Throughout the duration of this course, I have been assessing Caterpillar Inc. Caterpillar is an industry leader in heavy equipment, as well as generators, gas engines, and Diesel engines. Caterpillar’s newest innovation is the minestar program that they have created. This program allows a company to track, monitor, and automate all types of assets. This innovative program can be used in a wide range of industries, such as mining to hauling. Many of these industries complete many jobs that are never the same as the last and the minestar programs allows the company to gear the program to the task at hand, rather than the program being geared towards a specific job.
This innovative idea would be considered a radical innovation because it is not an improvement on an existing product, but rather a new concept for the industry. Although it does improve preexisting products, the innovation also allows for an increase in tracking and efficiency, which makes it an independent innovation rather than a supporting innovation. In terms of product-relation or process-relation, this innovation meets the requirements to be both. The company will have to produce the required software to make the process possible while producing the product required to accept the software, which addresses product-relation. Caterpillar meets the criteria of process-relation by improving both the production and delivery method of the product. From my research, I have not seen any mention of Minestar being able to increase or decrease productivity based on weather in the local area. There are often times where weather is a major contributor in harvesting product due to earth density and machine efficiency. This could be worth looking into for Caterpillar to help improve the minestar program.
CAT® MineStar™ Solutions. https://www.cat.com/en_US/by-industry/mining/minestar-solutions.html. (n.d.). Retrieved December 2, 2021, from https://www.cat.com/en_US/by-industry/mining/minestar-solutions.html.
Product and process innovation. Innovation Policy Platform. (1970, January 1). Retrieved December 2, 2021, from https://www.innovationpolicyplatform.org/www.innovationpolicyplatform.org/content/product-and-process-innovation/index.html.
Radical and Incremental Innovation. Innovation Policy Platform. (1970, January 1). Retrieved December 2, 2021, from https://www.innovationpolicyplatform.org/www.innovationpolicyplatform.org/content/radical-and-incremental-innovation/index.html.
