Situation: CTG looked to develop an ongoing stream of new products, services, and customers and markets with a high probability of success. To make this happen, they needed to make innovation, new product development and R&D an essential part of their corporate culture. Plus, they wanted to identify and implement business processes that would increase the speed of innovation, while decreasing risk.
Project: Partnering with TechSolve, CTG implemented the Innovation Engineering Management System© (IEMS), a systemic approach to innovation developed by Eureka! Ranch. First, TechSolve introduced the CTG Leadership Team to the concept of Innovation Engineering. Then, a “Create” session was conducted to generate ideas for new products and services. CTG generated more than 80 ideas. Select ideas were then evaluated using the “Fail Fast Fail Cheap” process that vets these ideas so they can be killed quickly or moved to Development.
TechSolve then helped CTG embed the Innovation Engineering Process into the company’s culture. To build an Innovative Culture, TechSolve met weekly with CTG to provide support and process coaching. TechSolve also helped CTG develop a team of internal Innovation Engineering experts through Innovation Black Belt training.
CTG conducted a second Create session that included employees beyond the Leadership Team. During the session, the company’s receptionist, Mary, had the idea to look for a faster way to build their most popular machine, the LeanVeyor, which took 6 months to build. She was quickly recruited as the Project Leader, a challenge she eagerly accepted. Mary learned how to read mechanical drawings, talked with people throughout the company, and developed a spreadsheet of machine specs. Working with the engineering and shop supervisors, Mary successfully developed the idea, overcame all “death threats,” and streamlined the process. Production time went from six months to six weeks. CTG now builds the Lean-Veyor using Mary’s idea.
CTG has dedicated more resources to the Innovation Process and to New Product Development, and the investments are paying off.
Results:
- Reduced production time for their most popular machine, the LeanVeyor, by 75%.
- Added $11.8 million in products to the innovation pipeline.
- Increased sales by 10%.
- Affected a deep, cultural change with team members willingly taking on additional responsibilities with a sense of pride.