Innovation Gains Steam in China

By BARB SCHMITZ | Published: FEB 27, 2012

Few would argue that China has become the world’s leader in manufacturing, due largely to its lower labor wages and enormous pool of workers. That’s only one side of the manufacturing dominance equation, however. Due in part to a corporate culture steeped in tradition and hierarchy, China has been sorely lacking in innovation. This, however, might be changing, according to a recent McKinsey & Company report, “A CEO’s guide to innovation in China.”

Evidence of increased innovation includes a doubling of the global percentage of patents granted to Chinese inventors since 2005 and the growing role of Chinese companies in emerging wind-and solar-power industries. China is now also the world’s second-largest venture capital (VC) market, rising to $7.6 billion from $2.2 billion in 2005, while the American VC market has remained largely stagnant, according to Rebecca A. Fannin, author of “Startup Asia.”

The Chinese have traditionally focused on innovation through commercialization, being more comfortable than many of their Western counterparts to put out a new product or service quickly, then improving its performance through subsequent iterations. In China, it’s common for products to come to market in a fraction of the time it requires manufacturers in more developed markets. Though the quality of these initial releases is variable, subsequent ones improve quickly.

Chinese companies have greatly benefitted from their government’s emphasis on indigenous innovation, which it views as critical, both to the domestic economy’s long-term health and to the global competitiveness of Chinese companies. China has created innovation hubs to spur development in key growth industries such as life sciences, biotech, and semiconductors. Similar strides are being made in the communications and pharmaceutical industries.

China tackles emerging energy markets

China has made big gains in the business-to-business (B2B) sectors, such as communications equipment and pharmaceuticals. Other emerging markets are alternative energy, both solar and wind power. China will become the world’s largest market forrenewable-energy technology, and it already has some of the sector’s biggest companies, providing critical components for the industry globally. Not only does the country enjoy scale advantages, but also uses new homegrown manufacturing techniques that improve the efficiency of solar panels.

Success in B2B innovation is due in part to government policies, such as establishing market access barriers; influencing the nature of cross-border collaborations by setting IP requirements for electric vehicles, high-speed trains, and other segments; and creating domestic-purchasing policies that favor Chinese-made goods and services. The Chinese government, after all, owns most of the companies in China.

Corporate culture still risk-adverse

One of the challenges that remain is the fact that the traditional Chinese corporate culture does not support risk taking, an essential part of innovation. Internal collaboration and brainstorming—essential to developing new ideas—are all but absent from their corporate culture. Also lacking are advanced techniques for understanding what customers really want.

Let’s tackle the first one. Failure is a required element in innovation, but one shunned in China where a culture of obedience and adherence to rules prevails at most companies. One exception is a leading solar company that now transfers risk from individual innovators to teams. Shared accountability and community support made increased risk taking and experimentation safer. The company has used these “innovation work groups” to develop everything from more efficient battery technology to new manufacturing processes.

Fostering collaboration

Chinese companies are also lagging in promoting a culture of collaboration and the internal generation of ideas, which can develop into new insights, innovative new products, and business opportunities. In most Chinese companies, traditional organizational and cultural barriers prevent such exchanges of ideas.

The emphasis continues to be on competence in delivering products in large volumes rapidly. The country’s rigorous, linear processes for bringing products to market ensure rapid commercialization but create too many hand-offs where insights are lost and trade-offs for efficiency are promoted.

Spanning the Digital Divide: Ways to Leverage Strengths of Digital Natives

By BARB SCHMITZ | Published: FEB 20, 2012

The engineering world is poised to experience a sea change of sorts in the upcoming decades as it faces a flood of engineering executive retirements as the boomer population moves on to greener pastures (golf courses).  Manufacturing organizations must facilitate knowledge transfer of these seasoned engineering veterans to the younger generation of engineers who will be tasked with leading design initiatives of the future.

Often referred to as Generation Y or “digital natives,” these younger workers, who were born after the advent of digital technology, are a different species in terms of lifestyle and work habits. A lifelong immersion in technology has affected their mindset, behavior, and expectations. As a result, employers will have to adapt their work environments in order to best leverage the unique experiences and strengths these workers bring to the table. They demand fast-track career positioning, greater work-life balance, positive feedback, training and cutting-edge technology.

Organizations who fail to meet these demands will face obstacles when trying to recruit this crop of young workers. These digital natives will require a lot of management, but they are worth the effort. They are high-maintenance, entitled, technologically sophisticated and fickle, but are also potentially the most high-performing generation in decades. What makes them different from previous generations is exactly what makes them ideally suited to the increasingly demanding, diverse, and dispersed global workplace.

The generational differences between this younger generation and older workers, or “digital immigrants,” will inevitably pose challenges. The different styles, values and habits of the different groups can create misunderstandings, misperceptions, conflict, and disharmony and communication breakdowns. Conflict often occurs because of digital natives’ reluctance to accept hierarchy in the workplace and to obey authority without questioning it.

Let’s lay down a few simple rules to follow to best take advantage of these younger engineers who will one day be calling the shots at organizations worldwide.

Ditch the manuals. Digital natives are not going to sit down and read tedious printed employment or training manuals. They want instant access online to information. Take a cue from Agilent Technologies, which distributes Apple iPod Nanos preloaded with information on benefits offered by the company to all new employees hired from U.S. college campuses.

Embrace new tools. Natives will bring blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, and other so-called Web 2.0 social networking tools into the workplace that will enable them to collaborate more freely in an enterprise environment. Revamp your training techniques and methods, implementing tools that are more interactive, such as virtual environments and collaborative tools.

Let them find their own way. Specify clear objectives and set limits explicitly so they know the rules and the expected result, but leave it up to them as to how they get there. This gives them space to unfold their creativity and develop a sense of ownership for a task.

Company loyalty no longer exists. These younger workers—who are projected to hold five to seven jobs before retirement—don’t expect lifetime employment from a single company. They are searching for fulfillment and job satisfaction and achieving success that might enable them greater opportunities in the future. Employers must design engaging work that allows workers to make a clear contribution for which they can be individually rewarded.

Be flexible. Find a balance between the traditional approach of 100% presence of workers during work hours to work-related issues with digital natives’ ways of multitasking, task-switching and working intermittently throughout the day, night and week. These skilled, bright, creative digital natives will perform better under circumstances that suit their preferred working style.

Meet them online. Since digital natives spend a lot of time using social networks, companies should begin their recruiting efforts by looking for potential employees there and promoting themselves via on social media outlets.

Practice transparency. Younger workers believe that transparency yields trust. Facilitate external social collaboration with customers, suppliers, and partners via social collaboration tools. Managers must also realize that digital natives are very peer-oriented and thrive in a participatory culture, which can help them harness the creativity, knowledge and capacities of digital natives.

Reward them daily. Show them short-term benefits while maintaining a vision of the big picture. Create a challenging environment that acknowledges everyone’s performance so there are immediate rewards (and penalties) for the output of an employee.

Law down the law on IP. Nearly all members of this younger generation of workers have created a blog, posted photos or profiles online, or uploaded photos or videos to a web site. For this reason, companies must create policies about how employees treat company information, what kinds of intellectual property (IP) need to be protected, and basic guidelines of behavior in regards to creation of online materials.

The Engineering Workforce: Gearing for the Digital Natives

By BARB SCHMITZ | Published: FEB 13, 2012

There are many changes brewing for engineering organizations. For one, with an impending wave of baby boomers retiring in the near future, engineering organizations are going to experience a serious “brain drain” at the top of the engineering department’s food chain.  Over the next 20 years, 10,000 baby boomers will retire every day, leaving a gapping hole at the top of engineering departments worldwide as engineering executives, directors and managers will leave their posts and start focusing on more pressing concerns, such as lowering their golf handicaps.

As these seasoned engineering veterans walk out the door, they take with them a tremendously valuable amount of knowledge, corporate know-how, and experience, which, quite frankly, is nearly impossible to replace.  As this reality takes hold, manufacturing organizations must look to future generations of engineers to one day fill these important posts and hopefully drive the future of their engineering efforts.

The reality, however, is that these younger generations of workers are vastly different from the previous generations. They work differently, think differently, and view the world differently than the previous generations of workers. Often referred to as “digital natives,” this generation was born after the advent of digital technology. They have never lived in a world without the Internet, cell phones, and mobile computing devices.

Let’s take a look at some of the characteristics of these “digital natives” to better understand how the workplace must evolve to best leverage their strengths while mitigating the chances of ensuing culture clashes between them and older engineers, often referred to as “digital immigrants.”

Highly influenced by technology. These natural multi-taskers seamlessly switch between their social and professional lives; thrive on instant, fluid communication; want constant access to the web; and are faster, more intuitive learners who are highly adaptable to change.

Change jobs frequently. Studies show that this generation will hold five to seven jobs before retirement. Digital natives often prefer to work as contractors rather than employees and view work stability as less important than stimulation and satisfaction.

Like to keep it casual. This generation dislikes bureaucracy, paperwork, and formalities. They have different views of corporate hierarchy and authority; don’t recognize the lines of proprietary between people of different ages, social statuses and positions of power. Prefer to work intermittently and remotely (coffee chops, cafes, home) versus in cubicles.

Believe transparency yields trust. Digital natives live their lives publically through social media and value knowledge sharing and expect the same of companies, both as an employee and customer.

The Google effect. Though they excel at researching, managing and assimilating vast quantities of data, the aforementioned cognitive bias (Google effect) leads them to work less on retaining information because they can just “Google” it.

Be social. Use social media (Facebook, Twitter, youTube) and various other digital technologies (smartphones, tablets, etc.) on a daily basis. They are also very peer-oriented and more socially conscious and responsive to intrinsic motivations as a result of involvement with social networks.

Just email it. This group prefers email as opposed to the phone as a means of communication, which facilitates multi-tasking and establishes a permanent record of communications. Perhaps as a result, this generation is less prepared to write in a professional manner.

Next week we’ll talk about how organizations can adapt the workplace to best leverage the unique skill sets of digital natives as well as how they can prevent culture clashes between this group and the older generation tasked with preparing them for leadership roles in the future.

UK Prime Minister Launches Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering

By BIMAL DHARSI | Published: NOVEMBER 17, 2011

The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering will be awarded every other year to an individual or team of up to three, of any nationality, responsible for advancing the application of engineering knowledge. The prize is worth $1.6 million (£1 million).

United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron said he hopes it will carry the same stature as the Nobel Prize. “For too long Britain’s economy has been over-reliant on consumer debt and financial services,” Cameron said.

“I hope this prize will go some way to inspire and excite young people about engineering, so that they dream of becoming engineers as they once did in the age of Stephenson and Brunel.”

The fund behind it will be managed by an independent trust chaired by John Browne, Royal Academy of Engineering president, and former group chief executive of British Petroleum.

Commenting on the prize, Browne said, engineering “underpins every aspect of our lives,” adding that it forms a “bridge between scientific discovery and commercial application.

“Too often the engineers behind the most brilliant innovations remain hidden. The Queen Elizabeth Prize aims to change that. It will celebrate, on an international scale, the very best engineering in the world.”

There is a recognized shortfall of qualified engineers in the UK. This scheme is welcome news and it’s hoped it will attract more graduates into the engineering profession.

Engineering and Glasswing Butterflies

August 23rd, 2011 | By Josh Mings

How could engineering and butterflies go together? So many beautiful ways really. You may remember the Glasswing butterfly challenge we put together with the PlanetPTC Community a few weeks ago. Here are the results.

Glasswing Butterfly. Image Source: Wikipedia

This was a fun, spur of the moment competition between the two communities. A simple challenge inspired by a great article on Glasswings and Engineering by Bettina Giemsa, who ended up organizing the challenge on the PlanetPTC side. We’ve meet some people along the way and definitely plan to have more challenges like this in the future.

Glasswing butterflies

You really must read more about this amazing creature whose binomial name is Greta Oto. The users on GrabCAD and PlanetPTC certainly had some great inspiration. A few things to note about the challenge.

• GrabCAD users stayed with the glasswing butterfly theme.
• PlanetPTC Community users experimented with an overall butterfly theme.
• The number of submissions and submitting individuals was about equal.
• PlanetPTC users used PTC products. GrabCAD users used their choice of CAD products.

Entries on both side were just incredible with many fine examples that matched the beauty you would see in a flower garden of Central America. With all the entries received, we have selected four – two from the GrabCAD users and two from the PlanetTC Users. Here are our favorites:

GrabCAD Users

A highly detailed image of a Glasswing butterfly modeled and rendered in KeyCreator by Dave Cancilier

This Glasswing butterfly model done in SolidWorks and rendered in Houdini was created by David Thomas

PlanetPTC Users

This beauty was created in Creo Parametric 1.0 and rendered in KeyShot by Tim McLellan

PlanetPTC Community member Anthony Mahynski created this butterfly in Creo Elements/Pro 5.0

To view all submissions for each community, just visit the PlanetPTC photoalbum and the GrabCAD Library.

 

Which one is YOUR favorite?

Do you have a favorite? We’d love to hear which ones you like or what other ideas you might have for a challenge between communities. Thanks again to the PlanetPTC community and to Bettina Giemsa and Dan Marotta for organizing things on their side! Until next time!

Unifying ECAD and MCAD: Blurring the Lines Between Disciplines

By barb schmitz | Published: May 25, 2011

 

Nearly all products today—ranging from cars to industrial equipment to medical devices—contain some type of electronic device. The integration of electronic components in products complicates the design process because it requires the unification of what has traditionally been viewed as two diverse disciplines: electrical and mechanical engineering.

Electronics are being developed and produced faster than ever in order to stay ahead of the rising tide of demanding consumers who continuously push for smaller, more intelligent products. As the design of electronic devices becomes more complex, finding harmony between the process of electronic and mechanical design becomes more critical. In order to design complex electronics faster and better than ever, manufacturers must unify their design processes so the flow of design data across the electro-mechanical divide is smooth and efficient.

The challenge for product development teams is to manage and work with these increasingly interdependent processes—mechanical and electronic—while adhering to product timelines. All this increases the need for effective design collaboration between the electronic and mechanical aspects of a design, where the demand for smaller and more functional packaging requires the two disciplines to be completely in synch at all stages of design.

Board assemblies often now hold all of the external hardware (connectors, keypads, displays) while the product case assembly neatly exposes these to the user. As a result, packaging has evolved from being a simple container to a tightly integrated part of the product.  As a result, a product’s packaging must account for the physical aspects of the internal electronics, while the electronics assembly—the circuit board design—must allow for the physical style and functionality of the package design.

Integrating mechanical and electronic design is, therefore, crucial. Design tools that allow for the bi-directional flow of design data between the ECAD and MCAD environments are becoming a requirement for successful collaborative product development. In the ECAD environment, this translates to the ability to import and seamlessly integrate 3D component data from the MCAD system, then pass a full and accurate 3D representation of the board assembly back to the MCAD system.

By being able to provide comprehensive board data to the mechanical designers earlier in the product development process, design flow is enhanced and the need for a prototype board assembly during mechanical design stage is reduced. Manufacturers must assure that their ECAD system supports 3D modeling at the component level and the ability to export accurate 3D design data in order to enable the necessary interaction between the mechanical and electrical environments to enable collaborative MCAD-ECAD co-design.

Mechatronics: Integrating the silos of design

Taking that integration one step further is mechatronics design. By definition, mechatronics is multidisciplinary engineering system design that integrates the various disciplines—mechanical, electrical, computer, control, and systems design engineering. Integrating the design of a product’s mechanical, electronic, and electrical components during the earliest stages of design and throughout the design cycle is becoming crucial to manufacturers under increasing pressures to design and produce innovative products on time and within budget limits.

To streamline development using the mechatronics approach, design teams in each discipline must work in parallel and collaborate continuously on design, prototyping and deployment. Manufacturers must adapt concurrent design and systems engineering processes that enable real-time sharing of design data between electrical, mechanical and control systems engineering.

Many manufacturers are now using simulation software to detect and eliminate integration issues, enabling them to optimize full system performance virtually.  These tools simulate the interaction between mechanical and electrical subsystems throughout the design process.

Happy 6-Month Birthday LearningExchange!

Publicado por Bettina Giemsa en 17/08/2011 07:55:36 AM

Can you believe it? It has already been 6 months since PTC University launched LearningExchange – an online learning application featuring FREE tutorials on (almost) all PTC products. If you haven’t checked it out yet, make sure you do!  I also outlined my thoughts on it in an earlier post and was happy to see that much commenting and interaction on it.

Read the full article

Creo Customers: Mmm. Donuts. Industrial donuts

By Geoff Hedges | Published: August 2, 2011

Like so many things in life, the better food processing machinery works, the less most of us think about it. But if you’re somebody who eats, the lines that prep and package your food determine your day-to-day quality of life. A well-engineered system directly impacts your pocketbook, your health, and even your “footprint.” Here’s what I mean:

• Affordable groceries. A system that can quickly process high volumes of produce keeps food costs down.
• Safe food. A system engineered to stay clean prevents food-borne illness.
• Less waste. A system that’s adaptable can respond to trends and innovation, for example, demands for greener packaging.

That brings us to Creo customer, Fritsch Gmbh, specialists in machinery for baked goods. Fritsch  engineers and manufactures systems for producing pretzels, croissants, pastries, pizza, and toast. The company even makes an industrial donut machine.

Fritsch says food machinery is a fast-moving industry with a lot of spikes in demand. The company uses Creo’s direct modeling tools from PTC in part because temporary design help can catch on quickly, without compromising quality or deadlines.


This episode of the Product Design Show features Fritsch and the engineering behind the machinery. Allison and Vince talk about legislation, hygiene concerns, and market forces shaping food processing lines. Plus, they describe how engineers unlock productivity by relying on libraries of parts and assemblies to respond to industry demands. Now if only they’d tell me where to get some of those industrial donuts….