IDEAS and PROFIT$

Robust manufacturing processes WIN. Period. Full stop.

Winning in this context means high profits, happy customers, happy operators, and happy shareholders.

If we agree that robust processes win, the question becomes “what’s the easiest and surest way to build trustworthy and robust manufacturing processes?”.

Some insight into this question can be gleaned from the following essay titled “ideas are only good if you act on them” (by Brian Knight):

Ideas are common.

Execution is rare.

Ideas live in the safe harbor of thought.

Execution lives in the rough seas of action.

Ideas claim value.

Execution proves value.

Let’s think about the above essay from The Process Perspective, keeping in mind the 3 steps needed to build robust processes:

Step #1…Create MANUFACTURABLE and scalable research concepts.

Step #2…Minimize time from first prototype to full-scale manufacturing.

Step #3…Engineer robust & trouble-free production processes.

ALL 3 steps MUST be completed, none are optional. Research IDEAS are an input into Step 1. PROFITS are an output of Step 3.

Research and production DEPEND MIGHTILY and inextricably on each other.

Ideally, the relationship between research and manufacturing can be a kind of dance, with a synergy and cooperation between them. The following dance steps are recommended:

Dance Step #1: Actual understanding of the situation of your partner.

Dance Step #2: Understand how money is made for the corporation.

Dance Step #3: R-E-S-P-E-C-T your partner.

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My main learning from this discussion is that bills can be paid with profits, but not with ideas. Execution, in the form of Process Stewardship, must be used to fearlessly guide ideas through the perilous passage to commercialization. Motivated process builders understand, and actually enjoy, this passage!

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CHALLENGE TO READERS

Please think about your key process engineering projects over the past 5 to 10 years…

• Consider your five most profitable current products. What were the key ideas that made commercialization successful? Study these ideas for applicability to current projects.

• Evaluate your top five current research ideas from the Process Perspective, focusing laser-like on manufacturability. What difficult-high impact show-stoppers MUST be resolved? What is the plan to understand and resolve these gating items?

I’m interested how you are doing with both ideas and profits, and what you have learned about the relationship between them. How can you exploit that understanding? If you hit reply to this email, we will get back to you promptly. Thanks!

All the Best,

Marty

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