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Q: What is the difference between an invention and a discovery?
Q: What are the advantages of this idea? Is there a real need for it?
Q: Do I know exactly what problems my idea will solve?
Q: Is this an original idea of an adaptation of an existing one?
Q: What are my anticipated short-term results?
Q: What are my anticipated long-term gains?
Q: Are there any faults or limitations to my idea?
Q: Could this idea create any problems?
Q: How simple—or complex—will it be to execute this idea?
Q: Are there variations to this idea?
Q: Do I have alternatives?
Q: Is this idea saleable?
Q: Will people want it? Can they afford to pay for it?
Q: Who is my competition, and what are their plans?
Q: How strongly will people “want” your idea?
Q: How novel have you proved it to be?
Q: How direct will its path to buyers be?
Q: How low-cost and available are the skills needed for development?
Q: How able and willing to help are inventor support groups?
Q: How sure are you of getting the money you need?
Q: How much alpha and beta testing have you done with X prototypes?
Q: How well have you protected your idea?
Q: How well have you recorded all your steps in your journal, to document them?
Q: How can we attract the human and financial resources needed to pursue this opportunity?
Q: How are things going to change?
Q: What will be the benefit of the change?
Q: How will things be better?
Q: How many times has this concept or idea been used?
Q: How well did it work out?
Q: What are the similarities between past successes and this situation?
Q: What are the differences?
Q: How can we establish a defensible competitive position?
Q: What type of geometry do you need to create: 2D, basic 3D, or advanced 3D?
Q: Do you need parametric software functionality?
Q: What is your industry?
Q: What level of automation do you expect?
Q: What level of integration with other software do you expect?
Q: Do you see your needs changing in the next two years? If so, how?
Q: Can you give me at least five different ways that this advice, item, or ideal can be broken?
Q: How large is the advance?
Q: How high is up? How long is a length of string?
Q: What is a patent?
Q: Why patent something? Isn’t society better served if I publish my research and dedicate it to the public?
Q: Will obtaining a patent stop others from doing academic research about the same subject matter?
Q: Is there any other reason for patenting something?
Q: Who owns the patent?
Q: Can you patent an invention even if the development of the invention was financed by federal funds?
Q: What is the standard for patentability?
Q: What kinds of things are patentable?
Q: Who is an inventor? Are inventors the same as co-authors?
Q: What if I have a collaborator at a different institution? Does that affect the process?
Q: Will filing a patent application prevent me from publishing or otherwise disclosing my research?
Q: What is considered to be a public disclosure that might bar obtaining a patent?
Q: Is a grant application a public disclosure?
Q: What about a departmental seminar?
Q: What if I publish or talk about my invention prior to filing a patent application?
Q: How much experimental evidence is needed before I can file a patent application?
Q: Will preparing a patent application take a substantial amount of my time?
Q: Without taking the time to learn _____ and foreign patent laws, how do I avoid jeopardizing my patent rights?

What is the difference between an invention and a discovery?

A discovery is about something that is found out that was already there, but one did not know. This can be determining the existence of a substance in nature. This is not patentable.

An invention is something new; in the practice it requires human intervention of a technical nature. This is patentable, if it fulfuls the other patentability requirements. In other words, if a substance is freely occuring in nature, there is a distinction between whether it is just a discovery or whether it is subsequently isolated and then used for a techncal purpose. The latter is an invention.

For example, identifying a gene sequence occuring in nature is a discovery and not an invention. Isolating a gene or a piece of DNA, and determining its utility, is an invention and can be patented.

To find a substance freely occuring in nature is also mere discovery and therefore unpatentable. However, if a substance found in nature has first to be isolated from its surroundings and a process for obtaining it is developed, that process is patentable.

Moreover, if that substance can be properly characterised either by its structure, by the process by which it is obtained or by other parameters and it is "new" in the absolute sense of having no previously recognised existence, then the substance per se may be patentable.

Up is as high as people agree it is, and the string is as long as it is supposed to be. You and the licensee might agree that there should be an advance, but you won't initially agree on how much. If you each wrote a number on a piece of paper, there's not one chance in a thousand that both of you will have written the same sum. Knowing this, you should never ask the licensee what he's prepared to offer as an advance. That would be like owning a clothing store and asking the customer what he'd be willing to pay for the new suit he's trying on. You're the seller; it's your job to put a figure on the table. I can't tell you what that figure should be because there are too many variables, but I can tell you what it should represent.

There are two purposes for the advance. The first is to establish the seriousness of the licensee. It's what we used to call "earnest money." The advance should be large enough to convince you that the licensee is serious, yet not so large as to cause him to have second thoughts about the deal. The other reason for the advance, since it is non-refundable, is to compensate you for your time if, say, six months down the road the licensee changes his mind and decides not to produce your product. As a purely arbitrary rule of thumb, I try to calculate what a year's royalty might be and ask for an advance that represents about 25 percent of that amount. That seems to work in my own negotiations and the sum that is finally agreed upon is usually not far from that amount.

What percentage should the royalty be?

The reason these points are negotiable is that there are no hard-and-fast rules. If what you've licensed is a high-volume, low-profit type of product, you might be happy to get three percent. If it's a slow-moving but high-profit item, you might be entitled to ten percent. None of the products I've ever been involved with have strayed beyond either of these extremes, and most wind up in the five percent area. I developed a wonderful negotiating strategy that you're free to use. Let's say I ask for six percent and the licensee complains that competition will be able to undersell him because of the high royalty. I tell him that if and when competition comes along, if he's not competitive, I'll cut the royalty. I even know from experience that if and when competition does come along, it is usually based on features rather than price—and even if it is price, this clause is long forgotten as time passes and the product has evolved into something entirely different. But my suggestion sounds good when offered at the negotiating table and shows a sense of willingness to cooperate.

When Do You Get Your Royalty Payments?

My contracts always state that I'm to be paid monthly. Company salespeople get their commissions monthly, so why shouldn't I get paid the same way? Some small companies might agree, but larger ones never will. There's too much bookkeeping involved and most will insist on quarterly payments. It's a reasonable request and I always agree. The only reason I don't change my contract to read "quarterly" is to offer the licensee a small victory.

How Long Does the Licensee Have to Bring Your Product to Market?

I apply the same principle as with the royalty payment schedule. My contracts call for the licensee to have the product on the market in six months. They always balk and I always change it. Six months is usually not enough time, particularly with a seasonal product, and I'm prepared to allow as much time as seems necessary. Nine months is usually a reasonable time for the kind of products I'm involved with. The only reason my agreement still says six months is to provide further proof of my flexibility and willingness to oblige. Your invention might be more complex, involving a year or more in production, so you have to give the licensee the amount of time that's reasonable and fair, but not so much time that he has no incentive to move ahead at a brisk pace. The longer the delay, the less chance your idea will become a reality.

What Territory Are You Awarding?

My contract routinely award licensing rights to the North America, South America, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa which is fine for some companies but not for others. A company with worldwide operations is going to want to sell your product all over the place. That should be all right with you—why not? However, many smaller companies may sell abroad without a really strong international presence. My suggestion is to structure two separate agreements with performance guarantees built into the international one. That way, down the road, you can remove the international rights for non-performance, without interrupting their domestic activities where, hopefully, they're going great guns. If they're not doing a job for you overseas, they won't care if you take it away.

What Performance Guarantees Should You Ask For?

If you're licensing a product that is not patented, you can't ask for any guarantees. Once your product is on the market, it's fair game for any company that wants to knock it off. Since you can't re-license it elsewhere, you're stuck with the guy you gave it to in the first place. However, if your product is strongly patented, you can move it around and are entitled to ask for minimum royalty guarantees. How much should it be? Who knows? It's an arbitrary figure based on what would be a reasonable amount in sales. The licensee should be able to make an estimate based on experience in the business, and you should be able to judge his estimates based on sales of similar or competing products.

How Long Are You Entitled to Receive Royalties?

I take the position that as long as a company is selling my product, or variations thereof, I should get royalties. Fair is fair. Some companies disagree. They figure that, since they are taking all the risk and they'll be putting money into constantly changing, improving and adding to the product, at some point in time enough's enough. Actually, years ago my accountant found a loophole in the law that gave me great tax advantages by using a finite time and calling it a sale rather than a license, but that loophole has since been closed. There may be others, so if a great deal of money is potentially involved, you may want to discuss this with a tax attorney or your accountant.

Who Pays the Legal Fees to Complete Patent Work?

Let's assume your product is not patented, but that it could be, or that you have filed a Provisional Patent Application. It's not unreasonable to negotiate with the company to pay for the application for a conventional utility patent. The patent would be issued in your name and you would assign marketing rights to the company. You have a good chance of doing this with large companies who have patent attorneys on retainer and less of a chance with small companies where the legal fees are a burden—but it's worth putting on the table for discussion.

Who Pays Legal Fees in the Event of Infringement?

If you've licensed a patented product, another company might ignore the patent and simply knock it off. Or, if your product is not patented, you may have innocently infringed on an existing patent. Who pays the legal fees to defend the patent or defend against the infringement issue? Presumably, as the licensor, that's your responsibility, but I urge you to never, never sign a contract that obligates you to take legal action. It will cost you a ton of money if you lose the case and will probably also cost you a great deal of money if you win. Duck the issue entirely if you can, but if it does come up, you have to simply tell the licensee that the two of you will deal with the issue if and when it arises. You cannot and should not obligate yourself to take legal action to defend a five percent royalty. If you do, I can almost guarantee you'll regret it.

What About Remaining Inventory?

There's an old business axiom that you can never count your profits until the entire inventory is out of the warehouse. Products tend to have a natural life span; when it's over, the manufacturer is invariably stuck with merchandise he can't sell. If he has to dispose of this merchandise at a cut price, do you still get your regular royalty rate? Frankly, it would be mean-spirited of you to insist on receiving the regular percentage, and I believe it will come back to haunt you. My suggestion is to use this simple formula. If the licensee has to sell the remaining merchandise at a 25 percent discount, you should also take a 25 percent discount in the royalty percentage. If he sells at a 50 percent discount, then you should also take a 50 percent discount. And so on. There probably won't be a great deal of money involved, and the licensee will remember your fairness when the next deal comes along.

The overriding intent of a licensing agreement, aside from the obvious desire to get what's reasonably deserved, should be to have a friendly, equitable deal that makes the licensee as satisfied as you are. Listen to the other side's legitimate needs and be prepared to compromise when it's not too painful to do so. You're going to invent something else for this guy and something else again after that. Your reasonableness at this first negotiation will set the tone of your ongoing relationship; you'll be rewarded for it many times over as time goes by. Professionals like to deal with other professionals. The less you allow emotion to dictate and the more businesslike your attitude in addressing these issues, the more assured of success you'll be.

A. Are there features of the products in the patents you can include in your product?
B. Are there any additional potential applications for your product mentioned in the patents?
C. Do they contain any design or test data?
D. Do they list any reference materials (books, articles, etc.)?
E. Were any of the patents assigned to the _______ government? They often contain significant design and test information.
F. Are any companies patenting products in this area potential licensees for your product?
G. How does your product compare with the products found during the patent search (and with those found below in the market and emerging technology searches)? Why would someone purchase yours instead of theirs? Why would someone purchase theirs instead of yours? Construct a matrix to compare the products based on features. Which products have which features?
H. Does one company or a small group of firms lead the industry in patents in this area or especially in the more significant patents?
I. Does one person or a small group of individuals lead the industry in patents in this area or especially in the more significant patents?
J. Is the number of patents being granted each year in the industry increasing, decreasing, or remaining the same?
K. Are there a few very significant patents in the industry (such as drug patents)? When do these key patents expire? How might the industry change when they expire? Do licensing agreements currently allow others to make the product? What are the terms (lengths) of those agreements?

A. Patent searches are conducted for many purposes. Among them are to do the following:
1. Determine if a particular invention is unique.
2. Identify potential features for a new product.
3. Identify other possible uses for a new product.
4. Determine independent inventors or companies currently or historically obtaining patents in a particular area.
5. Find the patent(s) for a particular invention.
6. Determine the state of the art in a particular area.
7. Identify patents in a specific field for generating citation maps (a tool in determining the relative importance/value of a specific invention).
8. Study the rate of innovation in a particular area.
9. Determine the patent portfolio of a specific company.
10. Determine if an invention infringes upon the intellectual property rights of others.
11. Learn about an industry or a specific company.
12. Search for potential solutions to design or safety problems.
13. Identify potential licensees.
14. To identify additional reference materials (journal articles, books, product literature) of use to those working in this area. Patents often list printed reference materials.
15. Identify inventors working in a certain field.

Should I seek patent protection? What kind of patent protection should I seek? When should I patent my invention? How much does a patent cost? How do I license an invention? Which web site is best to use when searching patents? Does my invention infringe on someone else's patent(s)? Should I get more than one patent? Generally, you'll want to identify the licensed patents, licensed products, territory covered, and such terms as Net Sales, Improvements, etc.

Grant of License
Is the license to be exclusive or non-exclusive? May the Licensee grant sublicenses? What rights do you reserve solely to yourself? Make sure these are clearly stated.

Payments
Are there to be minimum payments per period? How much (in dollars or units)? This is especially important for exclusive licenses. What is the royalty percentage and what is it based on? This is usually Net Sales. Who will pay the patent expenses, if it's still pending, and the patent maintenance fees?

Records and Reports
What reports will the Licensee provide to verify the base that your royalty is applied to? When? This is usually quarterly. What access do you have to Licensee's records for audit purposes, and what is the procedure? How long must the Licensee retain these reports after termination?

Improvements
What happens in the event you make improvements in the invention? What happens in the event Licensee makes improvements in the invention?

Infringement
Who's responsible for enforcing (i.e., prosecuting infringers of) the patent? Keep in mind there may occur situations in which it is in the Licensee's interest to let the patent fail. What happens if Licensee's product(s), based on your patent, infringes the patents of others? You should avoid taking on this responsibility.

Patent Markings
If a patent number can be put on a product, it's good practice to require that it be done.

Other Obligations of Licensee
Will Licensee promise to produce some quantity level of product? Some dollar level of sales? To use best efforts to commercialize? To maintain some quality level? Does Licensee indemnify you for product liability? If so, make sure that's clearly stated and that it survives termination of the agreement.

Disclaimer of Agency
Statement that the parties are independent contractors, i.e., the actions of one are not binding on the other.

Insolvency of Licensee
What happens if the Licensee goes out of business? Becomes insolvent?

Notices
What notices are required? Where and to whom are they to be sent? When do they become effective?

Transfer of Interest
Can Licensee transfer its rights? You would typically prefer not.

Term
How long is the license to last? Generally it's to expiration of the patent (or the last expiring patent), except as provided under Termination.

Termination
This is an important section—it's your way out if things don't work out as expected. Include any defaults not covered elsewhere. What is the form of notices of default? How long has Licensee to correct defaults? What happens to Licensee's products in process? Orders in process?

Compliance with Law

What laws can be violated by Licensee? Import-export regulations? Anti-trust? Make sure Licensee agrees to obey and conform to such laws and regulations.

Patents and Licensing

List 1. Ten Costs Involved in Patents Costs Involved in Patents (as of February 1, 2005) Disclosure Document ...$10 Provisional Application ... $200 Utility Patent Filing Fee ... $300 Design Patent Filing Fee ... $200 Plant Patent Filing Fee ... $200 Utility Patent Issue Fee ... $1,400 Design Patent Issue Fee ... $800 Plant Patent Issue Fee ... $1,100 Printed Copy of Patent ... $3 Patent Renewal Costs ... After 3.5 years $900 ... After 7.5 years $2,300 ... After 11.5 years $3,800 Source: Inventors’ Association of South Central Kansas, “Steps of Inventing,” www.inventkansas.com/content.php?cid=1003 List 2. SCORE’s Ten Steps to Protect Your Great Idea 1. Put all your ideas, notes and drawings in an inventor’s journal, and have it signed, witnessed, and dated. Be careful about disclosing your ideas to anyone—use a confidentiality or non-disclosure document when discussing your ideas. 2. File a Disclosure Document Program with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (www.uspto.gov). This costs only $10 for two years of pursuit of patenting, but it’s not a patent. 3. Conduct a Preliminary Patentability. Search to discover what patents exist like your ideas—and get a patent attorney to render you a Patentability Opinion. There are many ways to conduct the search, including the Patent Depository Libraries on the uspto.gov web site. File a PTO Provisional Patent Application for one year if all looks good. 4. Make a model, demo, or illustration and conduct preliminary market research with end-users. Know the consumers of your product and listen to feedback. Use feedback to fine-tune your project. 5. Investigate intellectual property filings such as utility and design patents in the United States and overseas. Also investigate copyrights, trademarks, service marks, and domain name registrations for web sites. Explore U.S. and international protection options and limitations. 6. Think about the two main pathways to inventing success: entrepreneurship or licensing. How do you want to be rewarded for your great ideas? The pathway you choose will dictate a lot of your actions—and budget. 7. Do not fall prey to invention development/promotion scams, which are prevalent. Check with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC, www.ftc.gov) for a list of these unscrupulous firms. If their promises sound too good to be true, they probably are. Get real professional help and seek the support of legitimate inventor organizations. 8. Investigate competitive products to make your product superior or better priced. Employ brainstorming techniques to evolve and accelerate the marketability of your ideas. 9. Find an inventor mentor—someone who's done this process before—to provide guidance. 10. Believe in your ideas and persevere—it takes some time and effort to do all this right. Be realistic about your goals and good luck.

List 6. Manufacturing Associations AME—Association for Manufacturing Excellence 3115 N. Wilke Road, Suite G Arlington Heights, IL 60004 Phone: (224) 232-5980 Fax: (224) 232-5981 E-mail: info@ame.org Web: ame.org AMT—The Association for Manufacturing Technology 7901 Westpark Drive McLean, VA 22102-4206 Phone: (800) 524-0475 (toll-free), (703) 893-2900 Fax: (703) 893-1151 E-mail: amt@amt.org Web: www.amtonline.org MANA—Manufacturers’ Agents National Association One Spectrum Pointe, Suite 150 Lake Forest, CA 92630 Phone: (877) 626-2776 (toll-free), (949) 859-4040 Fax: (949) 855-2973 E-mail: mana@manaonline.org Web: www.manaonline.org MESA International (Manufacturing Enterprise Systems Association) 107 S. Southgate Drive Chandler, AZ 85226 Phone: (480) 893-6883 Fax: (480) 893-7775 E-mail: info@mesa.org Web: www.mesa.org NAM—National Association of Manufacturers 1331 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20004-1790 Phone: (202) 637-3000 Fax: (202) 637-3182 E-mail: manufacturing@nam.org Web: www.nam.org NCMS—National Center for Manufacturing Sciences 3025 Boardwalk Ann Arbor, MI 48108-3230 Phone: (734) 995-0300, (800) 222-6267 (toll-free) Fax: (734) 995-1150 Web: www.ncms.org NEMA—National Electrical Manufacturers Association 1300 North 17th Street, Suite 1752 Rosslyn, VA 22209 Phone: (703) 841-3200 Fax: (703) 841-5900 Web: www.nema.org SME—Society of Manufacturing Engineers One SME Drive P.O. Box 930 Dearborn, MI 48121 Phone: (800) 733-4763 (toll-free), (313) 271-1500 Fax: (313) 425-3400 E-mail: info@sme.org Web: www.sme.org TMA—Tooling & Manufacturing Association 1177 S. Dee Road Park Ridge, IL 60068 Phone: (847) 825-1120 Fax: (847) 825-0041 Web: www.tmanet.com Source: MotionNET.com, Manufacturing Associations, www.motionnet.com/cgi-bin/search.exe?a=cat&no=4089 List 7. Purchasing, Distributing, and Supply Associations ERA— Electronics Representatives Association 444 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 1960 Chicago, IL 60611 Phone: (312) 527-3050 Fax: (312) 527-3783 E-mail: info@era.org Web: www.era.org ISA—Industrial Supply Association 1300 Sumner Avenue Cleveland, OH 44115-2851 Phone: (866) 460-2360 (toll-free) Fax: (877) 460-2365 E-mail: info@isapartners.org Web: www.ida-assoc.org ISM—Institute for Supply Management 2055 E. Centennial Circle P.O. Box 22160 Tempe, AZ 85285-2160 Phone: (800) 888-6276 (toll-free), (480) 752-6276 Fax: (480) 752-7890 Web: www.ism.ws MANA—Manufacturers’ Agents National Association One Spectrum Pointe, Suite 150 Lake Forest, CA 92630 Phone: (877) 626-2776 (toll-free), (949) 859-4040 Fax: (949) 855-2973 E-mail: mana@manaonline.org Web: www.manaonline.org NEMRA—National Electrical Manufacturers Representatives Association 660 White Plains Road, Suite 600 Tarrytown, NY 10591-1504 Phone: (914) 524-8650 Fax: (914) 524-8655 E-mail: nemra@nemra.org Web: www.nemra.org List 2. Top Ten to-Do’s for Mid-Market Manufacturers Managing Supply Procurement and sourcing “best practices” aren’t just for the Fortune 500. Here is AMR Research’s action list for mid-market manufacturers trying to improve business, By Pierre Mitchell, Vice President of Research, AMR Research As mid-market companies look for ways to ruthlessly reduce costs, especially as their large customers are mandating price reductions from them, procurement and supply chain departments are front-and-center in terms of delivering the savings and the operational improvements to support these increasingly stringent customer requirements. Unfortunately, the lack of skills, systems, and real organizational support for improving supply processes has these groups caught between a rock and a hard place. While there are hundreds of possible interventions to address the root causes of these operational challenges, here’s a top-ten list of actions that mid-market manufacturers can take to improve their business: 1. Have a clear performance measurement system to make sure everyone is on the same page. Make sure you have some type of Program Management Office or other organizational process to see all your improvement projects, allowing everyone to be on the same page. Springfield Re-Manufacturing Corp. is a great example of this. Buy Jack Stack’s book The Great Game of Business and adopt some of its key principles for open-book management. 2. Organize yourself around supply. Strategic sourcing is about organizing yourself to take best advantage of key supply markets that are critical to your customers. Supply management is not about renaming the Purchasing Department and seeking margin erosion from your suppliers, but about getting your internal departments and suppliers aligned around key commodities and then shaping demand and supply to take down total costs. Set up at least a few cross-functional teams in your most strategic spending categories to prove the concept and follow point 1 above to make sure you’re changing performance measures—you won’t get anywhere if it’s viewed that purchasing effort and purchase price variance (PPV) are your key measure. 3. Re-write your job descriptions to align with points 1 and 2. The old role of buyer-planner working as expeditor is dead. As Theresa Metty, the CPO of Motorola, says, the most important thing you can do is separate the strategic function of supply from the tactical buying process. You will never realize impactful change by functional buyers doing process improvement as a bottoms-up, after-hours exercise. Becoming a real commodity manager is what buyers need to aspire to; you may have to bring in external staff from supply chain leaders to do so. 4. Have a formal process and toolbox for continuous improvement. Use Lean, Six Sigma, Theory of Constraints, and appropriate strategic sourcing techniques to empower your employees to drive out waste. Use this competency as a strategic weapon like plastics firm Nypro has. 5. Have your CEO unite the purchasing and supply chain organizations. If your VP of Purchasing is reporting to the CFO and not working jointly with the VP of Supply Chain who reports to the COO, you’re in trouble. If you can’t influence the CEO, have an external firm introduce him or her to a peer who has done so successfully (or show other benchmarking data that can incite the organization into meaningful change). 6. Get visibility of your spending. This is just like Statistical Process Control 101—you can’t control and improve what you can’t see and measure. If you want an immediate, no-risk ROI, bring in an A/P audit firm to mine your A/P data for savings owed to you as well as other savings opportunities. While PRG/Shultz is the gorilla here, APEX Analytix does this in conjunction with a software tool so you can do strategic sourcing analysis. 7. Clean up your master data to make your analyses meaningful. If your supplier master and item master data is less than clean, your analysis results will be so as well. Don’t boil the ocean here. Use a provider like Austin-Tetra to help with your supplier master data and have your commodity teams roll up their sleeves with pragmatic item master clean-up efforts. Keep in mind that this cleanup is vital to many improvement efforts, not just supplier re-sourcing, but also inventory consolidation and part reduction efforts. 8. Automate opportunistically with procurement cards, e-procurement applications, and supplier connectivity services. Focusing on higher-value activities includes automating lower-value-added tasks; using procurement cards is a great way to start reducing order/payment costs for low-value transactions. As you get more advanced, though, you’ll want to transition and/or integrate the p-card to an e-procurement system (including support for travel and expense processing) that will provide you with the line item details you need for ongoing analysis and to eliminate the one to three percent charges that get placed on the suppliers. 9. Automate your sourcing processes, too. Even if you don’t have massive spending leverage, automate your sourcing process to find better supply and to free yourself to do process improvement efforts. If you want to get started, there are many vendors to choose from, all the way from competitive bidding services firms oriented toward the mid-market to hosted e-sourcing tools and services. If you’ve never done it before, MfgQuote.com is a great place to start. 10. Join a buying consortium. A group purchasing organization (GPO) is by no means a core supply strategy, but it is a useful tool in the toolbox, and companies are saving money here. If you want leverage where you have little, take a look here. In summary, improving procurement means not just buying cheaper, but also buying smarter (specification improvement, demand management, strategic supply market analysis, etc.) and more efficiently. Every pathway to supply management excellence varies, but the above tactics should provide some good places to get started. Source: Katrina C. Arabe, “Top 10 To-Do’s for Mid-Market Manufacturers Managing Supply,” news.thomasnet.com/IMT/archives/2003/10/top_10_todos_fo.html List 3. Six Objectives of Just-in-Time Manufacturing Defining the planning process for a JIT manufacturing system requires an understanding of the objectives of JIT and the goals and objectives of the JIT system. After the objectives are established for the manufacturing, the process of planning becomes one of determining what is required to meet those objectives. The goal of a JIT approach is to develop a system that allows a manufacturer to have only the materials equipment and people on hand required to do the job. Achieving this goal requires six basic objectives: 1. Integrating and optimizing every step of the manufacturing process. The manufacturing system is a continual process of reducing the number of discrete steps required to complete a particular process rather than plateaus of steps. Removal of bottlenecks, in the manufacturing process is a critical step in integration. One of the best ways to accomplish this objective is to plan for 100 percent defect-free quality. Integrating and optimizing will involve reducing the need for unnecessary functions and systems such as inspection, rework loops and inventory. 2. Producing a quality product. Total Quality Control (TQC) is one of the fundamental goals in JIT manufacturing. TQC emphasizes the quality at every stage of manufacture, including product design, down to the purchase of raw materials. Quality control is carried out at every stage of the manufacturing steps, from the source to the final step, rather than relying on a single processing stage that implements quality control on the final product. 3. Reducing manufacturing cost. Designing products that facilitate and ease manufacturing processes helps to reduce the cost of manufacturing and building the product to specifications. One aspect in designing products for manufacturability is the need to establish a good employer-employee relationship. This is to cultivate and tap the resources of the production experts (production floor employees) and the line employees to develop cost-saving solutions. 4. Producing product on demand. The fundamental principle of JIT is the concept of producing a product only as needed or on demand. This implies that a product is not held in inventory and production is initiated only by demand. 5. Developing manufacturing flexibility. Manufacturing flexibility is the ability to start new projects or the rate at which the production mix can be adjusted to meet customer demand. Planning for manufacturing flexibility requires understanding the elements in the manufacturing process and identifying elements in the process that restrict flexibility and improving on these areas. The unique feature of JIT is the change from a push system to a pull system. The idea behind this concept is that work should not be pushed on to the next worker until that worker is ready for it. Manufacturing flexibility requires that production managers consider the following aspects in scheduling and improving manufacturing flexibility: Supplier lead time The need to ensure fast and reliable delivery of finished goods to the customer Production process time Process set up time Bottlenecks in production process, which should be reduced, and resources (e.g. workers, machines), which should be fully utilized 6. Keeping commitments and links made between customers and suppliers. The corporate commitment to developing the internal structures and the customer and supplier bases to support JIT manufacturing is the primary requirement for developing the JIT system. Trust and commitment between the supplier and the customer is a must, because every JIT operation relies on it. Source: Gihan Perera Galhenage, Michael Lazuardi, Arion Lee, Chin Teck Lim, and Henry Nyi Nyi Lwin, “What Is JIT Manufacturing?,” www.supplychainplanet.com/e_article000233125.cfm List 4. Top Seven Ways To Successfully Sabotage Your Great Idea I’m sure that you can recall many times when you have had a brainwave, a bolt from the sky, a sudden idea, or an intrusion that you never brought to fruition for any number of reasons. Maybe you initially thought the idea was so brilliant that it seemed to be the answer you had been looking for, but still nothing came of it. Why is it that some people appear to be able to get novel ideas and create terrific success for themselves while others (the majority) seem to flounder before they ever get started? Is it that they are more intelligent or more “lucky” than the average person or there’s some mysterious secret? The answer is no. We all have the same ability to create our own success using our own original ideas. It’s just that most of us don’t have the belief in those ideas or don’t have the confidence to stick with them. There are many ways to sabotage our ideas. Here are seven of them. 1. Dissect the idea piece by piece, but not know when to stop. If you are anything like me, you would examine the idea as if under a microscope, subjecting it to the “What if?” question until you find something minutely wrong that causes you to say, “Aha, I knew the idea won’t work.” Obviously, there is a certain amount of examination that needs to be done, but it shows a lack of commitment if your enthusiasm deflates at the first sign of a potential problem. 2. Share the idea with others who are not qualified to pass comment. This is dangerous territory if you are just starting out with a new idea. Many potential world-changing ideas have been shattered by well-meaning and “loving” criticism. It is best that you keep the idea to yourself until you have built up enough reserves to face all those Doubting Thomases. 3. Become too intrigued with the idea. It is so easy to “not see the forest for the trees,” to become so close to the idea that you miss the obvious flaws that might exist. Develop a macro/micro vision: see the detail and also the overall picture. 4. Dismiss the idea out of hand. “Bah! It will never work!” How do you know until you’ve tried it out? Many of the greatest ideas seemed barmy at the time they were conceived. Learn to be open-minded and patient to see if the idea has potential. 5. It’s been thought of before! You can bet your bottom dollar that someone somewhere has thought of your idea before. However, that does not mean that it’s been acted upon. Therefore, you could be the first one to actually develop it into something tangible. 6. Play devil’s advocate with the idea. Sometimes it is a good practice to think the idea over from a different prospective—but not to the extent that you destroy it through over-questioning. 7. Think that the idea is the best thing since sliced bread. Maybe the idea is a world-beater, but you must be realistic in your thinking. Be careful not to let your ego get carried away or you will set yourself up for a fall.

Manufacturing Businesses 1. Patio Furniture Manufacturing. Launching a business venture that builds custom cedar patio furniture is a relatively inexpensive enterprise to establish. Check out www.scrollsaw.com, design plans for patio furniture. 2. Online Manufacturers Directory. Manufacturers directories in print have served as a valuable resource tool for many corporations and small businesses for decades. Start by selecting a segment of the industry you want to concentrate on, like machined fasteners or fabric. 3. Kitchen Cutting Boards. Once you have mastered the art of producing high-quality kitchen cutting boards, you can then move on to butcher block tables, as the market demand for this specialty product is huge. 4. Bookends. One idea may be to capitalize on the ever-increasing environmentally friendly theme and manufacture all the bookends out of recycled materials. Keep your product different and unique. 5. Weather Vanes. These functional and attractive features add charm to any home and hearken back to the days of old and can be made from a wide variety of materials. 6. Waterbeds. Simply design and construct the waterbed frames and assemble the other parts to fit. Check out www.waterbedreplaceparts.com, wholesale source of waterbed parts. 7. Custom Picture Frames. Ideally, make your picture frames out of a unique material, such as copper, molded clay, plastic, or wood. The more interesting the materials and unique the design, the better. 8. Wooden Signs. There are a few methods of manufacturing attractive and functional wood signs. One is to use a router to remove wood and leave the words raised or concave and the other method requires a design stencil and sandblasting equipment to remove the wood around the words to make them rise. Check out www.signsupplyusa.com, distributors of wholesale sign-making equipment. 9. Scratch Posts. This enterprise requires virtually no special skills and only basic hand or power tools, with an ever-constant demand. 10. Wooden Sash Windows. The main qualification for launching this venture is to possess a good deal of carpentry experience and knowledge. The product can be marketed directly to homeowners or to renovation companies on a subcontract basis. 11. Birdhouses. The only requirement for starting this business is to have basic woodworking equipment and experience. Check out www.scrollsaw.com, design plans for birdhouse construction. 12. Online Birdhouses Sales. Develop a website to sell your own birdhouse creations as well as other hobbyist birdhouse builders. 13. Wind Chimes. Seashells, glass, metal, or bells—wind chimes can be manufactured from almost any kind of material. It’s a great way to turn spare time into extra income. 14. Saunas. Design, manufacture, and wholesale your custom-built, you-assemble sauna kits nationwide for a great business venture. Check out www.saunasite.com, sauna design plans and information. 15. Prototype Design. Designing and building prototypes is a highly specialized business that requires a great deal of construction knowledge, ability to work with various mediums, and all required equipment necessary for building a host of various products. 16. Roof Trusses. Most new home construction now uses pre-engineered and -built roof trusses Check out www.woodtruss.com, the Wood Truss Council of America. 17. Floating Docks. Building floating docks and swim platforms is a manufacturing business that can be started by about anyone with construction knowledge and a well-equipped woodworking shop. 18. Canoe Paddles. A business that manufactures wooden canoe and kayak paddles can be established right from a home-based garage workshop and requires only a small investment in woodworking equipment to get going. 19. CD Racks. CD racks can be manufactured from wood, plastic, or iron in various shapes and sizes and storage capacities. 20. Art Easels. It’s easy to run this business from home and sell the art easels to artist supply stores on a wholesale basis and once you’ve gotten established, approach various manufacturers of all-inclusive painting kits to check out the viability of including an art easel with these painting kits. 21. Picnic Tables. Building picnic tables only requires basic construction knowledge and can be readily operated from a small home-based workshop. Check out www.toolcenter.com/JERs/picnic.html, distributor of picnic table construction plans. 22. Wood Moldings. Start a business that manufactures custom wood moldings with standard profiles as well as made-to-order wood moldings, is a terrific business start-up for the skilled and well-equipped carpenter. 23. Old English Telephone Booths. Starting a business that manufactures replica antique English phone booths is a business opportunity that can earn an additional $20,000 or more part-time. 24. Hide-a-Beds. Beds can be sold directly to consumers by placing product advertisements in local newspapers and the yellow pages, as well as constructing a hide-a-bed display, which can be set up at furniture and home and garden trade shows to generate sales leads. 25. Packing Crates. Designing and building custom made-to-order packaging crates is a great business to initiate and has an almost endless supply of potential customers. Check out www.nwpca.com, the National Wood Pallet and Container Association. 26. Store Display Cases. Often merchants require display cases and store fixtures that have to be specially constructed to highlight or merchandise their inventory. 27. Futons. Futons are a functional, yet inexpensive piece of furniture that can serve a multitude of uses and can be set up and managed from a home office. Check out www.futonfurnitureplans.com, distributors of futon construction plans. 28. Woodturnings. Fruit bowls, candlesticks, stair spindles, or baseball bats—there are literally hundreds of products that can be manufactured simply by purchasing a wood-turning lathe and mastering the art of wood turning. Check out www.woodturner.org, the American Association of Wood Turners. 29. Window Sash Mirrors. This is an ideal business venture to be started by someone who is seeking a low-investment home-based business opportunity that can generate a fantastic part-time income and still allow you to maintain a full-time job. 30. Magnetic Signs. The signs that are often used as removable advertisements on their cars are easy to design and produce, making this an ideal business venture for anyone looking for a home-based business with little start-up capital. 31. Specialty Soaps. There are hundreds of soap-making recipes available or you can create your own recipes for making soap to make your product unique. Check out www.soapcrafters.com, soap making recipes. 32. Mailboxes. The completed custom mailboxes can be sold on a wholesale basis to retailers or directly to consumers via a booth at a busy weekend flea market or craft show. 33. Silk-Screening Mouse Pads. Purchase silk-screening equipment and a few hundred blank mouse pads is all that is necessary for starting your own business that produces mouse pads emblazoned with printed images, logos, and slogans. Check out www.printusa.com, distributor of equipment and supplies for screen-printing mouse pads. 34. Staircases. Providing you have the necessary skills and equipment, you can build and install staircases made from various construction materials, such as hard and soft woods, steel, concrete, or any combination of the above. 35. Porch Columns. Manufacturing decorative porch columns can be a very profitable business once established, especially if the main focus of the manufacturing business is to design and build Victorian porch column replicas. 36. Theme Bunk Beds. The key to success in this type of manufacturing business is to choose the right theme and make the beds unique and colorful. 37. First-Aid Kits. First-aid kits can be assembled, packaged and sold to retailers on a wholesale basis or they can be specially designed and marketed to specific industries. 38. Christmas Ornaments. Christmas ornaments such as tree decorations and door wreaths are very simple and inexpensive to make, and can be sold in carious ways including to retailers on a wholesale basis or directly to consumers at a sales kiosk in a mall or at craft shows. 39. Custom Doorstops. The key to success in this type of manufacturing venture is that the doorstops must be unique in design, and marketing methods employed must be innovative and clever. Check out www.ahma.org, the American Hardware Manufacturers Association. 40. Wood Clothes Hangers. Typical clothes hangers can destroy expensive clothes, so the potential market for custom-made clothes hangers to specifically fit one particular item is huge. 41. Mold Making. Initiating a business that specializes in making manufacturing molds for clients is not a hard business to establish but you or one employee must be able to design and build numerous styles of molds. 42. Trade Show Displays. The best way to capitalize on the demand for trade show displays and off-the-shelf, mass-produced, generic trade show displays. Check out www.epda.com, the Exhibit Designers and Producers Association. 43. Snowboards. Manufacturing snowboards is not a difficult task but it all lies within the design and composition of the snowboard and this business is best suited to individuals with designing background. 44. Rubber Stamps. Follow these steps to start a business that manufactures predesigned rubber stamps: Research the industry, market, and business. Establish a manufacturing process, and secure retail accounts for the stamps. Manufacture the stamps and ship to retailers. 45. Clocks. The components needed to build clocks can be purchased on a wholesale basis from manufacturers of these items, while housing for the clock itself can be manufactured by your business. 46. Brooms and Brushes. The brooms and brushes that can be manufactured can cater to one specific industry that uses a specialty broom or brush, such as the chimney sweep industry. Check out www.abma.org/industrial.htm, the American Brush Manufacturers Association. 47. Window Shutters and Blinds. The complete shutters can be sold to national home improvement center retailers on a wholesale basis or the window shutters can be sold directly to homeowners on a custom order and installation basis. 48. Treehouse Kits. Treehouse kits can be packaged and sold to retail outlets on a wholesale basis or directly to customers via advertising the treehouse kits for sale on the internet, in newspapers and other publications, and by establishing a display model that can be exhibited at trade shows. 49. Store Directory Boards. This is a very competitive segment of the of the manufacturing and sign industry, so be sure to take a unique and innovative approach to the manufacturing process and appearance in the finished product. 50. Plastic Displays. The market demand for custom-designed and -manufactured product and information display holders is gigantic, and starting a business that specializes in manufacturing plastic displays is very easy. 51. Online Factory Direct. Develop an online “factory direct” website that features products for sale manufactured by these home-based manufacturers. This cyberventure is successful since “factory direct” pricing attracts consumers and securing manufactured goods to be featured on the site would be very easy. 52. Office Dividers. The latest trend in office layout is no walls, only dividers to create a really communal workplace. The office divider designs could incorporate handy features, such as adjustable shelving, built-in wastebaskets, and built-in message boards. 53. Antenna Ornaments. Some of the best aspects about this type of manufacturing business start-up are that the business can be started on a part-time basis and easily operated from a home-based workshop. 54. Doghouses. Consider incorporating recycled materials into the construction process, as you can play upon the benefits of recycling for marketing purposes. Check out www.woodcraftplans.com, distributors of doghouse construction plans. 55. Jewelry Boxes. Consider using materials that normally would not be used for building this product, like recycled items, seashells, glass, or plastic. 56. Fence Panels. Fence panels can be sold to fence installation companies, landscape contractors, and do-it-yourself building centers or directly to homeowners by placing advertisements in your local newspaper. 57. Garden Arbors. If you don’t have design talent, plans are readily available at most building centers for constructing garden arbors and only a small workshop space and basic tools will be required for this venture. 58. Lattice Manufacturing. There are many uses for lattice including decorative interior partitions for residential and commercial applications, exterior garden partitions and design features, and interior and exterior hand railing components, just to mention a few. 59. Driftwood and Log Furniture. There are literally hundreds of household and patio furniture products that can be manufactured from driftwood, rough-cut logs, or even waste wood, such as coffee tables, benches, serving trays, side tables, chairs, planters, storage boxes, bunk beds, and picture frames. 60. Air Freshener Manufacturing. It is best to stay away from using chemical compounds for this business and stick to natural and organic ingredients and sell them to retailers or directly to customers at home and garden shows. 61. Aluminum Door and Window Manufacturing. Aluminum storm windows and doors are easy to manufacture as the material required is referred to as extrusions. It is a simple process of cutting the window framing rails to length, wrapping the glass in a rubber gasket, and attaching the rails that are screw-fastened in the corners. If this sounds like something you can do, this is the venture for you. Check out www.thebluebook.com, a directory service listing manufacturers and distributors of aluminum extrusions, equipment, and supplies used in manufacturing aluminum windows and doors. 62. Awning Manufacturing. Providing you have the workshop space and zoning permits, you can even manufacture awnings right from your home office. Check out www.thebluebook.com, a directory service listing manufacturers and distributors of awning manufacturing equipment and supplies