Optimization of the innovation readiness at the Bosch Engineering Center Vienna

Abstract

Every company needs a certain degree of Innovation Readiness to allow innovations to happen. In the course of this masterthesis measures to optimize the Innovation Readiness at the Bosch Engineering Center Vienna (BECVie) have been derived. At first a literature study was conducted to analyze the related work. An empirical approach was chosen to analyze the current state of the Innovation Readiness at BECVie. Therefore a survey was setup and conducted to measure the degree of approval for ten success factors, which have been assigned to di ̇erent stages of the innovation process. The ten success factors analyzed are: Anticipation of Market Trends, Strategy, Degree of Definition, Risk Management, Knowledge Management, Speed of Implementation, Market Access, Understanding of Interactions between Market and Product, Identification of Opportunities and Employee Participation.The weighted relative frequency analysis was used to analyze the results in detail. The degree of approval and the degree of rejection have been illustrated in a block diagram for the success factor as well as additional individual block diagrams for each success factor. The strongest and weakest success factors have been determined. Also results have been compared between di ̇erent age and function groups.The desired target state has been defined for the success factors, considering that BECVie has the main focus on product development from prototype to series. The aim was to avoid blockers in the innovation process by having a balanced level of approval for all the success factors.Subsequently suggestions for measures are defined to achieve the transition from the current state to the desired target state. Finally the conclusion and future outlook is presented to show how this work can be continued. Through the application of the defined suggested measures an optimization of the Innovation Readiness at BECVie is expected.