A GREAT WAY TO INNOVATE

"A great way to innovate is to take an idea from another place and be the first to apply it in your field.

Take as an example the assembly line. 

Henry Ford (1863 – 1947) is often credited with the innovation of the assembly line in mass manufacturing and he was the first to use it in automobile manufacture.

Ford got the idea from an abattoir. He was impressed with the efficiency of the Swift slaughterhouse in Chicago where carcasses were butchered as they moved along a conveyor.

Ray Kroc (1902 – 1984) adopted the idea and applied it to the restaurant business when he ran the McDonald’s chain. 

He applied the assembly line principle to hamburger preparation and transformed productivity and speed of service in restaurants.

An Indian ophthalmologist, Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy (1918 – 2006), admired the McDonald’s approach and decided to try a similar method for the low-cost treatment of cataracts in India.

He trained paramedics to do 70% of the work required in each surgery freeing up doctors to perform the more demanding tasks. He brought assembly line thinking to the process and reduced the cost of each cataract operation to around $10 (compared to say $1700 in the USA).

In a nut shell, an idea from a slaughterhouse transformed car assembly, fast food restaurants and eye surgery."

[Thanks to innovation strategist Paul Sloane, writing in www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/]

THE INNOVATION ENGINE, by Prof Tina Seelig

I like what I am reading:

“As a scientist, when I do an experiment that doesn't work as I expected, what do I call it? Data.

It’s not a failure.

In fact, some of the most interesting scientific research comes from experiments that have unexpected results.

The key is to look at the things that don’t come out as expected as data that provides interesting clues to what is really happening.

If you are afraid of failure, you won’t try anything new.”

~ Prof Tina Seelig of Stanford University, neuro-scientist and author of 'inGenius: A Crash Course in Creativity';

Here's a nice graphic rendition of the Escher-like creativity model, 'The Innovation Engine', conceived by Prof Tina Seeling by Dilip Mukerjea.