Innovation
A Challenge to the Engineer
Published in October 1987
Book
Hardback
466 pages
978-0-444-42865-3 (ISBN)
Description
Today's climate of change is affecting both manufacturing and non-manufacturing organisations as rapidly advancing technologies and an increasingly complex and unpredictable environment create not only new opportunities, but also new dangers. Many firms now consider technology to be so important that they treat it as a strategic issue and some even consider technological innovation to be the key to securing long-term survival and growth. In order to master this situation, a high degree of innovative behaviour is required and this poses a real challenge to the engineer who has a central role to play in this development, as well as to marketing and financial personnel. Written primarily for engineers in manufacturing industries, this book will be equally useful for marketing personnel, and contains much of relevance to non-manufacturing industries (e.g. government agencies, research institutes, airlines, hospitals, banks). Its aim is to provide engineers with knowledge that will help them do a better job by creating awareness of their role in innovative activities and by providing concepts, models and tools to supplement their technological knowledge and experience.
Today's climate of change is affecting both manufacturing and non-manufacturing organisations as rapidly advancing technologies and an increasingly complex and unpredictable environment create not only new opportunities, but also new dangers. Many firms now consider technology to be so important that they treat it as a strategic issue and some even consider technological innovation to be the key to securing long-term survival and growth. In order to master this situation, a high degree of innovative behaviour is required and this poses a real challenge to the engineer who has a central role to play in this development, as well as to marketing and financial personnel. Written primarily for engineers in manufacturing industries, this book will be equally useful for marketing personnel, and contains much of relevance to non-manufacturing industries (e.g. government agencies, research institutes, airlines, hospitals, banks). Its aim is to provide engineers with knowledge that will help them do a better job by creating awareness of their role in innovative activities and by providing concepts, models and tools to supplement their technological knowledge and experience.
Today's climate of change is affecting both manufacturing and non-manufacturing organisations as rapidly advancing technologies and an increasingly complex and unpredictable environment create not only new opportunities, but also new dangers. Many firms now consider technology to be so important that they treat it as a strategic issue and some even consider technological innovation to be the key to securing long-term survival and growth. In order to master this situation, a high degree of innovative behaviour is required and this poses a real challenge to the engineer who has a central role to play in this development, as well as to marketing and financial personnel. Written primarily for engineers in manufacturing industries, this book will be equally useful for marketing personnel, and contains much of relevance to non-manufacturing industries (e.g. government agencies, research institutes, airlines, hospitals, banks). Its aim is to provide engineers with knowledge that will help them do a better job by creating awareness of their role in innovative activities and by providing concepts, models and tools to supplement their technological knowledge and experience.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Elsevier Science & Technology
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
Illustrations, forms
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 160 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-444-42865-3 (9780444428653)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Content
I. Innovation. What do we mean by innovation? Can innovation be studied as a historical process? What is the result of the innovation process? Are industrial firms innovative? What is characteristic of innovations? Conclusion and challenge. II. The Engineer. How does the engineer participate in innovation? What is characteristic of the technical engineer? Do we need the economic engineer? Is there a market-oriented engineer? How should the engineer engage himself in innovation? How is the situation for the innovative engineer? Conclusion and challenge. III. Planning. What do we mean by the innovation process? Is the engineer a good problem solver? How should the engineer deal with risk? How can innovation projects be planned? Conclusion and challenge. IV. Organization. How should organizational innovations be handled? Can innovation be undertaken in the traditional structure? Does an innovation-oriented structure give a better solution? What is the best way of organizing projects? Will an informal structure promote innovation? How should innovative activities be integrated? Conclusion and challenge. V. The Environment. How does the external environment influence innovation? What will the future be like? How will the internal environment of the firm influence innovation? Conclusion and challenge. VI. Strategy. What is meant by strategy? How should strategy be determined? What are the most common types of strategies? Is strategic planning a key to a golden future? Conclusion and challenge. VII. The User. How can new business opportunities be found? How should user needs be assessed? Can proper testing increase the probability of success? Should market orientation be stimulated? Conclusion and challenge. VIII. Creativity. What do we mean by creativity? Is there a need for creativity? The creative engineer - does he exist? Can groups be creative? Can company creativity be developed? Conclusion and challenge. IX. The Technology. Is a technology strategy needed? How should the problem be defined? Is internal R&D always the best approach? Have you forgotten the human being? What is good design? Conclusion and challenge. X. Production. Is a production strategy needed? How should the production processes be planned? Is automation the answer? How achieve high quality? Conclusion and challenge. References. Subject Index. Company Index.