Entrepreneurship and Innovation Brainwriting Using

Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Brainwriting

Using the key concepts of brain writing (Greene, 1987) the challenge of creating an entirely new product for the heavy equipment industry was undertaken. Using this technique, the concept of heavy equipment which was durable enough to be used in construction sites in the most demand environments but made of light weight steel so it could be airlifted anywhere in the world at a moment's notice. The group also determined that having a lightweight yet very durable earth moving tractor which also had advanced electronics including Global Positioning System (GPS) support to make it traceable through a supply chain was critical.

Checklist Method

After reviewing a current market landscape analysis and report of the heavy equipment industry a team was provided with questionnaires to nurture new product ideas using the Checklist Method. This approach was more cost-centric in the recommendations created than any other. The landscape report showed how steel costs, manufacturing costs, and distribution costs were all increasing the pressure on manufacturers to be profitable in challenging economic times. The resulting product concept was a stripped down, low-end tractor that could be sold in third world countries through a partners' brand but also sold in westernized nations with a more premium brand on it. The influence of brand to increase price was also defined through using the checklist method, as was the potential of simultaneously launching through multiple countries and economies at the same time.

Free Association

In nurturing and creating opportunities for free association, competitor's products were evaluated in a series of videos to illustrate the strengths, weaknesses and uses throughout different industries. The heavy equipment machines shown all had maneuverability problems and lacked the necessary agility to move through mountainous terrain. There were also balance and center-of-gravity challenges for the machines in getting to the job sites located in remote mountain and rural areas. The free association technique showed that having a chassis that would be agile enough to move quickly over mountainous terrain yet strong enough to carry building materials was critical in these specific markets.

Final Product Concept

The three product concepts include a lightweight, durable heavy equipment tractor that has GPS on it so it can be tracked through supply chains, and a second concept that relies purely on cost reduction to make the tractor or heavy equipment salable in 3rd world countries. A third product concept centered on creating heavy equipment that had an agile enough chassis to move over rough mountain terrain. Using the product development stages to formulate a final product concept begins with the Idea Generation phase, which has successfully been completed using the technique described in this paper. Unmet needs and potential extensions of heavy equipment products, specifically earth movers and tractors, led to innovative new product concepts that increase the value of this equipment over time. The next step, Idea Screening, concentrates on determining which of these product concepts' characteristics or features can be combined for optimal benefit to customers and maximum level of manufacturability for the company. Clearly making the heavy equipment less expensive to transport over long distance is a critical requirement across all scenarios found in idea generation. Second, the need for creating heavy equipment that can provide for traceability throughout a supply chain is also essential. This aspect of integrating in GPS traceability electronics answers unmet needs across several different customer scenarios found during the idea generation phase. This feature can deliver exceptional value to many different classes of customers and therefore needs to be included in the final product definition. The next phase, Concept Development and Testing, takes the defined product and tests it as a concept with potential customer segments. The idea of a shippable, lightweight tractor and earthmoving equipment device that is capable of also being tracked through a logistics network or supply chain appeals to many managers of engineering consulting and development firms. They see the ability to quickly deploy this heavy equipment machinery globally on relative short time horizons at a relatively low cost as well. The next phase, Business Analysis Beta Testing and Market testing, is where the actual initial production units of the heavy equipment machinery would be tested in the field by customers who had volunteered for the beta programs. The use of real-time feedback over the Internet with surveys would also be used during this phase. Using the Technical Implementation Phase, the specific product features are tested and seen as to how reliable they are relative to the engineering specifications of the heavy equipment machinery being launched. Throughout this process the specifications are also fine-tuned to see what specific features will be deliverable with the final product. The Commercialization process is the forma launch of the new heavy machinery. In evaluating all of these steps, the decision to create a heavy equipment land-mover and tractor that could be quickly deployed globally, traceable via GPS, and capable of being re-branded for sale in multiple regions of the world makes the most sense for both the end customers and the distribution channel partners as well.