3 - 1 - Managing Research Function - (Revised) - v1.5

Managing Technology
 Managing Research and Development

M anaging E ngineering and Technology
M anagem ent Functions Managing Technology P ersonal Technology
P lanning R esearch Tim e M anagem ent
D esign Ethics
D ecision M ak ing
P roduction C areer
O rganizing
Q uality
Leading
Mark eting
C ontrolling
Project M anagem ent
Product and Technology Life Cycles
Product Life Cycle
Useful for the construction of a building or a ship or the design and development of
an aerospace system.
Consumer Identification "Wants or desires" for product (deficiencies/problems are made evident
of need through basic research
Planning Marketing analysis, feasibility study, product selection, specification and
function plans, evaluation plan, logistic support plan, planning review and proposal
Research Basic research, applied research, evolution from basic research to product
function design and development
Producer Design Design requirements, conceptual design, preliminary system design,
function detailed design, engineering model/prototype development to production
Production Production and construction requirement, industrial engineering, plant
and/or engineering, manufacturing, production and quality control.
construction
Product Evaluation requirements, categories of test and evaluation, formal test
evaluation and evaluation, data collection, analysis, reporting and correction,
retesting
Consumer Product use Product distribution, operational use, maintenance support, product
and logistic evaluation and modification, product phase-out, material disposal,
support reclamation and re-cycling
Technology Life Cycle
For a product line based on a technology that is developed and improved over a
period of years of product manufacture
Figure: Sales and profits over the product’s life from inception to decline
Nature of Research and Development
 Research
◦ Systematic, intensive study directed towards scientific
knowledge of the subject studied.
◦ Basic Research
 Devoted to achieving a fuller knowledge or understanding rather
than practical application of it.
◦ Applied Research
 Directed towards practical application of knowledge – especially for
industry culminating into products
 Development
◦ Systematic use of scientific knowledge directed towards the
production of useful materials, devices, methods, products etc.
List of countries by research and development spending (2010)
New Product Strategies as suggested by Ansoff and Stewart
 First to Market
◦ High expenditure before there is guarantee of success. Heavy
development expenditure and a large marketing effort – the
rewards are immense
 Follow the leader
◦ Strong development engineering but less on research – follows
the competitor’s research success – brings product into the
market as soon as the innovator
 Me too
◦ No research and development – simply copying the design from
others, buying and leasing necessary technology
 Application engineering
◦ Taking established product and produce in customer’s desired
design and need - needs high flexibility in production
Selecting R&D Projects
Need for Selection
Initial Screening
In ‘simple checklist ‘, project is given simple
judgemental rating (poor/ fair /good/excellent or -
2/ -1/ +1/ +2) for each of characteristics and in
‘weighted checklist’ or ‘scoring model’, each
characteristics is provided with weight showing
importance of that factor.
1. Technical factors: availability of needed skills and facilities;
probability of technical success
2. Research direction and balance: compatibility with research
goals and desired research balance
3. Timing : Is R&D and market development relative to the
competition?
4. Stability : Potential market and economic condition
5. Position factor : How are other products faring
6. Market growth: Will there be a viable demand?
7. Production: can the items be produced with current manpower
and set-up?
8. Marketability: Marketing organization, distribution methods
and customer makeup.
9. Patentability: Can the product be patented?
10. Financial factors: expected investment need and rate of return
Quantitative Approaches
 Payback Period For short term investment
◦ Ignores time value of money and profit beyond the point
of pay back
◦ Payback period ( Tpb ) = Investment ( I) / Annual Gross
profit ( A)
 Present Worth Method
n
 P= ∑ AJ
j=1 (1+i)J
where, P= Present worth of future cash flow
A=cash flow in jth year
i = minimum attractive rate of return
n= number of year of future cash flow
 Maximum expenditure justified
Emj = Fc  Ft  P
= Pcommercial success  Ptech. success  NPW
 Even if the net present worth is positive, there would
normally be no certainty that the projected future
earnings would be realized. For this reason, it is prudent
to calculate a maximum expenditure justified Emj based
on the estimated probabilities of success:
Maximum expenditure justified (Emj)

= Fc  Ft  P
= Pcommercial success  Ptech. success  NPW
Making R&D Organizations Successful
R&D Business Strategy
◦ Carefully planned technology strategy must be
considered to support the overall strategy of the
enterprise.
◦ Erickson et al. indentify “three broad classes of
technologies” a typical firm must consider:
 Base Technologies – a firm must master these
technologies to be effective in the chosen market
 Key Technologies – provide competitive advantage by
embedding differentiating features or functions
 Pacing Technologies – may become key technologies
later, these differentiate leader from follower
Evaluating R&D Effectiveness
◦ Organizational Effectiveness
◦ Individual Effectiveness
 Evaluated by the normal techniques of performance
appraisal, especially management by objectives (MBO),
emphasizing research goals.
 Quantitative measures – the number of patents and
publications, and citation by others of those publications,
etc.
Support for R&D. Quality supporting services need to be
supplied to make the work of the highly trained scientist and engineer
more efficient and productive.
 Technical support to carry repetitive testing and other functions –
low skilled level manpower
 Support of mechanics, glassblowers, carpenters to produce test and
research equipment
 A technical library with the field of research
 Technical publication support including typing, editing, graphical
support for report production
 A flexible system for procuring researcher’s equipment and
materials
 Computer facilities and programming assistance
 A strong internal commercialization process in place to take
research to product
Protection of Ideas
 Strategic planning for competition requires protecting

innovation
 Development of organizational goodwill also is for
competitive advantage
 There are four legal means to protect individual or
organizational ideas and rights
◦ Patents
◦ Copyrights
◦ Trade secrets
◦ Trade marks and other marks
 The law associated with these protection is called
intellectual property law
Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Nature of Creativity
 Creativity is the ability to produce new and useful ideas

 Playing with imagination and possibilities – leading to a
new and meaningful connections and outcomes
 Creativity comes out of imagination by interacting with
ideas, people and environment
 Creativity is largely independent of age, sex and
education
 Creativity may be out of proportion of number so more
people does not mean more creativity
The Creative Process
 Preparation
◦ Structure the problem, collect information, understand relations
and effect, solve sub-problems and explore all possible
combinations and solutions
 Frustration and Incubation
◦ Failure to solve analytically leads to frustration and wants to
leave it but subconsciously it incubates within
 Inspiration or illumination
◦ Possible solution to a problems occurs spontaneously – Isaac
Newton
 Verification
◦ Solutions reveled or found must be verified – intuitions and
insights may not always be correct
Brainstorming for Creativity
Brainstorming is “organized ideation”
It is a creative conference, ideally of 8 to 12
people
Requires about an hour for generating 50 or
more ideas
No discussion during the brainstorming
No criticism is allowed for any idea
Ideas are recorded as stated
Other techniques
Nominal Group Technique
Tear Down approach
“And also” method – suggesting improvements
Collective Notebook method
Attribute listing approach
Mind mapping – a very powerful and widely
used technique by Tony Burzan
Nominal Group Technique (NGT)
 Structured method for group brainstorming that
encourages contributions from everyone.
 NGT is used when
◦ Some group members are much more vocal than others.
◦ Some group members think better in silence.
◦ When there is concern about some members not participating.
◦ When the group does not easily generate quantities of ideas.
◦ When all or some group members are new to the team.
◦ When the issue is controversial or there is heated conflict.
"Tear-down" Approach
 Used by two people.
 The first person (person A) must disagree with the existing
solution to a problem and suggest another approach;
 Next, person B must disagree with both ideas and suggest a
third;
 Then person A must suggest yet another solution
 This "cycle continues until a useful idea clicks."
"And-also" Method
 Person A suggests an improvement on the subject under
study; person B agrees, but suggests a further improvement;
this sequential improvement "continues until a sound
solution is reached."
Collective Notebook method
Attribute listing approach
A person lists attributes of an idea or item,
Then concentrates on one attribute at a time to
make improvements in the original idea or item.
Forced relation approach

It tries to generate new ideas by creating a "forced
relationship" between two or more usually
unrelated ideas or items.
Mind Mapping
 Tony Burzan invented Mind Maps in 1970
 Uses brainstorming, sketching and diagramming
◦ Start mind-map by writing the main topic in the
center
◦ Think about main factors, ideas, concepts or
components directly related
◦ Concentrate on these headings and main ideas
◦ Repeat the process for all main ideas
◦ Organize, analyze – connect the related ideas and
concept
◦ Review, annotate, organize and revise
◦ Start writing to make it a final product of
mindmapping
Example – Planning a Kids Party
Characteristics of Creative People
 Self confidence and independence – emotionally stable
 Tend to reduce group pressure and conformity on
rules
 Curiosity – drive for knowledge on wide range of
subjects
 Approach to problems – open-minded, uncritical in the
early stage
 Personal attributes –
◦ more comfortable with “things” than “people”
◦ Not “joiners”
◦ Broad intellectual interest
◦ Enjoy intellectual games, practical jokes
◦ More attracted by complexity
Providing a Creative Environment
Creative people are most effective in an organization that

will
◦ tolerate idiosyncrasies,
◦ remove as much routine regulation and reporting as
feasible,
◦ provide support personnel and equipment as required, and
◦ recognize and reward successes.
Creativity and Innovation
 Invention (the creative process) only produces ideas.

 Ideas are not useful until they are reduced to practice
and use, which is the process of innovation.
 Kind of people needed for technological innovation
◦ Idea Generator – the creative individual

◦ Entrepreneur – the person who “carries the ball”
◦ Gatekeepers – research staff members who bring information
to table
◦ Program Managers – who manages without obstruction
◦ Sponsors or champions – who provides financial and moral
support usually in senior management
Technological Gatekeeper may be defined as
expert both internal and external communication star having much
higher incidence of exposure to the professional literatures, attend
more conferences and has more professional affiliation.
Gatekeepers
(1) are more likely to read the more sophisticated (refereed)
journals,
(2) are in contact with outside specialists, and
(3) form a network with other gatekeepers.
They often are high technical performers, usually produce more
than their share of conference papers and refereed articles, and are
likely to be promoted to first- and second-line supervision ahead of
their peers.

3 - 1 - Managing Research Function - (Revised) - v1.5

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

3 - 1 - Managing Research Function - (Revised) - v1.5

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

3 - 1 - Managing Research Function - (Revised) - v1.5

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Managing Technology

 Managing Research and Development

M anagem ent Functions Managing Technology P ersonal Technology

P lanning R esearch Tim e M anagem ent

Maximum expenditure justified (Emj)

 Strategic planning for competition requires protecting

 Creativity is the ability to produce new and useful ideas

Forced relation approach

Creative people are most effective in an organization that

 Invention (the creative process) only produces ideas.

◦ Idea Generator – the creative individual

You might also like