Sim Brothers Pte Ltd is a local enterprise that produces a broad range of creative consumer products. It has a skilled workforce and a flexible manufacturing system that can be adapted to produce different kinds of things. Its flexibility also allows it to take on sub-contracting jobs to produce gadgets and parts for other sellers. Like most other companies, its business tanked severely in 2020 with the onset of COVID-19. It was forced to pivot to the production and sale of many varieties of face masks to keep its business alive.

With the COVID-19 pandemic now tapering off and most parts of the world opening up, Sim Brothers are now faced with another problem. It has huge stocks of face masks that it could not now sell because most countries have done away with mask-wearing mandates. These unsold mask inventories are taking up valuable storage space and represent huge financial losses for the company if they were to be discarded.

Alfred Sim, the CEO of the company, looked grim as he addressed a meeting of senior managers and engineers.

“It is great that the COVID-19 pandemic is coming to an end. We can go back to our usual business. We have done well with our range of face masks during the pandemic. It has helped to keep our business going and our workforce intact. However, we now face another crisis.

We did not know when the COVID-19 pandemic would end and had stocked up hugely on face masks that we are not able to sell now, even at steep discounts. This is potentially a huge loss for our company. I need all of you to come up with creative ideas on how we can turn this problem around to our advantage. Can we recycle our face masks to use in some other innovative products?”

In this assignment, you will be required to use independent thinking and analytical judgment to apply innovation effectively to real-world problems. Imagine that you are a manager at Sim Brothers Pte Ltd and you have just attended a meeting with the CEO. How would you respond to the CEO’s call for innovative solutions? You will need to develop the discussions, justifications, and presentations to the senior management of the company.

Question 1

• Analyze the case scenario and suggest a physical product innovation that will recycle the use of the existing stock of face masks. Show a clearly labeled drawing or photographic image of your proposed innovation. Justify why it is an innovation. Explain what inspires your idea.
• Using an appropriate theoretical framework, appraise the type and degree of uncertainty associated with your proposed innovation. Hence, formulate what Sim Brothers Pte Ltd must do to move forward to develop your innovation.

Question 2

• Explain the concept of digitalization. Describe a real-life example from which you can learn how to apply digitalization to the development of your proposed innovation in Q1(a). Citation and references must be stated.
• Discuss the five (5) stages of Design Thinking. Demonstrate with a detailed example of how you would apply “Empathy” to the development of your proposed innovation in Q1(a). Describe any two (2) online tools (with URL links) that will be useful for working with empathy.

Question 3

Your proposed product innovation has been shortlisted by the management of Sim Brothers Pte Ltd. The management would like you to make a formal presentation to them to convince them why the company should select your innovative idea for further product development. Prepare a PowerPoint presentation and it should present a summary of your answers to Question 1 and Question 2.