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The need to be economically successful is the key driver for companies to be innovative and implement new technologies with increasing efficiency and effectiveness (Klein & Stumpp, 2007). Uncertainty about whether to use new technologies and missing knowledge about their advantages lead to staggering and withholding from fast diffusion of innovations (Moore, 1999), (Rogers, 2003). Focusing on the industry of logistics and the technology Mixed Reality, this research project developed a methodical approach for evaluating the fitness of an innovative technology and a specific process of application.
A mixed methods approach was derived, based on interviews and experiments. The main methodologies used, were semi-structured interviews with decision makers in logistics companies to elaborate triggering criteria in the investment process and laboratory experiments for the evaluation of competing technologies. These methods were framed by an initial field experiment and feedback interviews after the analysis for the validation of the approach.
The research proved the competitively viable applicability of Mixed Reality and its specific strengths and weaknesses in manual order picking. This set the foundation for possible further development and implementation of the technology. The developed methodological approach proved to be a valid and reliable assessment of the intersection between a technology and specified process of application. This could greatly enhance the speed of implementing new innovations and gaining competitive advantages for companies.
The research provides four contributions to the present knowledge. The main and major contribution is based in the field of innovations management. A new framework is derived to evaluate the suitability of an innovative technology for an existing process. It offers an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of technologies within the area of application and a conclusive recommendation for or against further implementation.
The framework consists of finding the determining criteria for a technological and economic useful implementation and the evaluation of existing and pending technologies within the found criteria.
The minor contributions to the present knowledge are, in their corresponding areas of research:
Logistics, Order Picking: Current technologies for manual order picking are evaluated according to procedural and entrepreneurial requirements of the industry. The results of the evaluation offer a clear advice of what technology to use at the moment for a specific company or process. Furthermore, the applied methodological approach can be reused if determining criteria for the evaluation change or new technologies emerge.
Mixed Reality: The process of order picking is identified and evaluated positively as an appropriate field for the serial application of Mixed Reality and as a market beyond prototypal implementation. The results of the research approve the fitness from both, technological and economic criteria.
Methodological Approach: Qualitative and quantitative methodologies, namely interviews and experiments, were combined in a mixed-methods-approach. The approach incorporates four steps of alternating qualitative and quantitative methodologies. This offers unprecedented validity and reliability for the results of the methodological approach.