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By Mark J. Kiemele, Ph.D., and Michael S. Slocum
Innovation, the act of introducing or discovering something new or creative, has been perceived historically to be the product of eureka moments. It has proven to be a scarce resource for organizations which so desperately have a need and desire for it but can’t seem to capture it. With corporations beholden to the innovative process for new idea generation and problem solving, it is no longer acceptable to bet the future of a company on unpredictable epiphanies or on time-consuming and expensive sequences of trial and error in order to produce a product or process perceived as meaningful and valuable to the consumer and society.
The systematic application of structure and rigor to manufacturing has evolved to the point where world-class manufacturing and automation processes are available to benefit organizations. The Toyota Production System (Lean) has produced a system of methods that reduce waste, maximize flow, and level production to match demand. This ability to maximize throughput while minimizing waste has created revolutionary levels of effectiveness and efficiency. The same type of revolution in the quality and performance improvement arena led to the Six Sigma philosophy and methodologies (DMAIC and IDOV) which has produced new levels of customer satisfaction, reduced costs to all-time lows, and systematized the reduction of variation to enhance both products and services.
Air Academy Associates believes it is time for a similar revolution in the field of innovation. We maintain that the systematic practice of innovation is not only possible, it is necessary for the continued viability of any organization. While we know that innovation must take place in the crevices between disciplines, i.e., it must be interdisciplinary, we also know that it can be reduced to the application of algorithms and scientific principles that can be taught to anyone in any organization, be they left-brained or right-brained. The Air Academy Associates Systematic Innovation Practice has as its core the TRIZ methodology and related analytical methods, including statistical thinking, which enable the application of innovation strategy to produce results predictably, reliably, and repeatably. This systematized innovation capability, coupled with the advances in production and quality, enable an organization to be successful indefinitely. Innovation no longer has to be a scarce resource for organizations but rather a renewable one that can be systematically leveraged for problem solving and ideation. It becomes the cornerstone of an organization’s sustained economic viability.
Consistent with Air Academy’s history of simplifying complex subjects, we pledge to our customers to reduce the art and science of innovation to a fundamental set of principles that are simple to teach, simple to learn, and simple to apply. Only through the systematic application of simple innovation principles can the required knowledge be imparted to the many practitioners who will be needed to empower a creative process within an organization. Creating a critical mass of innovation specialists is the first step in driving a culture to a competitive state of preservation and evolution.
Click here for information on the Air Academy Associates Competitive Excellence (A3CE) Model.
Contact an Air Academy Associates Business Development representative to discuss how our program can be customized to meet your needs.
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