Analysing Waste in the Development Process of Technological Innovation Projects in a Brazilian Public University

Abstract

Technological innovation assumes a strategic role in organisational competitiveness. In this sense, it is perceived that universities represent a point of reference for the development of technological projects. The academic innovations arising from these projects are the result of three processes: product development process, business process and technology transfer. During the development of these projects, the team of researchers-entrepreneurs experiences different types of waste. This waste can be studied from the Lean Production Development (LPD) perspective. The LPD constitutes a set of practices capable of mitigating the waste that affects the new product development process (NPD). Aiming to address the scarcity of studies that address incident waste in the NPD of academic projects, this research aims to identify the frequency with which researcher-entrepreneurs experience each category and subcategory of waste during the development of the three processes (technology planning process - TPP; ii) technology transfer planning process - TTPP, and business planning process - BPP), from the perspective of the LPD. These three processes were subdivided into phases: i) initial, ii) intermediate and iii) final. Based on a quali-quantitative approach and using the methodological strategy of multiple case studies, this research analysed the context of nine technological innovation projects developed in a Brazilian federal university. Data were collected using a questionnaire prepared on a Likert scale. Eleven categories and 47 subcategories of waste were analysed in these projects. As a result, it was observed that during NPD, the waste category “waiting” was the most experienced in the different stages of the development of technological innovation, especially the subcategory “unavailability of resources”. Regarding business development and technology transfer processes, the “waiting” category was also the most experienced, except in the initial phase when the “defects” category was more significant. However, analysing the 11 categories of waste, it was observed that the category “defect”, especially the subcategory “information with insufficient quality” was the most experienced in the phases of technological innovation. From the identification of the different categories and subcategories of waste experienced in the context of technological innovation projects, it is clear that this research provides important elements to help identify LPD practices capable of mitigating the waste experienced during the NPD process in the academic environment.