CeeD Scotland Event - 21 March 2023
CeeD Scotland Event - 21 March 2023
Achieving Net Zero through Innovative and Circular Design
4c design and CeeD are delighted to partner again and offer you the opportunity to visit and tour the 4c design studios and workshops in Glasgow. As well as 4c showing you what they do and how they do it, the session aims to explore and inform on how our net zero ambitions and goals can be tangibly supported through a strategic focus on responsible and circular design.
Over the past decade, 4c has helped various organisations from start-ups to large multi-national businesses navigate the design process. Innovation can be risky, and design is becoming an increasingly important strategic driver within the Circular Economy. The 4c team will discuss the design process, how to de-risk development and open conversation around responsible and circular design.
Achieving Circularity is a challenging goal and an ongoing focus for many businesses in the manufacturing sector. The industry needs different approaches from all to implement a positive shift towards Net Zero, and that shift can be accelerated by all with smaller new start businesses playing potentially a pivotal role.
Places are limited, so we recommend early registration.
Agenda
- Welcome & Introductions
- Tour of studio and workshop
- Refreshments
- Presentation
- Q&A and open conversation
Venue
The event will take place at 4c design studio and workshop in Glasgow
R13, 100 Borron Street, Glasgow, G4 9XG.
To register visit CeeD
Ewan Macpherson – MBE
Last week, our Commercial Director, Ewan, popped down the road to Buckingham Palace to pick up his MBE from HRH Princess Anne.
From client to Managing Director
Back in 2012, the company I worked with hired 4c for a small design project. Up to that time, my working life had revolved around the research and development of new technologies; first as a PhD physicist, then as an analyst assessing emerging technologies and markets before taking on a business development role in a marine energy start-up.
Accidental intern to full time employee
Two years ago, I took on a two-week job at 4c Design to help them prepare for an open day. That job evolved into a two-month internship where I was involved in a range of internal and external projects, as well as being given a product to develop and present back to the company. From day one I loved their fun, relaxed atmosphere that encouraged creativity.
Accelerating Innovation: From the WHY to the HOW
The critical importance of innovation to national and company competitiveness has become widely accepted. The only legitimate question now is the ‘how’.
Companies are coming under increasing pressure to innovate and grow. Unfortunately, much of the advice being proffered in this area is not massively helpful.
With the need for innovation now being widely accepted by most senior executives, there is less of a need for generic advice encouraging organisations to innovate. Few remain to be convinced.
With the desire being there, it is the ‘how’ of innovation that most companies now struggle with.
From the 'Why' to the 'How'
Innovation by its very nature is risky, costly (more so if you get it wrong) and difficult.
So, how do we make it better?
With the argument ‘WHY innovate’ having been won, the focus now needs to shift to the HOW; overcoming the many obstacles and barriers preventing companies from leveraging the full potential of innovation for supporting sustained business growth and competitiveness.
In our new blog series entitled ‘Accelerating Innovation’, we will examine the key pillars of innovation success, providing highly practical advice on the key steps involved in ‘getting there’. The advice proffered will ensure that your innovation strategy is fully aligned with and supportive of agreed business goals and objectives, delivered successfully, on-time and within budget.
We will provide high level strategic and very practical advice to accelerate innovation in your organisation covering key issues such as:
- The potential of innovation for your business
- The innovation landscape
- Assessing your readiness to innovate
- The innovation process and innovation strategy development
- Key success factors
- Overcoming internal barriers and obstacles to innovation
- Leadership, innovation culture and management development
- Measuring innovation performance
- Case Examples
Evidence is emerging of a growing innovation divide between organisations who ‘get innovation’ and those who don’t; between those successfully applying innovation to support business growth and those still stuck on the starting blocks.
The divide is beginning to have a major impact on subsequent financial performance with ‘innovation leaders’ significantly outperforming others.
Hopefully, we can help you on your way to becoming an innovation leader.
4c Design
www.4cdesign.co.uk
Standards for Innovation and Design
Do we need standards for innovation management and design? ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, certainly thinks so.
Since 2012/13, Technical Committee ISO/TC 279 has been working towards the development of standards covering the ‘terminology, tools, methods and interactions between relevant parties to enable innovation’.
Progress, however, has been very slow with the new standard not expected until October, 2018. Apparently, it is not easy to reach agreement among 50 experts from 47 countries :-)
DBA Procurement Ready Status
In the meantime, 4c Design are proud to have achieved ‘Procurement Ready’ status from the Design Business Association (DBA), the trade association for the design industry. The DBA PQQ Badge confirms that we are ‘ready for procurement’ having already provided all of the information required in most standard Pre-Qualification Questionnaires.
To achieve PPQ status we submitted, among other things, 14 very detailed policy documents covering a level of detail unusual within the design industry, making us one of only several hundred agencies UK wide who have met the standards required to achieve ‘Procurement Ready’ status.
Although time consuming to develop, the information we collated will save potential clients a lot of time, allowing us to get straight to discussions about the project work.
As an organisation, DBA champions the transformative power of design with members representing some of the best design businesses in the UK demonstrating a commitment to the highest standard of business behaviour and performance as described in DBA’s code of conduct.
For 4c Design, the DBA PQQ Badge shows that we are ready to meet the requirements of any procurement department regardless of how onerous these may be. It shows that we are ready to ‘walk the walk’ as well as ‘talk the talk’ in terms of delivering customer value.
Back to ISO 50501
While October 2018 may still be a long way away, we will keep you posted on developments with ISO 50501, the proposed new standards supporting “business, public sector, and not for profit organizations in marketplace innovation, value chain innovation, process improvement innovation, organizational culture innovation, product and service innovation, as well as social innovation.”
Early indications suggest that for an organisation to be considered innovative, it will need to fulfil seven key principles of innovation management:
- Realization of value
- Future-focused leaders
- Purposeful direction
- Innovation culture
- Exploitable insights
- Mastering uncertainty
- Adaptability
Source: ISO Technical Committee on Innovation Management Systems
From 4c’s perspective, we would clearly welcome anything that improves quality standards in innovation management.
4c Design
www.4cdesign.co.uk
The Engineering Design Show Preview 2017: Innovation, Inspiration, Interaction and Insight
Visitor registration is now open for the Engineering Design Show, the UK’s largest exhibition and conference dedicated to the design engineering community.
Highlights include:
- 24 keynote presentations from senior design engineers representing leading brands across the aerospace, automotive, motorsport, electronics and other industries, providing powerful insights into the future of engineering design.
- High quality practical workshops covering a range of topics from software design and rapid prototyping, to material selection, test and measurement.
- The largest number of exhibitors since the show launched in 2012, with 220 exhibitors confirmed and record visitor numbers anticipated across the two days.
- The Innovation Zone presenting some examples of great British innovation.
- The opportunity to try and test the very latest and emerging design tools in the Future Zone.
- CPD points earned by attending the IED approved conference and workshop sessions
For more details and registration please visit the Engineering Design Show web site.
4c Design
www.4cdesign.co.uk
Video: The Fascinating History of the Pen
We liked this at 4c Design. A short video tracing the fascinating history of the pen.
Required viewing for all industrial design students?
With thanks to Core77.
Take care.
4c Design
www.4cdesign.co.uk
Video: Michelin’s Futuristic Airless Tire
Is this the tyre (tire) of the future? Airless and 3D printed straight onto the car.
The porous interior architecture provides stability with on-demand tread being easily changed with each printing to accommodate different mobility needs; wireless connected and self-monitoring.
Science fiction or the tyre of the future?
Read the full article here.
4c Design
www.4cdesign.co.uk