Laure Morel

Enriching descriptive information in ranking and sorting problems with visualizations techniques

Purpose - Most of the proposed decision aid methods provide the user only with a prescriptive approach (quantitative analysis) without any descriptive approach (qualitative analysis). It is therefore not possible to justify and recommend ways of improvement. The purpose of this paper is to introduce visualization techniques to complement prescriptive approaches. Design/methodology/approach - Visual techniques have been developed for the FlowSort sorting method, namely the FS-GAIA and stacked bar diagrams. Findings - It is found that with visual techniques, fine details can be captured, e.g. detection of incomparability (with FS-GAIA) and the composition of a score (with stacked bar diagrams). Research limitations/implications - In the future, it is expected that other multi-criteria decision methods will be complemented by prescriptive approaches. Practical implications - A real case study is introduced in order to illustrate the practicality of the visual techniques. In this paper, the innovation performances of small and medium enterprises from the French Lorraine region are assessed. Social implications - It is expected that the quality of the decisions taken are improved because of being better informed. Originality/value - The paper, using a real case study, provides important new tools to enhance decision quality.

New Product Development Process (NPDP): updating the identification stage practices

This survey focuses on the early stages of the new product development process. More precisely, it is mostly concerned with the definition of the basic initial concepts required to initiate the design tasks within an innovative project. The article presents an original systemic approach that enables the identification of technological opportunity within all potential markets. The method is consistent with technological strategies that aim to improve the effective use of company knowledge, to reduce time development and to master innovation costs. This article will mostly develop the opportunity step, based on an original descriptive model of needs. Moreover, authors present an experiment involving a panel of six firms aiming at the validation of the descriptive model and an improvement of the approach.

PII- Potential Innovation Index: a Tool to Benchmark Innovation Capabilities in International Context

Benchmarking has become a useful tool for companies, enabling better decision-making and improvement of internal practices towards world-class performance. Nevertheless, concerning SMEs’ innovation capabilities from traditional sectors, benchmarking applications have been scarce. This article uses a predefined metric named the “Potential Innovation Index (PII)”, based on internal practices of the firms to compare innovation capabilities of two groups of similar SMEs from 2 different geographical, cultural and social contexts. Results were used to analyze similarities and differences, strengths and weaknesses of the groups. Obtained results confirm the difficulties to innovate of this type firms, no matters the sector or country, as over 55% of the companies studied were evaluated as having a low innovative performance. However, regarding the index’s constitutive practices, significant differences were found. Which leads to infer that innovation support strategies to enhance innovation must be adapted to the local context and culture.

A space for innovation process acceleration, supporting collaborative citizens workshops

The city of Nancy (France) launched a Living Lab approach for the redevelopment of its eco-district. The first step of this project focuses on ideas exploration with the organization of participative workshops grouping citizens, technicians and politicians around the same table. The Environment and Methodology of Acceleration space or EMA space proposes ten theoretical functions adapted to realize collaborative workshops. The operational implementation of the EMA space functions is analysed according to two Living Labs characteristics - uses analysis and multidisciplinary collaborative work - and discussed. Organizers skills and political willingness are key aspects of the workshops success.

From Urban Concept to Urban Engineering: The Contribution of Distributed Collaborative Design to the Management of Urban Projects

The complexity of urban systems is an increasingly common topic in academic literature. Following in the footsteps of the industrial sector, which has understood this issue for many years, urban engineering must also tackle the challenges created by complex systems. Industrial engineering has provided a number of responses to this challenge, including design technologies, which are notably collaborative. It seems possible, at least in theory, to transfer a number of best practice methods and adapt these to the conceptualization of urban development projects (in the initial phase) in order to encourage their global management (in terms of strategic decision making) and their social acceptability. The challenge is then to formulate new methodological models, as well as to create an environment dedicated to their application.

Study case: Living Lab Mode for urban project design: Emergence of an ad hoc methodology through collaborative innovation

Living Lab Mode for urban projects opens various fields of investigation for urban project management and Living Lab methodology. Using a three year-experiment on co-designing an eco-neighborhood, this study case contributes to examine the specificity of long-term user-oriented project management. Furthermore, the study describes the development of a method to implement a project in Living Lab Mode. Finally, the research underlines the mutual contribution between participatory process and co-design process in an urban project.

Toward autonomy of ideas: Conceptual framework for open innovation

Ideas are the most important input in an innovation process. Nevertheless, the most common points of view when studying innovation is the whole process, its different stages, tools to manage it, or men involved in its deployment, ... and the idea is only a constant or more accurately a variable, anything else!. Here we propose to put ideas in the front of stage. Indeed we think ideas are entities with some features enabling them to reach a certain level of autonomy. This postulate allows us to consider an idea, within the Open Innovation process, is able to manage resources from inside and outside of the firm to ensure its own development during its life-cycle in an organization. Thanks this global vision, we could propose new questions about the life of idea and what appropriate Open Innovation vision has to be taken over to challenge the 21st century.

Innovation in engineering education: a French sample of design and continuous updating of an engineering school to industrial needs

The ENSGSI (National School of Industrial Engineering) was founded in 1993 and drives this new approach to training engineers. Cooperation with the economic environment is organised around three actions: accompanying industrial change within regional SMEs; proposing actions to accompany the sparking of innovation in major industries as well as in service sectors such as health; structuring the management of complex local government projects. This paper will present how the evolution in industrial and economic demand regarding the question of innovation, as well as the consideration of this in the orientation of a French laboratorys research projects, contributed to reducing the gap between corporate requirements for a new type of engineer and the capacity of engineering schools to meet this demand. We will present the methods used both to design the school and to build our teaching referential which ensures a process of permanent adjustment to market needs.

An Integrated Methodology for Emulsified Cosmetic Product Formulation Using Integer Programming with Logical Constraints

This work proposes the incorporation of heuristic knowledge into an optimization-based methodology to formulate cosmetic emulsions. Heuristics regarding choice of ingredients and their amounts are modelled as algebraic restrictions and if needed translation of logical conditions to algebra is performed. The more heuristics included, the more limited the design space becomes. Through integer cuts, ranked candidate solutions may then be generated. A case study of a hair conditioner is presented, being generated tens of solutions significantly better than a known prescription.

Contribution to setting up a sustainable learning in an eco-neighborhood development plan based on “Serious game”

International policies to reduce global warming impact directly on territorial strategies concerning decision making on urban development projects. It is thus necessary for local authorities to adopt the best practices, and to take informed decisions in order to move towards more sustainable urban development projects. But today the challenge lies in the involvement of all the stakeholders in the project, each with specific needs and different points of view in a given context. Thereby learning and awareness for sustainable development is necessary. This research helps to highlight the appropriate tools that meet these challenges of education and learning for sustainable development leading towards a shared vision for all stakeholders. “Serious games” seem to be a relevant trail of investigation and development.