Best practice in product innovation at varian Australia

Abstract

The purpose of the case study is to investigate a product development project at Varian Australia Pty Ltd, the “Bushranger” Project. Varian Australia is the centre for research, design, manufacturing and strategic marketing for its range of benchtop scientific instruments. The company has $140 M turnover, and exports 95% of what it manufactures. The case study captures the perceptions of various players on the “Bushranger” project with respect to the innovation process from product conceptualisation to launch. A number of senior managers were interviewed using a methodology that was being developed by CIMA (CIMA Methodol. (1998)). The purpose of the methodology was to understand the relevant behaviours and factors that drive the organisation to apply certain levers in order to influence behaviours which may lead to performance improvement. The qualitative analysis revealed that Varian Australia focuses on optimising two critical success factors of product innovation: meeting and exceeding customer needs and expectations by innovating new products and accelerating the cycle time from conceptualisation to market launch. The most significant success factor was found to be the establishment of cross-functional, multi-disciplinary teams.