Scan Magazine | Special Theme | Danish Business Special
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Improving design for life In the increasingly globalised world of product development, Valcon Design specialise in engineering tools for improving mechanical design. Their Six Theta Method is proving highly effective for a diverse range of technical enterprises.
erage of 20 per cent in cost reduction and in some instances as much as 40 to 50 per cent. Implementing the process for a client takes roughly three years.
By Susan Hansen | Photos: Valcon Design
The company is part of the Valcon Consultancy Group. When it was founded nine years ago, it partnered up with some of the world’s biggest companies, with brands such as Vestas, Novo Nordisk, Jaguar and Danfoss popping up as part of their client portfolio. Janus Juul Rasmussen, founder and CEO, explains how a unique business opportunity presented itself, which then led to the foundation of the successful and rewarding consultancy service. After identifying a blind spot in product development and design they came up with the Six Theta Method, a tool for measuring and improving design quality. “Very often high-quality products are delivered, but it can come at a heavy price and end up being expensive for the business, wasting a lot of resources due to how the product is designed,” the CEO explains. 116 | Issue 94 | November 2016
The ability to measure product development efficiency has been an area of neglect. Smaller, more effective design efforts can benefit customers; this can increase innovation levels, more products can be launched and money can be saved. The timing seems to be just right for Valcon. “The world we live in now is much more globalised; there is a greater urge for things to be developed and produced anywhere in the world,” says Juul Rasmussen. “It is not only about delivering quality – customers expect products to appear instantly on the market, and that creates more pressure. As an enterprise, it is more than possible to say your own organisation is a world-class leader in something while other enterprises can say the same, but that does not make it measureable.” The success of the method means that Valcon are seeing clients achieve an av-
Students can take a Six Theta graduate certificate at the Technical University of Denmark. “Technical organisations have long been eager to improve. Rather than looking to the product designers, much has been invested in management training and appointment of external consultants,” Juul Rasmussen says. “A lot of those same companies are really pleased that we are focusing on this area, and that is really good to see.”
For more information, please visit: www.valcondesign.dk