PHILOSOPHY

Daman Elements of Success

Daman Products has concentrated on building excellence within our company for over four decades. As a Midwest-based fluid power manufacturer, we have integrated a purpose-driven set of values, team leadership and business practices since we embraced the concept of continuous improvement in 1997. Continuous improvement has permeated the company's DNA. Eliminating waste, streamlining processes and increasing efficiencies have become second nature to everyone at Daman.

 

To be successful 20 years from now - or even five years from now - Daman has recognized a need to improve the way we approach innovation - as well as to maintain our core elements for success:

 

• Focus on the customer. The customer should be an integral part of the product development process. Interviews, exchanges of ideas, face-to-face visits can reveal not only challenges but also solutions.

• Communicate effectively. Effective communication skills play a critical role in moving concepts forward. Brainstorming – in the absence of criticism – helps reframe fundamental assumptions and boundaries. And active listening can identify opportunities even before customers fully recognize what they want or need.

• Build equal skills. Cultivating leadership demands a significant investment in improving interpersonal skills. By building on concepts of eliminating waste, streamlining processes and increasing efficiencies, a fledgling R&D group can achieve success. Collaboration, creativity, sharing and smart risk-taking become the norms rather than the exceptions. 

• Keep improving. A culture of personal accountability provides the foundation for highly successful, well-trained teams to fully understand their roles and have the tools, signals, and systems in place to execute their jobs.

• Support innovation as a business strategy. Innovation, by definition, is discovering and creating something that is unknown and unknowable at the outset of a project. 

• Give structure to the unknown. The basic tenants of continuous improvement can shape the innovation process. They help the potential entrepreneur discover and use the resources available to counter risk aversion and identify potentials.

 

For more information about our commitment to continuous improvement, please browse through our white paper, "Journey into Continuous Innovation." This document explores ways to build a sustainable research and development roadmap for continuous innovation.