Abstract

This report describes a pre-study on innovation and product development in the Swedish wood products industry. In a globalized world with severe market competition it is often claimed that more value adding processes and faster new product development are key strategies for a better profitability in the industry. However, most industry studies do not go into detail on how the industry can improve in these areas. This study deals both with product development, i.e. new physical products, and innovations that entail other features such as service offerings, production processes or organizational changes. The main assumption of this study is that an intensified innovation and product development requires a thorough knowledge about the customers’ real needs. Theories of innovation and product development have evolved from the early ’linear’ model to a recognition that much of the capacity to develop good new products depend on complex combinations of resources and capabilities, including culture, partnerships, business relations and the accumulated experience in the company. Furthermore, theories on competitive strategy deal implicitly with innovation and product development. Features of the ”innovative” organization are for instance discussed and studied here. Different methods exist for customer-oriented product development, e.g. the application of Total Quality Management, Quality Function Deployment, and Conjoint analysis. These models and methods can be used as detailed procedures or routines, or they can be introduced to the organisation to change the way of thinking and to increase the focus on the final user of the product. There are also different approaches to predict the preferences among the consumers: test at home, different types of panels of ”typical” customers demonstration of new product at fairs etc. Consumer surveys can be a useful method for screening and to identify products that probably have a decent chance on the market. However, consumers are generally conservative and have difficulties to relate to products that are ”really new”. There are a few studies on strategy changes in the Northern European forest products industry and even fewer on innovativeness. It seems from these studies that innovation is not a very structured activity. It is driven by a blend of customer relations, process- and product focus and a search for uniqueness. Studies of the strategic changes in the forest products industries indicate an increased emphasis on standardization, more focus on marketing, logistics, and more value adding processing to meet customer requirements. The interview survey showed that innovation in the industry mainly is of an incremental kind. There are examples of innovative companies with a good reputation for producing wood products that meet the customers´ requirements. It appears that these companies manage to combine a gradual stepwise innovation and accumulation of necessary competences with strategic choices at critical moments in the company’s history. The innovation in the industry is currently driven by environmental requirements, customer tastes, and changes in the distribution chain. The key to success lie in the knowledge within the company about the needs of the final consumer. Finally, this pre-study on product development generated a number of preliminary recommendations to the industry as a whole, and to individual companies: - Integrate innovation in the organization - Put innovation high on the agenda - Reserve time and means for innovation - Communicate with your customers - Allow mistakes but learn from them - Improve information exchange in the organization - Take active part in industry-wide collaborations - Know your company’s critical competences and experiences and build on them - Employ innovative young people - Maintain contacts with universities and high schools through MSc thesis and other collaboration - Engage in a direct dialogue with the customer – also on the export market

Published in

Rapport - Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, Institutionen för skogens produkter och marknader
2005, number: 16
Publisher: SLU, Institutionen för skogens produkter och marknader

SLU Authors

• Roos, Anders

  • Department of Forest Products, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Forest Science


Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/5810