Patricia Sandmeier demonstrates how a transfer of elements from Extreme Programming to the development practice of industrial products can improve customer integration activities in the product innovation process and the innovativeness of the resulting new products.

Customer integration in the early innovation phase, considered the method of choice in theory and practice, has shown unexpected side effects that may even outweigh its recognized advantages. As a result, management needs to be able to assess in advance whether the involvement of customers will add overall value to an innovation project. This book develops a mathematical formula to support this decision.

Based on multiple case study analysis, focusing on scalable service innovation, the present study provides a practical process model that shall serve telecommunication companies as a guideline while conducting strategic cross-industry innovation projects. The findings also pay attention to characteristics in cross-industry collaboration, organizational preconditions and strategic deliberations and postulate propositions for present theoretical innovation process models.

Managing and transferring knowledge - at the right time, in the right place and with the right quality for customers - enables companies to survive in times of fierce competition. The focus of this work is therefore on Knowledge Management and Customer Relationship Management. The theoretical part comprises several approaches to knowledge, its transfer and the barriers to be overcome when sharing knowledge. This is followed by a description of CRM and CKM (Customer Knowledge Management), outlining how crucial their successful use is. The practical part explores on the one hand the dependence on knowledge and on the other hand its availability for a good customer relationship. It includes a case study that investigates both the administrative and the operational area of a concrete company. The survey results are then discussed in detail, key success factors identified and mistakes pointed out. After this critical analysis, final recommendations are given that every company can benefit from.

As a concept, Concurrent Engineering (CE) initiates processes with the goal of improving product quality, production efficiency and overall customer satisfaction. Services are becoming increasingly important to the economy, with more than 60% of the GDP in Japan, the USA, Germany and Russia deriving from service-based activities. The definition of a product has evolved from the manufacturing and supplying of goods only, to providing goods with added value, to eventually promoting a complete service business solution, with support from introduction into service and from operations to decommissioning. This book presents the proceedings of the 20th ISPE International Conference on Concurrent Engineering, held in Melbourne, Australia, in September 2013. The conference had as its theme Product and Service Engineering in a Dynamic World, and the papers explore research results, new concepts and insights covering a number of topics, including service engineering, cloud computing and digital manufacturing, knowledge-based engineering and sustainability in concurrent engineering.

This book shows the patterns of the fuzzy front end of innovation and how it can be managed successfully. Topics in this book cover traditional instruments and processes such as technology monitoring, market-oriented research management, lead-user developments, but also modern approaches such as frontloading, user community-driven innovation, crowdsourcing, anthropological expeditions, technological listening posts in global R&D settings, cross-industry innovation processes, open innovation, and IP cycle management. Contributions are based on latest research and cases studies on this new paradigm. The authors investigate this phenomenon, linking the practice of the early innovation phase to the established body of innovation research. Conceptional articles complement case studies to provide the reader with insight on managing the fuzzy front end of innovation. Lessons learned with success factors and checklists complement each chapter.​

This book deals with how companies can involve customers or users in order to learn with them in the field of service-based business development. It presents a variety of customer-involvement approaches, methods for learning with customers, and the results of case studies conducted in both service and manufacturing companies focusing on value-creation through services.Based on research carried out by several research groups around the world, as well as on illustrative cases, the book creates new actionable knowledge regarding customer-involvement which will be useful for both practitioners and scholars.Benefits for readers include: an understanding of the business potential of learning with customers and other users; an overview of the fields of new service development and customer-involvement with regard to concepts, theoretical frameworks, and models, in addition to strategies and techniques for involving users in fruitful ways during the innovation process; an illustration of the cases based on the results of empirical studies; and managerial implications and guidelines regarding how to manage customer-involvement during the different phases of the new service and business development process.