Managing Innovation at Nypro, Inc - Case Study Example

Innovation at Nypro Case Study 27th May, Introduction and Background Nypro is one of the world’s leading producing company of plastic parts, and is currently working globally with 21 operational plants and the scope of the company is to ensure that all companies are making similar products; because of the global customer base. In the past the company has attracted its customers based on its performance and innovations; these services have helped the company to build a brand name and customer loyalty. As the times have evolved; the market needs have become more aggressive and demanding. They do not only focus on companies that are providing innovative products but at the same time they also focus on how quickly are they meeting the needs. The question which needs to be addressed by the company is how to effectively deploy the new technology. Along with the new developed product they also face the dilemma of how to maintain the set standards along with expansion of business and services. During the course of their research they have introduced a product by the name of NovaPlast and believe that it should be the solution to the question that is being raised. The case study would focus on the product and services provided by the company and how would these help in answering the problems raised for the company (Miscellaneous, 2014). Innovation at Nypro Company has an effective senior management; who are well qualified and understand the market needs and innovation process. They have qualified engineer team who work under them to produce state of the art products and services. They are operating worldwide with 21 plants but they have centralized operations to ensure that all the plants are making one standardize product for the customers. They have ensured that their plants are situated at locations that are close to customers so they are easily accessible. This helps them to capture more market share and places more employees into the field to ensure better technology would emerge. The main focus of the company is to make one kind of product for all of its customers; to ensure that all of them are being met with the same service and quality. This strategy helps them to implement they plans quickly and efficiently. It also creates a healthy environment for the customers to work and create effective ideas which are the needs and requirements of the customers. The focus of the market is to reach out to the masses so that a bigger market could be captured and catered to; the innovation style of the company is very effective and motivating for the all stakeholders. They are very dedicated to ensure that there is no discrimination in the services and quality of product delivered anywhere in the world. The innovation model of the company was such that they received order from the customer; once the order was accepted it was assigned to a project team; the team would study the requirements and would come up with a viable solution. Once the solution was complete it was further researched about the volume produced and how the product could be improved further. The product was further improved and the final product was adopted by the plants to ensure standardize products are produced. Lankton Process Management Lankton was the CEO of Nypro in 1995 when the company was undergoing major strategic changes. Lankton was a very effective leader and had been managing the company up to the expectations of the all stakeholders. He was one of the pioneers of the company who made the company reach new heights; he had to take many critical decisions to ensure that he meets all the requirements of a successful project. Lankton divided the strategy in to two parts; in the first part of the strategy the senior management would sit and decide on what actions should be taken; and in the second part of the strategy the innovators would discover new opportunities to for the company. It was Lanktons success that he created an environment where both the teams had strong motivation to identify the market needs and to develop the product accordingly. Lankton ensured that both the teams work collectively instead of being competitors in proving who had done a better job; and in ensuring the same goal he established a board across his plant network; this exchange of directors and regular meetings the team was more focused in its approach and management. Lankton did not approach with bias views about the departments rather he was more focused at understanding and analyzing the processes. The teams and units were reviewed on elements such as cost control, delivery, quality control, and asset utilization; and the financial rewards were also given accordingly to the work performed by the employees. The teams were made up of members from different departments to ensure that all of them work to achieve the same goal; and the expertise of all the departments can be shared with each other. The presence of the company is different areas also helped in bringing ideas from different regions to ensure maximum innovation with least cost; the teams would sit together and exchange the expertise to bring out the best of the solution to the raised problems. Lankton focus was on producing a product that would focus on high mix and low volume. The product that was introduced to the market was known as NovaPlast innovation. NovaPlast Decision NovaPlast was an innovation tool that is introduced by the company; they started and continued with the project with one plant; this exposed them to less weakness and would allowed more flexibility towards other. The strategy was divided into two parts; short term and long term. The short term of the strategy focused on ensuring constant evolution in process and innovations; continued marketing themselves and generating orders and once they have delivered the services they need to gather data to ensure how effective is the strategy working in the market. The long term focused on spreading the work worldwide. Although the product was innovative in its nature but it could not produce the desired results; it could not even match up to the expected results of the company. Using the machine as a high mix and low volume was disruptive to Nypro’s established profit model. The strength of the company was establishing new innovative ways that could sweep the market share; they were very much capable of taking out the best in innovation but they failed at implementing the top-down mode of technology. Conclusion The innovation was new to the company and the market; that is why they learned that it had some shortcomings that had to be addressed; Lankton was a successful and effective leader and that is what he did; he studied the model, figured out the weakness, asked his innovative team to come up with viable solutions. Today it runs as much of a success to the company as other model produced by them. Bibliography Analyst, J. T. (2014). USA Jobs. Retrieved may 27, 2014, from https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/369812800 Read More