Systematic Innovation Workshop
Thursday, March 1, 2012
8:30 am - noon
ESD Headquarters, 20700 Civic Center Drive, Suite 450, Southfield, MI 48076
Question: What do you get if you make a tape recorder that cannot record?
Answer: The Sony Walkman
Question: What do you get if you cross a pack of cigarettes with building skyscrapers?
Answer: The Sears Tower
Question: What do you get if you study customers’ frustrations with the tape measures on the market and design to remedy those frustrations?
Answer: The Stanley FatMax
Question: What does all of this have to do with innovation?
Answer: Innovation is often touted as essential to competitive advantage, yet most engineers receive very little training in systematic innovation techniques. As a result, lofty targets are often set for innovation, but little is done to develop and facilitate the innovative thinking about product and process to enable attainment of those goals. Systematic innovation techniques that are teachable can be applied to help engineers routinely generate creative, innovative, high-value solutions. The Walkman illustrates the Trimming Technique, the Sears Tower illustrates Bisociation, and the FatMax illustrates Painstorming.
Question: How can you learn more about systematic innovation?
Answer: Join us for a 3 hour hands-on workshop that has been designed to help frame the need for a value of a structured approach to innovation. Participants will be briefly introduced to the following innovation tools:
- Biomimicry
- Painstorming
- Functional Decomposition
- Axiomatic Design
- Ethnography
- TRIZ
- Lateral Benchmarking
- De Bono’s Six Hats
- De Bono’s Concept Fans
- Bisociation
- Nine Windows
- The Search for the Problem
- Kano Model
- Trimming
Question: Holy cow – that is a lot of material! How can we cover all of that in 3 hours?
Answer: You’re right – that is a lot of material! This workshop is mainly intended to wet your appetite for the subject. While we cannot go into much depth on most of the tools in the time we will have, you will be given a chance to experience several of them in a little more depth during the workshop. These will include six hats, bisociation, and provocation.
This workshop will be led by Jonathan Weaver, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Detroit Mercy. Jonathan teaches a variety of courses-including courses on innovation/creativity, systems engineering, system architecture, design of experiments, robotics, computer aided engineering, and the product development process. He holds a BSME degree from Virginia Tech, and MS and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He serves as the co-curriculum director of the Maters in Product Development Program and is a Kern Entrepreneurship Education Network Fellow. His consulting work through Innovation in Action involves helping practicing engineers learn systematic innovation techniques that enable them to routinely generate and implement high-value, innovative ideas.
AGENDA:
8:30 am – 9:00 am Registration, Networking and Continental Breakfast
9:00 am – 12:00 pm Workshop
COST:
$45 for Members
$60 for Non Members
$124 to join ESD and attend for free (includes 1 year of Crain’s Detroit Business) —a $238 value!
For more information, contact Leslie Smith at 248-353-0735, ext. 152, or lsmith@esd.org.
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