CISP 3 Year achievement report

Summary

The scope of the initial MLA/CRF CISP focused on developing a lean manufacturing based innovation system which was adapted and renamed The CRF way. The CRF way has yielded significant success in operational efficiency during its trial, including an annual saving of $ 3 million in waste removal throughout the slaughter floor. Additionally, CRF have undertaken a portfolio of 14 collaborative innovation projects with MLA over the last three years. The entire portfolio of MLA / CRF collaborative projects had an aggregate budget of $ 2.3 million over the three year program.

This project (P.PSH.0349) was for the professional development of the innovation manager, specifically of tuition fees for attending a University of Queensland innovation management course. Innovation is a fundamental source of competitive advantage in business and is critical to organisations of all sizes and sectors. It changes our thinking and products, is a dynamic, complex and open process and involves many players and parts of an organisation. Managing innovation requires a sound understanding of the nature of the innovation process, which has changed radically over recent years. This innovation management course was tailored to equip individuals with the skills necessary to lead innovation for sustainable competitive advantage. Based on international best practice, the course presented an integrated framework to help managers lead innovation within their organisation. They were able to meet with leading innovation industrialists who reveal cutting edge practice in innovation strategy, development and implementation. Course outcomes of in regard to their professional development included:

Developing an understanding the critical strategic importance of innovation for all organisations

Develop an awareness of the strategic and operational managerial frameworks and tools necessary for innovation leadership

Develop their own innovation leadership capabilities and assess the unique situation in their workplace, as well as analyse current problems and identify possibilities for development in their own context

Measure and assess the real returns of innovation leadership

Engage with leading experts who will provide rapid exposure to new ideas, perspectives and ways of thinking about innovation leadership.

The P.PSH.0328 project was for the development and delivery of Hands-on introduction to Systematic Innovation Tools and Methods Workshop for the Innovation Manager Network on 16 and 17 December 2009. The takeaways and learning outcomes from the workshop included:

Practical tools, guidelines, examples, etc. to assist MLA innovation manager in formulating, executing and delivering more robust strategies

Delivery of working knowledge of a suite of practical tools that innovation managers can use in their daily work Agenda of the workshop:

Big picture overview - importance of innovation, results from a 3-million data point study of the DNA of successful innovation

Defining Better Research Challenges/Design Goals in which we explore better ways to understand unspoken customer needs and thus define Ideal Final Result solution opportunities.

Voice Of The Customer - where we will examine new ways of understanding unspoken market needs in order to anticipate future opportunities before customers and consumers are able to articulate them. Material from this section will be extracted from our new TrenDNA book.

Making Better Use Of Existing Resources - short exercise to explore new ways of thinking about maximising the utilisation of things already in and around the systems and processes we design.

Voice Of The System - Predicting Future Evolution Jumps a hands-on exploration of key step-change technology and business evolution trends and their impact on the generation of Intellectual Property and on overall business strategy

Solving Contradictions - introduction to inventive thinking that eliminates the trade-offs and compromises that traditionally impede the progress of both technology and business systems.

Prioritising Opportunities - SI is renowned for being able to generate large quantities of new IP and potential solutions. In this section we will examine tools and strategies to help rank and manage innovation options and directions.

Putting It All Together - Top 5 things to take away and do differently back in the office. innovation managers from a number of companies participated in this workshop.