Food Cart Design That Doesn’t Block Airplane Aisles

The Orbit Aircraft Food Delivery System by Heather Dunne is a space-saving solution that solves a common and annoying problem on airlines.

 Orbit is a concept system for delivering food on commercial aircraft by UK designer Heather Dunne. The space-saving solution improves upon the traditional airline food cart by making it slimmer and longer, so passengers can get around flight attendants. The design also allows food to be easily loaded and unloaded and can hold more than the current cart.

At 8 inches wide, Orbit is 4 inches thinner than traditional carts, which allows passengers to move past it in the aisle. It is able to hold up to 60 meals as it is longer than the current design, which holds around 35-40. Bio-pac food packages can be taken from the top using a pressure shelf system. Once one layer of packages is removed, the ones underneath move up, allowing flight attendants to deliver food to passengers without having to bend down. Orbit locks into sunken tracks in the aisles, with a motor that propels the wheels forwards or backwards. They can also be locked into the tracks during turbulence so it doesn’t lift off the floor.

Orbit

via psfk.com

 

A Maze Of Tunnels Made Only Of Packing Tape, Suspended In Mid-Air

via fastcodesign.com

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Take a Look At This Innovative TREK Kiosk for Bicycle Parts #Innovation

Unless they happen to be near a bicycle shop during business hours, bicyclists who break down are typically out of luck if they don’t already have the parts they need to make a repair. Aiming to make bike parts more accessible, two different vending machines we’ve spotted are always on hand with critical parts.

Most recently, bike manufacturer Trek set up a prototype Trek Stop Cycling Convenience Center at the end of June, just off the bike path in Madison, Wisconsin. Located outside (and operated by) bike shop Machinery Row, the Trek Stop is a 24/7/365 convenience center for cyclists that provides access to cycling products, information and a safe place to work on a bike. The full-service vending machine is stocked with bicycle products such as spare tubes, patches, tire levers, CO2 cartridges and more, along with food and cold drinks; it also features an information center with maps, a message board and advertising space for local announcements. A covered maintenance area, meanwhile, offers a work stand, free air and even how-to videos–available at the push of a button–for those trickier repairs. 

The idea for Trek Stop was born a few years ago when a crew of industrial designers at Trek led by Mike Hammond began thinking of ways to make bicycle commuting more viable. “Motorists have it easy,” says Hammond. “Gas stations, convenience stores, auto parts stores, tow trucks–you name it. The support network for cars far outclasses cyclists. The Trek Stop aims to change that by breaking down some of the ‘worries’ attached to cycling.” While the Trek Stop is currently just in prototype form and slated to run for only another month or so, Seattle-based Aaron’s Bicycle Repair has actually had a similar vending machine in place since 2005. With items like inner tubes, flat repair items, energy bars and gel, the machine is located just outside Aaron’s for after-hours service. 

As environmental concerns and skyrocketing gas costs lead to increasing numbers of bicyclists around the globe, it’s not hard to imagine vending machines like these popping up all over–particularly in spots where there aren’t bike shops nearby. Time to get together with a bike shop or manufacturer and bring some machines to the trails near you?  via springwise.com

Jim Woods is president and founder of InnoThink Group. We are one of the very few consulting firms specialized solely in helping organizations of all sizes in all industries catalyzing top line growth through strategic innovation and hypercompetition. Email or call us at 719-649-4118 to speak at your event or devise an effective competitive advantage and innovation strategy for your organization.  Subscribe to our innovation and hypercompetition newsletter?  

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Why You Should Work With Your Innovating Users

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Using a GPS system and small tags to create a way to find things that get lost in a house. Creating a coat that’s easy to put on and take off while in a wheelchair. Coloring the two halves of a clock different colors to teach children the concepts of “past the hour” and “before the hour.”

Those are some of the consumer innovations that were found by Eric von Hippel, Susumu Ogawa and Jeroen P.J. de Jong in their research into the scope and frequency of how consumers modify existing products and create new ones. “The Age of the Consumer-Innovator,” their report on the first-ever national surveys on consumer innovation in the U.S., Japan and the United Kingdom, is the cover story of the new Fall 2011 issue of MIT Sloan Management Review.

How can companies best work with these “casual entrepreneurs”? Here are five steps, drawn from the article:

• Understand that “lead users” are key. “Some users — termed “lead users” — are much more likely to develop commercially promising innovations than the average consumer,” write von Hippel, Ogawa and de Jong. “Lead users are those who are both ahead of the majority of users with respect to an important market trend and have a high incentive to innovate.”
• ID those lead users. Co-author von Hippel, a professor of technological innovation at the MIT Sloan School of Management, offers at his website free training materials to find lead users, including a lead user project handbook and videos.
• “Stop attacking your innovating users, whether intentionally or by mistake!” The authors are emphatic about this. It is counterproductive, they note, for companies to deter through criminal threat users who might simply be trying to inspect and alter a product to make it better. Ditto for consumer innovators who are using products in new ways that could lead to new markets.
• Actively support consumer innovation. “Create documented, open interfaces to support modifications to your products,” suggest the authors. Create “developers’ toolkits.” Create websites where users can share information and innovate together. Consider even providing special access to in-house developers.

And about those in-house developers: Get them on board. The authors write: “Companies will have to help their own product developers look at consumer-developed innovations with new eyes — not just as poorly engineered amateurish efforts. Product engineering is not the value companies should look for in the consumer-developed prototype product and related usage. The consumer is showing a product prototype that performs a novel function that people have actually demonstrated that they want. That is the priceless information your companies must take on board.” via sloanreview.mit.edu  

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Jim Woods is president and founder of InnoThink Group; a global innovation, growth and hypercompetition consultancy. He is an author and speaker on strategic innovation, education and competitive advantage. To hire Jim to speak to your organization - Call 719-649-4118 or email us for availability. Subscribe to our innovation and hypercompetition newsletter.