Overcoming the Valley of Death: An industrial case study of barriers and enablers when using the Technology Readiness Level scale
(2020) INTM01 20201Innovation Engineering
- Abstract
- An innovation process should take an idea all the way from research to the market. However, this is a long process in which many barriers can appear. For this thesis, a case study has been conducted, at a large Swedish industrial manufacturing company, with the purpose to examine their material innovation process.
They have experienced challenges when transferring the results of the innovation from Research and Development (R&D) to a receiving department. Too often, the findings of the R&D department are left on a shelf. Therefore, the purpose of the thesis is to identify which barriers that are present in the material innovation process at the case company, as well as to investigate best-case examples.
The challenges presented in... (More) - An innovation process should take an idea all the way from research to the market. However, this is a long process in which many barriers can appear. For this thesis, a case study has been conducted, at a large Swedish industrial manufacturing company, with the purpose to examine their material innovation process.
They have experienced challenges when transferring the results of the innovation from Research and Development (R&D) to a receiving department. Too often, the findings of the R&D department are left on a shelf. Therefore, the purpose of the thesis is to identify which barriers that are present in the material innovation process at the case company, as well as to investigate best-case examples.
The challenges presented in the Internal Technology Transfer (ITT) literature often regard the communication between the R&D and Product Development departments. Furthermore, different ways of handling the barriers that appear in the innovation process have been found in the literature. For example, the Stage Gate (SG) process can be used to manage innovation.
The case company uses the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) scale. It is a tool to define the maturity of a technology development. The most prominent barrier found in the case study is interface communication at TRL 6 when transferring technology from R&D, also known as the valley of death. This refers to the communication and interaction between different departments within the case company. The interface communication in its turn consists of three main barriers: not demanded technology, different resource prioritization, and insufficient handovers, which is in line with the ITT literature.
However, the literature does not suggest if or how TRL and elements of SG could be combined. By mapping the process, barriers, and ways to address them, combining best case examples and literature findings, the authors fill this gap. A framework of how to incorporate the two concepts of SG and TRL is presented. Moreover, a recommendation of how other theoretical concepts could be added to the framework is given. (Less) - Abstract (Swedish)
- En innovationsprocess ska ta en idé hela vägen från forskning till marknaden. Detta är dock en lång process i vilken många barriärer kan uppstå. För det här examensarbetet har en fältstudie gjorts på ett stort svenskt industriföretag, med syftet att undersöka deras materialinnovationsprocess.
De har upplevt att de möter utmaningar när resultaten av en innovation ska överföras från Forskning och Utveckling (FoU) till en mottagande avdelning. Resultatet från FoU lämnas alltför ofta på en hylla i detta gränssnitt. Därför är syftet med detta examensarbete att identifiera vilka barriärer som är närvarande i materialinnovationsprocessen på företaget, samt att undersöka exempel på när processen har fungerat som bäst.
De utmaningar som... (More) - En innovationsprocess ska ta en idé hela vägen från forskning till marknaden. Detta är dock en lång process i vilken många barriärer kan uppstå. För det här examensarbetet har en fältstudie gjorts på ett stort svenskt industriföretag, med syftet att undersöka deras materialinnovationsprocess.
De har upplevt att de möter utmaningar när resultaten av en innovation ska överföras från Forskning och Utveckling (FoU) till en mottagande avdelning. Resultatet från FoU lämnas alltför ofta på en hylla i detta gränssnitt. Därför är syftet med detta examensarbete att identifiera vilka barriärer som är närvarande i materialinnovationsprocessen på företaget, samt att undersöka exempel på när processen har fungerat som bäst.
De utmaningar som presenteras i litteratur om intern teknologiöverföring är ofta kopplade till kommunikationen mellan FoU- och produktutvecklings-avdelningen. Vidare har olika sätt att hantera de barriärer som uppstår i innovationsprocessen hittats i litteraturen. Ett exempel på detta är Stage Gate (SG)-processen som kan användas för att styra innovation.
Det undersökta företaget använder Technology Readiness Level (TRL)-skalan. Det är en skala som kan användas för att definiera hur mogen en teknologiutveckling är. Gränssnittskommunikation vid TRL 6 där teknologi överförs från FoU, även kallat the valley of death, är den mest framträdande barriären som har identifierats på företaget. Denna barriär refererar till kommunikationen och interaktionen mellan olika avdelningar inom företaget. Gränssnittskommunikations-barriären består i sin tur av tre huvudbarriärer: icke efterfrågad teknologi, olika resursprioritering och bristfälliga överlämningar, vilket är i linje med litteraturen om intern teknologiöverföring.
I litteraturen ges det dock inga förslag på om eller hur TRL och SG skulle kunna kombineras. Genom att kartlägga processen, barriärer och sätt att adressera dem, samt kombinera praktiska exempel med litterära resultat, fyller författarna denna lucka. Ett ramverk för hur de två koncepten SG och TRL kan inkorporeras presenteras i denna uppsats. Vidare ges en rekommendation av hur andra teoretiska koncept kan adderas till ramverket. (Less) - Popular Abstract
- Overcoming the Valley of Death at Technology Readiness Level 6
Overcoming the Valley of Death when transferring technology from the Research department to Product Development is a well-known challenge for the companies and organizations using the Technology Readiness Level scale. For this thesis, a case study has been conducted, at a large Swedish industrial manufacturing company, with the purpose to examine their material innovation process and to address the barriers appearing in it.
Research and Development is a vital part of society and every large business. In 2017, the business enterprise sector of Sweden spent over SEK 120 billion on R&D, which amounts for 1.5 percent of the total spending.
The case company have experienced... (More) - Overcoming the Valley of Death at Technology Readiness Level 6
Overcoming the Valley of Death when transferring technology from the Research department to Product Development is a well-known challenge for the companies and organizations using the Technology Readiness Level scale. For this thesis, a case study has been conducted, at a large Swedish industrial manufacturing company, with the purpose to examine their material innovation process and to address the barriers appearing in it.
Research and Development is a vital part of society and every large business. In 2017, the business enterprise sector of Sweden spent over SEK 120 billion on R&D, which amounts for 1.5 percent of the total spending.
The case company have experienced challenges when transferring the results of the innovation from Research and Development (R&D) to a receiving department. Too often, the findings of the R&D department are left on a shelf. Therefore, the purpose of the thesis is to identify which barriers that are present in the material innovation process at the case company, as well as to investigate when it is working well, the so called best-case examples.
The case company uses the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) scale. It is a tool to define the maturity of a technology development. The challenges presented in the literature often regard the communication between the R&D and Product Development departments. The most prominent barrier found at the company in the case study is interface communication at TRL 6, also known as the valley of death. This refers to the communication and interaction between different departments within the company. The interface communication in its turn consists of three main barriers: not demanded technology, different resource prioritization, and insufficient handovers, which is in line with the literature reviewed.
Furthermore, different ways of handling the barriers that appear in the innovation process have been found. For example, the Stage Gate process is a process designed to manage innovation. However, the literature does not suggest if or how TRL and elements of the Stage Gate process could be combined. By mapping the process, barriers, and ways to address them, combining best case examples and literature findings, the authors fill this gap. A framework of how to incorporate the two concepts is presented, in which activities are specified to overcome the Technology Readiness Level 6 gap. The activities all relate to increasing the communication and commitment from all levels of the company. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9019579
- author
- Håkansson, Linnea LU and Wendesten, Johanna LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- INTM01 20201
- year
- 2020
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Innovation Management, Technology Readiness Level, Technology Innovation, Internal Technology Transfer, Process Framework
- language
- English
- id
- 9019579
- date added to LUP
- 2020-06-18 08:44:02
- date last changed
- 2020-06-18 08:44:02
@misc{9019579,
abstract = {{An innovation process should take an idea all the way from research to the market. However, this is a long process in which many barriers can appear. For this thesis, a case study has been conducted, at a large Swedish industrial manufacturing company, with the purpose to examine their material innovation process.
They have experienced challenges when transferring the results of the innovation from Research and Development (R&D) to a receiving department. Too often, the findings of the R&D department are left on a shelf. Therefore, the purpose of the thesis is to identify which barriers that are present in the material innovation process at the case company, as well as to investigate best-case examples.
The challenges presented in the Internal Technology Transfer (ITT) literature often regard the communication between the R&D and Product Development departments. Furthermore, different ways of handling the barriers that appear in the innovation process have been found in the literature. For example, the Stage Gate (SG) process can be used to manage innovation.
The case company uses the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) scale. It is a tool to define the maturity of a technology development. The most prominent barrier found in the case study is interface communication at TRL 6 when transferring technology from R&D, also known as the valley of death. This refers to the communication and interaction between different departments within the case company. The interface communication in its turn consists of three main barriers: not demanded technology, different resource prioritization, and insufficient handovers, which is in line with the ITT literature.
However, the literature does not suggest if or how TRL and elements of SG could be combined. By mapping the process, barriers, and ways to address them, combining best case examples and literature findings, the authors fill this gap. A framework of how to incorporate the two concepts of SG and TRL is presented. Moreover, a recommendation of how other theoretical concepts could be added to the framework is given.}},
author = {{Håkansson, Linnea and Wendesten, Johanna}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Overcoming the Valley of Death: An industrial case study of barriers and enablers when using the Technology Readiness Level scale}},
year = {{2020}},
}