Innovation in Products and Processes
Sponsored by Autodesk
With strong competition and ever-changing technology, how do you keep up?
Innovation is essential for sustaining future business and staying ahead of the competition. Complete the self-assessment module on Innovation in Products and Processes to find out whether your business is maintaining it’s competitive advantage.
This section seeks to understand how companies design new products and manage the associated manufacturing processes; how you validate product and manufacturing technologies, and how you release your new products to manufacture. Companies successful at innovation tend to use an agreed process based upon a number of defined stages that structure activities, ensuring critical items have been completed prior to advancing to the next stage. Ultimately world-class supply chains are the result of detailed process designs supported by everyone contributing to continual improvement initiatives.
Congratulations to the 2011 winner Carl Zeiss NTS
The importance the company places on innovation is demonstrated by the fact that the company devotes 10% of turnover and over 25% of its staff to this function. Innovation is further driven by successful collaboration projects with industry and Universities – a critical part of ensuring its products are innovative and world class.
Carl Zeiss NTS is a global manufacturer of scanning electron microscopes based in Cambridge, and in order to compete with competition from Japan and the US, the company has focused on introducing innovative techniques and operating procedures to improve efficiency and productivity.
The importance the company places on innovation is demonstrated by the fact that the company devotes 10% of turnover and over 25% of its staff to this function. Innovation is further driven by successful collaboration projects with industry and Universities – a critical part of ensuring its products are innovative and world class.
Carl Zeiss NTS is a global manufacturer of scanning electron microscopes based in Cambridge, and in order to compete with competition from Japan and the
US, the company has focused on introducing innovative techniques and operating procedures to improve efficiency and productivity.
Judges were also impressed by the company’s system where apprentices are rotated into different departments in order to show, and inspire, them about the different types of research and development projects the company is involved in.
Allister McBride, Director of Sales and Marketing, Carl Zeiss NTS said:
“The introduction of new techniques and innovations coupled with a solid ‘go to market’ strategy has resulted in significant market growth in both Asia and globally.”
