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FAQs
Information about the project is segmented into Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). You can ask a question.
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what is the purpose of this project?
This benchmarking project addresses the task of determining an SME's product innovation register. In addition, it will also establish a clearly defined scale for innovation in terms of the SME's products, innovation process and project management of the innovation process for various industrial sectors.
This is very important because initiatives in the past have addressed ways of improving the product innovation process through a wide spectrum of methods, techniques and tools without quantifying or measuring the degree of change of 'innovationess' - a holistic approach to a company's innovation in terms of its products, process and management.
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what does pip mean?
The Product Innovation Profile (pip) or 'pip score' process is used to position an organisation in terms of its level of product innovation maturity in respect to the products developed, innovation process utilised and the way it project manages the product innovation process.
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where does the pip score concept come from?
The concept of pip scoring was identified in concept in an Innovation project (IN10162D) called PROMISE (PROject Management of product Innovation in Smaller Enterprises) and recognised as a major need. PROMISE focused on transferring best practice techniques from successful large companies to SMEs and the main thrust was the implementation of the GateWay process. It became evident to the intermediary organisations working with the six SME end users that in order to measure the improvements in innovation there had to be a datum or reference point indicating start point and subsequent units of measurement. A process was derived for this purpose but only tested on a limited (6 off) sample size. In addition, limited budget was available to develop commercial standard procedures, scoring matrices, tools and reference materials. However, the work undertaken indicated the validity of the principles and the approach.
The project is directed at researching the concept fully and developing a robust process with reliable tools that would facilitate wide spread empirical testing in order to formulate values/scores that are accurate and precise for SMEs in a range of industrial sectors.
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what is the result of a pip score process?
The process, incorporated within the PROMISE project, utilises a facilitated workshop approach to assess the organisation in the three innovation areas (product, process and project management). The diagnostics utilised produced a score that reflects the position in terms these areas thus indicating the company's product innovation profile as a pip score.
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is the pip score process a one-off event?
This project will not only provide the support to determine the pip scores and develop associated procedures and tools; the work undertaken will crystalise the route a company should take to improve their scoring and the value of the improvement of score in terms of their product innovation.
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how will the European community benefit from the pip score process?
By adopting the pip score process the European SME community who are product developers will be accommodating all of the societal needs outlined in the principles of the fifth framework programme. The results of SMEs improving their prowess in producing innovative products at competitive costs will establish them as entities more capable of growth in terms of product outputs and labour force. Evidence of previous usage of the process within the confines of the PROMISE project clearly indicate a significant impact on business and social environments due to more efficient use of time, human and primary resources. SMEs who improve there pip score greatly reduce lead time to market, develop more environmentally friendly products and are more in tune with market trends and demand. Products from such companies post pip scoring activities have developed innovations that have much more emphasis on consumer health, safety and protection. The majority of companies have found that their workforce have grown following pip scoreing and they are now able to upgrade employee skills ensuring they become empowered by their company-wide operations and innovation strategy.
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which industrial areas will pip score address?
The pip score project will utilise the concept of "clustering" companies who are part of industrial sectors. These include ceramics, creative industries [new media companies - internet, virtual reality, CAD], fire and safety industry, environment, footwear, historical/cultural craft and electrical, and pip score will cascade best practice from established engineering and pharmaceutical industries. Greek and German partners have identified and selected the sectors from their existing experience and knowledge of the individual marketplace. The project will utilise problem solving approaches through the clusters in order to align activities to support EU policies and standardisation. The project partnership are committed to effective mainstreaming activities in order to contribute to policy and standards as well as maximising the number number of Member States which will benefit from the project.
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does the pip score process need consultancy support?
The proposed innovation focuses on using non-intrusive assessment and diagnostics methods and techniques to examine the organisation and determine just how innovative they are in terms of their products, processes and management. By resolving these terms their position is evident and an opportunity exists to set targets whereby the company can improve such a score and profile and benefit from such an initiative. Previous experience using such techniques see very fast track results to determine the register a 2-3 day process. To design a framework for improvement of this scoring - a target - can be achieved within a single day. Allowing a three month period to implement changes and re-orientate the culture followed by a re-test of the pip scoring process to achieve a measure of change against the original register and benchmark. On average significant changes (for the better) can be achieved in four month with a cultural shift in terms of continuous improvement in approximately 6-9 months.
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what are the project objectives?
The technical and scientific objectives are to:
Refine process to improve its portability and compression process duration
Develop a commercially viable product and service which would be attractive to product developers in a wide spectrum of industrial sectors
Cascade pip score process two Member States through intermediaries working with sectoral clusters
Obtain a product innovation profiles of 60 SMEs from 5 industrial sectoral clusters
Correlate pip scores for 5 industrial sectors and extrapolate to 2 other sectors
Document results in order to disseminate, diffuse and mainstream European Union wide
Disseminate results using conventional and electronic means
The net result of these objectives would be state of the art adjunct to any toolkit designed to improve the product innovation process
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who is involved in the project?
The workplan comprises of nine workpackages which effectively synchronise project activities. Technology supply is led by the UK partner (KAJ ISIS) who are product innovators and were involved in the original project with inputs from Greek (Technical University of Crete) and Germany (Euro Info Centre Trier ) partners who are specialists in the support of product innovation in the SME community. The project management workpackage will ensure very strict control of resource and the project manager (Chalice Projects) had the same role in the PROMISE project.
The intermediaries mentioned will be supported by a UK SME end user (Leslie Group) who again had similar role in the previous project and will also make inputs to development, diffusion, dissemination and commercial exploitation of the pip score project. The main output of the project will be a pip score process supported with appropriate tools and support materials. In addition, intermediary organisation trained to use the process and tools. Main milestones will be: establishing the strategies and protocols for maintaining the project, research of the PIP relating to the identified sectors, establishing the sectoral clusters who will act as a validation group, completion of the prototype tools, completion of the pip scoring, analysis and correlation of results, production release of process and tools, completion of exploitation and commercialisation plan, completion of dissemination, completion of mainstreaming activities and final report submitted.
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what is the partnership structure?
The partnership comprises a SME product developer, two intermediaries, an SME end user and a project manager/technical co-ordinator. All partners have extensive experience of transnational collaborative project work and work extensively with the SME Community. Each partner has many years experience in the area of product innovation from user, training and consultancy perspectives. The partnership also has a high degree of expertise in the commercialisation of products and processes and the exploitation of project results.
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how is the project managed?
The Project Management structure will comprise of a project and technical co-ordinator who will be responsible for the day to day running of the project. A steering group will be formed at the finalisation of the workplan stage which will comprise of a representative of each partner organisation. The steering group will meet at regular periods but be in communication on a frequent basis. The detailed workpackages indicate joint working in the same location at pertinent points to enable 'true' collaborations to take place.
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what is the potential impact of the project?
As already mentioned, the potential impact of the RTD on economic development perspectives is enormous in terms of economic impact, contribution to competitiveness and sustainable growth of SMEs touched by the project. The project is very much in partners' and users' interest as it allows them to realise aspirations. The prospect as acquiring a commercially viable process and toolkit is most attractive.
As a strategic contribution to the Innovation in Europe is vast as the project outcome would provide a means of deriving and defining the actual intrinsic product innovation profile score for an SME and have the means of mapping the optimum plan for improving this value to benefit the company.
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What was the score today between Germany and Ireland?
The score was 1 - 1
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How did USA get on against Portugal?
The score was 3 - 2 to USA
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