This paper stresses the importance of collaborations to foster innovation and highlights the need for a shared understanding of innovation. To support successful collaboration we outline essential success factors and formulate hypotheses to improve collaborations focussing on SMEs. A model is introduced, allowing the identification of fields and measures to foster innovation. In addition, the concept of Product Generation Engineering is proposed to analyse past and plan future innovation activities. The discussion and hypotheses are addressed to researchers in the field of product engineering.
Offering product-service systems instead of technical products is one way for companies to achieve a competitive advantage and stay viable in the future. This paper presents a workshop series created in cooperation between a manufacturer of wood processing production lines and a research institute for engineering design to develop PSS concepts for a plant. Using the finger jointing line as an example, the progress and results of the workshops are presented. Furthermore, it is discussed whether the workshop series is transferable to other products and industries.
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