The gap between brainstorming new ideas and having structured processes in place to turn those ideas into real innovation persists in U.S. manufacturing companies and is also now evident in European companies.
Manufacturers on both sides of the Atlantic are confident that they are in touch with customer needs and generating new ideas to satisfy those needs. But they are equally clear that there is a widespread lack of internal agreement on what innovation means to their businesses, as well as a dearth of metrics to judge the effectiveness of innovation efforts and a lack of clarity in management roles and responsibilities for innovation.
Source: Managing Automation, http://www.managingautomation.com