Our Clients Experiences:
The client challenge
A manufacturer of compressors for household refrigeration appliances, with 3 production plants strategically located in Europe and China. Up until 2002, prior to the use of blackswan’s Systematic Innovation framework and methodology, the company had struggled to continually innovate and improve on its Refrigerant Compressor product line with only 15 patents generated in the previous 20 years. With increasing competitive pressures and the need to take out cost, improve engineering design and overall product performance, the client embarked on using blackswan’s Systematic Innovation capabilities to help them to achieve these objectives.
The blackswan solution
Leveraging blackswan’s proprietary innovation exploration framework PERFECT, we generated and explored ideas in a number of chosen innovation opportunity areas.
PERFECT treats an innovation need as a scientific challenge not an adventure, and accordingly includes an efficient set of methodologies that helped the client to extract constraints, resources, conflicts and opportunities efficiently and in turn generate tangible outcomes and real results.
Our framework is backed up by market and user research and by our unique capabilities in patent analytics and subversion. This ensured that only relevant and implementable conceptual solutions were generated. Top level consideration of technical and commercial feasibility is built into the PERFECT framework as it is built upon an empirical body of knowledge based on the analysis of a large database of over 3 million successful inventions and innovations that helped the client to arrive at practical and implementable solution, quickly and efficiently.
The client outcome
Using a structured and Systematic Innovation methodology, the client was able to benefit from a marked increase in the key measures of success for this product line. Most notably within a short period of time, patent generation had increased by over 400% compared to the preceding period.
Engineering design was much more efficient both in terms of use of component parts with a 300% improvement in the reduction of components reducing the overall weight significantly. For the company’s clients, the refrigeration unit manufacturers themselves, the reduced weight and part count helps significantly to reduce transportation costs and physical space requirements resulting in more available fridge space.
Finally and certainly from an environmental standpoint, most importantly, the improved Co-efficient of Performance is a significant advancement in performance in response to the need to reduce energy consumption and in turn, our carbon footprint. About 15% of all human energy consumption goes on cooling requirements, so a 10% rise in COP for the compressor equates to around a 1.5% reduction in global energy consumption if everyone were to buy one.
The client challenge
During recent military operations, an engine-manufacturing client had increasingly found themselves and their military assets working in ever harsher terrain and operating environments. This project focused on solving the problems associated with improving the life, performance and availability of such critical assets in the form of many military operations’ strategic workhorse, the all important multi-role helicopter.
Some of the problems of airborne contamination for helicopter engines relate specifically to issues such as:
- Compressor erosion
- Turbine blade glazing
- Turbine blade vibration & fatigue problems
- Blockage of blade cooling passages
The blackswan solution
This project was underpinned using PERFECT, our Systematic Innovation process to structure and understand how we solve complex contradictions. Based on the truism that defining a problem clearly and completely represents 90% of the difficulty in innovation, PERFECT dignifies problem selection with a consistent analytical approach.
The design process from a blank sheet of paper took approximately 6 weeks led by blackswan’s Darrell Mann and a team of five engineers. The full certification process of the engine took a further thirty months to complete.
The client outcome
Since entering service, the redesigned engine has been combat proven and displayed world-leading reliability and dependability in the harshest operating environments. With its unique particle separation, the outcome has resulted in an improvement by a factor of 50 in terms of engine life and reduction in maintenance scheduling. Today, it continues to represent the gold-standard benchmark for engine design.
The client challenge
Over the past 15 years, Systematic Innovation & TRIZ have been applied in many multi-national corporations. Highly innovative companies such as Samsung, Hitachi, Siemens and 3M have begun to report significant successes having applied blackswan’s Systematic Innovation methodologies to various parts of their business.
The objectives of the project:
- To introduce and promote the Systematic Innovation & TRIZ methodologies and techniques to local industry in Hong Kong
- To strengthen the innovation potential of Hong Kong’s SMEs through training and mentoring in the use of structured problem analysis and methods for generating breakthrough ideas
- To improve the local awareness of Intellectual Property and how to use it as a key lever for competitive advantage
- To disseminate best practice use of the customised methodology to industry throughout Hong Kong
- To enable companies to quickly learn the basics of the methodology and to efficiently implement it into their working practices
- To generate a number of real case study examples of successful application of the methodology within the eight companies
The blackswan solution
The pilot programme introduced Systematic Innovation & TRIZ to the eight pilot companies through intensive taught sessions and hands-on workshops over a period of nine months.
The sessions were run by blackswan’s CTO, Darrell Mann and HKPC consultants. Each company received three, three-day training sessions covering Introductory, Intermediate and Advanced level Systematic Innovation & TRIZ. The client outcome
Throughout the duration of the project the implementation team has seen a great deal of progress from all the companies involved in the ITF sponsored programme.
From the eight companies that participated in the programme:
- A considerable number of patentable ideas were generated
- Half-a-dozen of which and are currently in various stages of the patent application process
- A total cost savings of approximately HK$2.5 Million have been reported by the participating companies
- HK$15.5 Million of additional business has been generated as a direct result of the programme
