PROJECT REPORT ON TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION AT FORD MOTOR COMPANY

Submitted by : Sumeet Kumar 501104021 Saurabh Arora 400807034 Gunjan Sharma 400987001

INNOVATION:
Innovation is the development of new customers value through solutions that meet new needs, inarticulate needs, or old customer and market needs in value adding new ways. This is accomplished through more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are readily available to markets, governments, and society. Innovation differs from invention in that innovation refers to the use of a better and, as a result, novel idea or method, whereas invention refers more directly to the creation of the idea or method itself. Innovation differs from improvement in that innovation refers to the notion of doing something different rather than doing the same thing better.

TYPES OF INNOVATION:
Product innovations: are embodied in the outputs of an organization its goods or services. The product innovation can be classified into two categories of innovation: development of new products, and improvement of existing products. This includes improvements in functional characteristics, technical abilities, or ease of use. Product innovation takes place when a product's sales are in decline. This is an obvious and commonly used method to extend the life of a product. Process innovations: These are innovations in the way an organization conducts its business, such as in techniques of producing or marketing goods or services. A process innovation is the implementation of a new or significantly improved production or delivery method. This considers significant changes in techniques, equipment and/or software. Product innovations can enable process innovations and vice versa. New processes may enable the production of new products. New products may enable the development of new processes.

Radical vs. Incremental Innovation: The radicalness of an innovation is the degree to which it is new and different from previously existing products and processes. Incremental innovations may involve only a minor change from (or adjustment to) existing practices.

The radicalness of an innovation is relative; it may change over time or with respect to different observers. Competence-Enhancing vs. Competence-Destroying Innovation: Competence-enhancing innovations build on the firms existing knowledge base. Competencedestroying innovations render a firms existing competencies obsolete. Whether an innovation is competence enhancing or competence destroying depends on the perspective of a particular firm. Architectural vs. Component Innovation: A component innovation (or modular innovation) entails changes to one or more components of a product system without significantly affecting the overall design. An architectural innovation entails changing the overall design of the system or the way components interact. Most architectural innovations require changes in the underlying components also.

Stages in Decision to Adopt Technology

1. PROBLEM RECOGNITION

2. TECHNOLOGY Characteristics of SELECTION Decision-Makers 1. Socioeconomic 2. Personality 3. Communication

3. SOLUTION DEVELOPMENT

4. IMPLEMENTATION

Knowledge

Attitude Formation
Relative Advantage Compatibility Complexity Trialability Observability

Decision
Adoption or Rejection

Implementation

Confirmation

Assess constraints and available technologies Evaluate costs & benefits and windows opened by each technology Acquire Assimilate Use Adapt Change Create

SUMMARY OF VIDEO:
FORD INNOVATION LABORATORIES

Now, we will discuss summary of video that we have chosen. This video is based on component innovation and process innovation. According to component innovation, that is discussed previously, entails changes to one or more components of a product system without significantly affecting the overall design. So in case of component innovation one or more components are modified rather than affecting the whole design (which is architectural design). This video is segregated into different parts. In correspondence to first part of video, component innovation has been shown where 1. Cushions of car seats of Ford motors are made from soya oil with petroleum base. The chemical reactions between these ingredients lead to form sponge in a rapid manner as well as at relatively low cost which is presently being used in every vehicle of ford has soya made foam in it & 75% of north American vehicles have headrests made out of it. 2. Instead of burning wheat straw as a waste, grinding it and mixing it with plastic can be used in FORD FLEX which is plastic with 20% wheat straw in it which makes it lighter with lower CO2 emissions & lesser harm to the environment. 3. Also another component innovation is making variety of car parts from retired, ground up currency in the form of dollar bills. 4. Making sound absorbing material from coconut hair which otherwise goes as waste. In the second part of the video, a perfect illustration of the process innovation is shown in the form of VORTEX- virtual test track experiment in which a person sits in a 6 hydraulic actuator simulator which tests the responses of people by putting them in dangerous driving situations, which is simultaneous to testing the newly developed technology at ford instead of testing it in the real world. This test experiment also helps ford to develop technology for situations when the drivers attention is diverted from the road. They have developed a ford collision simulator. In the third part of the video a group of teenagers have developed the aircraft simulator which spins along its roll axis & pitch axis with the help of axles within a pitch frame. The most innovative thing is that the pilot can roll 360 degree in the cockpit simulator called barrel roll. This can also be categorised under process innovation.