Innovation works

The role of innovation - in both product and process - is clear in improving productivity. Take the automobile industry. The number of cars per hour produced in most plants is dramatically higher than, say, 15 years ago - the result of investment in new technologies. Now, models are designed for high productivity manufacture.

Volkswagen recently suggested that the next generation models for its Polish plant would create a productivity gain of somewhere reaching 50% - the result of fundamental design changes for the cars themselves ... designed to be attractive to customers, of course .... designed for safety of course ... but also designed to be manufactured quickly and efficiently.