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WWYD 3M with 40,000 Patents and Patent Applications and More

question 112

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WWYD 3M With 40,000 patents and patent applications and more than 55,000 products in numerous industries, 3M has long been one of the most innovative companies in the world. 3M codified its focus on innovation as "30/5," meaning 30 percent of its annual sales must come from products no more than five years old. To achieve this, 3M encouraged its engineers and scientists to spend 5 percent of their time on innovation and new product development. The goal worked and 3M ranked as the most innovative company in the world at one time. When the company began to pursue efficiency, however, it's innovative spirit withered. Six Sigma processes, popularized at Motorola and GE, were introduced by 3M's previous CEO to analyze how things got done, remove unnecessary steps, and change procedures that caused defects. As a result, costs and capital spending dropped and profits surged. But the profits attributed to 30/5 product innovation sank dramatically-21percent, dramatically below the company's long-term goal of 30 percent-due to how Six Sigma inversely impacted product innovation. 3M soon fell from the top tier of innovative companies, dropping to second, third, and then seventh place in industry-wide rankings, and eventually falling out of the top 50. Since innovation ensures being competitive in the long run, 3M's new CEO George Buckley needed to improve 3M's ability to introduce innovative products and services. As CEO Buckley observed, "Invention is by its very nature a disorderly process. You can't put a Six Sigma process into that area and … schedule myself for three good ideas …. That's not how creativity works."
Cost considerations may be why CEO Buckley encouraged 3M's managers and scientists to focus on innovating around its core products and services in 3M's largest markets. Buckley encouraged 3M scientists to begin "inventing hundreds of next small things" rather than the next big thing-that is, making current products a little bit better year after year. Buckley calls this innovating "at the bottom of the pyramid." In addition to incremental improvements in innovation, 3M's people are being encouraged to innovate in ways that reduce product costs. According to Buckley, "We often think innovation is making a breakthrough at the top of the pyramid. That's often not where the hardest challenges are. The hardest challenges are often: How do I make a breakthrough for next to nothing?" 3M scientists are also leveraging ideas from other products or scientists in the company. 3M was able to do this with its Cubitron sanding disks. 3M knew that its sanding disks would work better if each tiny piece of ceramic "sand" on its sanding disks was identical. That would allow the disks to act more like a razor blade when sanding off layers of materials. But, the reality was that each piece of ceramic "sand" was a different shape with a slightly different size. That meant that the sanding disks made uneven contact with sanding surfaces, which produced "bouncing" that made it more difficult to do a quality sanding job. Scott Culler, a 3M scientist said, "The big voilà happened." And that "big voilà" was realizing that 3M's micro-replicating technology, used to create identical reflective materials in reflective roads signs, could also be used to create identical, tiny pieces of ceramic sand. It took 15 months to perfect the process, but Culler and his fellow scientists were able to do it and produce substantially better Cubitron sanding disks, sales of which are now up 30 percent.
As a result of CEO George Buckley's efforts, 3M has rebounded strongly from restoring the 5 percent rule for 3M engineers and limiting Six Sigma practices to factories. 3M's organic growth rate from products it develops from existing businesses is a healthy and it is introducing 1,000 new products a year and has even surpassed the company goal of 30 percent for the first time in years. Refer to WWYD 3M. In the case of 3M, why did the Six Sigma initiative have a negative impact on innovation?

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Human Organism

A term referring to the entire physical, mental, and emotional structure of a human being.

Pounds

In the imperial system, a measure of weight that equals approximately 0.453592 kilograms.

Fetal

Pertains to a stage of human development inside the womb, from conception until birth.

Proximodistal Pattern

A pattern of physical growth and motor control that proceeds from the center of the body outward, in which torso and arm development precede that of the hands and fingers.