Enabling Radical Innovation through Highly Iterative Product Expedition in Ramp up and Demonstration Factories

Short development times that are characterized by a high return on engineering (RoE) become increasingly important as a critical success factor for the realization of radical innovation. However, the high degree of complexity of modern products results in a long and costly development time when traditional sequential development processes are employed. The paper at hand describes the restraints of typical gate-oriented product development processes and builds up on recent studies recommending highly iterative innovation processes for the fast realization of physical product ideas. The suggested methodology represents an approach based on the Scrum process model from the software industry that includes the continuous integration of costumers and production engineers based on the execution of feasibility studies by the early and stepwise development of prototypes. In this context, modern ramp up and demonstration factories possessing a product lifecycle management (PLM) system, an integrated ICT infrastructure, interdisciplinary engineering teams and scalable manufacturing technologies are suggested as key enablers. The authors illustrate that these facilities, together with a sensor-based product expedition are particularly suitable for implementing an adapted Scrum process for the development of physical product ideas. A critical reflection on the basis of the development of an electric car aims to underline the suitability of the presented methodology in enabling radical innovation.