Scientific-Technological Management

Giorgio Musso

Physics DepartmentSoSMCE2013 Summer SchoolGenoa, Italy

Main topics to be faced by “new scientists”

• Industrial organization and relationships

• Industry as an economical/technological process

• Project management methodologies

3

Seeing e research project from outside ….

tEvent Projections example

ScienceTechnology

Economy

Finance

Organization

Social

Research Project

Evaluation

The Industrial Process

Materials/Components

Suppliers

Banks

Capital

Human resourcesServices

Products/Services

Customers

Market

Partner

State

Company

Technology

Company’s functional structure

ManagementMarketingResearch and DevelopmentDesignFabricationQuality AssuranceStoragePurchasingSalesMaintenance

Human resourcesFinanceManagement ControlAccountingLegalPublic relationshipsContinuing educationSafety

Organization structure

Management

BusinessUnits

ServicesPlanning

and COGER&D

Fabbrication

How industry individuates research projects

Technology Push process-Starting from an already existent Scientific/Technological know-how or Scientific knowledge some future application is individuate and developed.-Both scientific as well as market knowledge are required at the same time.-It is typical in spin-off cases

Market Driven Process-Research objectives derive from market needs analysis.-Application and scientific knowledge are separated.-It is typical in High Tech industry

Research results evaluation in industry

• There is a great debate on the assessment of research results

• Often the kind of evaluation depends on the institution objectives

• The used metrics are generally based on the following criteria (not independent among them):

– Knowledge return

– Role return

– Know how return

– Economical return

Knowledge return

• It is typical in Research public institutions, mainly where the research activity is combined with instruction

• It is used in large international laboratories aimed at scientific objectives

• It is associated with fundamental research activities• It is measured in terms of publications and of citation

index

This evaluation criteria are in general considered as a significative indexes, but often incomplete for industry.

Role return

• It represents a form of measure applied in institutions similar to the previous ones, but the emphasis is located on the role recognition acquired by the institution itself.

• Usually the role has a social meaning:– Instruction– Health care– Cultural heritage– Environment– Promotion of technological development– Promotion of economical development

• Industry considers this kind of return as a characterizing factor as a first level player in some field

Know-how return

• Research return is evaluated in terms of applicability of achieved results and of enabling technology acquisitions

• Usually is based on patent achieving process, where the patents are considered economical assets of their owner

• It is frequently used by chemical, pharmaceutics, food and mechanical industries

• It is not so much used in the information technology field, due to the deficiency to protect results mainly in the software development process

Economical return

• It is typical in High Tech industries.• It is based on the criterion of estimating research results

exclusively in economical terms (as such cannot be considered a complete estimate)

• It compares the research costs with the estimate or the evaluation of research-originated revenues

• Example: Annual revenue originated by research

Return= ___________________________

Previous n-years Research costs

Impact =Annual revenue originated by research

Total annual revenue

Problems in public and industrial research interactions

• There are deep differences and problems that need to be solved:

– Possibility of individuating research themes on the base of external requests

– Need to plan and control the development cost and time

– Need to reconcile the different result evaluation criteria and different objectives

– Need to complete the chain value

– …Weakness in the Technology Transfer Process ……

– …Need to exchange experience and persons ….

• Company’s economical and financial process• Company’s cost structure• Annual report as a control tools• Project organization• Cost project control• Return on investments (risk assessment, breakeven evaluation,

amortization's)• Immaterial assets (know-how, Technology, patents)• Contract management (partnerships, licenses,royalties)

Economical and financial process

Annual report schema

Activities Passivities

Immobili Capitale socialeBeni materialiBeni immateriali Fondi di accantonamento

Scorte DebitiLavori in corso

Crediti da clientiAltri crediti

Cassa

Economic accounting schema

Ricavi ACosti diretti B

Margine operativo lordo A-B

Costi indiretti (R&D, MKT, ecc.) CCosti generali D

Margine operativo A-B-C-D

Oneri finanziari e fiscali E

Risultato Operativo A-B-C-D-E

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Life cycle in the industrial research

• Long term objectives definition• Long term plan definition• Research projects definition• Research project planning• Resources assignment• Activity management and control• Result evaluation• Result transfer • Result maintenance

Project Management

• Project cycle• Project organization(responsibility assignment,

work groups, project revisions)• Project management methodology phases

– project planning– project control and revision (feedback)– project reporting

• Management of geographically distributed projects• Project documentation

Project management objectives

• To improve R&D activities in terms of:– Effectiveness and costs

– Development lead time

– Development Quality and Reliability

• To monitoring project physical progress• To get a better project planning• To improve project documentation• To improve the resources planning process• To adapt internal process with external needs