Is it possible at all? Japanese modeling kit company Tamiya did just that. This innovative business card comes in the form of a modeling kit that can be taken apart and rebuilt into a small model of a racing car, a plane or a boat.
One of the popular themes during our ASQ workshops is how an organisation can create an office environment teeming with innovation and creativity. Participants came up with all sorts of stupid questions to answer the theme, and these range from “What if our CEO is like Tamiflu?” to “How can staff be like Changi Airport?”. I have one to contribute – How can an office be like a kampong?
This stupid question is inspired after reading the article “Design for Working” written by Malcom Gladwell who is at his very best – asking questions and seeking answers in his own inimitable style.
It’s a long article, but full of fascinating insights on how an office environment can be transformed into a creative hothouse by contradicting norms and eliminating assumptions.
By the way, Malcom Gladwell will be speaking in Singapore in August. This is the first time he is speaking in Asia. If you like to attend the event, click here to find out more!
The recent oil spills in Singapore and the disaster at the Gulf of Mexico have brought many inconveniences, and worst of all, damages to the environment. While our government has acted very efficiently to clean up the situation pronto, this cannot be said for the mess that BP has created on the other side of the world. I was reading reports on the BP oil spill when I come across an interesting nugget of information. Apparently during the Cosco Busan oil spill between San Francisco and Oakland, California in November 2007, tightly woven hair mats were used to soak up the oil that was washed ashore. These mats are then sprinkled with oyster mushroom spores that takes about 12 weeks to grow; breaks down the oil; and turn the hair mats into non-toxic composts!
Read more about the how it is done here.
Have you ever tried to pry mussels away from their environment? Not easy ain’t it? This is because mussels have a natural adhesive that is made up of at least 5 proteins, and this forms the strong structure that adheres to almost any surface, including under water.
Scientists are now researching on how this adhesive could be used to stitch up patients after surgery, or after an injury. Traditional methods of stitching could sometimes cause problems like scaring or infections. Scientists believe that using natural adhesives found in mussels could be safer, where it would be eventually absorbed by the body, and has a lesser risk of scarring or infection.
Comic taken from chewonitcomics.blogspot.com
A table that shows you the menu; take your orders; allows you to watch live feeds of the kitchen preparing your meal; gives you the bill and even calls a cab for you! Can you beat that? A London restaurant is doing exactly that. Check this link for more information!
What do you do when water sucking and plant-strangling ferns are attacking trees and plants in a protected forest with cliffs that goes up to 3000 feet in elevation? It won’t be a stroll in the park that’s for sure. The rugged and steep terrain would make it expensive and dangerous to pull the weeds out manually. The project director of Nature Conservancy of Hawaii, Trae Menard came up with this innovative solution to deal with this problem at the Kauai watershed:
(Extracted from wired.com)
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Reconnaissance A Cessna 186 outfitted with digital cameras and a multispectral imager skims the canopy. The pictures are tagged with precise geographic positions. |
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Target Acquisition Australian tree ferns can be identified by the distinctive shape of their fronds. Volunteers inspect photos and mark plants for elimination. |
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Surgical Strikes To neutralize unwanted vegetation, a helicopter is rigged with a winch system that can lower a hose up to 100 feet to spray offending plants with herbicide. |
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Airborne Snipers Menard’s team has also tested high-pressure paintball guns for shooting special herbicide pellets developed by University of Hawaii weed ecologist James Leary. |
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Mopping Up Six months later, a flyover is dispatched to search for surviving tree ferns and monitor other threatening species. |
Not that anyone will be admitting themselves to the hospital if it does happen. PriestmanGoode, a design house based in London introduced this concept to the Britain’s Design Council. Their recommendation is based on observations that nurses need to get to patients quickly and efficiently; patients’ need for comfort and privacy; and lastly on the efficient usage of limited floor space in hospitals, just like that of a first class cabin. This is definitely design thinking at work – the problem solver looks at what other (unrelated) industries are doing, and see if a similar solution can be adapted and be used to solve the problem.
Ok, how many of you out there have tried to “guesstimate” your packed luggage’s weight by placing it on the weighing scale at home? Well, I did. If you have tried it, you probably know it is not very easy (and smart), especially if you have a big luggage blocking the view of the scale’s screen. Well, I found this cool item online – a luggage tag that doubles up as a weighing machine for your luggage. All you have to do is to secure the tag to your luggage, switch it on, lift it up for 5 seconds and the weight of the luggage appears. Smart eh!
I saw this in the Chinese news the other day, and was wowed by the idea of a RoboGrave. The Japanese are really good with out-of-the-box ideas that make you think “Geez, why didn’t I think of that!”
In this land scarce country exists an innovative service where niches are built in this automated columbarium. Family members who wish to pay respects to their deceased loved ones flash an RFID card against a reader located in individual private booth, and the niche is brought up from an underground storage vault automatically.
A true story – In 1981, a young engineer in a watchmaker company dropped his precious watch given to him by his father. It broke into pieces and he was devastated, but it also inspired him to come up with a watch that is unbreakable. As it was an “unofficial” project, the men’s toilet in his office became his makeshift laboratory. He would drop his prototypes out of the toilet window to test which one would survive the fall unscathed. Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful until one day he noticed a girl playing with a ball in the park. That set him thinking, and he imagined the ball to contain a floating watch engine. That’s where he had his eureka moment and how the G-Shock is born. It took another 2 years before the floating module configuration is perfected. Since then, over 60 million watches have been sold in nearly 100 countries.
This story of Kikuo Ibe, the young engineer and founding father of G-Shock, teaches us a thing or two. First, creative solutions may not be right under your nose, but by straying away from your usual habits or thinking, it may lead you to the answer that you are seeking for. Second, the path to innovation, more often than not is something that is not achieved in a day or a week. With the idea formulated, passion and determination is also pertinent in ensuring that whatever project you are doing turns to reality. That truly is the road to innovation. Click here to read the interview he did with The New Paper.
