Browsing by Author "Bolton, Simon"
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Item Open Access Building creative confidence in idea management processes to improve idea generation in new product development teams(Cranfield University Press, 2013-09-19) Perez Garcia, Marta; Bolton, SimonThis is a scoping paper that aims to establish effective practices and key players in the domain of Idea Management. The paper defines Idea Management as the generation, evaluation and selection of ideas. The purpose of the paper is to map the current landscape of methodologies and tools in order to identify gaps and support the development of a framework to enhance creative confidence in idea management. The study has two key research questions: (i) what factors are influencing current idea generation practices and (ii) what tools and approaches exist for idea generation. This will help identify how creative confidence can influence the idea generation processes. Creative confidence is the capability to come up with breakthrough ideas, associated with the bravery to perform. If stimulated in the right way with a valuable framework, its impact on employees’ performance is significant in improving team members’ innovation performance and quality of ideas.Item Open Access Delivering innovation and choice in water supply in Kenya's informal settlements(Cranfield University, 2012-09) O'Regan, Jack; Franceys, Richard; Parker, Alison; Bolton, SimonImproved access to water and sanitation in the worlds slums were among the key targets in the Millennium Development Goals. In Kenya, water is generally accessed in slum areas by filling 20l jerrycans at standposts and water kiosks and carrying back to households, with residents paying up to nine times more than utility bulk water prices and spending large parts of their day collecting water. The aim of this research was to assess consumers’ response and reaction to a series of water delivery mechanisms designed to offer a range of service levels and prices in accessing water in informal settlements. The current situation of residents’ access to water in seven informal settlements in Nairobi and Kisumu was assessed via household surveys and interviews with water providers, both municipal utilities and private operators, supplemented with observation of local practises. A series of innovative water delivery techniques were then designed to suit the prevailing conditions intending to offer price differences and volumetric purchase options. Follow up surveys were then carried out. This research has found that offering lower or alternative prices for water services in informal settlements is difficult due to challenges posed by vested interests and those interested in maintaining current high prices for water, and applying a difference in price was easiest in areas with already poor access to water or a new water kiosk. However, residents responded positively to the water delivery service, evidenced by a strong desire for this to continue and a willingness to assist operators in applying group purchases and volumetric purchases. Where it was possible to implement a difference in price corresponding to service level, consumers recognised their ability to move between service levels depending on variable income, their immediate demand and a simple choice.Item Open Access Exploiting supplier capabilities to maximise product design opportunities in the fuzzy front end activities(Cranfield University Press, 2013-09-19) Bolton, Simon; Brun, Alessandro; Pero, Margherita; Piaggesi, PierluigiThis paper explores the Fuzzy Front-End (FFE), i.e. the first phase of the Product Design and Development process where a company formulates a product concept to be developed and decides whether or not to invest resources in the further development of an idea. Our goal is to understand how companies leverage supply chain capabilities to improve product design opportunities in order to obtain optimized product concepts in the FFE. From the analysis of our pilot study, the results suggest that FFE is organized differently depending on design requirements and supply chain capabilities and that matching design requirements with supplier capabilities during the FFE improves performance. Therefore, the findings indicate that the proposed Conceptual Framework has the potential to be used by companies to design their FFE and to enhance the use of supply chain capabilities in their product design activities.Item Open Access Factors effecting basic needs service design and innovation at the bottom of the pyramid(Cranfield University, 2012-08) Mercer, Alexander Peter; Bolton, SimonThe research carried out in thesis is sub-set of a longer on-going project to facilitate a sustainable ‘demand driven’ approach to water and sanitation product and service development. The project aims to achieve public and private health benefits where urban low-income tenant households, typically living in slums and informal housing areas, cannot access the conventional infrastructure. These families that rent a single room in a slum for $10 per month and who may be earning an uncertain wage of $2 per day. Unable to afford to invest in fixed assets when they might be required to move at very short notice. The project seeks to deliver desirable products to the local market, the one billion growing to two billion slum dwellers, which will be available for years to come. This is irrespective of any on-going donor involvement and possibly in advance of formal recognition and infrastructure investment by conventional service providers. Cont/d.Item Open Access The impact of European design policies and their implications on the development of a framework to support future Brazilian design policies(Cranfield University, 2013-05) Torres Do Patrocinio, Gabriel Henrique; Bolton, SimonAbout the theme: Public design policies can be explained as sets of principles established by a government intending to apply design into leveraging social, economical, industrial, and regional development. Design policy is an emerging theme in the field of design, and one that has been raising concerns from governments globally. Two aspects drive this interest: the extraordinary growth rates of the creative industries in the past decades; and the ability of Design to be a link between technology, creativity and the user, being a potential unique tool to help innovate and foster economic growth. About the research: The research was proposed responding an observed demand of governments in emerging countries to structure policies to use design to promote industrial and social development. It was structured to analyse current national and regional Design Policies within the framework of common aspects, effective practices and trends; external factors influencing their implementation; general causes of failures; assessment methods; and the influence of coexisting design definitions and trends. The focus is on Brazil, whose government is funding the research, the European Union, and the United Kingdom. In this context the research aims to generate a rationale for planning and assessment of Design Policies based on a review of current effective practices and identified future trends relevant to emerging markets. The main objective of the research is the identification and analysis of the constituent elements, driving forces, impacting factors, expected consequences, assessment methodologies and common failures of design policies. The intended goal is to respond to a demand for new knowledge, data, and tools that could contribute to reduce the current level of uncertainty regarding design policies. Methodology: To acknowledge the established objectives and goal, a comprehensive review of literature was initially carried out, including many reports and other documents from governments and from the EU. Emerging issues from the review informed a two-stage study developed in Brazil. For the first stage, in 2011, thirteen stakeholders were interviewed, from key active governmental programmes and departments. The choice of programmes and departments was validated by questions from the interview itself. The second stage, in 2012, focused on the only currently active design support programme aimed at SMEs in Brazil. During this phase, it was collected archival data and three interviews conducted. Collected data was analysed using descriptive statistic tools. The findings were then filtered using documents and archival data about European effective practices to inform the discussion and recommendations, and further used to generate a modelling framework for design policies. Contribution: The research contribution can be acknowledged in four different levels of outcomes: a comprehensive review of literature (1), combining an assortment of very significant documents and discussing their connections and specific contributions to the field; the application of an interview and archive based case study (2) about design policies in Brazil, corroborating Case Studies as a leading research tool for the area; a discussion on the impacting factors and effective practices of design policies (3); and finally the conceptual model and framework named respectively Compass Model and Create DP (4) that set together a framework intended to reduce levels of uncertainty in planning design policies.