Title: Innovative product design for students-enterprises linked projects

Authors: Michel Bigand, Carine Deslee, Pascal Yim

Addresses: LGIL (Industrial Engineering Laboratory of Lille) Ecole Centrale de Lille, BP48, 59651 Villeneuve d'Ascq Cedex, France. ' LEM (Lille – Economie & Management) IAE, Universite de Lille, 104 avenue du peuple belge, 59043 Lille Cedex, France. ' Groupe 3SI (3 Suisses International), 245 rue Jean Jaures, 59491 Villeneuve d'Ascq, France

Abstract: The training programme of European Technological Institute of Entrepreneurship and Management (ITEEM), a French graduate engineering school, includes a design and achievement project of product/service for an enterprise achieved by a team of five students. An original creative and innovative approach is presented. Innovation has a big role in the ITEEM programme, because the objective is to train future entrepreneurs in the field of high technology. Each project is followed by a lecturer during the whole process; one of his/her mission is to bring methodological supports for innovation. So, the students have a practical experience of innovative solutions research on a real problematic, and the enterprise discovers new possibilities to develop innovative solutions. By experience, all types of enterprises are interested, but our target is rather the SME (small and medium enterprise) that cannot take on engineers, due to their wage costs. But this approach has also been used in design projects for large enterprises.

Keywords: creativity; product design; higher education; universities; TRIZ; service theories; inventive problem-solving; animal crackers; contradiction matrixes; student enterprises; innovative designs; linked projects; training programmes; European Technological Institute of Entrepreneurship and Management; ITEEM; France; graduate schools; engineering schools; achievement projects; entrepreneurs; high technology; methodological support; practical experience; innovative solutions; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; engineers; wage costs; large enterprises; innovation management; technology management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.2011.041950

International Journal of Technology Management, 2011 Vol.55 No.3/4, pp.238 - 249

Published online: 06 Apr 2013 *

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