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NEW PRODUCT DESIGN AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Engineering and business students join with industry to create new products William Durfee Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Minnesota. Why. New products drive successful businesses

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  1. NEW PRODUCT DESIGN AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENTEngineering and business students join with industry to create new productsWilliam DurfeeDepartment of Mechanical EngineeringUniversity of Minnesota

  2. Why • New products drive successful businesses • Faculty from several schools within the university interested in new products • Need to train students in a multi-disciplinary setting • New partnerships with industry

  3. Product Needs Faculty Students Industry U Resources NEW PRODUCTS PROGRAM Education Projects Research • New Product Development Leaders • New Products • New Knowledge

  4. What • Graduate level course offered by IT, CSOM, BME • Work with client firms to design a new product and create a business plan • Teams of 4-8 students (1/2 business, 1/2 engineering) + faculty + marketing and engineering company reps • Nine months (Sept - June) • Deliverables: Working prototype, comprehensive business plan

  5. Features • Real projects • Companies commit to manufacture • Cross-functional teams • Engineers do marketing and vice-versa • All patents assigned to companies • All team members sign confidentiality agreements • Strong university/industry collaboration on project • Parallel research on NPD process • Companies pay fee, revenue used to support academic design program

  6. Outcomes (as of Year 5) • 30 projects • 180+ students • 8 faculty • Many working prototypes • Saved Augustine Medical 1-1/2 years in product development process • One patent issued, several pending

  7. Confidentiality • Signed agreements • All students and faculty sign all agreements • Implications • Cannot disclose information to friends or family • Agreement is between students and company, not university and company • Five-year time limit • Publications must have company approval

  8. Intellectual Property • All patents assigned to company • but students can be named inventors • Company pays costs associated with patent preparation and filing

  9. University resources • Faculty experts • Research centers • Computing resources (CAD....) • Student Shop • Rapid Prototyping machine • Medical Devices Prototyping Lab

  10. Projects • Careful selection • Known area, but not completely defined • Business challenges • Engineering challenges • Typically mechanical, electromechanical • Many medical products • 4-6 projects/year

  11. Projects (1995-2000) 3M, Home and Commercial Care Division (1995), 2nd generation Twist ‘N Fill container Toro, Consumer Division (1995), Powered, hand-held gardening tool Micro-Medical Devices, Cleveland OH (1995, 1996), Endoscope technology Reel Precision Manufacturing (1996), New market hinge product Horton Manufacturing (1996), Smart cluth/brake Irwin Publishing (1996), CD-ROM textbook supplement Donaldson (1997), Engine noise control product Molecular Diagnostics Lab, UMN (1997), Blood collection system Aetrium, Inc. (1997), Motion platform for Integrated circuit testing machine Spinal Designs International (1997), Low-back pain care for people in wheelchairs Augustine Medical (1997), Skin care product Horton Manufacturing (1997), Web control product Soil Sensors (1998), Next-generation soil moisture sensor Honeywell, Home & Building Control (1998), Residential ventilation system Select Comfort (1998), Improved-comfort sleet system Sulzer Medica, Winterthur Switzerland (1998), Hip surgery instrument 3M, Stationery and Office Supply Division (1998), Improved Post-it Flag dispensors Augustine Medical (1998), Nursing home market for Augustine technology Medtronic (1999), Catheter product Enhanced Mobility Technology (1999), Biorehab product Lincages (1999), Windows version of CAD mechanicsm software Shepherd Medical (1999), Male contraceptives Rust Architects (1999), Ice-palace cooler Sulzer Medica (1999), Arthoscopy product SpineTech (2000), Artificial disk product EnduraTEC (2000), Tissue test grips Scimed (2000), Smart catheter product Medtronic (2000), Visible Heart CD-ROM Machine Magic (2000), Key duplicating machine

  12. 3M (1997-1998) • Post-it Flag group • Innovative product to increase Flag sales • 200 preliminary concepts, 40 prototypes, 4 detailed prototypes • 3M took one to placement study then to manufacture

  13. The old product The NPDBD collection of prototypes

  14. AUGUSTINE MEDICAL (1996-1997) • Find new markets for core technology of warming patients during surgery • Team identied new market, developed and field tested a prototype product • Saved Augustine 1-1/2 years in product development time

  15. SULZER MEDICA (1997-1998) • Orthopaedic products company, Winterthur, Switzerland • New product to facilitate hip implant surgery • Distance communication issues (e-mail, phone and video conferences) • European market • Working prototype developed, will be launched as a product soon

  16. Lessons Learned • Engineering and business must lead program equally • Creating appropriate agreements takes time and effort • Requires didactic component on product development process • Advantage if company is nearby

  17. Want more information? www.npdbd.umn.edu Durfee, W. “Engineering Education Gets Real”, Technology Review, Feb/Mar 1994, 42-51. Erdman, A and W. Durfee, “Pac-Man, Calluses and the Undergraduate Engineering Design Student”, Educators’ Tech Exchange, Spring/Summer 1995, 16-23. Durfee, W., The new product design and business development program: Engineers and business students join with industry to create new products, Proceedings of the 1999 ASEE Annual Conference (CD-ROM), Charlotte, 1999.

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