Paste your essay in here…TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION
INTRODUCTION
What is technology ? What is innovation ? We can not denied that technology is one of the most important thing in our life. Many years ago before the invention of computer, if we want to send some news to our colleagues or families, we can only use mail. And we need to wait couple of days even months to received the letter. Things has changed, thanks to Samuel Morse, in the year 1834 he invented a machine called telegram machine. We call it innovation, because that was the first time we can send message using signal to the other people with a wire connection. The communication innovation system was growing. After telegram, there was an invention that we called fax machine. However, innovation was growing and at the end of 19th century, Charles Babbage invented computer. Our daily life and also professional life become more easier and more efficient with the invention of computer.
Both the innovation and technology keep developing more and more. I am sure we all remember more or less 30 years ago, IBM launched the first operating ststem that we called MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System) (give sample of the important points). In the year 1986, there was a new innovation when Apple Macintosh launched their first product. Apple is the first and the only computer that are using IOS for their operating system. This system makes Apple different from the other products.
PART I
From the examples above, we can see that the connection between technology and innovation is really important and both of them are having strong connection. When we talk about technology and innovation, the link it’s not only from one point of view. For example, if we explain about fashion and technology. I can give example designer Stella Mc. Cartney. Stella Mc. Cartney is one of the famous designer under Kering Group. When she designed her collections, she always think about how to do innovation and how to overcome the challenge.
I quote what she explained to Rachel Arthur for Fashion & Mash :
“Every other industry is having to question how they manufacture,” she explained. “It’s part of innovation and growth”
From the quote above, we can see that there is a strong connection between innovation, technology and also fashion. If we start using different raw material in this case i give you an example of faux leather, we need to use different machine to make raw material into a beautiful leather jacket or pants.
Stella Mc. Cartney starting to use a sustainable raw material. Before she started using a sustainable, she was using the real leather. She challenged herself and she started using faux leather but still looks beautiful and real.
We can see that innovation is not only coming from technology or fashion, but we can obtain also from jewelry industry. How ? Let’s follow my interviewed that has been done with the CEO of Kapit Mas, Ben Morice regarding technology and innovation in their company.
Kapit Mas is a foreign jewelry manufacturing company based in Bali, Indonesia. The company has been established for more than 30 years by the owner Ben Morice.
Me: Why and how did you start your company ?
Ben: When I left New-Zealand, I was planning to take a one-month break before taking a flight to London. But I fell in love with the island and decided to stay. I was already doing some import/export of antiques of Asia in the US but decided to focus on Jewelry once I discovered the quality of the know-how of the jewelry produced in Bali.
Me: What was your vision when you create this company before ?
Ben: I created Kapit Mas in 1996, I called myself a Kiwi who is passionate about Jewelry and innovation. I started with a few workers only when I was 30 and now I have a few hundreds of workers at the factory ! The vision was to be able produce Jewelry collections that no other factory can make, in an ethical way. Innovation and Ethics are the two most important things for us.
Me: What is the core business of Kapit Mas?
Ben: We produce fine Jewelry made of Silver, Gold, Bronze, or with other materials such as shells, wood, resin,… We sell production services to Retailer and Designers having their own collections and designs. We follow clients’ brief sheets and produce their collections accordingly. We offer them the possibility to sell items which are different than their competitors, and at a better price since they source themselves directly from the manufacturer. We offer A to Z services, from the production of samples, to professional photography of the finished items for their e-commerce platform.
Me: I saw on your website that you are using recycle materials. How you can get the idea of using the recycle materials ? Please tell me more about your material ? Why recycle silver ?
Ben: A few years ago we realized that most of the industrial grade pure silver sold in Indonesia was coming from illegal mines, where miners are not paid fair wages and environmental issues were not addressed. We decided to find a way to produce Jewelry with recycled silver only. Since 2013, all the pure silver we buy comes from Umicore, the worldwide largest pure silve wholeseller. Their production is LMBA accredited and based on recycled silver only. We are the only company in Indonesia providing 100% recycled silver. It was a great innovation and it brought us quite a lot of new clients, interested by this innovation.
Me: What are your values and philosophy?
Ben: As written on our website, Kapit Mas seeks to be the provider of choice to a discerning clientèle interested in ethically sourcing, unique and original jewelry of a high quality, from Asia.
Kapit Mas philosophy embraces the concept of team work or collaboration. We see in this new more connected world that the borders between businesses and organizations are slowly being broken down and becoming less clear, and with this concept in mind it is our aim that all people or organizations associated with our company should benefit from that association, either financially or otherwise:
• Our workers and staff benefit from continual training and skill upgrading programs along with fair wages, a safe working environment and a strong social support network
• We contribute to the local economy and manage social programs to help the communities around us
• Our customers get fair prices, good service and a quality product
• Ultimately, the end user derives great enjoyment for many years wearing a product we have created
It is our belief that every stakeholder should benefit from its relationship with Kapit Mas, and that if those associated with us benefit from it our future is ensured.
We are living in dynamic times and we recognize the need to continually strive to improve our corporate profile, responsibility, and performance. We do this by keeping abreast of newly developed technology, striving for new ideas and production techniques to create new and exciting ranges, and continually improving our safety standards, working conditions, operational infrastructure, and protection of the local environment. These are a few marks of our dedication to continually improving and upgrading our corporate well being.
As a Bali based exporter, mainly to the western world, and with a staff consisting of Hindu, Islamic, Christian and Buddhist followers we find ourselves in a multi cultural situation, and our corporate responsibility role extends to increasing the awareness of, respect for, and understanding and acceptance of cultural and ethnic differences, and harmonizing this in regard to internationally accepted corporate practices, and the requirements of our customers. We see this harmonization as an ongoing challenge and also as a blueprint for success in an increasingly globalized world.
Me: How do you improve the efficiency in the company ?
Ben: We have daily, weekly, monthly dashboards showing us the quantity of pieces produced by department, the number of rejects item, and track a lot of KPIs linked to efficiency. This is a must in a labour-intensive business such as ours. Each worker is given daily targets he must achieve. On the top of this, we also have regular management meeting where we try to find out where our production bottlenecks are, and how we can improve efficiency and productivity. We have a dedicated ISO / Quality team in charge of working on efficiency issues.
Me: Please explain the process of making jewelry.
Ben: First step is Industrial design, and then the second step is a Sample making, with the help of a wax carver or a 3D printing machine, Casting of the wax sample, Production of a rubber mold with the metal piece created and finally the Mass production.
Me: Can you please explain the innovation process in your company ?
Ben: Innovation is part of our philosophy, we want to keep ourselves at the edge. The innovation process is very straight-forward at Kapit Mas. Each department manager is requested to make a presentation about his department every quarter, and is requested to talk about innovation or improvements to come at his department. New way of working are discussed, new technologies discovered during exhibitions or thanks to suppliers are reviewed, and a decision is taken by the management board. Then, one person is appointed as project manager and makes sure the impovement is done.
Me: Can you please explain the evolution in your company ?
Ben: We started in the late 1990s with a few workers and manual works only. We have added casting, 3D printing, plating, and international standards over the last 30 years.
Me: Do you have any favorite new technology? Explain more.
Ben: One technology that is really amazing is the 3D printing. It is currently transforming our business, especially for sample making. We just need to create a 3D design and push a button and the machine creates it ! We open the market to a whole new world of possibilities and complexities that we hardly possible when samples were still made using wax carving techniques !
Me: How do you see the future of your company in the next 10 years ?
Ben: We will keep on focusing on innovation. This is the reason why we are succesful today. We can see that our industry is currently shifting from a lot of small traditional players to bigger factories using new technologies, and are very happy we have been on the move since a few years ago, which gives us today this competitive advantage. We want to be the most reputable jewelry manufacturing company in Asia.
Me: Who are the biggest competitors in your industry ?
Ben: UBS in Surabaya, and King Halim in Malang are the two biggest competitors. They have also integrated quite a lot of new technologies in their manufacturing process. But we will believe that we have a competitive advantage compared to them thanks to our CSR activities and innovations regarding waste management and recycling silver.
Me: What is your experience managing designers and skillful people in your factory?
Ben: We have a large team of designers and artists, creating collections of Jewelry. We make sure we provide a friendly environment where they feel relax and can provide their best to our customers.
Me: What are the biggest mistakes of your career?
Ben: I have waited for too long before innovating in implementing a new ERP and reporting tool. This new ERP that is to be implemented by Q1 2017 will give us the possibility to have a better overview of our production planning, and will help us fight against production bottlenecks. We should have started this project 3 years ago, at least.
Me: What are the biggest successes of your career?
Ben: Last year we created a new division, dedicated to the providing of production services to other small producers. It brought us a nice increase of our sales while spreading the word on the market that Kapit Mas is able to produce anything.
Me: How you can evaluate success ?
Ben: Regarding innovation, we always follow up on innovations made. Each manager, during the quarterly report, has to tell us what is his plan for the future, but has also to tell us how sucessful are the previous innovations made. We ask them to provide facts, KPIs, calculations to assess if our innovations are succesful.
CONCLUSION
It is clear that we can not separated technology and innovation. It will grow more and more.