The Engineer of the Future: One Industry Perspective

1
The Engineer of the Future One Industry
Perspective

• University of Illinois
• Engineer of the Future Workshop
• Carl Loweth, John Deere
• 5 Sept 07

2
What will the Engineering Environment be
like?......What Trends are underway?

• Innovation is King
• Systems and Solutions, not just Products
• Greater Interaction with Marketing
• The Global Network
• External
• Internal

3
Innovation is King
Value of Line Extensions vs. Innovations

• Of the 4 building blocks of competitive
  advantageEfficiency, Quality, Customer
  Responsiveness and InnovationInnovation is King
• Innovation does not come from the discovery of
  technology, but from being the first to use
  technology to meet customer needs. Jay Paap
• Required to avoid Commodity Hell in a
  globally-competitive environment
• Necessary for sustainable growth

Based on a Harvard study of product launches at
100 companies
4
Systems Solutions

• Moving from product centric to customer centric
• Understanding the overall business of the
  customerthe Customer Value Chain
• Providing broader solutions to those customer
  needsintegrated products and services
• Developing the Systems Engineering capability
  to optimize solutions at the highest level.
• Working across multiple disciplines.

Solutions
Products Services
TraditionalProducts
5
RDMarketing Integration

• Merging Whats needed in the Market with
  Whats Possible from Technology PG
• Adv. Mktg will
• Inform the RD Agenda by identifying unmet,
  unarticulated customer needs
• Place a value on the Customer Value Proposition
  for RD solutions to those needs
• Examples of Market Opportunities needing new
  Technologies--
• Productivity Autonomy
• Security
• Water Management
• Renewable Energy
• Telematics Connectivity
• Customer Experience

6
The Global Networks

• External Collaboration--- Open Innovation
  Henry Chesbrough
• Universities
• Companies, even competitors
• Consortia
• Govt Labs
• Research Houses
• Internal Collaboration
• Utilizing talent across the globe
• Working across the Global
• Engineering Centers
• India
• China
• Brazil
• North America
• ??