This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.
This Website Uses Cookies
By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Learn More
This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.
Assembly Magazine logo
search
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
Assembly Magazine logo
  • Home
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Digital Edition
    • Archives
    • Specs Book
    • How-To-Guide
    • Buyers Guide
  • Exclusives
    • Plant of the Year
      • About Plant of the Year
      • Nomination Form
    • Capital Spending
    • State of the Profession
  • Industries
    • Aerospace
    • Appliance
    • Automotive
    • Medical Devices
    • DFMA Assembly
    • Green Manufacturing
    • Lean Manufacturing
    • Electronics Assembly
    • Machinery Assembly
  • Technologies
    • Adhesives
    • Assembly Presses
    • Automated Assembly
    • Dispensing
    • Motion Control
    • Screwdriving and Riveting
    • Plastics Assembly
    • Robotics
    • Test and Inspection
    • Welding
    • Wire Processing
    • Workstations
  • Columns
    • Assembly in Action
    • Automation Profiles
    • Medical Device Assembly
    • On Campus
    • Shipulski on Design
    • The Editorial
    • XYZ
    • Moser on Manufacturing
    • 21st Century Assembly
    • Mind Your Ps and Qs
  • New Products
  • More
    • Web Exclusives
    • Classifieds
    • eNewsletter
    • Blog
    • Market Research
    • Store
    • Product Spotlight
    • White Papers
    • Integrated Showcase
    • Custom Content & Marketing Solutions
    • Monthly Quiz
    • Sponsored Insight
  • Multimedia
    • Assembly Radio
    • Assembly TV
    • Image Galleries
    • Webinars
    • Interactive Spotlights
    • eBooks
  • Events
    • Calendar
    • The Assembly Show
  • Contact
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
  • InfoCenters
    • Collaborative Robot Revolution
    • Factory of the Future
Home » Editorial: Planting the Seed Corn
Columns

Editorial: Planting the Seed Corn

April 21, 2009
Don Hegland
Reprints
Industrial research and development programs are the seed corn of product innovation. Unfortunately, one of the first cost-cutting measures some companies take when faced with the challenge of a recessionary economy is slashing their R&D programs.

Out here in the farm country, where we grow most of the world’s corn, it’s always been well understood that you can’t eat the seed corn lest there be none to plant for growing the next year’s crop. Industrial research and development programs are the seed corn of product innovation. The considerable contribution of the “lone inventor” notwithstanding, without industrial R&D programs we wouldn’t see the innovations that launch the majority of new product down the assembly line and toward the marketplace.

Unfortunately, one of the first cost-cutting measures some companies take when faced with the challenge of a recessionary economy is to eat their seed corn by slashing their R&D programs. Stifling innovation not only tends to exacerbate and prolong a recession, it is also detrimental to those companies in the long term. Fortunately, despite the economic downturn, many companies are reluctant to cut R&D because they view it as a source of competitive advantage.

A recent survey by McKinsey & Co. (Chicago) revealed that R&D is still a strategic priority for many executives. While 34 percent reported that R&D budgets are lower in 2009 than in 2008, 45 percent say R&D is among the top three items on their companies’ strategic agendas. Companies that get the greatest return from R&D spending responded that not only have they had high organic growth rates over the past 5 years compared with competitors, but also attributed more than 30 percent of that growth to new products developed in house.

Another recent survey confirms that many companies, wary of emerging from the recession with obsolete products, are still spending on R&D. Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Justin Scheck and Paul Glader report on an analysis that looked at 28 of the largest U.S. R&D spenders, excluding the deeply troubled auto makers and the drug industry, where R&D spending is dictated by government requirements. While total revenue among those companies fell 7.7 percent in the dismal last quarter of 2008, their R&D spending was only down 0.7 percent. “Companies by and large realize that large reductions in R&D are suicidal,” Jim Andrew, a senior partner at the Boston Consulting Group (Chicago) told them.

R&D spending by some of those companies, including Microsoft, Intel, Cisco Systems, Motorola, Qualcomm, 3M, Advanced Microsystems and Freescale Semiconductor was greater quarter-over-quarter. “We are looking at really protecting R&D,” Lisa Su, chief technology officer at Freescale (Austin, TX) added. “That’s what’s going to drive growth coming out of the downturn.”

Innovation is essential to staying competitive, and it’s far more encouraging to see leading companies plant their seed corn by maintaining their investments in R&D than to hear “we’re here to help” from government bureaucrats. The former will lead out of the recession; the latter will only prolong it.

subscribe to assembly

Recent Articles by Don Hegland

Manufacturing Insights: Talent Search

Manufacturing Insights: From Tinkering to Manufacturing

Germany Wins Solar Decathlon

Manufacturing Insights: Interchangeable Parts and Concurrent Design

Remanufacturing Is Profitable and Green

Editorial Director Emeritus

Related Articles

Editorial: R&D Paves the Way

Editorial: The Skills Paradox

The Editorial: Point Your Finger in the Right Direction

The Editorial: Protect Hearing on the Line

Related Products

Faster, Better, Cheaper in the History of Manufacturing: From the Stone Age to Lean Manufacturing and Beyond

The Foreman on the Assembly Line

The Basics of Self-Balancing Processes: True Lean Continuous Flow

The Automotive Body Manufacturing Systems and Processes

Related Events

Lean Six Sigma in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Harnessing the Power of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Related Directories

GE Appliances (Plant of the Year Winner)

Stafast of the Carolinas

Subscribe For Free!
  • Print & Digital Edition Subscriptions
  • Assembly eNewsletters
  • Online Registration
  • Subscription Customer Service
  • Mobile App

More Videos

Popular Stories

lordstown motors

Electric Truck Manufacturer Buys GM’s Lordstown Assembly Plant

Bobcat manufacturing

Bobcat Announces Manufacturing and Assembly Facility Upgrades

Linear Motor Transport Systems

Linear Motor Transport Systems

Wearable Device 11-27

Wearable Lets Users Control IoT-Enabled Devices With Brain Waves

Rayovac 11-20

Energizer Moving VT Battery Manufacturing Facility to Former Rayovac Plant

Upcoming Assembly Events and Webinars

Events

January 1, 2030

Webinar Sponsorship Information

For webinar sponsorship information, visit www.bnpevents.com/webinars or email webinars@bnpmedia.com.

View All Submit An Event

Poll

Cloud Computing

Are you using cloud computing at your assembly plant?
View Results Poll Archive

Products

Welding: Principles & Practices

Welding: Principles & Practices

This text introduces students to a solid background in the basic principles and practices of welding.

See More Products
assembly buyers guide

Assembly Magazine

assembly dec 2019

2019 December

The 2019 December Assembly features our Capital Spending Report, plus much more. Check it out today!
View More Create Account
  • More
    • Assembly Plant of the Year
    • Manufacturing Group
    • List Rental
    • Organizations
    • Connect
    • Want More?
    • Polls
    • Privacy Policy
    • Subscribe
    • Survey And Sample

Copyright ©2019. All Rights Reserved BNP Media.

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing