On Friday 28th June RFIDdirect (GmbH) took part at a Pressure Cooker Event organised by the Hochschule Rhein Waal (www.hochschule-rhein-waal.de). The event was hosted at the Technologie Zentrum in Kleve https://bit.ly/2KPRIKO, in cooperation with the Industrie und Handelskammer Niederrhein – this Lower Rhine region’s Chamber of Commerce describing its economy as innovative and diverse. www.ihk-niederrhein.de
The Power of Pressure
When Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle coined this phrase three hundred years ago, “No pressure; No diamonds,” he implied that success can only be achieved by persistence and tenacity plus, a measure of zeal – sometimes only sheer doggedness can determine the outcome! Whatever characteristics define yourself or your business, without regular challenges of meeting demands or finding solutions, real satisfaction or transformation will rarely occur, mediocrity will.
https://bit.ly/2FKAtXb (The Passion Recipe: Four Steps to Total Fulfilment, by Steve Kotler 25/3/15) https://bit.ly/2FKAtXb
In this motivating event, groups of under graduate and post graduate students – from different subject areas – were invited to use their knowledge and problem-solving skills to answer ‘real world’ questions of three different companies – with very different business interests. Innovation was the key word throughout; that is unreserved innovative thinking in combination with creative problem analysis.
RFIDdirect’s Potential Business Case
RFIDdirect placed the business case to the students, ‘How do we approach the wood sector in the construction world, introducing Industry 4.0 technology?’
Going Beyond the Tip if the Iceberg!
To open the day, a professional motivation consultant – Daniel Urban www.Urban-Innovationsberatung.de – guided the students through the innovation process with a five-step approach. He presented a light-hearted but, very explanatory account of the process of innovative thinking. He referred to Freud’s Iceberg theory of the unconscious mind; Freud (1915) used the analogy of an iceberg to describe the three levels of the mind. The unconscious mind is much like an iceberg below the surface … that is a reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that are outside of our conscious awareness. Most of the contents of the unconscious are unacceptable or unpleasant, such as feelings of pain, anxiety, or conflict. However, in relation to our (and the other) business case, this theory is very relevant – as human behaviour and responses to RFIDdirect’s Industry 4.0 technology depends, for the larger, part on this unconscious mindset of our potential customers.
RFIDdirect’s New Colleague
The event was the first business presentation for our new colleague Mouna Ghorbel. Mouna (a specialist in wood science) is responsible for developing our technology and Data Capture solution for the wood production industry. RFIDdirect has developed a new (UHF) RFID tag (patent pending) that can be embedded in wood absorbing and compensating the negative effects that moisture and cellular pressure in wood would typically have on the RFID signal. This tag can be used for automatic identification of wood products in the manufacturing process, contributing to: a leaner manufacturing process, a greater understanding of true costs within the process (KPI’s), traceability throughout the supply chain, as well as identifier for annual inspections, if required. Mouna’s insider knowledge of wood properties and applications, combined with my own business experience and that of colleagues from the university – hopefully provided the students with support and confidence to make informed choices and decisions.
RFIDdirect’s Own Group of 5
RFIDdirect’s group of students, from different back grounds, subjects and levels in their study, were excellent working together as a team. The atmosphere throughout the entire day was great and the students motivated each other to go just that bit further in their thinking. It was inspiring for all of us – the presenters – to see the next generation of potential business leaders approaching the market with an open view for technology and customer culture.
Conclusions
In due course, the RFIDdirect group came with very useful ideas and concepts to further analyse. There were some particularly creative ideas to introduce the technology to customers on a general business basis, but also a useful market introduction strategy was outlined, and RFIDdirect will take this concept to further develop and embed into the final, completed strategy. For example, the geographic position of the timber/wood manufacturers – and discovering where and how much information they already receive may help map and identify potential customers and their logistic chains across Germany/Europe. Additionally, another angle would be to investigate who the machine suppliers are may be the better route to market? RFIDdirect and the machine suppliers could gain mutual benefits of added value for their own business and, by acting as ambassadors for the technology through exhibitions, site visits etc.
Great Networking
As a direct result of the day’s event – the added bonus is that RFIDdirect will discuss with the Hochschule (university) a joint approach for a demonstrator project (that can be used to attract and encourage probable adopters of the technology). This project has potentially dual value for both students to discover, work with and utilise the data and information for their thesis development, and also, for RFIDdirect to have a successful demonstration model to exhibit at key exhibitions or events.
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