Engineering Innovative Products: A Practical Experience

"The book provides vital insights into commercial development for engineering students in a highly practical and applied manner. Over the past 3 years, application of the book’s material has allowed the students to develop their commercial literacy and ambition in the University." —Steve Orr, Director, Northern Ireland Science Park CONNECT program which looks to accelerate the growth of knowledge-based companies in Northern Ireland Engineering Innovative Products: A Practical Experience is a pioneering book that will be of key use to senior undergraduate and graduate engineering students who are being encouraged to explore innovation and commercialization as part of their courses. The book will teach the essential skills of entrepreneurship and address the fundamental requirements needed to establish a successful technology company. As well as providing the crucial background and insights enabling students to identify a key market, it also offers a highly practical guide to undertaking genuine product validation and producing a feasibility study, as well as providing vital insights into the challenges and demands in forming a technology based company. Key features: Outlines how to develop and grow an engineering solution which has market potential and covers key business aspects of giving the perfect pitch, sales and marketing, protection of ideas and finance, to offer a complete and practical guide to commercializing ideas. Provides vital insight into the design and innovation processes within engineering and the challenges and pitfalls in translating good ideas into great products. Features contributions from leading experts in marketing, finance, company formation, sales and intellectual protection which provides details of the challenges faced by innovators when commercializing ideas. Includes Ccase studies from engineering students who give insights into how they have successfully developed their own ideas into companies.

Table of Contents:
Dedication iii List of Contributors xiii Foreword xv Preface xvii List of Abbreviations xix 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 Importance of SMEs 2 1.3 Inspiring Innovation for Engineers 2 1.4 Rationale 3 1.5 Focus 3 1.6 Processes and Organization of Course 4 1.7 Breakdown of Book Material 6 References 8 2 Idea Generation, Filtering and Development 9 2.1 Introduction 10 2.2 Timeline 11 2.3 Team Structure 12 2.3.1 Team Working Theory 12 2.3.2 Team Roles 15 2.4 Idea Generation 19 2.4.1 Mentor Role 20 2.4.2 Role of the Team 21 2.4.3 Role of the Individual 22 2.4.4 Imitation 24 2.5 To Filter or not! 24 2.5.1 Already exists 25 2.5.2 Market Issues 26 2.5.3 Technically too Difficult 26 2.5.4 Beyond Expertise 27 2.5.5 Difficult to Pitch 27 2.5.6 No Potential for Future Development 27 2.6 Idea Incubation and Development 28 2.7 Conclusions 28 References 29 3 The ideal pitch 31 3.1 Introduction 32 3.2 Business Pitch 33 3.2.1 CONNECT Springboard 34 3.2.2 Pitch Outline 37 3.3 Case Studies 38 3.3.1 MVR 38 3.3.2 Nutrifit 39 3.3.3 Noctua 39 3.4 Pain and Solution 41 3.5 Value Proposition and Technology 43 3.6 Market and Competition 46 3.7 Company Traction and Go to Market Strategy 48 3.8 Finance 50 3.9 Presentation Process 53 3.10 Concluding Remarks 54 References 54 4 Creating an e ective business plan 55 4.1 Introduction 56 4.2 Business Plan 56 4.2.1 Business Plan Outline 57 4.2.2 Executive Summary 58 4.3 Company 61 4.3.1 Team 62 4.3.2 Branding 62 4.4 The Business 62 4.4.1 Products and Services 63 4.4.2 Uniqueness 64 4.4.3 Future Products 65 4.5 Business Strategy 65 4.5.1 Corporate Strategy 66 4.5.2 Competitive Edge 67 4.5.3 Pricing Strategy 68 4.5.4 Sales Strategy 68 4.6 Market 69 4.6.1 Market Definition 70 4.6.2 Key Market Segments 70 4.6.3 Market Trends 71 4.6.4 Target Market 71 4.7 Competition 71 4.7.1 Direct competition 71 4.7.2 Indirect Competition 72 4.7.3 How we compare 72 4.8 Market Analysis 72 4.8.1 Market Growth 73 4.8.2 Position 73 4.8.3 Pricing 73 4.8.4 Sales Strategy and Projection 73 4.8.5 Distribution 74 4.8.6 Advertising and Promotion 74 4.9 Finances 74 4.9.1 Costs 75 4.9.2 Breakeven Analysis 76 4.9.3 Profit and Loss Accounts 76 4.9.4 Balance Sheet 77 4.9.5 Performance Ratios 77 4.10 Concluding Remarks 79 References 79 5 Brands that connect create di erences that matters 81 5.1 Introduction 82 5.2 Why Branding Matters 83 5.2.1 The Branding Evolution 84 5.2.2 The Dynamics of Trust!trust 85 5.3 The Doing Part of ‘Branding’ 86 5.3.1 A Brilliant Idea 86 5.3.2 Be Useful 86 5.3.3 Be Credible 87 5.3.4 Have a Dominant Proposition 88 5.3.5 Brand Check your Idea 89 5.3.6 Belief Systems Influence Behavior 90 5.4 The Secret Sauce: Tell a Great Story 92 5.5 World Beating Attitude 95 5.5.1 Who Else is out There? 96 5.5.2 Do your Homework 97 5.6 Name it. Name it Good. 97 5.6.1 Taglines can make Things Simple, not Dumb. 99 5.7 Brand Strategy (is not a Dirty word) 100 5.7.1 Make Sense to your Advocates and your Customers 101 5.7.2 A Word on Industrial/Tech Branding 103 5.8 A Coherent Visual Identity 106 5.8.1 A Central Visual Image 107 5.8.2 But what about my Logo? 107 5.8.3 Brand Touchpoints 108 5.9 A Final Thought 109 References 110 6 The Marketing of Your Business Is Your Business 111 6.1 Introduction 112 6.2 Definition of Marketing and Marketing Communication 113 6.2.1 Identifying your Target Market 113 6.2.2 Market Research for new Companies, Products, or Services 113 6.3 Target Market Size and Trends 114 6.3.1 Segments 115 6.3.2 Competition 116 6.3.3 Market Cycles 117 6.4 Demand Indicators - Keyword tools 118 6.4.1 The Value Proposition - Features TELL, Benefits SELL 119 6.5 Evaluating your Market Research 120 6.6 Your Marketing Strategy 121 6.6.1 Monitoring Reputation 122 6.7 Promotional Techniques 123 6.7.1 Offline Marketing 123 6.7.2 Online Marketing 124 6.7.3 Websites 125 6.7.4 Search Engine Optimization 126 6.7.5 Website Analytics 127 6.7.6 Affiliate Marketing 127 6.7.7 Email Marketing 127 6.7.8 Social Media 128 6.8 What is Social Media all about and why is it important for Business? 129 6.8.1 FaceBook Facts 130 6.8.2 YouTube, Vimeo and the use of Video for Business 130 6.8.3 Twitter 132 6.8.4 Branding and Twitter 132 6.9 Case Studies and Referrals 133 6.10 Conclusions 133 7 Intellectual Property 135 7.1 Why intellectual property is important 136 7.2 Types of intellectual property protection 137 7.2.1 Copyright 137 7.2.2 Trademarks 138 7.2.3 Patents 139 7.2.4 Know-How 141 7.2.5 Design protection 141 7.3 Ownership of intellectual property 142 7.4 Information from intellectual property 143 7.5 How to decide how intellectual property applies to your company 146 7.6 What to do to protect your Intellectual Property 150 7.6.1 Copyright 150 7.6.2 Design Right 150 7.6.3 Registered Designs 150 7.6.4 Trademarks 151 7.6.5 Patents 152 7.7 Summary 156 8 Finance 157 8.1 Why do I need a Financial Plan? 158 8.2 Types of Business Structure 159 8.3 Sources of Finance 160 8.4 Main Components of the Financial Plan 162 8.5 Sales Forecast 163 8.6 Profit and Loss Account 166 8.7 Breakeven 169 8.7.1 Fixed Costs 171 8.8 Cash Flow Statement 172 8.9 Balance Sheet 173 8.10 Building the Financial Model 175 8.10.1 Structure 176 8.10.2 Variables 176 8.10.3 Assumptions 177 8.10.4 Sensitivity Testing – ‘What if’ 177 8.11 Traps/Causes of Failure 179 9 Preliminary Design and Concept Prototype 183 9.1 Introduction 184 9.2 Finalizing Ideas 184 9.3 Communicating Innovation and Product Di erentiation 187 9.4 Product Definition 188 9.5 Legal and Safety Considerations 190 9.6 IP Considerations 192 9.7 Initial Product Specification 194 9.8 Design Modeling and Prototyping 196 9.9 Concluding Remarks 198 10 Full Product Development 199 10.1 Introduction 200 10.2 Full Product Development in an Educational Context 201 10.3 Functional Prototypes 202 10.4 Product Design Specification (PDS) 205 10.4.1 Preparing a PDS 207 10.5 Detailed Design 208 10.6 Don’t repeat the Mistakes of Others 210 10.7 Mass Production Considerations 212 10.8 Automated Assembly 213 10.9 Testing 214 10.10Final Product Definition 215 References 216 11 Case study: Buteos 217 11.1 Marriage 218 11.1.1 Team Roles 219 11.2 Conception 220 11.3 Giving Birth 221 11.4 The Baptism 222 11.5 Growth 223 11.6 Questioning your Motives 224 11.7 Flying the Nest 226 11.8 The Big Bad World 226 12 Student project to commercial project: a complex journey 229 12.1 Introduction 230 12.2 Evolution of the Product 230 12.2.1 Serving Beer 231 12.3 Product Development Insights 231 12.4 Going beyond the Requirements of a University Project Module 232 12.4.1 Securing Protection 232 12.4.2 Product Rethink 234 12.4.3 Protecting Intellectual Property 234 12.5 Part-time Student or Full-time Innovator? 235 12.5.1 Covering the Legal Aspects 236 12.6 Dealing with Potential Customers and Licensees 237 12.6.1 Axiomatic Design 238 12.6.2 Product Architecture 239 12.7 Optimization through Testing 239 12.8 Branding the Company 242 12.9 Branding Websites and Emails 243 12.10Finances 244 12.11‘Go For It’ Programme 245 12.12Pitching the Technology 245 12.13Design for Manufacture 247 12.14Conclusions 249 References 249 13 Assessment 251 13.1 Introduction 252 13.2 Learning Outcomes 253 13.3 Investment Pitch 255 13.4 Business Plan 255 13.5 Technical Feasibility Study 256 13.6 Peer Evaluation 257 13.7 The Assessment Matrix 258 13.8 Formative and Summative Assessment 259 13.9 Conclusions 260 References 260 14 Final Thoughts 265 14.1 Introduction 266 14.2 Thoughts for Mentors 266 14.3 Thoughts for Students 267 14.4 Future Directions 268 14.5 Final comments 268 Glossary 259 Index 263

About the Author :
Roger Woods, School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Queen’s University Belfast, UK Roger Woods is a Professor of Digital Systems at Queen’s University Belfast. He is a Fellow of the IET, a senior member of IEEE and a fully chartered engineer. He has published over 160 scientific papers and holds a number of patents. He has collaborated extensively with industry and has founded a spin-off company Analytics Engines to commercialise this research. He has developed the ‘Industrial Project’ course at QUB on which this book is based. Karen Rafferty, School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Queen's University Belfast, UK Dr. Karen Rafferty is a senior lecturer in the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Queen’s University Belfast. She researches into computer vision with associated camera calibration, position estimation, feature extraction and tracking, colour recognition and sensor fusion with application to the development of intelligent autonomous industrial and environmental inspection devices with a particular emphasis on lighting. She has developed a number of innovative teaching and assessment strategies for Higher Level Engineering. Julian Murphy, School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Queen's University Belfast, UK Dr. Julian Murphy is a lecturer in the School of Electronics, Electrical engineering and Computer Science at Queen’s University Belfast. He researches into novel microelectronics solutions form a range of security applications and has had experience of forming companies. Paul Hermon, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Queen's University Belfast, UK Mr. Hermon is a Senior Teaching Fellow in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Queen’s University Belfast. He is Programme Director of the Product Design and Development (PDD) degrees offered in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at QUB. The PDD degrees were introduced in 2004 and developed in line with the syllabus and standards defined by the CDIO Initiative (est. 2000) is an international collaboration of universities aiming to improve the education of engineering students. The CDIO ethos is that students are taught in the context of conceiving, designing, implementing and operating a product or system. Fundamental to this is an integrated curriculum with multiple Design-Build-Test (DBT) experiences at the core. (QUB) was the first UK University to join the CDIO initiative.