Innovation

Innovation is all about looking at the problem in a different way, and also about finding that problem in the first place.

Just because something "has always been done this way" is probably a good reason to see if it can't be improved. Take, for example, the simple garden spade. This was upgraded recently, to the sprung spade, with a built-in counter. This is a solution to the old problem of is your gardener complaining about a bad back, and is he doing enough work to justify his pay? The spring helps break the tension in the earth, so he doesn't need to work so hard, and the counter increments by one every time the spade is "dug". Hence you know the work is being done. This leads to an important point, about your market. If you dig the garden yourself, you don't need one of these spades, unless you are worried about your back. However, as a farmer or market gardener, with 20 men working, you really will want to know who's working, so there is your market.

Another example is the wheelbarrow. James Dyson, the vacuum cleaner inventor, is now a house-hold name, and he has beaten Hoover et al. But what is less well known is he cut his teeth on the wheelbarrow! He looked at it and identified the problems with it:

• They get bogged down in soft ground
• They are too shallow unless you are carrying only rocks
• They over-balance very easily
• They are hard to tip up without dropping sideways

Can you think of any other problems?

So as an innovator, he re-designed it. To stop the tyre sinking, he widened it. Unfortunately, this makes it harder to push on hard ground, and besides, they often go flat. So, a change to a hard plastic globe was tried. This rode high on a hard surface, so was easy to push, but as it started to sink into soft ground, the increased area of the globe spread the weight. Also, the hard plastic wouldn't get a puncture, as it was self-supporting. Next, the problem of overbalancing. This was related to the high centre of gravity (CoG). This also made it hard to tip up cleanly. Solution: Lower the CoG. This was done by extending the usual tray downward, making it deeper. This also increased the capacity. It also removed the possibility of bent legs, another cause of problems, and made the barrow easier to tip.
Once the prototype was finished, he had a limited production run made, and sold them via the classified adverts in a local paper. Once the market was established, he went national, but still in the small ads. A brilliant piece of strategy.

Your area of innovation may be something you have seen a thousand times before, or it may be something you have only seen once. It might be something you just thought of. Regardless, you must bear in mind the idea has to be new, and innovative (defined as an inventive step). In some ways it is likely the idea will be something regarding something new to you because you are an outsider to it. To you, it hasn't "always just been that way" so you are more likely to see something that has stared the owner, inventor or operator in the face for years. Also, your questions may prompt a new line of inquiry for them. Something may have been niggling in the back of their mind for an age, puzzling over why something is the way it is. Between you, you may strike gold. Or, more likely, they will tell you to stop being so nosy, stop asking questions and stop trying to be a smart arse!
On the other hand, as a newcomer, it is unlikely you will find a new idea of any real benefit, that someone hasn't tried before. You may be better off looking closer to home, so to speak. The machines you work on can provide tiny ideas that could be worth a fortune to the manufacturer, if it removed a step, increased production or improved safety. The lady who redesigned the ironing board had probably used it a hundred times before getting so annoyed at it that she stopped to wonder why she was having such problems. Her analysis showed that the basic shape was wrong: too narrow, too pointy. So, with a wider board and a better neck shape, it became much faster to iron a shirt.

Personally, I find the best place to start is with what annoys you, what do you find difficult? Try to find a way to solve, or reduce, the effect of the problem. If you have only three fingers, a standard doorknob is a problem if the spring is too stiff. Now, you could develop a machine to let you grip the doorknob and turn it, but a simpler answer might be to use your other hand! Or write to the owner of the building and ask them to change to handles. This is similar to the brilliant design for a hat with a fan in it. Running off a battery, when too warm, you turned on the fan. The problem, of course, is not really a problem, as you would normally just take the hat off for five minutes. The fan system may also allow in sunlight, burning the top of your head, and could be painful if hair got caught. Added to that the lack of hats worn these days, and you can see the idea was one that should have been killed before the patent application was filed. The final problem is cost. Who wants a £20 hat with a fan, when it would be £12 without?

If you can find a definite way to save money, one which is both legal and patentable, then you are certainly on to a winner. Do you remember that about 10 years ago, 99% of canned drink manufacturers changed from one type of ring-pull to the new type? It turns out that the new process costs a tiny amount of money. But so did the old method. It actually turns out that the odds of the can getting perforated by the ring-pull attachment procedure is lower. It was 99.99% good, now it is 99.999%. Which means a lot less wastage when you make a million cans a week.

Now it is your turn...

For a brilliant article from the Readers Digest on innovation go here.

There is more to be found via the links page.