Teknor Apex Company
Teknor Apex Company is an international
custom compounder of Plastics and Rubber
materials.
For U. S. markets we manufacture chemicals
such as plasticizers and consumer goods
including garden hose, and floor mats.
We are a diversified polymer company using
complimentary technologies to serve common
markets.
Company Statistics
 Founded
in 1924
 Privately
Held
9
Divisions
 1850
 13
Employees
Locations
 Sales
in 70 Countries
The following divisions have been a logical
evolution of our growth
Vinyl
Thermoplastic Elastomers
Teknor Color Company
Chemicals
Specialty Compounding
Rubber
Lawn & Garden
Commercial Products
Chem Polymer Company
Teknor Apex works to maximize synergies among its
divisions to create greater value for our customers.
Market Expertise. We have company wide expertise in a variety
of markets such as wire and cable, medical, automotive, and consumer
products.
Single-sourcing of materials. Multiple product lines developed
to work together for a particular market are available from one source.
Technical Support. Our operations support extensive resources for
materials research, application development, color control and process
engineering. Our corporate analytical and physical testing Labs have
extensive capabilities to support this effort.
Quality Programs. We are a quality driven organization, which
uses ISO/QS and TQM as a foundation for our operations.
Why we chose to Participate in the
Stevens Innovation Survey (Fall 2000)
It was necessary to become more innovative as a company to
increase our profitability and long-term viability.
We needed to create an environment, which both fostered and
rewarded the creative thinking necessary to generate more and
better ideas.
These ideas would result in more new products, processes and
systems.
Just as important, we needed to cash-in on these new ideas
quicker.
Details of Innovation Survey
Employees were selected to participate in this survey so that we could
obtain a baseline on the individual behaviors & management practices
that effect innovation at Teknor Apex.
We wanted to identify areas to focus on to become more innovative in
the future.
61employees participated in this survey, 29 from technical and 32 from
the Vinyl business.
The survey looked at the 4 characteristics of individual innovative
behaviors (Goal-Directed, Inquisitive, Advocative & Collaborative) and
the 7 management practices that encourage the individual innovative
behavior (Employee Selection, Employee Development, Recognition,
Support Systems for Development, Multifunctional Teaming, Strategic
Drivers and Leadership).
Definitions:
Inquisitive:
Advocative:
Collaborative:
Goal Directiveness:
Strategic Direction:
Employee Selection:
Reward & Recognition:
Employee Development:
Support Systems:
Multifunctional Teaming:
Leadership:
Search purposefully for new ideas
Encourage new ideas from others
Facilitate and encourage informal
relationships
Work towards specific Technology Goals
Link Technology to business objectives
Recruit and select top technology
professionals
Recognize publicly and reward for Innovation
Training on teamwork, communication, ideas,
etc.
Database for ideas, software, etc.
Encourage use of Teams, use within business
units
Management support and commitment.
Details of Innovation Survey (cont’d)
Responses in these areas were used to gauge how Teknor Apex
compared with the most innovative companies like 3M, Bell Labs,
General Electric & Merck. Specifically, each area at Teknor Apex
was rated from 1 to 5, with 5 being the best, and was compared
against the best in class companies.
The participants identified the key factors that they felt would have
the highest impact on future innovation.
Interestingly, the Technology Group rated every one of the 11
behaviors and practices higher than the Vinyl Group (our largest
business) by 2 to 19%. Meaning the Technology Group felt that they
were more innovative than the support groups in the study.
Implementation Plan
A review team was charged with making
recommendations and setting priorities for the
opportunities for improvement.
Specifically, the review team prioritized the
improvement opportunities in those areas of
management practice having the greatest impact
on encouraging individual innovative behavior.
Recommendations were made and many of these
ideas have been implemented; or are in the process
of being implemented at Teknor Apex.
Some Key Results
I. Table 1 - Items Ranked by their Impact on Future
Innovation
Participants were asked to rank 86 items (questions) based on
the relative importance of that item’s impact on future Innovation.
Table 1 lists by rank (based on a weighted formula where the
higher the number, the greater the importance).
Applying the 80/20 rule, the top 17 items that the participants
deemed would most effect future innovation at Teknor Apex were
identified.
TABLE 1
Rank
30
29
18
18
16
16
14
14
14
14
14
13
13
12
11
11
11
Question
Recruit and select technical professionals regarded as leaders in their field
Challenge the status quo in pursuit of new ideas
Downplay status differences and encourage input from junior associates
Demonstrate a real commitment to innovation
Recruit and select top professionals with applied research experience
Conduct purposeful searches for new ideas and technologies
Guide work with both technological and business goals in mind
Base career development and promotions on innovated-related performance
Provide adequate people resources to achieve innovation-related goals
Reward & protect risk takers
Create action plans & timetables to ensure technology/business goals are met
Incorporate innovation-related objectives into employee appraisal programs
Provide you with the technology & equipment you need to do your work
Provide training on key roles required for successful innovation, e.g.
champions
Have formal systems to identify business opportunities across the
organization
Monitor progress to ensure the technology/business goals are achieved
Incorporate innovation measures as explicit part of managers’ annual goals
Table 2 – Compares Teknor’s Individual Innovative
Behaviors with the most Innovative Companies
Goal directedness at Teknor was very near the best
in class for innovative companies.
 Largest behavior gaps between the best in class and
Teknor Apex were Advocative and Inquisitive
behaviors by about the same margin.
Of the 25 questions asked in these four (4)
individual behavior areas, no score for any question
was rated below 2.00.
Table 2
Rank
Behavior
1
Goal Directed
2
Teknor Apex
Best in class
Gap
2.95
3.02
0.07
Inquisitive
2.54
3.48
0.94
3
Collaborative
2.43
3.06
0.63
4
Advocative
2.39
3.38
0.99
Table 3 – Compares the Management / Organization
Practices of Teknor Apex with the Most Innovative
Companies.
Largest gaps between best in class & Teknor
were in the areas of Employee Development,
Innovation Support Systems and Employee
Selection respectively.
Because Recognition, Leadership, and Innovation
Support Systems scored the lowest on a relative
scoring basis, these areas seemed to offer the
greatest opportunity for improvement.
Table 3
Rank
Practice
1
Employee Selection
2
Teknor Apex
Best in class
Gap
2.43
3.40
0.97
Strategic Drivers
2.22
3.00
0.78
3
Employee Development
2.12
3.30
1.18
4
Multifunctional Teaming
2.04
2.30
0.26
5
Innovation Support Systems
1.98
3.00
1.02
6
Leadership
1.92
New to survey
N/A
7
Recognition
1.79
2.60
0.81
Table 4 – Identified the greatest opportunity for improvements based
on the specific questions where the response was less than 1.80
Of 61 questions asked in the seven (7) management practices, 15 questions scored below 1.80
(lowest 25%) which are listed below.
Table 4
Score
1.72
1.77
1.77
1.77
1.56
1.67
1.77
1.79
1.57
1.67
1.77
1.46
1.66
1.67
1.72
Practice
Recognition
Recognition
Recognition
Recognition
Leadership
Leadership
Leadership
Leadership
Support Systems
Support Systems
Support Systems
Functional Structures
Functional Structures
Functional Structures
Functional Structures
Question
Have formal recognition programs for individual innovators
Have formal recognition for team innovation
Incorporate innovation-related objectives into appraisal programs
Incorporate innovation measures as part of employee annual goals
Reward & protect risk takers
Coach & develop innovative champions & sponsors
Solicit & support new ideas from all associates
Communicate the importance of innovation to all levels of associates
Have formal mechanisms to circulate new ideas across organizations
Maintain electronic comm. Systems specifically for idea sharing
Maintain a centralized database of ideas to support future innovation
Empower project teams to make allocation and spending decisions
Have formal systems to share technologies across the organization
Formal systems to identify business opportunities across organizations
Encourage collaborative efforts to individuals/team outside company
Implementation
What have we done to address some of these areas?
We realized that we had limited resources and had
to start somewhere. Based on the survey results,
Reward and Recognition appeared to be a good
starting point.
Although, over the last 5 year period we have
addressed or made in-roads in about ½ of the key
areas (top 20% of issues) which also included
leadership training.
Innovation Reward & Recognition Awards
We have implemented an innovation awards program for the
Technology Group
 It is for Lab Salaried Professionals (Lab hourly contributors
are verbally recognized as a group)
While we feel that it is Technology’s job to innovate, we
still want to publicly recognize significant accomplishments.
Awards are given upon completion of a Gate 5 review in
our CTC (Concept to Commercialization) process, pass or
kill. Note: the CTC process is based on the Stage-Gate
process and is used for our major R&D projects
Awards are also given out to significant line extension
work and process/method development work.
Types of Awards
1.
Certificate
Significant Contributors
2.
Shirt/Gift
Main Contributors (Gift
amount is based on ROI)
3.
President’s Award
Recommendations made to
President
Reward & Recognition (cont.)
We have incorporated innovation-related objectives into each Salaried
performance appraisal
Incorporated innovation measures as part of the employee incentive
compensation program.
The incentive program has been opened up to more people at lower
levels.
We have established a Technical Ladder, which defines job levels. It
has both a Technical and a Managerial side so that the advancement
path for Technology employees is clearer.
Related to this, detailed job descriptions for every position and level
have been established that detail each job’s requirements. These
requirements define the complexity of the job, experience needed and
the degree of creativity/innovation that is expected.
Concept to Commercialization (CTC) process, which is our Stage-Gate,
process.
Again the CTC process is what we use for significant R&D projects
We have streamlined our prior CTC process, which once required 5 steps for all projects.
1. Simplified - Incremental projects (lower risk) is now a 3-Step process
2. Standard Platform projects (higher risk) is now a 4-Step process
Using software from Qualisci to manage our CTC process. (Currently piloting in TPE
business, will roll out to other businesses in 6 months).
1. All projects and new ideas will be tracked in this centralized database.
2. Project actions plans are kept current and are visible within the software.
3. Adopted voice of the customer methodology (a.k.a. QFD) to better understand customer
requirements and needs.
4. Can view the status of individual projects; or portfolio of projects by each business.
5. One page Project Summary Dashboard contains the up to date status of each project
including financial information.
6. All information and data are “mapped” so that there are no redundant entries
7. Key Metrics for projects are easily generated to gauge progress.
Fast R&D
Fast R&D is the software we use for design
of Experiments.
Software from Qualisci was developed to
handle up to 12 input variables and 12
responses to optimize formulation and
process work.
Allows us to develop new products quicker
at a lower cost.
Teknor Apex conducted a Strategic Planning
Survey in 2004
As a result of the Strategic Planning Survey it
was clear that New Product Development (NPD)
was important for the growth of the Corporation.
Most people believe that we do not develop new
products fast enough.
Our consultant demonstrated that a problem
exists at the interface between Sales/Marketing,
Manufacturing and Technical that slows down
NPD.
Our Top 5 obstacles right now which limit
Innovation
1. Not enough good ideas
2. We do not for the most part have a focused market
approach for NPD
3. Our CTC (Stage-Gate) process is too complicated
4. We have too many projects for the available resources
5. There are few business goals for NPD
We have already discussed some of these and the rest of the slides
will touch upon these issues in more detail.
Plan for the future (Goals)
Business Managers must take ownership of the NPD Pipeline.
This should not be run by Technical.
 Need to set specific Goals for the individual business areas:
For example, 10-20% of new revenue must result from new products
over next 3 years
 Marketing needs to play a stronger role in the idea opportunity
identification area.
 Resources are still overbooked and projects take longer than
expected. Need to improve resource management and allocation
issues.
 The Business Team must take ownership and responsibility for
these projects. Projects will be very visible by using our CTC
software.
Plan for the future (Resource Allocation)
Sales/Marketing and Manufacturing will assess their
resources and make decisions regarding who will be
involved in the NPD effort.
An overload of projects will delay all projects and will
waste critical resources from being applied to the
superior projects. We need to pay more attention to this.
In PVC, Technical has put many projects on hold to
provide the necessary resources to execute the Fireguard
project strategy established by the Business Team
Plan for the future (NPD Culture,
New Approach to NPD)
WE still do not have enough new good ideas, which have gone through the
CTC preassessment stage (Stages 1&2). We need a better method or way to
generate new ideas and communicate these.
NPD must be a continual process. It requires someone, or a group of people
such as a dedicated marketing group, constantly looking for new ideas/projects
to work on. We have one business unit (TPE) which is doing this.
These new ideas need to be put into the combined stage 1&2 (preassessment
stage) of the CTC process.
We need to Kill inferior projects quicker so that more resources are available
for superior projects.
 The business team then must decide which projects should go into Stage 3 of
the CTC process where the bulk of the work takes place and significant
resources must be committed. Also, which project(s) will be put on hold until
resources become available.