Jonas Detterfelt

Engineering Design Methodology for Bio-Mechatronic Products

Four complex biotechnology products/product systems (a protein purification system, a bioreactor system, a surface plasmon resonance biosensor, and an enzymatic glucose analyzer) are analyzed using conceptual design principles. A design model well‐known in mechanical system design, the Hubka‐Eder (HE) model, is adapted to biotechnology products that exemplify combined technical systems of mechanical, electronic, and biological components, here referred to as bio‐mechatronic systems. The analysis concludes that an extension of the previous HE model with a separate biological systems entity significantly contributes to facilitating the functional and systematic analyses of bio‐mechatronic systems.

Counterbalancing Exploitative Knowledge Search during Environmental Dynamism: Reinforcing New Ideas for Existing Products

Established firms face the challenge of counterbalancing their predominant focus on exploitation with exploration. This paper explores how these firms can reinforce new exploratory ideas for existing products, especially during periods of environmental dynamism. The study is based on an action research study at a new product development (NPD) department at an international manufacturing firm operating in a cyclical market. The results show that increased environmental dynamism opens new opportunities for counterbalancing exploitative approaches by building exploratory skills. The action contributed specifically to breaking with old traditions in the NPD organization, and resulted in actionable knowledge in terms of an ideation approach. However, the study also shows that fast industry cycles that do not match the remote returns of exploratory knowledge searches diminish the possibility to sustain exploratory knowledge searches in organizations. The paper identifies important problems related to the long-time horizon of exploration and the cyclical nature of industries.

Understanding creativity motors and obstacles in product development

Although many factors have been found to facilitate creativity in product development, the evidence of these studies lacks explanations of the mechanisms enhancing or impeding creativity. Building upon the model of Van de Ven and Poole (1995), a framework is formulated for understanding the motors of creativity in product development. Four motors for driving creativity are proposed: creativity as an evolutionary process, life cycle process, confrontation between different groups or individuals or within the context of a purposeful individual or team. A multiple-case study of three Swedish manufacturers explores the motors further and complements the framework with drivers of and counterforces to the four motors, for example, the existence of challenging managers and the perceived inappropriateness of certain formal processes for creative work. Although creativity is the result of the four motors operating simultaneously, each of the four motors provide different conditions for radical and incremental innovation.