

Change Management and transformability of factories are usually not planned in an integrated way today. While Change Management focuses solely on the change process itself, this process is mostly ignored in the planning process of a transformable factory. The synthesis of these two approaches allows a holistic support of change processes, in order to promote innovations for example, upgrade employee competencies and use the planned technological, spatial and organisational transformability thoroughly.

This article tries to answer the question what implications innovation management will have on the future performance of companies. For this purpose a new approach has been developed that considers the time factor to be the determining element for the success of an innovation which also includes an invention. The developed model analyses the entire innovation process on several levels as well as the innovation performance and innovation capability of a company. This model permits to highlight critical elements within the company and the specific project, on the basis of existing data. This allows to give recommendations for optimisation and to evaluate modifications.

With regard to the current competitive environment companies, and especially small and medium sized companies, ought to combine their competencies through the formation of strategic networks. This bundling permits the organizations to realize economies of scale, offer combined services and generate innovations. But especially innovation networks make great demands on network management. Based on the framework taken out of the manual “Managing Innovation Networks” by the VDI this article therefore outlines the particular management functions for innovation networks and reviews related literature. The purpose of this analysis is to point out suggestions for the management of innovation networks and to give an overview of research findings.

An innovation process based on the principles of Total Technology Development involves the systematic use of available know-how and employment of the technology potential. The thus generated innovations focus on actual needs and requirements. There is a new definition for measurement of innovation: The increase of “System Ideality”. This principle forms the base for the strategic direction of the company. An essential part of this approach is the functional view of the system with an analytical valuation. This article describes the theorem of the new management method.

Today, innovations are perceived as the crucial factor for economic growth and employment. Companies investing heavily into research and development for technologically innovative products seem to have a competitive edge. This finding is empirically proved. However, further promising innovation strategies do exist. Based on a survey of 1450 companies of the manufacturing sector this article shows that also companies focussing on intelligent product service combinations or innovative techno-organisational processes outperform their competitors as regards employment growth.

A wide definition of weak spots does not only allow analysing the possibilities for technical or technological improvements and innovations, but it is the basis for innovations in the companies’ organization. If a weak spot exists due to disrespect of the normative organizational structure, the management has to enforce the acceptance of the given structure. If there is a weak spot due to any mistake in the organizational structure itself, the analysis of weak spots in the organizational system provides a basis for process optimizations.