Tag: product development

Video Tip: Bringing 3-D Printing to Life in the Classroom

Computer Aided Design (CAD) and 3-D Printing may not be the most exciting topics in the Design of Goods and Services chapter (Ch.5), but after you show this 4-minute video clip, there will be a definite uptick in class discussion. Our photo of a 3-D  printer just can’t do justice to the amazing work going on in this rapidly advancing area of OM. So when Prof. Bruce Elwell showed me the video we link to here, I knew it’s something important to share in the blog.

I recommend that you bring a crescent wrench with you to class to bring home the product and its design. Pass it around while the video plays so your students can get a better feel for the tool. And if you would like more background on 3-D printers, take a look at the blog we did on the subject a few months ago. It was based on a major article in The Economist in Feb., 2011.

OM in the News:Frito-Lay’s Move to All-Natural Snack Foods

In this latest edition of our OM text, Jay and I focused on Frito-Lay, including five new video case studies on topics from manufacturing strategy, to SPC, to sustainability, to inventory control, to maintenance. We picked the massive company because it made a product line that every student could relate to.

So The Wall Street Journal’s  article (March 24,2011) on Frito-Lay’s attempts to retool its product line (Ch.5) to focus on “natural ingredients” was eye-catching. My family and I had consumed probably a 100 large bags of chips during our company research and filming time– a far cry from our normal organic-only household routine.

In a move to make half its snacks with only natural ingredients by the end of 2011, Frito-Lay is gambling that: (1) customers really do want to eat only healthy snacks, (2) retooling doesn’t end up making the products “taste like cardboard”, and (3) the 35% higher ingredient costs will not drive prices too high. Under pressure from the FDA to reduce sodium in the chips, the company has done so (by 25%), but in a very clever way so the taste buds will not know about it. (The secret was to cut salt crystals differently so they remain on the chip’s surface, closer to the tongue, instead of falling into the chip’s recesses).

The firm is also saying goodbye to MSG and 3 dozen other artificial ingredients, and eliminating trans fats. (Its baked chips, by the way, are tasty and have much reduced saturated fats, so I do sneak them into the shopping cart now and then).

The “all-natural” market represents about 20% of the $15 billion in annual US snack sales and is growing rapidly at 14% a year.

Discussion questions:

1. How does this new strategy impact the operations function?

2. How can the “house of quality” (QFD) be used?

3. How does this fit into Frito-Lay’s “green” strategy (see Ch.7).

Teaching Tip: Product Development Needs Revolution As Well As Evolution

Which is better?  To create dramatic new products that wow the market–or to incrementally improve an existing product that performs well. Boeing, of course,  has done both. It took its 737 and has gradually upgraded it dozens of times over the past 3 decades, making it the best selling plane of all times. But the firm also decided to bet the farm on its all new 787, the 1st large jet to have a structure made of high-tech lightweight composites. The headline in Tribune newspapers around the country yesterday pretty much sums up how that company’s operations managers feel these days: “Dreamliner Still in a Tailspin: Delay Plagued 787 a Huge Headache for Boeing and Suppliers”. Now 3 years late, about 100 orders have been cancelled by frustrated customers, and Boeing has spent close to $10 billion in cost overruns and penalties.

So when you teach this topic in Ch.5, I have two examples to share, both from recent TED talks. These short lectures, often by famous  people, present some pretty amazing ideas. Let me start with the evolutionary example . My friend Allen Kupetz just gave a TED talk on how the pencil has changed over the past 445 years.  He makes a good case for why small, incremental changes in product design are as important as revolutionary new products. (Allen traces from the start of the pencil in 1565, to the change to 6-sided in 1839, to the addition of an eraser in 1858, and so on). Try to show the last 5 minutes to your class.

How about revolutionary change? Perhaps the most inspiring talk you will ever hear is from Frank Reynolds, paralyzed with a permanent spinal cord injury while in grad school at St. Josephs U. Frank layed in bed for 5 years and taught himself everything he could about medicine. In the end, this amazing man has developed a cure for such injuries and has started a firm called InVivo Technologies. I was so impressed that I invested in his company!  This video is worth your time.