IPD 2016 Product Competition: Why Didn’t You Think of This? Sticker-backed bandages, faucet-mounted hand washers, magnetic zippers and stationary dish scrubbers all make perfect sense. So why didn’t you think of them? That’s no doubt what the votingpublic said as they examined the offerings of the 2016 Integrated Product Development (IPD) course at the Ross School of Business on April 6.

View photos from the Trade Show here.

Read the 2016 IPD Trade Show results here.

IPD is an experiential, cross-disciplinary course that puts teams of students from Business, Engineering, Information, and Art/Architecture in a competitive product development environment. In its 19th year, this innovative course has been featured on CNN and in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Businessweek.

The course, hosted by the Tauber Institute for Global Operations, is the brainchild of Professor William Lovejoy of the Stephen M. Ross School of Business. This year, the course was co- taught by Eric Svaan of the RSB and Stephanie Tharp of the STAMP School of Art and Design. The competition gave students the challenge of creating a device aimed at making life easier for someone who has only one hand available to perform household tasks. From concept to manufacturing to marketing, IPD students were responsible for literally creating and selling an original product using only their imaginations and locally sourced materials.

"The teams worked incredibly hard, and as a result created innovative products that were very empathetic to target user needs. They delivered high-quality prototypes that communicated their ideas to others, which were enthusiastically received by our online and physical trade show guests," said Tharp.

Teams included members from RSB, School of Engineering, School of Information and the School of Art and Design. The teams’ names were VIZI, washable, Zip+, kurv and Scrubd -- and all met the criteria of a useful household device aimed for a person who has the use of only one hand. The public was then asked to consider the offered products, and decide how they would spend up to $200 of IPD money on these products. Participants could either vote at the on-campus trade show, where they were able to touch and test out the products or vote online after viewing all five teams’ demonstration videos. Votes were tallied and the team with the highest total profit, unit gross margin, and highest dollar spent per customer (first round) was Zip+. Products are finished prototypes and no actual sales are made, and no money exchanges hands. Read the results of ths year's trade show here.

The 2016 IPD course was generously supported by a grant from The Proctor & Gamble Higher Education Grant Program.

About Tauber Institute for Global Operations

The Tauber Institute for Global Operations is a joint venture between the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business and the College of Engineering, and 30 industry partners to facilitate cross-disciplinary education in global operations management. In addition to broad array of core and elective courses, the innovative LeadershipAdvantage^SM Program provides students with the tools to ascend to major operations leadership roles. Well-designed and managed team projects form the cornerstone of the Tauber Institute experience and allow students to apply their knowledge to real world settings. http://www.tauber.umich.edu

Contact:
Theresa Ceccarelli, 734-647-0308, [email protected]