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Front End (front + end)
Kinds of Front End Selected AbstractsTeaching the Fuzzy Front End of Innovation: Experimenting with Team Learning and Cross-Organizational IntegrationCREATIVITY AND INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2009Miia Martinsuo How can the extremely uncertain front end of innovation , managing the fuzzy front end , be taught to graduate students? This paper describes and analyses experiments with experiential, problem-based learning focused on the front end of innovation. The focus is on the learning and cross-organizational integration of student teams; factors that have been identified as central to the success of teams involved in the front end of innovation. An experiential course, ,From an idea to a business plan in product development', was developed in conjunction with an actual company, and piloted with four student groups in 2007 and 2008. Data on this novel course were collected through participant observation, team self-assessment and questionnaires. This paper reports favourable results for the effectiveness of the course design; it discusses the impact of team size and cross-organizational team composition on team performance; and identifies the implications for teaching the front end of innovation. [source] Towards a New Logic for Front End Management: From Drug Discovery to Drug Design in Pharmaceutical R&DCREATIVITY AND INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2007Maria Elmquist Under pressure to innovate and be cost-effective at the same time, R&D departments are being challenged to develop new organizations and processes for Front End activities. This is especially true in the pharmaceutical industry. As drug development becomes more risky and costly, the discovery departments of pharmaceutical companies are increasingly being compelled to provide strong drug candidates for efficient development processes and quick market launches. It is argued that the Fuzzy Front End consists less of the discovery or recognition of opportunities than of the building of expanded concepts: the notion of concept generation is revisited, suggesting the need for a new logic for organizing Front End activities in order to support sustainable innovative product development. Based on an in-depth empirical study at a European pharmaceutical company, this paper contributes to improved understanding of the actual management practices used in the Front End. Using a design reasoning model (the C-K model), it also adds to the growing body of literature on the management of Front End activities in new product development processes. [source] Teaching the Fuzzy Front End of Innovation: Experimenting with Team Learning and Cross-Organizational IntegrationCREATIVITY AND INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2009Miia Martinsuo How can the extremely uncertain front end of innovation , managing the fuzzy front end , be taught to graduate students? This paper describes and analyses experiments with experiential, problem-based learning focused on the front end of innovation. The focus is on the learning and cross-organizational integration of student teams; factors that have been identified as central to the success of teams involved in the front end of innovation. An experiential course, ,From an idea to a business plan in product development', was developed in conjunction with an actual company, and piloted with four student groups in 2007 and 2008. Data on this novel course were collected through participant observation, team self-assessment and questionnaires. This paper reports favourable results for the effectiveness of the course design; it discusses the impact of team size and cross-organizational team composition on team performance; and identifies the implications for teaching the front end of innovation. [source] Vegetated agricultural drainage ditches for the mitigation of pyrethroid-associated runoffENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY & CHEMISTRY, Issue 9 2005Erin R. Bennett Abstract Drainage ditches are indispensable components of the agricultural production landscape. A benefit of these ditches is contaminant mitigation of agricultural storm runoff. This study determined bifenthrin and lambda-cyhalothrin (two pyrethroid insecticides) partitioning and retention in ditch water, sediment, and plant material as well as estimated necessary ditch length required for effective mitigation. A controlled-release runoff simulation was conducted on a 650-m vegetated drainage ditch in the Mississippi Delta, USA. Bifenthrin and lambda-cyhalothrin were released into the ditch in a water-sediment slurry. Samples of water, sediment, and plants were collected and analyzed for pyrethroid concentrations. Three hours following runoff initiation, inlet bifenthrin and lambda-cyhalothrin water concentrations ranged from 666 and 374 ,g/L, respectively, to 7.24 and 5.23 ,g/L at 200 m downstream. No chemical residues were detected at the 400-m sampling site. A similar trend was observed throughout the first 7 d of the study where water concentrations were elevated at the front end of the ditch (0,25 m) and greatly reduced by the 400-m sampling site. Regression formulas predicted that bifenthrin and lambda-cyhalothrin concentrations in ditch water were reduced to 0.1% of the initial value within 280 m. Mass balance calculations determined that ditch plants were the major sink and/or sorption site responsible for the rapid aqueous pyrethroid dissipation. By incorporating vegetated drainage ditches into a watershed management program, agriculture can continue to decrease potential non-point source threats to downstream aquatic receiving systems. Overall results of this study illustrate that aquatic macrophytes play an important role in the retention and distribution of pyrethroids in vegetated agricultural drainage ditches. [source] TmoleX,A graphical user interface for TURBOMOLEJOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL CHEMISTRY, Issue 16 2010Claudia Steffen Abstract We herein present the graphical user interface (GUI) TmoleX for the quantum chemical program package TURBOMOLE. TmoleX allows users to execute the complete workflow of a quantum chemical investigation from the initial building of a structure to the visualization of the results in a user friendly graphical front end. The purpose of TmoleX is to make TURBOMOLE easy to use and to provide a high degree of flexibility. Hence, it should be a valuable tool for most users from beginners to experts. The program is developed in Java and runs on Linux, Windows, and Mac platforms. It can be used to run calculations on local desktops as well as on remote computers. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem 2010 [source] Distributed power amplifier/feedback low noise amplifier switch-less front-endMICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 8 2006Shaoyong Zheng Abstract Distributed amplifiers are used as a one-way amplifier, with two ports terminated and unused. A new topology that places a feedback low-noise amplifier at one of these unused ports is presented, which can be used as a TDD/TDMA RF front end, negating the need for a switch. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 48: 1659,1662, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.21690 [source] A bioinformatic tool for analysis of EST transcript abundance during infection-related development by Magnaporthe griseaMOLECULAR PLANT PATHOLOGY, Issue 5 2005DARREN M. SOANES SUMMARY Information regarding the levels of mRNA transcript abundance under different conditions, or in specific tissue types, can be obtained by analysis of the frequency of EST sequences in randomly sequenced cDNA libraries. Here we report a bioinformatics tool, which provides a means of identifying genes that are differentially expressed during pathogenesis-related development by the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe grisea. A total of 31 534 M. grisea ESTs were obtained from dbEST at NCBI, clustered into 8821 unique sequences (unisequences) and manually annotated. Transcript profiles were then calculated for 958 unigenes identified from eight different cDNA libraries. The data were integrated into the Consortium for Functional Genomics of Microbial Eukaryotes (COGEME) database (http://cogeme.ex.ac.uk/) and a web-based front end was designed to allow users to access and interrogate the generated datasets. [source] Working with concepts in the fuzzy front end: exploring the context for innovation for different types of concepts at Volvo CarsR & D MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2007Maria Backman Automotive firms are balancing the increasing needs for cost and time efficiency with the necessity of developing more innovative products to stand out on in a competitive market. The strive for efficiency has led to an increasingly structured development process with limited allowances for deviations. Previous academic work has pointed out the importance and embedded potential of the fuzzy front end, where new concepts still have the possibility to impact the new product development (NPD) process. However, most research has focused on the transfer of new technologies, while concepts based on e.g. customer or market knowledge have been more or less neglected. This paper discusses the need for alternative and contingent approaches in the front end of NPD to also consider the transfer of other types of concepts. More specifically, it addresses the need to distinguish between different types of concepts and to explore their different prerequisites in NPD. It is argued that customer- and market-based concepts experience certain difficulties due to the history and power of technology in research and development (R&D) domains in the automotive context as well as a lack of support from the existing, formal processes. In this paper, we argue that all new concepts need to be conceptualized before being introduced to the NPD process, but that does not always suffice. Concepts other than technology concepts also need a contingent package to enable an evaluation in the context of the R&D process , they need to be contextualized. This paper draws on an in-depth case study of Volvo Cars within a long-lasting collaborative research setup. It is based on an interview study with key persons in the areas of concept work and NPD, and uses an insider/outsider approach. [source] The front end of innovation in an era of industry convergence: evidence from nutraceuticals and functional foodsR & D MANAGEMENT, Issue 5 2006Stefanie Bröring Industry convergence, defined as a ,blurring' of boundaries between industries, induced by converging value propositions, technologies and markets, appears to be a pervasive phenomenon leading to the emergence of inter-industry segments. A current example of convergence can be witnessed in the nutraceuticals and functional foods sector, emerging at the boundary between the food and pharmaceutical industries. Not only technologies blur, but there is also a convergence of demand structures: consumers try to satisfy different needs in one transaction. In this context, this paper explores how actors from different industry-specific resource backgrounds can engage in an innovative activity requiring new technological and marketing competences. Given that absorptive capacity is limited by existing competences, this paper asks how organizations with different R&D competences are able to seize opportunities for innovation emerging from convergence. Empirical findings based on primary data collected from 54 R&D projects of a nutraceutical cluster show that there are different approaches of front end decision making: while some firms follow existing processes for front end decision making, others leave existing paths and need partners to fill in gaps already identified at the front end of innovation. [source] Radical innovation: triggering initiation of opportunity recognition and evaluationR & D MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2001Mark Rice The gap between a firm's reservoir of technical knowledge and the formation of a project to explore the commercial potential of a breakthrough technical insight or discovery is the first major discontinuity in the radical innovation lifecycle. The first step toward bridging that gap occurs when the researcher with the technical insight recognizes that it might have commercial potential and decides to alert a research manager. In our longitudinal study of eight radical innovation projects in six large, multi-national, R&D-intensive firms, the initiation of a radical innovation project was neither frequent nor routine. In fact the participants in the study indicated that the initiation of a project , in their terminology, the ,fuzzy front end of innovation', was the most challenging and uncertain part of the lifecycle. In this paper we explore the case data to illuminate the nature of the initiation gap. In addition we present an assessment framework that can help researchers decide whether or not to bring their technical idea to the attention of management. If the decision is positive, the assessment tool can help them prepare for the discussion with management and identify the strengths and weaknesses of the case to submitted for evaluation. [source] Managing learning in informal innovation networks: overcoming the Daphne-dilemmaR & D MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2000Joan E. Van Aken In this article we discuss the nature and productivity of informal innovation networks, i.e. informal collaborative arrangements between organizations engaged in product or process innovation. Such networks can be used in any phase of the innovation process, but their informal nature makes them especially suited for its fuzzy front end. We explore their potential in technology exchange and learning on the basis of a combination of organization network theory and knowledge management theory. We discuss issues in network governance and network operational management and discuss the basic dilemma , which we named the Daphne-dilemma , facing attempts to improve the productivity of informal innovation networks: too little management effort may lead to under-exploitation of their potential and poor productivity, but too much management effort may destroy their informal nature and hence their creative and explorative potential. [source] FROM EXPERIENCE: Creating Synergy between Marketing and Research and Development,THE JOURNAL OF PRODUCT INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2004Gail L. Rein The tensions between marketing and research and development (R&D) are so common that we have come to accept them as the way organizations are. If we remain resigned like this, how will we ever reap some of the benefits that can accrue from these groups working better together? If we can improve the working relationships between marketing and R&D, researchers promise a variety of desirable organizational outcomes, such as cycle-time reduction and new product success. This article describes in detail the changes that a Fortune 500 company made to its product development process to foster synergy between marketing and R&D. The modified process formalized the roles of marketing and R&D at both the front and back ends of the product development process, increasing productive interaction between the groups. The company found that at the front end, marketing and R&D needed to work together (1) to clarify the market requirements implicit in the market attack plan and (2) to develop a technical strategy that responded to the market requirements and that consequently implemented the market attack plan. At the back end, the groups needed to work together (3) to formulate the value messages used to market the company's products. The synergy created between marketing and R&D through the new process is credited for enabling the company to compete successfully in a market it never before had entered. [source] Integrated inductors on porous siliconPHYSICA STATUS SOLIDI (A) APPLICATIONS AND MATERIALS SCIENCE, Issue 5 2007H. Contopanagos The cover picture illustrates the effective use of a thick porous silicon layer as an integrated micro-plate for RF isolation on a silicon substrate, proposed by Harry Contopanagos and Androula Nassiopoulou in their Original Paper [1] in the current issue. What is plotted is the magnitude of the current distribution (colour coded from blue (low) to high (red) values) on the metallization and on a screen 50 µm underneath the bottom oxide layer of a 2-metal integrated CMOS-compatible inductor on bulk silicon (lower right) and on a 50 µm thick porous silicon layer (upper left) for a frequency of 2.5 GHz. Inductors were designed in a standard 0.13 µm CMOS technology. Efficient RF isolation is produced by the porous Si layer, as evidenced by the virtual elimination of surface currents relative to the case of standard CMOS, indicating virtually complete substrate shielding by a 50 µm thick porous Si layer for the relevant size scale. The quality factor of the inductor with the use of the porous Si layer is increased by 100%, reaching a maximum value of 33 for the design shown. The first author of the article is a visiting senior researcher at the Institute of Microelectronics (IMEL), National Center for Scientific Research "Demokritos" (Athens, Greece). His research focuses on electromagnetics and microwave engineering, artificial materials and photonic crystals, wireless front ends, antennas and high-frequency analog integrated circuits. [source] | |||||||||||||