Identification of R&D Metrics to Measure Organizational Efficiency, Effectiveness and Value Contribution

Organizational metrics have been a focal point for several years, yet real metrics that provide tools to affect organizational outputs have eluded us. Historical measures such as percent new & improved product revenue and staff work hour expenditures provided “unconnected” numbers which provided little direction on how to improve organizational outputs that added value to business objectives. Through analysis of organizational understandings and relationships, both within and outside the company, we have re-evaluated our current metrics and identified where they lacked relevance or clear understanding. Historical metrics have been good indicators of the performance outputs but unfortunately provided no effective means to change the future. The result of this work connects performance metrics with predictive metrics to provide targets for “real time” resource management aligned with future business objectives.

Rapid Commercialization at Praxair:
Achieving Business Results Through a Well Executed Stage-Gate Process

Praxair, Inc., a global, Fortune 500 firm, is the largest industrial gases company in North and South America, and one of the largest worldwide, with operations in 40 countries and $7.7 billion in sales in 2005. Praxair’s R&D efforts focus on developing and commercializing new technologies for the production, application, and distribution of atmospheric, process, and specialty gases, and high-performance surface coatings.

In 1995, Praxair R&D began to use a stage-gate new product development process. We called this process our Rapid Commercialization Process (RCP). However, by 2001, RCP was almost extinct. Although useful in conception, RCP was not implemented well. It was generally perceived as being bureaucratic, time consuming, and not very helpful.

In 2004, we re-invigorated and re-launched RCP. Care was taken to improve the core process, deploy RCP much more broadly, develop new supporting tools and materials, and better train associates in the process. Since this re-launch, both process results (as measured by actual and forecasted revenue and operating profit) and internal process measures (new opportunities identified, new projects initiated, total number of projects, completed beta tests, and initial commercialization) have all significantly improved.

The 20 Keys to Robust Product Design

This presentation is designed to share Whirlpool Corporation’s innovative and comprehensive approach for continuous improvement of its global product development process. Whirlpool’s vision for product development is aligned and integrated with engineers’ day-to-day activities through a project self-assessment methodology called the 20 Keys to Robust Product Design. It is an inclusive approach to understanding expectations and providing the appropriate road map, tools and learning to make change successfully.

Areas of focus for the presentation include:

• Defining the vision

• Setting expectations

• Aligning activities to objectives and the vision

• Increasing predictability of the product development process

• Driving effective product development methodologies

• Leveraging knowledge across an organization

Calculating ROI for Open Innovation

Open innovation can only be fully successful if it’s based on solid business decisions resulting from solid business intelligence. How do you put in place the trust, transparency and common standards needed to track progress, make resource allocation and investment decisions and measure success when two or more parties are involved? Ms. Deviaene will share Cisco’s framework for measuring both shorter-term, operational performance as well as long-term profitability of its co-innovation portfolio.

Key Take-Aways:

• The most appropriate metrics for different kinds of co-innovation partnerships

• Measuring and tracking progress towards qualitative goals

• Different approaches to ROI for symmetrical vs. assymetrical partnerships

• Standards and systems to give executives real-time views into co-innovation progress

Portfolio Metrics Used
in a Tactical Environment

Many times we think of portfolio metrics only for strategic uses but in this presentation we are going to outline how portfolio metrics can be very insightful when used tactically. We will share how looking at an individual project may appear not to make good business but when viewed across the whole portfolio, the business need to launch the project can become apparent or truly tell you the business investment is not justified. The presentation will show how early roadmap decisions and business cases can rapidly change which can be illustrated with measuring portfolio metrics in real time. The key take-away will be a clear message of linking customer input throughout the development processes.

Simple Frameworks and Metrics For New Product and New Business Development –
Industrial Market Case Studies

Mr. Micek will discuss case studies applying best practices to new business and new product development at Cargill. These case studies will focus on approaches to industrial markets. When referring to “Frameworks” in this presentation, I will be examining the structure of the project and partnership where applicable. Mr. Micek will not discuss management of early stages of product development commonly referred to as “ideation” or “concept development”. Instead, he will emphasize the process for and examples of:

• Locating and selecting product or business development concepts

• Conducting feasibility testing and later stage new business/product development.

Through case examples, Mr. Micek will concentrate on defining understandable and straightforward frameworks for business and product development. An integral piece of any framework is clearly defined objectives and metrics – Mr. Micek will discuss both strategic and financial objectives and metrics for these case examples. Both internally developed opportunities and opportunities developed with outside partners will be discussed.