Next Generation Manufacturing - Customer Focused Innovation

June 26th, 2009 at 01:00pm Bob Trojan

As Doug Hall, owner of EurekaRanch and a leading innovation guru has said, “If you ain’t unique, you better be cheap!” A large percentage of companies studied in the recent Next Generation Manufacturing Survey indicated that innovation was highly important to their business; however, they aren’t necessarily investing heavily in this area or even creating strong measurements to direct change and create goals for new product introductions. Results of new products introduced and % sales gained from new products indicates that companies probably aren’t satisfied with the results they are achieving in this area. The data suggests that smaller Illinois companies tend to invest more as a % of sales, although they tend to get the same sales results. Rockford companies surveyed indicated they invested a bit less and had fewer new product introductions when compared to Illinois companies that responded to the study. Perhaps there are inherent business differences between Rockford companies that responded vs. those that responded in the rest of the state, but we shouldn’t become complacent. New product introductions are a way to grow businesses and a way to differentiate yourself from the competition. We should continue to invest and seek out ways to improve in this area.

Source: IMEC

For Further Information, Contact:

Mary Hallock
Manufacturing Specialist
815-721-4474 Office
815-753-8729 Fax
mhallock@imec.org

Entry Filed under: Productivity, Education & Training, Economy