New product development is about competition; trying to provide a superior product that will attract more sales and satisfy the customer’s needs. Too often, product development is reactive. A competitor comes out with something new that forces you to either meet or exceed their offering. We can see this in the smart phone and tablet markets recently. But this has been going on in the automotive industry for some time. It’s getting more and more difficult to distinguish between different car makes in the main stream markets.
Thermal Mass Flow Controller
The Mass Flow Controller (MFC) market has the same issues. Having worked with three different MFC companies, I have seen the intensity of competition first hand and the tendency to be reactive. Part of the reason for this is the narrowness of the field. When I was at Unit Instruments, the then CEO illustrated our situation using a picture of a foot race. There were six runners all bunched together at the front. He indicated that although we were the leader, we had three competitors breathing down our necks and two more not far behind. It’s not a comfortable situation. It would be far better if we could separate from the pack. It is far better to be proactive, leading the way to better products.
Such was the case at Brooks Instrument with their new Coriolis mass flow controller (CMFC) product line. At the time Brooks was owned by Emerson Electric. Brooks was part of the pack mentioned above, but toward the back so they were in a better position to take some risk. Emerson owned several other divisions and subsidiaries that were involved in process instrumentation. One of the major events every year was that each business unit would make the pilgrimage to St. Louis where Emerson’s headquarters and corporate retreat were located. The purpose was to review with the CEO and the senior staff the previous year’s results and plans forward. The event was held at the corporate retreat (which has since been divested). As a part of the day-long presentation and discussions, our VP of Engineering presented our new product activities. We had successfully launched our digital MFC with multi-calibration capability. We were disrupting the market. At the end of the presentation the CEO asked our VP of Engineering how old the technology was that our mass flow sensor was based on. Brooks and all their competitors used technology that was developed in the mid-1960s. It is based on the transfer of heat from a heater to a sensor by the flow stream. The mass flow rate is inferred from the heat capacity of the fluid. Our VP explained this to the CEO. The CEO asked, “Is there a chance that one of our competitors would develop a superior flow sensing technology?” Our VP acknowledged that it would be possible. The CEO then asked, “What are you going to do about it?”
Obviously, this would be a strong motivator to launch another NPD project. Our VP of Engineering asked me to put together an internal seminar on flow sensing technologies. I had been keeping abreast of potential technologies that could be incorporated into our products and had an idea for a potential flow sensing technology that I had originally proposed to Unit Instruments. They had initially explored it, but then dropped it when they were acquired. But this would be a focused search for technology that would displace the core MFC sensor.
In later posts I will explore our approach, methods, and challenges in our effort to launch a new product line.