Imoh Ilevbare works at Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge, as a Product Manager; he has provided a quick overview of the following open access papers from Technovation.
Effective use of 3D printing in the innovation process, by Marian Candi & Ahmad Beltagui; March 2019
Paper highlights:
- How to make effective use of a new digital technology
- Orchestration, i.e. IT and manufacturing coordination, strengthens the relationship between the use of 3DP and performance
- 3DP is more effective in environments facing uncertainty than under less turbulent conditions
- The study results indicate the implications for future innovation in manufacturing technology, especially with manufacturing becoming increasingly digitised.
Paper highlights:
- Increased understanding of the indicator landscape; to complement the various stages of the innovation process with relevant indicators
- Identified indicators can be categorised into company-specific and contextual dimensions
- More process indicators, rather than product indicators, exist in literature
- There are 82 unique indicators to evaluate innovations, including 26 indicators for the early stages
Paper highlights:
- A simplified stage-gate process to describe the life science investment, which constitutes a current and representative view of experts and stakeholders of the life-science investment sector
- The stage-gate model includes: (I) General vision and investment strategy definition; (II) Venture search, screening and rapid pre-evaluation; (III) Due diligence and negotiation of terms; (IV)
- Portfolio management, evaluation, and exit
Paper highlights:
- Factors in public procurement influencing suppliers’ ability to innovate, including tender specifications, skills, user-supplier interaction and management of risk
- Barriers are perceived differently by R&D-intensive vs non R&D-performing suppliers
- Small firms and not for profit organisations are disadvantaged in procurement
Paper highlights:
- Medium-sized firms are on average more heavily involved in open innovation than their smaller counterparts
- SMEs pursue open innovation primarily for market-related motives such as meeting customer demands or keeping up with competitors
- Their most important challenges relate to organisational and cultural issues
