Last week, our third semester batch started the Innovation Management course with Dr. Frank J. Maile, Director BU Coatings & Plastics at Schlenk Metallic Pigments. Focusing especially on the product development and design aspect of innovation, this lecture offered new insights for most of the students with real-life experiences and examples from Dr. Maile and Mr. Dutt as a guest in class. 

Schlenk Metallic Pigments is located in Roth, close to Nuremberg, in southern Germany and one of the leading international manufacturers of metal powders, pigments and foils. It was founded in 1879 and employs over 950 employees worldwide. As a global player, Schlenk focuses on the business areas of metal foils, coatings and plastics industries, printing and graphics industries, building material and chemical industries, and the materials industry.

Dr. Maile has specialized knowledge in Product Development and Innovation Management. During the course, he motivated the students to look at innovations from a design aspect by creating their own design principles and applying them to examples like the iPod in comparison to the iPhone. As an important point he discussed the manifold inputs to the design process and the complexity of the parameters along with the importance of perception for the design of new products.

Mr. Wilfried Dutt shared his experiences and applications of Innovation Management from his former company, Axalta Coating Systems. He highlighted how complex the color choices for cars are, with new colors being introduced each year and all parts of the supply chain having to follow the exact color regulations. Moreover, he presented how a color appearance can change with different illumination, different angles in the design of the car and with different spraying effects. The students were surprised to find out the car-color preferences of some countries, as for example the more colorful cultures (like India or Brazil) actually prefer more “boring” colors like white and black.

For all the students with experiences in different fields, and even for those coming from the automotive industry, the course and the guest lecture offered some really interesting and new insights into the world of innovation and product development. Thank you, Mr. Dutt for taking the time!

Coming up next in this course is an Innovation Workshop at Lake Constance, where the students also get to visit a company and learn more about innovation in design and product development. (Stay tuned to find out more.)