Case Linking Strategy & Innovation

Final-test Assignment:

Space 1, 5 , Font : Times New Roman 12 (or equal), sent by email dateline 14 December 2015 to leo.aldianto@sbm-itb.ac.id, Maximum 5 Pages

Part One.

Case Linking Strategy & Innovation:  MTC, put 3 proposed projects (electronic sensor, turbocharger rotor, hybrid microelectronic circuit) into the chart in Mapping the 5 Types of Development project (Read the article “Creating Project Plans to Focus Product Development”). Give reasons to motivate your decision in mapping those projects.

AGGREGATE PROJECT PLAN:

1. A package for an electronic sensor:

Part of R&D projects, due to the product would use a molding process for which a pilot-scale plant had been built, but which was still undergoing substantial development. The project was be in developing the right composite material; the customer needed something that was physically strong, and whose coefficient of thermal expansion was an exact match with that of the silicon chips that would be mounted it.

1. A turbocharger rotor for automobile engines:

Part of breakthrough projects, due to involving substantial modification in MTC’s molding process and mold design technology, and development of a composite material with which the company had had no prior experience.

1. A substrate for a hybrid microelectronic circuit:

Part of derivative projects, due to it was just a different size of a product they were already making for several other customers.

Part Two

Pick minimum 4 -5 innovation projects in your company, which can represent several types of innovation in the chart in Mapping the 5 Types of Development project (Read the article “Creating Project Plans to Focus Product Development”). Give reasons to motivate your decision in mapping those projects. Ini yang saat ini sedang jalan

Derivative projects range from cost-reduced versions of existing products to add-ons or enhancements for an existing production process. For example, Kodak’s wide-angle, single-use 35mm camera, the Stretch, was derived from the no-frills Fun Saver introduced in 1990. Designing the Stretch was primarily a matter of changing the lens. Development work on derivative projects typically falls into three categories: incremental product changes, say, new packaging or a new feature, with little or no manufacturing process change; incremental process changes, like a lower cost manufacturing process, improved reliability, or a minor change in materials used, with little or no product change; and incremental changes on both dimensions. Because design changes are usually minor, incremental projects typically are more clearly bounded and require substantially fewer development resources than the other categories. And because derivative projects are completed in a few months, ongoing management involvement is minimal.

Breakthrough projects are at the other end of the development spectrum because they involve significant changes to existing products and processes. Successful breakthrough projects establish core products and processes that differ fundamentally from previous generations. Like compact disks and fiber-optics cable, they create a whole new product category that can define a new market. Because breakthrough products often incorporate revolutionary new technologies or materials, they usually require revolutionary manufacturing processes. Management should give development teams considerable latitude in designing new processes, rather than force them to work with existing plant and equipment, operating techniques, or supplier networks.

Platform projects are in the middle of the development spectrum and are thus harder to define. They entail more product and/or process changes than derivatives do, but they don’t introduce the untried new technologies or materials that breakthrough products do. Honda’s 1990 Accord line is an example of a new platform in the auto industry: Honda introduced a number of manufacturing process and product changes but no fundamentally new technologies. In the computer market, IBM’s PS/2 is a personal computer platform; in consumer products, Procter & Gamble’s Liquid Tide is the platform for a whole line of Tide brand products. Well-planned and well-executed platform products typically offer fundamental improvements in cost, quality, and performance over preceding generations. They introduce improvements across a range of performance dimensions–speed, functionality, size, weight. (Derivatives, on the other hand, usually introduce changes along only one or two dimensions.) Platforms also represent a significantly better system solution for the customer. Because of the extent of changes involved, successful platforms require considerable up-front planning and the involvement of not only engineering but also marketing, manufacturing, and senior management. Companies target new platforms to meet the needs of a core group of customers but design them for easy modification into derivatives through the addition, substitution, or removal of features. Well-designed platforms also provide a smooth migration path between generations so neither the customer nor the distribution channel is disrupted. Consider Intel’s 80486 microprocessor, the fourth in a series. The 486 introduced a number of performance improvements; it targeted a core customer group–the high-end PC/workstation user–but variations addressed the needs of other users; and with software compatibility between the 386 and the 486, the 486 provided an easy migration path for existing customers. Over the life of the 486 platform, Intel will introduce a host of derivative products, each offering some variation in speed, cost, and performance and each able to leverage the process and product innovations of the original platform. Platforms offer considerable competitive leverage and the potential to increase market penetration, yet many companies systematically underinvest in them. The reasons vary, but the most common is that management lacks an awareness of the strategic value of platforms and fails to create well-thought-out platform projects. To address the problem, companies should recognize explicitly the need for platforms and develop guidelines for making them a central part of the aggregate project plan.