GE’s
Industrial Solutions business (NYSE:GE) today announced five winners
of its crowd-sourced rotary handle design competition for its new
portfolio of molded case circuit breakers (MCCBs) to be launched in
2015. GE is employing fundamentally different approaches to new product
development. As a result, it will introduce this state-of-the-art
circuit breaker platform in half the time of its previous product
launches. Factors from the five winning ergonomic designs will be
incorporated into this key accessory for GE’s MCCBs.
Winners
of the open-innovation challenge come from around the world and
raised very distinctive designs, each with elements that will support
delivering a customer-centric rotary handle for GE’s new circuit
breakers. The five winners are Olaf Barski of Barski
Design GmbH (Frankfurt, Hessen, Germany), Tom Goddu of Blazing
Pencils LLC (Pine Meadow, Connecticut), Sandy Richardson of Design
Edge (Belrose, New South Wales, Australia), R. Roopnarine of Long
Road Enterprises (New York) and Giulio Ceppi of Total
Tool srl (Milan). Each winner will receive $10,000—along with
substantial bragging rights—for his innovative design.
“This open approach to product development illustrates how even big
companies like GE are evolving to be more nimble and innovative in
bringing new and better products to market faster,” said Tim Ford,
global molded case circuit breaker product manager, GE’s Industrial
Solutions business. “There is great value in taking the input from a
global collaboration and incorporating it into new products for our
customers. Through crowd sourcing and open innovation, we are able to
tap into expertise beyond the walls of GE for a more diverse view of
potential solutions.”
For the challenge, GE worked with NineSigma—an
industry-leading international open-innovation provider—to invite
inventors everywhere to help solve an
ergonomic rotary handle design challenge for its molded case circuit
breakers and find new solutions, knowledge and designers to accelerate
its innovation cycle.
By opening up the design process, GE was able to leverage and invest in
new ideas from engineers, designers and architects with immense and
varied industry backgrounds, most of whom bring more than 20 years of
experience to the drawing board.
The winners agree open collaboration for design creates a competitively
beneficial climate, resulting in more thoughtful, practical and
customer-focused product outcomes. Winner Giulio Ceppi commented, “As a
designer, I embrace the contemporary, open-innovation values of global,
full transparency competition.”
The decision to incorporate a rotary handle comes from global user
feedback, which suggests a shift in circuit-breaker handle styles is
desired and preferred. The ideas shared in this challenge will help GE
to improve the user experience of the hardware interface on its
soon-to-be-released circuit breakers. The designs and specifications
that were ultimately chosen as winners not only meet modern aesthetic
preferences, but also will improve operational performance and ease of
use for operators.
A GE heritage business, Industrial Solutions, is leading the future of
electrification with advanced technologies that protect and control the
distribution of electricity throughout a facility’s infrastructure. The
business provides customers with end-to-end product and service
solutions that help ensure the reliability and protection of the
electrical infrastructure. Industrial Solutions’ product and service
solutions add to GE’s broader portfolio of leading technology solutions
for the delivery, management conversion and optimization of electrical
power for customers across multiple energy-intensive industries.
About GE
GE (NYSE:GE) works on things that matter. The best people and the best
technologies taking on the toughest challenges. Finding solutions in
energy, health and home, transportation and finance. Building, powering,
moving and curing the world. Not just imagining. Doing. GE works. For
more information, visit the company's website at www.ge.com.
Follow GE’s Industrial Solutions business on Twitter @GEindustrial.
Copyright Business Wire 2014