Research Project INNOspeed

Today, shorter technology and product life cycles increasingly force companies to provide new products and services at frequent intervals to the market. Dealing with innovations is essential for success, yet generating systematic ideas, filtering the right ideas quickly and strategically and implementing them is a critical and serious process. There are comprehensive tools and methods of “systematic innovation” that can provide vital support for this process. The Degree Programmes in Innovation Management have a high level of competence and experience in this special discipline and integrate it in extra-occupational training.

Based on the degree programmes’ competences and close contact with the industry and together with business partners ZETA Biotechnik GmbH, STARMANN Metallbau GmbH and AT&S Austria Technologie & Systemtechnik AG, special qualification measures were implemented in the partners’ businesses. By expanding the competences of staff members of the respective engineering core team in creativity engineering and TRIZ was improved. The aim was to transfer practice-oriented knowledge with regard to implementing innovations for the respective expert teams with a technological background.

Through the qualification of key employees, the companies could quickly generate, systematically evaluate, prioritise and implement appropriate and solution-oriented projects and ideas in a consistent and more rapid manner. The qualification programme was tailored especially to the needs of technology-oriented businesses and consisted of an additional practice-oriented approach through supervised projects.

The employees were trained in the methods and tools of systematic innovation in three levels: Special Creativity Methods for Technological Developments and two separate didactical and economic levels on Systematic Innovation for Technological Developments. A supervised project was integrated in the last level of training. This way, the acquired knowledge could be integrated into the companies in a sustainable and practice-oriented manner, resulting in added value for the company.

The acquired competences in special creativity and systematic innovation methods then enabled the companies to approach customer demands in a more effective and fast way and to develop special high-tech solutions. INNOspeed also provided added value by mixing the members of different companies, whereby the teams could not just learn from the trainers, but also by exchanging best practices.