Transcript No Slide Title

NEW PRODUCT DESIGN
AND BUSINESS
DEVELOPMENT
Engineering and business students
join with industry to create new
products
William Durfee
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Minnesota
Why
 New
products drive successful
businesses
 Faculty from several schools within the
university interested in new products
 Need to train students in a multidisciplinary setting
 New partnerships with industry
Faculty
Industry
Product Students
Needs
U Resources
NEW PRODUCTS PROGRAM
Education
Projects
Research
•New Product Development Leaders
•New Products
•New Knowledge
What
 Graduate
level course offered by IT,
CSOM, BME
 Work with client firms to design a new
product and create a business plan
 Teams of 4-8 students (1/2 business, 1/2
engineering) + faculty + marketing and
engineering company reps
 Nine months (Sept - June)
 Deliverables: Working prototype,
comprehensive business plan
Features

Real projects
– Companies commit to manufacture

Cross-functional teams
– Engineers do marketing and vice-versa
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All patents assigned to companies
All team members sign confidentiality agreements
Strong university/industry collaboration on project
Parallel research on NPD process
Companies pay fee, revenue used to support
academic design program
Outcomes (as of Year 5)
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30 projects
180+ students
8 faculty
Many working
prototypes
Saved Augustine
Medical 1-1/2 years in
product development
process
One patent issued,
several pending
Confidentiality
 Signed
agreements
 All students and faculty sign all
agreements
 Implications
– Cannot disclose information to friends or
family
– Agreement is between students and company,
not university and company
– Five-year time limit
– Publications must have company approval
Intellectual Property
 All
patents assigned to company
– but students can be named inventors
 Company
pays costs associated with
patent preparation and filing
University resources

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Faculty experts
Research centers
Computing resources
(CAD....)
Student Shop
Rapid Prototyping
machine
Medical Devices
Prototyping Lab
Projects
 Careful
selection
 Known area, but not completely defined
 Business challenges
 Engineering challenges
 Typically mechanical, electromechanical
 Many medical products
 4-6 projects/year
Projects (1995-2000)
3M, Home and Commercial Care Division (1995),
2nd generation Twist ‘N Fill container
Toro, Consumer Division (1995), Powered, handheld gardening tool
Micro-Medical Devices, Cleveland OH (1995,
1996), Endoscope technology
Reel Precision Manufacturing (1996), New market
hinge product
Horton Manufacturing (1996), Smart cluth/brake
Irwin Publishing (1996), CD-ROM textbook
supplement
Donaldson (1997), Engine noise control product
Molecular Diagnostics Lab, UMN (1997), Blood
collection system
Aetrium, Inc. (1997), Motion platform for Integrated
circuit testing machine
Spinal Designs International (1997), Low-back pain
care for people in wheelchairs
Augustine Medical (1997), Skin care product
Horton Manufacturing (1997), Web control product
Soil Sensors (1998), Next-generation soil moisture
sensor
Honeywell, Home & Building Control (1998),
Residential ventilation system
Select Comfort (1998), Improved-comfort sleet
system
Sulzer Medica, Winterthur Switzerland (1998), Hip
surgery instrument
3M, Stationery and Office Supply Division (1998),
Improved Post-it Flag dispensors
Augustine Medical (1998), Nursing home market for
Augustine technology
Medtronic (1999), Catheter product
Enhanced Mobility Technology (1999), Biorehab
product
Lincages (1999), Windows version of CAD
mechanicsm software
Shepherd Medical (1999), Male contraceptives
Rust Architects (1999), Ice-palace cooler
Sulzer Medica (1999), Arthoscopy product
SpineTech (2000), Artificial disk product
EnduraTEC (2000), Tissue test grips
Scimed (2000), Smart catheter product
Medtronic (2000), Visible Heart CD-ROM
Machine Magic (2000), Key duplicating machine
3M (1997-1998)
 Post-it
Flag group
 Innovative product to increase Flag sales
 200 preliminary concepts, 40 prototypes,
4 detailed prototypes
 3M took one to placement study then to
manufacture
The old product
The NPDBD collection of prototypes
AUGUSTINE MEDICAL (1996-1997)
 Find
new markets for core technology of
warming patients during surgery
 Team identied new market, developed and
field tested a prototype product
 Saved Augustine 1-1/2 years in product
development time
SULZER MEDICA (1997-1998)
 Orthopaedic
products company,
Winterthur, Switzerland
 New product to facilitate hip implant
surgery
 Distance communication issues (e-mail,
phone and video conferences)
 European market
 Working prototype developed, will be
launched as a product soon
Lessons Learned
 Engineering
and business must lead
program equally
 Creating appropriate agreements takes
time and effort
 Requires didactic component on product
development process
 Advantage if company is nearby
Want more information?
www.npdbd.umn.edu
Durfee, W. “Engineering Education Gets Real”, Technology Review, Feb/Mar
1994, 42-51.
Erdman, A and W. Durfee, “Pac-Man, Calluses and the Undergraduate
Engineering Design Student”, Educators’ Tech Exchange, Spring/Summer 1995,
16-23.
Durfee, W., The new product design and business development program:
Engineers and business students join with industry to create new products,
Proceedings of the 1999 ASEE Annual Conference (CD-ROM), Charlotte, 1999.