Philips Nat.Lab.
Introduction
1) The Research Department in Context,
2) The Birth of Industrial Research Laboratories,
3) Philips Nat.Lab.’s Knowledge Management
Discussion
The Philips Company
The start of Philips in Eindhoven 1891
The Philips Company
The Philips Company
The Philips Company
The expansion and diversification in the 1900 - 1920
The Philips Company
Philips Idezet Radio Tube
The Philips Company
Radio as a commercial product – 1927
The Philips Company
The Industrial Research Laboratory
The historical context of scientific Research Institutes
Francis Bacon’s (1627) ideal:
- science as servant of society in Salomo’s House (Nova Atlantis)
- knowledge is power
Industrial Research Instituties:
- science and technology as a siametic twin,
- fundamental research versus applied research.
The birth of University Research Labs
Johannes van der Waals
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes
Liquidization of Helium (~ 1905)
The birth of Industrial Research Labs
- Scientific Research in Industry:
At the end of the nineteenth century: invention changed
from an individual act into an outcome of an organizational
process. Teamwork became important.
- Big industrial labs emerged around 1900:
- GE, Bell, Kodak, Siemens, Philips Nat.Lab.,
- patents (outcome of scientific research) as market
instruments,
- scientists in servant of capitalism?
- (Knowledge) Management problem.
Science, technology: the researcher
and the institute
Thomas Edison in his lab
The Industrial Research
Laboratory
Definition of an industrial research department:
‘…set apart from production facilities, staffed by people
trained in science and advanced engineering who work
toward deeper understandings of corporate-related science
and technology, and who are organized and administered to
keep them somewhat insulated from immediate demands
yet responsive to long-term company needs’ (Reich, 1985).
Its importance:
The greatest invention of the nineteenth century was
the invention of the method of invention (Whitehead).
Philips Nat.Lab.
Period 1914 – 1945, director Gilles Holst.
- humble start as a small organization,
- diversification and organizational growth,
- ‘Knowledge Management’.
Nat.Lab. Research and
Products
Nat.Lab. Products
Penthode tube
Metalix tube
Philips Nat.Lab.
The Nat.Lab. Under Holst
Early period (1914 – 1923)
- Patent Law, 1910,
- Hybrid character with respect to types of work,
- Small population,
- Organizational growth after 1923 due to the
companies diversification strategy.
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employees
total number of Nat.Lab. employees 1928 - 1946
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
year
Philips Nat.Lab.
The Nat.Lab. under Holst
Period 1923 – 1946
- Enabling Philips’ diversification program,
- Increase of means,
- Formal management with informal aspects,
- ORCO meetings, R&D networks.
Knowledge Management at the
Philips Nat.Lab.
K.M. at the Nat.Lab. on three levels:
- the
individual researchers,
- groupwork,
- organizational embeddedness.
Philips Nat.Lab.
R&D Knowledge Management on Three Levels
Individual
researcher
professional scientists with colloquia and notebooks in
a growing academic culture, increasing importance of
scientific activities, R&D leadership.
Groups
inside the
laboratory
diversification of products and (selection of) research
groups, group responsibilities, protocols for
innovation patterns.
Organizational
embeddedness
participation in committees with other departments in
the company and the upper management, contacts
with universities for personnel and knowledge
exchange, standardization activities, participation
within R&D networks.
Successful scientific research:
teamwork and products
Shockley, Bardeen and
Brattain: the invention of
the transistor at the Bell
labs.
First Period: Embedded
A small Institute as a servant for the company with Holst as
director:
- Anton Philips as dominant company leader,
- diversification and internationalization,
- publications and patents.
Second Period: Isolated
A famous international research institute with Casimir as
director:
- science as the endless frontier,
- growing company and lab with formal structure,
- fundamental research and scientific freedom,
- isolated from production, bad communication.
Hendrik Casimir
Booming Science at Philips
Philips Cyclotron
Third Period: Contracted
Closely connected to the Company with Pannenborg as director:
- economic crisis, bad sides of industries (environmental polution),
- contract research (2/3 of the budget), free research (1/3 of the budget),
- technology roadmaps.
The Philips Nat.Lab.
An industrial research laboratory as a
paradox:
- an investment in uncertainty,
-
- organizational context:
- entrepreneurial behavior,
- scientific research as a promising investment.