Innovation and Strategy - Who Manages Manufacturing?

REPOST: I wrote this article a while back, I still find it interesting so I'm reposting it. Sue me.

Through 18 years of professional design experience and from cumulative observation, I’ve discovered a key to finding success in design innovation often lies in looking at and engaging in less-mined and less typical resources. Some of the best brainstorming meetings I’ve been responsible for or party to have included unusual subjects. Such as a warehouse worker. A project manager. Someone in editorial. Anyone less exposed to the day to day creative process.

There are many reasons for this. More than I can discuss here (more than you would be interested in reading about), but most importantly more reasons than I am smart enough to understand. But what I do understand is that design innovation is not particularly formulamatic like some engineering tasks and related design sciences.

Anyway... ...so when I came across this article on the subject of Manufacturing teams, and how some farsighted companies are beginning to understand the value of giving manufacturing teams greater visibility and respect in strategic leadership, I took notice. Told using the analogy of manufacturing as the engine in a ship, this article gives weight to how critical manufacturing is to the success (or failure) of adopting a successful design innovation engine.

( via strategy+business - Illustration by Leigh Wells)