Once you teach a bear to dance, you’d better be prepared to dance until the bear’s
ready to stop. – Unknown
There’s a lot of talk lately about innovation and its likely role in the revitalization
of US manufacturing.
This past June, President Obama announced the formation of the Advanced Manufacturing
Partnership – a collection of representatives from academia and the public and private
sectors tasked with making recommendations to the President on how to best rebuild the US
manufacturing engine. Beyond the AMP, the true importance of US manufacturing has jumped
back into our collective consciousness over the last two years. We’ve seen what we’ve
given away and what that loss is costing us.
But despite the plethora of positive columns, articles and studies – as well as the
emergence of the reshoring trend – restarting and sustaining our innovation engine
throughout our supply and demand chains brings with it great responsibilities.
Bill, a close personal and professional friend of mine, runs a small, technically
advanced aerospace machining business. His company is a family-owned business that
obsesses over quality and service. Like many of its successful counterparts, that
obsession drives it to constantly evaluate emerging technological advances in capital
equipment and ancillary capabilities that bring top-line value to its customers.
To put it bluntly, Bill knows his stuff.
Late in 2011, Bill began looking to upgrade the shop’s CNC milling and machining
capabilities. Among the short list of candidates he’d created from his research was a
company he’d worked with in the past. As we discussed the experiences and challenges he
was facing during this phase, he shared an important observation: the former vendor – a
high-functioning technology builder of the upper strata – seemed to have lost something
important.
The vendor’s service had eroded. To the point, according to Bill, that it nearly negated
the value of the quality a premium price brought.
“What it seems like the company had done is focus more and more on the ‘lights-out,
knock-your-socks-off’ innovation and state-of-the-art technology, and let its service
degrade to pay for that innovation," Bill said. "The company doesn’t seem to see beyond
the initial sale, and seems to have forgotten that dependability is just as important to
my business – and my customers’ businesses.”
This isn’t uncommon, and that’s certainly so in manufacturing. But the innovator that had
puzzled Bill so – a foreign capital equipment manufacturer known for its cutting-edge
products – offers a perfect example of the responsibilities we all have to our customers
when we adopt a posture of innovation.
Here are three responsibilities that our businesses and our country must understand
before we pursue advancing our technology and innovation superiority:
- Service: Innovative, cutting-edge technology requires strong support to be applied
effectively. Innovation inherently requires more service, since it often presents
processes or results that haven’t been seen before. For better or worse, there are fewer
familiar standards in highly advanced manufacturing innovation, particularly when it
breaks. We must be ready for these inevitabilities, nationally and corporately.
- Training: Service takes people. But innovation in high-tech sectors is rarely plug-
and-play for end users. In innovation, training is two-fold – training our own people for
service and operation, and doing the same for the customer. For many manufacturers,
customer training or support is seen as high-margin revenue stream. But what happens when
those costs or substandard training drive customers to a competitor? Will those margins
be worth it then? From the smallest shops to our national commitment, education and
training are paramount to a successful innovation strategy.
- Supply Chain: Any business strategy – and especially the support of innovative
technology – demands dependable parts and materials supply. Whether it’s consumables that
support the technology or parts and service in support of emergency demand maintenance
events, inventories are extremely critical around innovation.
In consumer products, innovation often focuses on usability and simplicity – think
phones, tablets and such – making extraordinary tasks extraordinarily easy. But in the
industries where high-tolerance, discrete parts are designed and manufactured, high
levels of competence and expertise will always be required to meet need. There’s just too
much at stake.
And know this – innovation is expensive. It requires resolve and an understanding that
you’d better dance until the bear – your customer – says the song is over.
We must all include commitments to service, training and supply chain health to ensure
the innovations our products bring to markets are valued, bought and trusted. And any
committee, group or special commission had better understand that. We need a strong
industrial base to support, feed and protect innovation. That doesn’t just happen.
Otherwise, that bear will bite us – by exposing us to substantial competitive threats. It
might not happen in the near term or at the point of sale, but by eroding confidence and
loyalty down the road.
AJ Sweatt is a marketing communications strategist and consultant who works with
numerous industrial businesses and supply chains – groups, associations, OEMs, suppliers,
distributors and SMBs. Sweatt also is an editor and writer with over 20 years of
experience in technical, business and industrial publications, and an experienced public
speaker, primarily serving technical and industrial environments. He is the principal of
AJ Sweatt Logic & Communications, and can be reached via email at [email protected]. |