Inovation Engineering Episode 13 pot

Innovation on the Web 327 applications to be used, access to data, the rights of access to which must be controled, etc. The greatest winner of this movement is the email system which has become a must in all business tools. Setting apart some attempts more or less media-based, Extranets which were known as “the hidden face of the Web” have remained in an embryonic state and are often forgotten as quickly as they appear. In this category must be included electronics marketplaces, which can be classed as e-commerce activities. A lot was expected from these market places and finally nothing (or little) happened. However, making an international tender available to the grocer at Landerneau, centralizing purchases of small and medium scale industries so as to offer them tools of large companies… these were dreams of marketplaces! However, nothing happened as in the brilliance of this new Eldorado, it was forgotten that good business is rarely transparent 15 . Companies have taken to the Internet for the advantages it brought: a “facility” that reduces certain costs. And nothing much else, this is not surprising: a company invests to increase its profitability it does not spend for the pleasure of doing so… Nevertheless, by providing their employees computers connected to the Internet, companies are participating in the diffusion of this phenomenon in France, and it is not impossible that some homes are equipped with personal computers connected to the Internet in order to have the same comfort at home. In the same way, a new phenomenon is developing: the attraction of senior citizens for the Internet and the PC, which could come from the fact that those people who have used it in their professional lives and who now have “all the time” to give to it 16 . If the forecasting companies are to be believed, this is a promising market if ever there is one! 18.6. E-commerce: a soufflé fallen flat? E-commerce continues on its own path noiselessly. After a slow and difficult start-up and arid early years that have brought about a sort of economic “Darwinism”, it has today received a second breath of life which is more reassuring. 15 A paradox at this time when all the actors were still being rocked with illusions by easy Internet, no one had really seen the peer-to-peer which is a type of marketplace non- monetary, to the great disappointment of some industrialists! 16 Regarding this, it is interesting to note to the surprise of the ISP, a large part of the ADSL clients are the first time accessors reassured by the package tariff of this mode of connection, certainly full of resources! 328 Innovation Engineering: The Power of Intangible Networks People were attracted by e-commerce just as the Internet users had been for a long time avid consumers: a PC at home and an Internet connection are luxuries that only the more well-to-do sections of the population can afford. And using these sections as commercial targets was not a very difficult step to take! 18.6.1. Between the hare and the tortoise E-commerce started off like the proverbial hare: initiatives regarding on line sales were no longer counted. Everybody wanted to sell anything and everything on the Internet. It must be said that e-commerce had all the qualities of the philosopher’s stone: simple and not expensive to set up (compared to the prodigious logistical requirements of “traditional” commerce), it facilitated the act of buying and selling by the immediacy of the link between buying and accessibility. E-commerce should allow the combination of two aspects considered contradictory until now of the important trends in commerce. On the one hand, the importance of attacking the markets of mass consumption with large economies of scale, and on the other the importance of diversifying to the maximum possible supply, of providing a personalized service to the client and in doing so establish his loyalty. The development of large trade took place in parallel with the diversification of behavior and the public and it is the Internet which allows one to solve what appears to be a major contradiction that direct marketing has taken into account but has not been able to really reduce. Another apparent contradiction amongst the traditional trends of commerce can also be resolved: on the one hand it is important to target the consumer and to reply quickly and precisely to his demand, on the other hand one should also be able to surprise him and broaden his fields of interest. These are the two aspects of traditional trade. On the Web, one of the risks has been to excessively target the consumer, which could hinder the commercial field and finally tire the consumer. However, the force of “traditional” commerce, which allows the generation of complementarities amongst supply offers in a commercial space has another role of presenting openings and surprises and finally profits to all the businessmen present – this is generally the principle of the commercial street, malls or departmental stores and this is the systematic behavior of the supermarkets. Electronic commerce should make it possible to satisfy the immediate demand of the consumer well and at the same time propose to him diverse offers. Innovation on the Web 329 Finally, no commercial development should mask the question of price. Outside particular cases and opposing markets, everything else being equal, the lowering of prices remains fundamental. By taking into consideration material goods, in trade in general as in electronic commerce, one important part of the price is linked to logistics and the transportation to sales outlets or to consumers. On a long term basis, e-commerce should allow a new reduction of prices and the question of logistics will often prove to be critical. The consumers are well aware of the force they represent and the notion is well entrenched in their minds that reduction of prices (which reduces costs) of goods sold is equally crucial for the businessmen not yet used to new forms of competition created by the Internet. There are a number of advantages of electronic commerce: capacity to ensure a greater supply and demand balance, and a personalization of commerce which is the specific contribution of e-commerce. However, e-commerce has not been able to avoid the rocks in its path and has fallen into what could be an error in terms of commerce: with such a strong adequation and personalization, the consumer never has to face offers that do not correspond to his profile and his own demands (which is in contrast to strongly validated strategies of the supermarkets which still represent the archetype of modern commerce). The technical quality, putting together of numerous offers and knowledge of the characteristics of a large audience should make it possible to manage the contradictory aspects of targeted purchase and impulsive buying. Evidently, imbibing all this culture of commerce and realizing finally that e- commerce is first and foremost commerce more than an activity on the Internet does not happen in a day and a large number of parameters have to be incorporated to reach the quintessence of e-commerce. Therefore, time as well as means were needed, as the setting up of e-commerce sites that are worth a name took more time and was more expensive than what business plans made hastily in the euphoria of the Internet bubble had proposed… we therefore came back to the fundamentals of analysis and management that would conform more to the realities of commerce. As this movement took place in a context which turned out to be finally unfavorable, the actors (not too many) who managed to get out of it came out stronger. A surprising paradox should also be noted: the big actors of traditional commerce are often absent from the list of major actors of e-commerce as opposed to new arrivals. After some dark years, the end of the tunnel is in sight for the stronger, more professional actors of e-commerce. 330 Innovation Engineering: The Power of Intangible Networks 18.6.2. Incorrect good ideas for reel disadvantages It would take too long to list the incorrect good ideas of e-commerce. Weird price evaluations, consumer opinions knowledgeably organized, ridiculous loyalty programs, unnatural cross-selling… the list as long as that of all those who died on this heroic battlefield of damp squibs! However, it is the e-commerce which has today generalized bad habits which have been well inculcated and very annoying. Of course one thinks of undesirable commercial canvassing… a soft French euphemism for spam which invades email inboxes! Despite some initiatives which are noteworthy, only a few real measures have been taken to fight against this phenomenon. No real list, none or few “charts” or labels (although the emergence of e-commerce has witnessed a burst of attempts!) and few really efficient tools. It is even more regrettable that easy availability puts the Internet at the disposition of people who are not always knowledgeable in this field. Questions related to payment have for a long time made up an important nucleus of the main problem of e-commerce. The list was long: who should make the invoices, to whom, on whose account, from and to which amount, at which cost. Naturally two actors came face to face: the access providers (certain of whom are still under some illusion) and the banks, without counting specialized operators especially in micro-payments (amounts less than €10) whose specific aspect requires the setting up of dedicated structures. One thinks especially of PayPal 17 or the more French W-HA. 18 Then, as it happens often and notwithstanding real barriers, it is finally an intermediary solution which is applied: the number of this good old credit card whose number is transmitted through frankly rudimentary security solutions 19 : a tunnel secured in SSL, and the game is played. Despite these justified anxieties of the actors of the card, the number of transactions do not stop growing and finally, even if the actors are on the lookout for fraud, solutions for adaptation are numerous and often efficient but the politico-economic problems dominate. 17 www.paypal.com. 18 A system based on the technology iPin, W-HA is a branch of France Télécom. 19 After some trials at very low levels of security, the SSL generalized today at 128 bits offers, it must be reiterated, a very high level protection. Innovation on the Web 331 18.7. Conclusion In 2004, we celebrated the 10 th anniversary of the Web. Who would have believed it? Today in fact the Web is fully integrated in the technological scenario. Tool and engine of innovation, it is difficult to see how we would go back and do without it. The era of maturity has now begun and one must be attentive to the ability of this technology to find its second life. Given the virgin territories that remain to be invested (television, home service, mobility, etc.), we can be confident of the future. One of the problems will be to “deinformatize” the Web, that is, to take it out of the sphere linked to purely software tools (micro-computers). The mobile phone, the wireless terminals, garage doors, cars, problems regarding directories … so many terrains to conquer which will rise (and which have already risen) from several problems. Therefore, further innovations will be required, aided by tools considered innovative today. The wheels turn, the world advances! This page intentionally left blank Chapter 19 Virtual Decision Support System for Innovation 19.1. Introduction Innovation aims at acquiring a competitive advantage by carrying out important strategic activities, at a cheaper rate, or better than its competitors. In order to complete the logics of margin, the logics of differentiations must be examined. Concept or design becomes strategic in the innovation process as decisions taken in this phase represent 50 to 80% of the expenses [GIA 1993], [TIC 1995], [National Research Council, 1999]. However, few tools are available in the early stages of conception to help choose a product design or another one. Even fewer tools are available if the actors of design are distant. Our problem lies in this paradox of designing: to decide the pertinence/relevance of the proposed product designs as soon as possible, while at the same time, having very few elements to be able to do so. In fact, at the stage of design creation, the product designs are not a physical reality (model, prototype). Moreover, it is necessary to integrate participants who are more and more distant geographically, who are from different cultures and disciplines, and finally even integrating the client. We face the need to take decisions based on multiple criteria by participants from many different disciplines (general management, finance, commercial, marketing, technical, etc.). Innovation project management is the objective of this chapter. How does the project manager synthesize all the evaluations of distant actors of design? Together, they have to regularly estimate different concepts of product proposed in the creation phase. Chapter written by Emmanuel CHÉNÉ. 334 Innovation Engineering: The Power of Intangible Networks After having approached the management for design innovation, we characterize intermediate virtual representations in the industrial context transmissible through the Internet. We then propose a help tool for the decision through joint analysis and we experiment on SME for the creation of packaging. Finally, we formulate certain analysis and perspectives before drawing a conclusion. 19.2. From the management of innovation to the management of design New reference points are made when the innovation inevitably plays a major role in the triptych: cost, quality, time. Innovation becomes the pivotal point of the creation of value [FOR 99]. Innovation is multifaceted according to the approach of Schumpeter 1 . However, the central process of innovation is not science, but design creation [PER 01a]. “The aim of design creation and elaboration of products and systems, is to satisfy user needs while guaranteeing adhering to respect for the environment, legislation and profitability needs of the company” [BOC 98]. As its etymology indicates, design concept has to do with the manipulation of design concepts, that is, the manipulation of a general and abstract representation of an object or a collection of objects. We see the importance of the environment in the process of designing here. In order to apprehend it better, we follow three models of designing, chronologically. Complementing the Interconnected chain Model [KLI 86], the Swirl model [CAL 95] integrates iteration loops, recaptured by the Recursive model [GEN 98] which confirms the necessity of a close collaboration between the system of creation and the environment. What Kline and Rosenberg called “research”, Genelot widens to the notion of “environment”. These approaches correspond to the evolution of the complexity of products, which require more and more external intervention (experts, laboratories, suppliers, clients, etc.). We propose a global process which couples the approach of Suh, of a creation of design between functional space and physical space [SUH 98], with systematic analysis [Le MOI 99]. This approach distinguishes the operating system, the information system and the decision system (see Figure 9.1). 1 Schumpeter (1912, 1939) distinguishes five cases of innovation: manufacturing of a new product, new production method, new organization, opening of new outlets, new source for raw materials.2 Also indicated in the bibliography by the term Simultaneous Engineering, Integrated Development, to describe the term Concurrent Engineering. Virtual Decision Support System for Innovation 335 Figure 19.1. OID Model of Le Moigne in functional space/physical space according to Suh The operating system evolves, on the one hand, towards a delocalization of participants of the design outside the company and on the other hand towards a modification process of designing. The different actors in the design chain can no longer hold internally between them all the resources and knowledge necessary for the realization of a product. Teams that work from a distance [SAU 00] or distributed teams [ROW 02] reflect the notion of extended company which brings together teams in distant locations to collaborate. The use of information technology and communication makes this exchange fluid and allows the integration of the client in the decision process. Concomitantly, teams work not in a sequential manner (or PPP: phased project planning), but in a concurrent manner. Where sequential organization allowed fragmented problems to be resolved in a rational way [NON 90], concurrent engineering 2 tends to bring them together (integrated engineering) and at the same time (simultaneous engineering) [MID 93, MID 95; CHE 97; PAW 97; AFNOR 50 415]. It is characterized by a “systematic approach which integrates the simultaneous development of products and associated processes, including manufacture and logistic support. This approach takes into consideration, from the very start, the lifecycle of the product from its creation up to its exploitation, including quality, costs, planning and user needs” [WIN 88]. From this approach we retain the notion of user needs which should be integrated in the operating system in extended concurrent engineering. The information system must allow these exchanges to be fluid. The intermediate representations correspond to “interaction tools between the set of actors in the life of a product, in order to allow a more efficient mutual exchange and comprehension” [TIC 97]. Models and physical prototypes remain necessary, but their number is reduced greatly through virtual intermediate representations (VIR). “The notion of design also being an intermediary object in the representation of that which will be the final product solution” [YAN 01]. Thus, the buyers of the A380 airplane from Airbus based their decisions on synthetic images. The technology of virtual reality Decision System GLOBAL PROCESS Functional Space Physical Space Product Idea Information system Operating System 336 Innovation Engineering: The Power of Intangible Networks (VR), coupled with CAD (computer assisted design) define VRAD (virtual reality aided design) [FUC 01]. The authors specify that “The techniques of virtual reality are based on interaction in real time with a virtual world, with the help of behavioral interfaces which allow the user to be immersed in this environment”. The decision system is evolving more and more in virtual space, between functional space (the idea) and physical space (the product). In designing, this is based on intermediary representations which are comprehensible and accessible to all the actors. These actors are taken up by the CSCW (computer supported collaborative work) according to two cross approaches: – the temporal aspect of exchange (synchronous or asynchronous); – the space aspect for the actors (co-localized or remote). We know the co-localized space aspect, where project teams are grouped on the same project plateau 3 or in a “reality center”. It is often coupled with the synchronous temporal approach. In order to obtain interactivity and immersion in virtual reality, images calculated in real time 4 are projected on wide-angle screens. The Herley J. Earl 5 room has thus made it possible for Renault to economize about 13% in six months on machining costs of models in other words, a gain of €22,000. On the other hand, the remote spatial approach is little used to help the decision in the conception. However, it is noted in actual reality of distributed concurrent engineering, with remote/distant actors, spread over different continents. It also integrates the final client. The remote spatial approach is the main subject of the present chapter. So as to avoid arbitrary choices which may initially preempt a promising product design, we propose virtual reality and joint analysis to be used together in designing, by using Internet as the communication media. In terms of organization, we clarify the scope of work to remote and nomadic teams in an organization of extended concurrent engineering. In terms of information, intermediary virtual representations are proposed of designs conceived very early in the designing process thanks to a model for the diffusion of these via the Internet. With respect to the decision, joint analysis is integrated so as to offer a multidisciplinary decision system, based on multiple criteria. We then experiment in SME. 3 At the Renault Technocentre, 7,500 persons are grouped according to the projects. 4 Between 15 and 20 images per second to obtain good fluidity. 5 Of an investment amount of €1 million. [...]... the bibliography under “Kansei science” or “Kansei engineering [LEE 00] We propose to carry out the integration of VIR and JA in a software 19.4.1 Software tools for joint analysis We have as our objective the proposition of a first level of software We base our study on the evaluation of product designs in an organization of extensive concurrent engineering that is by considering the entire set of... System for Innovation 343 19.5.1 Choice of designs and specifications The design team has carried out a selection of designs for interesting food bowls, combining four structures for pots, with five structures of lids – The pots include motifs: waves/leaves/drops/thread – The lids are of the type: flat/mid-height /high/with tabs/without tabs The design team thus chose 18 sets of almost finalized design-products,... as to inform the designer about the evolution of products 350 Innovation Engineering: The Power of Intangible Networks 19.8 Conclusion We have characterized the importance of innovation and new organizations in the field of designing which result from it We have in a sense, brought out the importance of distributed concurrent engineering, and underlined the lack of tools to help in the decision making... proportions of two recent innovations in potable products Finally, we shall bring the managerial contributions to bear upon the knowledge of theory and practice of form, based upon the chosen angles and remarkable proportions in the creative and analytical process linked to innovation Chapter written by Jean-Pierre MATHIEU, Michel LE RAY and Ilya KIRIA 354 Innovation Engineering: The Power of Intangible... understanding of client needs to all the actors participating in the designing process 8 Introduced in 1957 [OSG 57], its use in the characterization of products is dated about 20 years 342 Innovation Engineering: The Power of Intangible Networks The software tool for joint analysis makes it possible to treat data in a structured manner from different interlocutors involved in the designing process... readable and et comprehensible through many applications In 2D: JPG, GIF, TIF, BMP, etc In 3D: DXF, IGES, STEP, etc - Specification: to one application In 2D: PSD (Photoshop) Limitations 340 Innovation Engineering: The Power of Intangible Networks - flow: relative quantity of information transmitted in a unit of time ﾓ Extent: the limitations are from international, national/state or local community... paper Pad printing Product vision Insufficient Average Good Consumption Nomadic Urban Natural Price €100/1,000 €150/1,000 €200/1,000 Table 19.2 List of specifications and possible values 344 Innovation Engineering: The Power of Intangible Networks The project leader intervenes in the product design and the specification into the software Specifications Brand Opening/ Manufacture Labeling Product Consum... Dry offset Product 10 Brand J Very difficult Fast (3 c/s) Pad printing Product 11 Brand J Very difficult Fast (3 c/s) Dry offset Product 12 Brand J Very difficult Very fast (5 c/s) Printed paper Product 13 Brand K Difficult Slow (1c/s) Printed paper Product 14 Brand K Difficult Fast (3 c/s) Pad printing Product 15 Brand K Difficult Very fast (5 c/s) Dry offset Product 16 Brand K Easy Slow (1c/s) Pad printing... variables (specifications), to know which ones have the most influence on a Y variable (the expressed choice), determining the specifications which most influence its general appreciation 346 Innovation Engineering: The Power of Intangible Networks Figure 19.6 Analysis of uses for each specification The calculation was carried out with the help of a regression algorithm The results are presented in Figure... colors should be validated through real samples/scales, to be able to at least master the colorimetric chain This requires, on a minimum weekly standardization of the peripheral factors 348 Innovation Engineering: The Power of Intangible Networks 19.6.2 Limitations in terms of management of decision-making aids To make a choice, the decision maker uses many different areas of evaluation If the choice . resolved in a rational way [NON 90], concurrent engineering 2 tends to bring them together (integrated engineering) and at the same time (simultaneous engineering) [MID 93, MID 95; CHE 97; PAW 97;. Also indicated in the bibliography by the term Simultaneous Engineering, Integrated Development, to describe the term Concurrent Engineering. Virtual Decision Support System for Innovation. selection of designs for interesting food bowls, combining four structures for pots, with five structures of lids. – The pots include motifs: waves/leaves/drops/thread. – The lids are of the type: