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Purpose Small organizations within profit maximization supply chains form industrial clusters to share resources. They mainly deliver products and services in a reactive manner, where the cluster is only facilitating. However, the cluster management can lead business development and assign work packages intelligently to appropriate cluster members by respecting collaboration and innovation. This upgrade of the cluster management requires a systematic approach. Therefore, the intelligent Cluster Assignment Tool concept is developed and an illustrative example is given. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach Interviews and workshops were used to isolate the hierarchy of the assignment model, supported by a literature research. Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process method was applied to determine weights, consolidating data delivered by members of a Turkish aviation and defence cluster. The approach was discussed at the IEEE 2016 ICE Conference in Norway with experts to assess regional restrictions. Findings Cluster members are actively looking for possibilities to enhance innovation potential that they are ready to participate in systematic approaches. Cluster organizations can differ by leading their members actively, when respecting all isolated dimensions of assignment. This can lead towards a cooperation base enhancing the potential for innovation and new product development (NPD). Research limitations/implications The illustrative example indicates a good fit to clusters without a dominant anchor firm. The generic framework was deliberated on cross-sectional perspective as satisfactory to be applied to different sectors in developing economies. Practical implications This paper helps clusters and small organizations to upgrade for innovation. Furthermore, it delivers a strategic tool supporting organizational transformation, preventing the price trap as well. Originality/value This approach is focussing on multi-criteria assignment across cluster members, upgrading it to a united organization. It delivers a strategic framework for cluster management, building a collaboration environment leading to innovation and NPD.

Due to copyright restrictions, the access to the full text of this article is only available via subscription.Most of commercial civil aircraft are derivatives of each other. They start with an aero-structural design based on the mission profile, and what remains is the integration of existing subsystems. This only leaves room for incremental innovation. When a totally new concept has to be worked out, an innovative brainstorming procedure has to be facilitated, leading to a new product definition. This collaborative creative thinking is not an easy task, and analytical design management tools are required. Therefore, an iterative AHP-QFD-AHP approach for brainstorming is implemented into a concurrent engineering environment in the early phases of layout conception. In the case study, the proposed model delivered the product definition of the cryoplane concept successfully, which promises clean operation

Companies need to deliver innovative new products in order to compete in the global market successfully. Customer preferences as well technologies are highly dynamic that continuous ideation is required in the fuzzy Front End of product development, where suitable ideas have to be selected to initiate object innovation. The fuzzy Front End is mainly unorganized in companies, and there is a lack of a consistent taxonomy in the literature covering all aspects in the fuzzy Front End for successful product innovation. Consequently a model describing the pillars of the fuzzy Front End with respect to object innovation is synthesized here based on evidence from the industry supported by a systematic literature review, which shall support practitioners and researchers in the successful evaluation of innovation ideas.