Introduction
In the world of rising demand, people look forward to the blessing of manufacturing industries to meet up their needs. Among the manufacturing industries, the car industry is mostly known as a profit-generating sector in the global market. The Industry is operating its business with conscious innovation programs. But the overall condition of this industry is not favorable. Aston Martin is a renowned company in this industry. The organization tries to innovating its products and services as customer demand and technological changes with time. It is dividing its goals into different parts, not to achieve only one goal, but to focus on different goals for achieving the possibilities of profit-maximizing initiatives.
As a technology-based organization, they designing and redesigning their car’s environmental and demand factors friendly. To gathering knowledge about technologies, the organization is conducting regular communications with professionals related to innovations. The organization is also getting knowledge about the global perspectives of car manufacturing industries and the level of different benchmarks. For this reason, it is one of the fast-moving organizations in the global market. It is the most successful in the market as providing the best services to the potential customers with innovation and technology. On the other hand, innovation, the teamwork of members, concept testing of members by idea generation are the major strengths of Aston martin. The main discussion of the study is the present situation of the manufacturing industry, and as an associated firm Aston Martin’s recent condition, process and program development and target attainment regarding innovation program are most important.
The manufacturing industry
The United Kingdom has a long tradition for the manufacturing business in the world. Here, the production base results in a huge value-added product. But government policies regarding this industry are important. The manufacturing strategies of the players are also significant. The key manufacturing strategies related to the UK market perspective are:
The current style of the manufacturing industry of the UK market is the most diversified one. Current researches and surveys indicated that the UK manufacturing sector recovered weekly, which the key events of 2006. The year 2005 was a hard one and to recover that situation the total industry had to innovative of many systems and technologies. The growth of export triggered the demand to be increased, which resulted in a positive tendency in the production and cause the developed confidence in many companies. By raising the prices of the equipment and power and energy, the sustainable condition of the overcoming was diluted. But after the year 2006, the manufacturing sector is now feeling the positive atmosphere to raise their profit. The demand has increased dramatically. The word dramatically is used here because the reflection is not matched with it. The total number of new orders is remaining unchanged. The number of foreign orders falls but the domestic order was increased. The foreign export increased the expectation and it is growing at the fastest rate.
But the matter of concern is the growth of the product outputs. It remains humble with a slower growth rate. There are many predicted assumptions about the rate, but nothing was reflected perfectly. The costs of the inputs were raised and as a result, the final price of the finished good was raised also. The output price remains the same domestically but the price was high in other markets. This condition indicated that the manufacturers are fighting badly with the costs to reach the customers.
Employment condition is a crucial player here. The fall of total employment was resulted in the job loss for a good number of people. But, the interesting fact is that, the rate of job loss remained under the long-term average. This instability in employment affected the manufacturing industry because the talents of different works are not now available for consult.
The manufacturing industry plays a major role in the UK economy. But this role is now downsized year by year. In 1990, the output as a gross value added of the manufacturing sector was 116 billion pounds. But according to the calculation of 2005, it raised up to 148 billion pounds. But, if the service sector is considered, the output of the service industry was increased at a rate of 155% from 1990 to 2005. In the case of manufacturing, this is 27% only. That is the output rate is not impressive at all.
The proportional contribution to the total economy by the manufacturing industry declined drastically also. Though the complete growth of output in the manufacturing sector was a fact, the proportional representation declined to 14% from 23%.
Here the decline of this proportional representation is drawn from 1990 to 2005. In recent years this condition is trying to overcome the situation but the situation remains more or less the same.
If measured the workforce jobs, there were bout 3.3 million employed in manufacturing according to 2006 estimation. They’re about 6.8 million employed in 1980. This decline is a result of an increase in costs and a decline in profit margins. Firms declined the jobs by using technologies and they became associated with the improvement practice of productivity. The other aspect is that the rise in input prices increased pressure on the firms to lay off their employees to provide a handsome profit margin.
This chart shows that, the declined character of the total people employed in manufacturing sector compared to other sectors. It can be identified that, there were almost 7 million people were employed in manufacturing sector, where about 6 million were the other. But in 2005, the total employment rose up to 30 million but the manufacturing employment was 15 million only.
The effect of manufacturing in the UK’s balance of trade is always under shadowed by the international effect. International trade dominated the trade of the goods. Manufactured goods as a value holds about 82% of the total exported goods whereas it holds 54% of the total trade of the UK export of goods and service. The public sector is a key customer of the manufacturing industry of UK. Public procurement can be done encourage the business. This can result in a good investment and innovation to heighten the competitiveness of the business. The key stone for the explicit economic growth is relies in these characteristics.
This chart conveys the clear message that, the export of manufactured goods was declined compared to other exports from 1990 to 2005. But this declining rate is a burning truth for the further years also.
The procurement is following now some strategies to benefit the total manufacturing sector. These are:
In the competitive market of manufacturing, UK manufacturing sector lost their competitive advantages comparing to its competitors like USA or Germany. The chart above shows the GDP per worker index for UK compared to the competitors. This reflects the view that, productivity of UK manufacturing was in a worsen position from 1990 to 2005 compared with its competitors. Here, the index for UK assumed as 100 constantly and based on this, the indexes for others are weighted. The gap of manufacturing productivity of UK with Germany, France and USA is wider than the entire economy consideration.
The chart above indicates that there is a significant positive change in the productivity, which can be presumed as a development. From 1990 to 2005, productivity of manufacturing raised about 58%, whereas the total productivity of the entire economy increased up to 35%. So, it can be said that, in recent years the past non demonstrative situation is now improving. Researches and surveys are supporting that, this improvement is a result of high innovation in technologies, systems and techniques.
Innovations in techniques, technology and the overall operation of the firms of the industry are happening frequently. People with innovative ideas enriched the total environment of the manufacturing industry and as a result, companies are now becoming innovation related. They are now appreciating brain stromers, and encouraging employees to give any kind of ideas whenever and whatever is possible. That is, the manufacturing sector is now become interdependent to continuous innovations. Firms generally arranged team or assigned teams to discuss to generate innovative ideas.
There are many manufacturing sectors of UK. For the purpose of his report, the car manufacturing sector has been selected.
Selected company
There are many car manufacturers in UK. Most of them are globally well known for quality cars. They are specialized in different sectors and fulfil the international demand for the decades. Some other international brands are also available in the UK market, but these domestic manufacturers of cars are outplaying them domestically not only in quality, but also in innovative ideas in technologies, design and after sales service.
Aston Martin is the car manufacturer selected for the purpose of the report. The later part of the report will discuss the innovation process of this company in different levels of operation.
Innovation strategy of Aston Martin
Innovative ideas are essential in almost every part of the business. Car manufacturing companies, like other companies, need innovation in almost all stages of their operations. Innovation stands for such an action by any other person inside or outside of the company, which brings some new advancements to the existing system. That is innovation means to discover a completely new strategy, technique or system in the production or service providing situation. This new innovation is helped to get the maximum output possible with the existing inputs. Because of the technological and computer based advancement, the necessity of the innovation is increasing continuously.
There are two most important things to be a successful innovation, which is common in a successful innovation. These are:
- Whether the produced product or delivered service is able to satisfy the basic to augmented needs of consumer
- The unique features and perimeters of the product or service, which gives it the competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Idea generation is the one of the key steps, actually the initial stage of innovation. These two factors and their right mix is a crucial aspect, because it indicates the major contents of the innovation process. This right mix requires a two way approach, involving both the consumer and the product features.
This approach of two ways is an additional aspect of the user driven innovation programme (UDIP). The operation of the production or service delivery gets some interesting offer from this user-driven innovation programme. These are:
- Develop a programme to the perspective of the consumer or user and take persuasive action to their insights related with a new product development.
- Get proper attention and enthusiasm for the programme as well as the organisation and decline the time-to-market.
- Attainment of short and long term helpful consequences for the entire programme environment. It can be attain through innovative skills and focus to the user.
Team work is an important aspect in terms of innovations. The teams generate new and innovative ideas through the team members. In a team people of different types are gathered together who has different types of skills, knowledge beliefs and attitudes. Exchange of innovation is possible by the sharing of every innovation of the different teams. In the process of idea generation, teams exchange the innovation to the other party or individual is important because it helps to diversify the total innovation. The teams are often encouraged to treat this process as a competition and act as a participant. Budget for investing in an innovative idea generation is achieved by the participant. They are also persuaded to design an idea in away which is different from the other team. After different rounds and different strategic competition, the results show the two winners. First winner is the most innovative idea and the other is the most impressive investment. The selected idea is the one which has the most potential regarding the market. The best investment is the enlightened investment strategy and the design of an innovative idea. There is a common fallacy about this process is that; only the company or team members can be the part of the innovation exchange. But, indirectly associated people or a third party can involve in the innovation exchange process.
The documentation process is the next step. The paper, where the innovation is being documented is named as the ‘Capture Card.’ Here the details of the innovation and the idea are presented in a manner that the coherence of other ideas are clearly identified and the evidence of the transparency of the idea selection is visible to all. The document expresses the innovation in a way that shows the scope of the innovation and the requirements fulfilled by the idea. The key aspects expressed by the documents are:
There are many types of stakeholders of an organisation, who are named as stakeholders. They perform in almost all levels of the value chain of the organisation operation and production system. It is important to broaden the commencing aspect of the innovation from the organisation to the stakeholders. It is a good exercise especially for the business to business organisation. The all existing stakeholders are assessed through a systematic way to find out who has what perception and different perspective in different manner. This value chain shows the idea that; these differences imply better results at the user-driven innovation programme.
The idea generation is then formed as the concept development, which demands a systematic advancement. Concept writing is the preliminary step where various types of questions can be asked. Some of these can be:
- What factors should be given the priority in the development of the concept?
- What are the ways to design a reliable concept?
- What features of the concept are most crucial for the success of the concept?
This concept writing can be done through a training programme based on demanding and specific situations.
Companies are now adopting innovation strategies, which gives continuous new product or service offerings with a satisfactory profit margin. This innovation strategy programme designed in a way that plan to design the organisation including the vision, purpose, mission, innovation topic of product development. The positioning of the company is also clearly identified and design of a roadmap encompasses the creation of innovative product development.
There may be a partnership between many organisations to innovate idea. This aspect offers unlimited access to the different company’s resources which can be triggered to the innovation process in such a manner to innovate a joint product or service.
When consumers try to select a specific and required product or service, they at first gather some similar type from which they can select the best one after evaluating all the possible substitutes. These different types of alternatives are termed as product portfolio for the consumer. Portfolio innovation is important because consumers always face problems to evaluate the alternatives. The portfolio innovation helps to clear out the newly introduced product along with its all relevant advantages, competitive advantages and brand value.
Aston Martin was established primarily in a small workshop of the West London in 1914. It is now the one of the most popular manufacturer of mainly Luxury sports cars. For the last nine Decades, Aston Martin gave continuous innovative presentation of well designed and customer oriented cars. Its use of innovation process is true for all the steps of operation. To explore the innovation process of Aston Martin at different stages and the importance of the innovation for the Aston Martin, employees of different level had interviewed. The Chief executive officer, Mr. Dr. Ulrich Bez and many other executives were interviewed through telephone and visiting physically. The official website and web publications consisting of valuable information about Aston Martin is also used. May information was gathered in this way. Here is the reflection of this information following some structured way.
Approach adopted
The innovation process used in Aston Martin is dedicated to combine the advanced technological components and modern design with wholesome and exact craftsmanship. The maximisation of technology and traditional values are the key components of innovation approaches. The ultimate power of innovation and to practice the continuous better quality, they are now focusing in user driven innovation programme. Surveys and researches are a frequent event of Aston Martin, which aimed to collect proper information and reflection of user of the car. All the innovation process adopted a reflection of end user demand approach and designed their operations based on this.
The effective external linkages
As because, Aston Martin adopted the user driven innovation programme, their external linkages are mostly user driven. All their innovative features are the reflection of user desire. For example, the delivery of the parts of the cars is packaged in a velvet case and the ultimate care is taken to maintain the standards of the quality. The assemblies of the packages are followed by a conscientious concern and attention to the ultimate customer satisfaction is being given. The exclusive innovation process is compiled the external linkage of Aston Martin in a disciplined and creative way, which gives a unique picture to the customers.
Aston Martin designed their innovation in such a manner that, the other external linkages such as, designers and engineers and other free lancers, are directed efficiently towards a common goal enabled them to work like a one spirit.
There are two partners of Aston Martin, who can be considered as a key external linkage. Aston Martin coordinates innovation and share with these partners accordingly. For example, Bang & Olufsen, the first partner, share the innovative exclusiveness in representing an essence which is a critical personalised characteristic. They share the innovations in the exhilarating and driving techniques consequently. The innovation sharing with the other company, named Jeager-LeCoulter, is mainly based on philosophies. In their respective category, both have practiced the tendency to overshoot their heritage and tradition. These external linkages established to innovate strategic way to achieve perfectly the common goals.
Evaluating the implementation mechanisms
To tell anything about the success of the innovation strategies adopted by Aston Martin, the evaluation of implementation can be considered. At first, the culture of the operation and related innovation process can be evaluated. A mostly accepted culture is to appreciate the conflict between the innovation and manufacturing structure. The culture of viewing technical equipments as a supplement not the main factor indicates positive attitude towards the inspirational environment for the innovation.
The innovation of featuring of the cars used techniques, which can also be evaluated. The innovative factors keep such expression that, they thought their cars as their true reflect of their prestige. They are powered by the style, beauty and vigour of the cars.
Determination how the innovation has improved the performance
Innovation in almost every sector of operation has improved the performance of Aston Martin visibly and significantly. Their innovation in different car is reflected by different designs and technologies used in exhilaration, driving, air-conditioning, entertainment facilities, speed and many other driving factors. They have received some environmental policies as per innovated by their researchers and done by their engineers. All the operational steps including production, blueprint, manufacture, servicing and refurbishment of cars are running through different successful innovative techniques. They are continuously designing and redesigning their exhaust system and other environmentally related part of the car, which remain much more environmental friendly and also cheap to collect and install. In the stage of manufacturing different parts, they are setting, monitoring and controlling environmental issues in their manufacturing, selling and using of cars. They use innovative techniques to reduce the consumption of electricity, water, gas and other energy and to emission of environmentally harmful matters. They run many innovation programmers to diminish the disposal of wastes, like reusing or recycling.
Recommendations outlining to improve the management of innovation
Though Aston Martin is now the one of the leaders of the industry, they still have to improve their innovation process. As because of the improvement in innovation process directs to the perfection of the operations, the Aston martin can take some additional steps.
They can make some team to generate innovative ideas. The group members will be form different category of specialisation and must have differences in their skills, knowledge and attitudes. By adopting this team, the innovation process will be smoothening and the frequency of getting innovative ideas will increase.
Aston Martin can establish an innovative idea generation area, where people will come and give their innovative ideas in almost everyday. Any type of ideas will be documented properly here and forwarded to the management team after selection based on some standards. No ideas should be ignored without measurement.
Aston Martin can offer their technology based innovation to the competitors in exchange of their other innovative ideas, which may be helpful for Aston Martin. This sharing of technologies may also generate some exclusive one.
Outline how innovation might be managed in the future within the industry
The world is now become much closer. The technological innovation and advancement drives to continuous changes. So, in future the car manufacturing industry can manage the innovation through the user-driven innovation programme along with perfection and profit oriented innovation techniques. The maximization of profit can be easily achieved if the operations become consumer driven and if the final product will be a perfect one. Aston Martin can manage their innovation in these ways:
Conclusion
Thus, it can be easily determined that as an economically important industry, manufacturing is one of the most potential to be successful recent days though recessionary economy has a tremendous impact upon manufacturers of UK. And Aston martin as an associated firm is also in top position in market and has potential customers. In the organisation, the innovation process with changing time and having proper knowledge available to all customers, competitors, partners and dealers of the organisation is most important to become successful. The successful application of team work, innovation process, and concept testing in idea generation from customers is other reason for accumulating success in market and competitive advantages. The innovation process is major important issue including idea generation, where the idea is generated between customers and partners of the organisation. The process of idea generation is one of the most successful techniques in the innovation process and major reason for being advanced in technical development. As it is said before that, in 21st century of technological advancement and innovation of latest communication way in shortening the world is the blessing of manufacturing organisations. Now to communicate with a speedy and gorgeous car is not only easy, but also cheap and trustable. For these reasons, the manufacturing industry and other associated organisations termed in the market with great success and advantages with proper management of technological innovation and application of them into proper area.
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