Airline service innovation seems like an oxymoron considering the industry's reputation for low quality. But the industry is fighting back to improve its image. Companies that specialize in inflight entertainment as well as airframe manufacturers are accelerating the use of new technologies to deliver more value in the air. That's good news for an industry that has focused way too long on cost-cutting. The next battle for supremacy will be won by airlines and aviation companies that innovate services across the experiential "journey" in a sustained way. For this month's LAB, we will create new-to-the-world concepts for the inflight service experience using the S.I.T. tool set. We begin by creating a list of the components of the product or service. We select a component and we further break it down to its sub-components or attributes that we can focus on. We then apply a tool to that component to change it in some way. Working backwards ("Function Follows Form"), we envision potential benefits of the modified service to both the customer and the company. Here is a list of components:
Airline service innovation seems like an oxymoron considering the industry’s reputation for low quality. But the industry is fighting back to improve its image. Companies that specialize in inflight entertainment as well as airframe manufacturers are accelerating the use of new technologies to deliver more value in the air. That’s good news for an industry that has focused way too long on cost-cutting. The next battle for supremacy will be won by airlines and aviation companies that innovate services across the experiential “journey” in a sustained way. For this month’s LAB, we will create new-to-the-world concepts for the inflight service experience using the S.I.T. tool set.
We begin by creating a list of the components of the product or service. We select a component and we further break it down to its sub-components or attributes that we can focus on. We then apply a tool to that component to change it in some way. This creates the Virtual Product. Working backwards (“Function Follows Form”), we envision potential benefits of the modified service to both the customer and the company.
Here is a list of components:
• flight attendant
• galleys
• seats
• aisle
• windows
• doors
• overhead bins
• overhead lights
• carts
• beverages
• snacks
• meals
• magazines
• movie
• entertainment unit
• safety briefing
• lavatory
Here are some concepts using four of the S.I.T. tools. Some of these concepts come from a group of my students taking the “Innovation Tools” course at the University of Cincinnati.
1. Multiplication: Making a copy of a component but changing it in a way initially thought useless or redundant
2. Division: Dividing a product or component either physically, functionally, or preserving (maintaining characteristics of the whole)
3. Task Unification: Assigning an additional task to an existing resource, preferably on not originally thought to be related to the task
4. Attribute Dependency: Creating (or breaking) dependencies between two internal attributes or an internal and external attribute.