Inspiration Archives - Page 10 of 15

Canary from coal mine to software testing

Canary release is a technique to reduce the risk of introducing a new software version in production by slowly rolling out the change to a small subset of users before rolling it out to the entire infrastructure and making it available to everybody. Canary testing is recommended as good practice…

Early bowerman waffle outsoles rectangle

Nike shoe sole inspired by waffle iron

Nike's co- founder,Bill Bowerman, who was a track and field coach at the time, had been searching for a way to make shoes lighter and faster. While he was working to find a solution to this problem, his chat with his wife over breakfast got him the inspiration to build…

Carma project: Toyota’s nudge for product recall

Traditionally, project recall in automobile, healthcare, food or other industry has been done as a massive public relations exercise supported by the company’s sales, distribution and service partners. The outcomes from the traditional route has not always been very encouraging. Toyota, the largest car manufacturer started to think about it…

The Jungle: Fiction inspired industry welfare laws

Long before Henry Ford adapted it to automobile production, meat packers had developed the first industrial assembly line. It was more accurately a “disassembly line,” requiring nearly 80 separate jobs from the killing of an animal to processing its meat for sale. “Killing gangs” held jobs like “knockers,” “rippers,” “leg…

Fan Equity – Not only a fan but also an Owner

When a private limited company needs more money for its growth and expansion plans, it goes to public to raise the capital. Thus, it becomes a publicly-owned company. People who buy company’s shares bear the highest risk but they also enjoy the collective ownership of the company which is transferable.…

Photocopier drum inspired by beer

A product innovation example offered in 1991 by Ikujiro Nonaka and Martin Kenney in the Journal of Engineering and Technology Management involved a key part of a photocopier — its drum. A team of engineers at Canon Inc. was considering how to redesign the drum in order to ease photocopiers’…

Tackling the challenge on truck drivers retention

The digital world has made the possibility of having everything delivered at your door step. This, however has created new set of challenges to companies which move the goods across the world. Yes, the logistics providers irrespective of scale are faced with enormous challenge of keeping up with the ever…

Elephant fatality and water shortage in high altitude solved

Using solutions from nature has time and again proven to be highly successful for problems posed by nature. Two interesting stories on how nature’s resources and engineering is put in action for solving interesting problems Plan Bee to avoid elephant fatalities According to the Wildlife Trust of India, train collisions…

Genetics inspired by Austrian monk and peas

You might have always wondered as to why only of your siblings had a sharp nose or wide ears? The answer to your question can be answered if you understand certain principles of heredity. The field of genetics has come a long way over the last decade or so. Business…

Linux inspired gold mining challenge

Open source software has come a long way since the Linux revolution. Back in 90s, it was such a unorthodox and powerful concept to make software free challenging the big proprietary software firms. Today, RedHat a company specialising in open source IT products today is a classic example of how…

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