The Problem
Last month it was reported that reasonably priced fruits and vegetables could disappear in America because of a dwindling pool of farm workers.
Agricultural analysts say the labor shortage is already forcing up wages.
“The labor force keeps shrinking,” said Gary Wishnatzki, a third-generation strawberry farmer. “If we don’t solve this with automation, fresh fruits and veggies won’t be affordable or even available to the average person.”
Fewer Americans want to bend over all day in a held, farmers say, even when offered higher wages (Wishnatzki pays experienced pickers about $25 an hour), free housing, and recruitment bonuses.
An Innovative Solution
However, the automation company, Harvest CROO Robotics has created a robot, nicknamed “Harv”, to harvest fruit and vegetables.
Designing a robot with a gentle touch necessary for many crops is among the biggest technical obstacles to automating the American farm.
The robotic machine, which consists of 16 smaller steel robots, scoops up strawberries with spinning, claw-like fingers that are guided by cameras.
A Harv machine is designed to do the work of 30 people. The machine does this by hovering over a dozen rows of plants at the same time, picking five strawberries every second and covering 8 acres a day.
Problem Background
The labor shortage problem is so pressing that even competitors are banding together to fund Harv because Harv doesn’t need a Visa or sleep, and it does not take sick days.
While Harv would diminish the need for workers, its developers say it would also create new jobs by elevating pickers to become robot technicians.
Wishnatzki said, “We need people to clean, sanitize and repair the machines”.
But, as Antonio Vengas, a picker with many years’ experience said “People can pick strawberries without hurting them. They know which ones are too little or rotten. Machines can’t do that.”
“A machine cannot harvest delicate table grapes, strawberries or tree fruit without destroying the perfect presentation demanded by the retail food industry”.
However, Manoj Karkee, associate professor at Washington State University’s Center for Precision & Automated Agricultural Systems said to expect to see this technology on the market in the next three years as the bugs get worked out.
But the question to be addressed is, how can companies like Harvest CROO Robotics effectively develop their innovative ideas?
Effectively Developing Innovative Ideas
The past several month’s Newsletters have looked as the area of Ideation – coming up with innovative ideas. Among 
the various tools we examined were “See Every Problem as an Opportunity for Innovation”, “Asking, What If?, and “How Ought the World to Work?”.
Harv is an example of the “See Every Problem as an Opportunity for Innovation” and “Asking, What If?. But while developing ideas is fundamental, it is imperative to move those ideas through the Development process. Therefore, let us examine two tools for expeditiously and effectively doing this.
The development process involves creating working models to move ideas into prototypes. This involves the use of:
- Initial design tools
- Validation of the design
Voice of the Customer
One of various initial design tools that can be used is obtaining the “Voice of the Customer” during the development phase, which is key to having a successful innovation. This tool, which is also known as “design for consideration,” enables product development teams to identify features that are most attractive to their target audience.
When input from customers—obtained from various queries, panels, and forums—is analyzed, the development team can test its conceptual design rapidly without needing to build the actual product. The use of this tool dramatically reduces wasted time in the development process by providing the team with the information that will guide it in determining what features are most wanted and how they should be designed.
The developers of Harv have been doing this by obtaining input from many sources including growers, distributors and the retail food industry.
Prototyping
Prototyping a solution, which is a “Validation of the Design” type tool, ensures that a company is creating viable, customer-centric products and services. The creation and testing of a prototype allows the organization to have something that can be presented to the end user to validate or improve the development of the idea.
The objective of prototyping is to give users something demonstrable to use as soon as possible and throughout the development process, so the voice of the customer is fleshed out in a practical way. By providing updated prototypes throughout the development stage, instead of only after the development cycle ends, tremendous interaction with users is fostered.
In the past, many companies have followed the model of not showing something to potential customers until it is completely finished. Often times this has led to disastrous results where a company spends a huge amount of money, only to see the product completely fail because they did not give the target customer something to utilize throughout the development process, so they could provide input on it.
Harvest CROO Robotics is avoiding this mistake by demonstrating the product and getting feedback from customers throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, and Switzerland.
Where to Start
To expeditious develop ideas into working innovations, commit to obtaining the “voice of the customer” throughout all your innovation efforts. Decide how you wish to obtain input from customers via various queries, panels, forums, etc. Then use prototyping to give your customers something on which they can provide you with feedback.
If you could use assistance with developing ideas into workable innovations, please contact us using the information below so we can be a resource to you in this crucial area.
Fountainhead Consulting Group, Inc. is an Innovation and Business Planning firm. During the past 17, years we have shown over 1,200 companies how to achieve their goals by using our unique, comprehensive, and systematic FastTrak Innovation Program™, Innovation Academy™, and Structure of Success™ methodologies. Using the components in these methodologies, each month we examine an aspect of how to transform your business or organization into a true 21st Century enterprise.
Office: (770) 642-4220
www.FountainheadConsultingGroup.com
George.Horrigan@FountainheadConsultingGroup.com
Tags: entrepreneur, innovation, small business consulting, small business planning, start a business
