Interdisciplinarity - A Change of Perspective

After completing my Bachelor and Master Studies in Genetics, I hold now a PhD in Natural Sciences with a strong focus on biochemical enzyme characterization on HPLC systems and a postgraduate Master Degree in International Business.

Back in 2013, originating from basic research with many cloning and recombinant protein expression experiments, I ended up in the assay and method development for biochemical enzyme characterization. After testing countless direct, indirect and coupled enzyme assays on either plate reader or HPLC systems, I learned it the hard way by try and error, how important equipment qualification and process validation is for the development of a reliable enzyme characterization method, without yet even knowing that the terms equipment qualification and process validation exist.

Starting in 2015 the postgraduate Master in International Business gave me a whole new perspective on my daily lab routine and I realized that I already used some standard methods from Project and Quality Management without knowing. Eager to get better, I learned more about the methodology and I wrote a Master Thesis about “Project Management Manual for the Processing of § 26 UG 2002 Projects Using a Practical Example from the Field of Biology”. Over time, I completed trainings in the field of Quality Management and even became Quality Officer for Small and Medium-Sized Organizations. Finally yet very importantly, I worked in different Departments of Quality Control, Assurance up to Management in different organizations developing and manufacturing very different products.

You may ask yourself now, and what does all of this have to do with evaluating industrial standards and methods and discussing industrial KPIs for the use within an Academic Research Impact Cockpit (ARIC) of multiple prioritized KPIs for academic bench marking?

I strongly believe in the power of the often-left unexploited potential of interdisciplinary learning from each other. Since every organization including Academic Research Institutions, which is working in the field of tension between Research, Development and Manufacturing, tackles more or less similar hurdles, part of the solution could sometimes be a change in perspective. To be consistent successful in an industry where technology is constantly evolving, one needs to focus on developing and deploying the correct set of skills. Most effective and efficient organizations possess a systematic combination of both technical and interpersonal expertise. While the hard, technical skills are essential, organizations need to work in conjunction with the remaining soft, interpersonal skill sets to fully enhance their efficiency. Hard skills will not yield results if you do not have the soft skills to work together and communicate effectively.

The increasing global pressure to innovate, for instance, and the associated increase in development speed with simultaneously increasing product and process complexity and nevertheless expected consistent product quality in manufacturing is one of the new challenges, along with digitization, for technology driven organizations. In view of the increasing complexity in the development of new products, organizations are required to make the product development process dynamic and agile. Value-added Management Systems create space in the product development process to enable creativity and at the same time to secure the iterative innovation process by avoiding errors and continuous improvement in such a way that the desired product quality in the future is ensured.

Research findings without previous addressing challenges of development will never make it into production, let alone finished in time for the market. Therefore, the definitions of “Research”, “Development” and “Innovation” are crucial for a successful implementation of new ideas into a new or already existing product, because Innovation does not only mean the market-ready idea, but the economically successful implementation of the idea in the target market at the right time. Research is a detailed study of a subject, especially in order to discover (new) information or reach a (new) understanding. Whereas Development is the process in which someone or something grows (up scale) or changes and becomes more advanced.

Since I had many touchpoints with different product development processes throughout my career I want to introduce the House of Quality (HOQ), the primary tool in Quality Function Deployment (QFD), and a standard method within multiple Research & Development Departments. The House of Quality is originally a product planning matrix that is used to visualize how your customer requirements relate directly to the actions you can take to achieve those requirements. The House of Quality serves as a roadmap for describing the process from initial idea to final product or service specifics.

Quality Function Deployment will be the methodical backbone for my attempt to evaluate industrial standards and methods and to discuss industrial KPIs for the use within an Academic Research Impact Cockpit (ARIC) of multiple prioritized KPIs for academic bench marking.