Innovation Management
Innovation exploitation report
Scenario for assessment
For the purposes of this assessment you are to assume that you are employed as a project manager at a small engineering company, Solar PV Ltd based in the UK. (This is not a real company, so please do not try to search for it!)
The company have identified an opportunity to develop a photovoltaic panel to generate electricity from sunlight to charge a battery pack. They intend to call the product “PowerPod”. The battery pack can supply domestic electricity to a home via an inverter. The battery pack can supply up to 3 Kw of electricity for 5 hours when discharged at the maximum rate. Solar PV Ltd expect the market for the Photovoltaic (PV) and battery energy system to be domestic houses in the UK.
The main parts of the proposed system comprise: A) a photovoltaic panel, with B) mounting brackets for roof installation, C) electrical cables, D) charge/discharge control system, E) battery pack and F) inverter (converts direct current DC battery to alternating current AC mains electricity)
The majority of the components for the system are already available from existing parts suppler companies. The new components for Solar PV Ltd to develop are: a smartphone app to control the system and a wash-wipe system (based on a vehicle windscreen wiper system, it will wash and wipe the roof-mounted PV panels to keep it clean and operating at maximum efficiency)
Assessment report tasks
The Technical Director of Solar PV Ltd has asked you to produce a report for the company to explain and plan the proposed innovation development project, comprising activities including development and testing of the test rigs and prototypes that will be needed to take the innovation from the current concept through to fully tested prototypes. Solar PV Ltd would like to start the project on 1 September 2016 and conclude all prototype testing on 23 December 2016.
Note: After the completion of the fully tested prototype stage, Solar PV Ltd will then make a decision on whether to launch the Power Pod on to the market. The activities associated with full product production following the prototyping do NOT form part of your report.
The report should be structured using the main headings below:
MUST write like this structure!!!
Executive summary 10%
The executive summary should give the reader a brief overview of the whole report including a description of the innovation opportunity that has been identified, the main development challenges that are faced by the company to bring the innovation to market and the key development activities that would be expected to be undertaken by the company.
Innovation development activities 50%
Draw a schematic diagram of the main parts of the proposed PowerPod and explain it in your report text. (This will help you and your reader to visualise the concept in more detail)
Create a table that identifies each development activity to be undertaken to take the innovation from its current concept stage to fully tested prototype. Each activity in the development project should be specific to this PowerPod (not generic)
Explain, in full sentences, each activity stating: 1.what the activity is, 2. what the activity contributes to the project and 3. what skills and resources might be needed to deliver the activity.
Gantt Chart and explanation of scheduling of activities 10%
Produce a fully labelled Gantt chart of the proposed project identifying key decision stage gates on it. Briefly explain the activities that are dependent on each other and which will be run in parallel with each other to save time.
Intellectual property protection 10%
Explain precisely what in this innovation project Solar PV Ltd would expect to patent to protect its intellectual property. Explain how it would protect the brand name “PowerPod”.
Conclusions 20%
Conclude the report with an explanation of each main test stage and decision stage gate in the proposed project. (Ie what will each test achieve and what decision can be made on the basis of the test results?) Advise the company on the success criteria relating to the technology, environment and market to be used to determine if the project should go into production.
References and appendix
Include a list of references used when researching the report. References may be from reliable commercial sources such as Photovoltaic panel, battery and inverter manufacturers, as well as academic sources. Harvard referencing must be used. Remember to label and reference every figure, table and graph
An appendix of up to 4 pages of useful and relevant additional material may be included.
Important Notes
Word count: 3000 words, excluding figures, tables, diagrams and appendix items.
Save your report as a PDF with a file name made up from your student ID, unit code and month: 123456789MACE62102July
Marking criteria
Your work will be marked using the criteria given below. Please check you previous coursework feedback for this unit to help you to identify how to improve your work.
The marker will look for evidence in your report of the following:
Executive summary 10% • Is the reader given a brief overview of the whole report?
• How clear is the description of the innovation opportunity that has been identified?
• How effectively explained are the main development challenges that are faced by the company to bring the innovation to market?
• How well explained are the key development activities that would be expected to be undertaken by the company?
Innovation development activities 50%
• How clearly has each development activity to be undertaken to take the innovation from its current concept stage to fully tested prototype been identified, explained and justified in the specific context of this “Power Pod” development?
• How clearly justified, explained and relevant are the development activities?
• How well explained is each activity, what it contributes to this project and what resources and skills will be needed?
Gantt and Scheduling of Activities 10%
• How well are activities explained that are dependent on each other or which may be run in parallel with each other to save time?
• How informative is the fully labelled Gantt chart? How well identified are key decision stage gates?
Intellectual Property Protection 10% • How well explained are the specific patent and brand intellectual property protection issues?
Conclusions 20% • How well explained is the conclusion that discusses each main test stage and decision stage gates in the proposed project?
• How clear is the explanation of what will each test achieve?
• How clear is the explanation of what decision(s) can be made on the basis of the test results obtained?
• How well explained is the advice to the company on the success criteria relating to the technology, environment and market to be used to determine if the project should go into production?
Postgraduate Assignment Standard Instructions
Submission Deadline
Assignments are designed to allow you to present a piece of work which shows your depth of understanding of the unit learning outcomes being assessed. A generous time period has been allocated to allow you to undertake the research and composition of this piece of work. The report must be uploaded to BlackBoard before the stated deadline.
Late Penalty
We apply the University policy on deadlines. Work submitted after the deadline will be marked, but the mark awarded will reduce progressively for each day, or part thereof by which the work is late. The mark awarded will reduce by 10% of the marks available, per day late (e.g. 71 would reduce to 61, 55 would reduce to 45 etc). Work submitted later than 5 days will be awarded a mark of zero.
Extensions for Mitigating Circumstances
Please plan your time carefully as extensions to the hand in deadline are only granted for exceptional circumstances known as ‘Mitigating Circumstances’ (such as lengthy illness or bereavement). Any event which could reasonably have been predicted to occur within the assignment period is not legitimate grounds for an extension (going to parties, days off, working, religious observance, minor sickness, event attendance or loss of data). Your request for an extension due to mitigating circumstances must be in writing (e-mail) to the Student Welfare Officer karen.baylis@manchester.ac.uk The request must be submitted as soon as you identify the need for an extension. It is helpful to also contact the unit leader tim.jones@manchester.ac.uk and MoP programme administrator to let them know that you are applying for consideration of mitigating circumstances.
Plagiarism and Referencing
Your assignment demonstrates to the marker your level of understanding and analysis of the subject. It is essential that the assignment which you hand in is written in your own words. If you do use even a few words from another source, then you must reference exactly where the quotation has come from. A quotation must appear inside ‘quotation marks’ and be followed by a full reference. A full reference is one that allows the reader to go directly to the precise page in the document that you have obtained the information from.
Information must never be ‘cut and pasted’ into the body text of your assignment.
Do not start to draft your assignment work by collecting cut and pasted information into a rough document that you then edit and hand in. This is poor academic practice and will be heavily penalised.
Each and every table, graph, chart, photograph and diagram, unless created from first principles by you, must be clearly and fully attributed to the original source with a reference.
You are expected to work individually on your assignment. Any assignments which appear to have similarities with each other will lead to disciplinary action under the University rules. Allowing your own work to be copied is treated as severely as the act of copying from someone else’s work.
You must not submit any work for assessment that you have previously submitted for assessment. (This is called self-plagiarism)
You will be asked to confirm when submitting the work that it is all your own material. Your attention is drawn to the University policy and guidelines on plagiarism:
http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=2870
All electronic copies of assignments submitted via Blackboard will be checked for plagiarism.
Feedback
Summative assignments are marked and written feedback comments are provided in BlackBoard. You must aim to do this work to the very best of your a
