Managing Automation - September 2008 - (Page 31)

HIGH ACHIEVER: INNOVATION MASTERY LIVINGSTON & HAVEN When a new product challenged the distributor/integrator to break out of its comfort zone, the innovative company rose to the task with gusto. BY CHRIS CHIAPPINELLI T he fact that no one has asked for a new product doesn’t mean no one wants it. Back in 1906, Henry Ford wasn’t looking for a pneumatic tire for his new automobile, but Har vey Firestone delivered one. In the 1950s, Boeing spent more than half of its net worth to develop a jet-powered airplane for an industry that hadn’t asked for one. For Clifton Vann IV, president of Livingston & Haven, winner of Managing Automation’s 2008 Progressive Manufacturing High Achiever award for Innovation, those stories are guiding lights. Vann describes L&H as a wholesale distributor and an integrator of products and services, but says he doesn’t much like either term. No surprise for a company with such a diverse palette. On a given day, L&H might sell an order of pneumatic valves or electronic control components, re-engineer a manufacturer’s cutting saw to improve accuracy and reduce scrap, build a new hydraulic fluid testing system, or run a training seminar for maintaining pumps on the shop floor. As an integrator, L&H typically performs one-off jobs that value innovation over repeatability, Vann says. For a manufacturer of fiber-optic cable looking to improve the efficiency of its extruders, for instance, L&H combines strong engineering skills with the products it distributes to devise a solution. “You don’t get the benefit of doing it twice,” Vann explains. In 2005, that formula changed. L&H had built an automobile testing system, called the K-Rig, that allowed NASCAR teams to perform advanced analysis on a race car’s suspension. The intricate design, which lifts the race car off the ground so that crew members can visually verify the test data, had NASCAR teams scrambling to buy their own. L&H was faced with a decision: Stick to its M.O. and move on to the next project or defy tradition and develop a commercial version of the K-Rig. “Realizing that we had created an industr y we were now the dog that had caught the car,” Vann says with a chuckle. L&H pushed ahead, Livingston & Haven creating a company called Revenue/Employees: $70 million; approximately 200 Accelerating DevelopLocation: Charlotte, NC ments Inter national (ADI). Vann and his team Industry: Manufacturing/Distribution hired engineers steeped Project name: The K-Rig in the wanderlust of Project leader: Clifton Vann IV, President George Bernard Shaw, Core technologies: N/A who said, “Some look at ROI/Business benefit: Millions in sales and a new business line things that are and ask that is generating new commercial offerings why? I dream of things that never were and ask CLIFTON VANN IV why not?” President The willingness to ask “why not?” made L&H a Progressive Manufacturer in the eyes of Lisa Bodell, president of innovation consultancy futurethink and one of this year’s judges. When the company parlayed the K-Rig’s success into an entirely new business, “it went from being just a little innovation to an incredible breakthrough innovation,” Bodell says. Vann says two factors enable the company’s innovative ways: a young management team that isn’t paralyzed by risk, and federal tax credits that help to defray the cost of research and development. He likens ADI’s engineers to the character of Q in the James Bond movies — smart and curious thinkers who are given time and resources to think ahead, anticipating what customers will need. He cites an engagement with Gulfstream in which ADI is working on suspension-testing technology for aircraft. “That’s probably beyond what we would be able to do at Livingston & Haven but it’s not beyond what ADI can do, given the time they have available to them to just sit and think about the stuff,” he says. As Vann knows, those with time to think often drive the course of history. 31 September 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Managing Automation - September 2008

Managing Automation - September 2008 Contents Take 1 Letters Tech Vendors Defy Economic Slump by Plugging into Developing World Growth New E2open Chief Outlines Plan to Accelerate Growth Is This Marketing as It Used to Be or Something New? The OMAC Group Attempts to Widen Its Influence Automation Federation Names Chief, Plots Growth Notes Cover story: The Innovation Gap Special Report: Meet the Progressive Manufacturing High Achievers Progressive Manufacturer of the Year Business Model Mastery Innovation Mastery Customer Mastery Supply Network Mastery Data & Integration Mastery Education & Training Mastery Leadership Mastery Operational Excellence Mastery Special Report: Catching the Wireless Wave Part 1: No Clear Infrastructure Winner Part 2: Wireless Apps Take Wing Part 3: The Human Side of Wireless Product Scan Advertiser Index Next

Managing Automation - September 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.