ANALYSIS OF DESIGN MANAGEMENT IN THE CERAMIC SECTOR

RESULTS OF AN INVESTIGATION INTO DESIGN MANAGEMENT. REPORT BY ALICER, ITC Area for Design and Architecture

How have ceramic sector companies integrated design?

According to data from the investigation conducted by ALICER, the ITC Area for Design and Architecture, the ceramic sector needs to anticipate market expectations and not be satisfied with just responding. This entails a certain risk and difficulty, which can be reduced by appropriate integration of design competences.

In effect, design has the competences and skills to address complex problems and the ability to place creativity at the service of a business strategy. The companies that grow most in the market are those that invest most in design, but not necessarily or simply because they offer a better image, but because they anticipate trends and respond swiftly and appropriately to the market.

At present, according to the conducted analysis, design generally remains far from being part of a company’s strategic definition and therefore cannot offer all its advanced competences, so that a long road must still be travelled in this sense by most ceramic companies. In general, the most important visible functions on which company strategies are grounded do not include functions such as the conceptualisation of new products, design, or R&D, but focus rather on production processes and commercial strategies for selling company products.

This company vision clearly evidences that design has no strategic relevance, but that it is considered a complementary value for the object, hence being optional, and that it is integrated within the primary operating functions of the manufacturing process rather than being comprehensively integrated into the organisation’s own strategic definition. On the other hand, as most companies have a documented strategic plan, the objectives and aims pursued in competition differ. However, few companies specifically include design in such plans. Factors such as quality, customer service, increased offer, breadth of range, logistics, production processes, positioning, and price tend to be more common.

The companies surveyed make it clear that design plays an essential, albeit complementary, role in company innovation: design stands at the service of innovation, so that it is a permanent function in the companies, even though it has not been reflected or set within the strategic variables, or been alluded to in the different company missions surveyed in this study.

The group of companies involved coincides in identifying all those areas of design action that can characterise the field of design in the sector. As a result, product design, graphic design, digital and multimedia design, and packaging design coincide most frequently, in addition to a significant presence of interior, display, and stand design.

In the current market context, companies need to analyse their strategies and redefine these, taking into account the context resulting from the changes in the competitive environment, disruptive innovations that have shaken the sector, new normative parameters, and changing demands, among others. On the other hand, one needs to consider that

‘the same clothes don’t suit everyone, so everybody needs their own.’

One could synthesise the way in which ceramic sector companies, depending on their level of use of design as a competitive tool, could successfully apply design competences by means of good management, and go beyond their current situation.

The study outlines four levels, based on the Design Ladder model[1]:

Level 1: Design is negligible and requires no type of specialised management.

Level 2: Design is used sporadically for certain projects.

Level 3: Design is integrated as a management tool and the company has a specific design policy.

Level 4: The company uses design strategically.

Using the approach put forward by this model, a strategic definition can be worked out with each individual company, which enables the companies to achieve a market positioning that assures profitability and maintains jobs.

The investigation conducted, funded by IMPIVA and the European Fund for Regional Development (EFRD), has enabled the ALICER team to gauge the situation in the sector and to identify current corporate approaches with regard to the use of design. In addition, it has been possible to ascertain, first hand, what types of strategies are being employed in order to stay afloat in this period of crisis, a factor that allows future strategies to be glimpsed. On jointly analysing the economic, political, and user factors, the ALICER researchers have been able to put forward a number of strategies that ceramic companies could implement in the short and middle term. It is now clearly understood how design is being managed and what role design is intended to have in the business strategy in the near future. In short, this study has opened up a linking door to companies, based on design, and constancy and perseverance will be required to raise the awareness of the role that design can play in such an aggressive and changing environment as today’s market.

The vision obtained of the individual companies highlights two important features of present ceramic companies: first, companies do not generally focus on the types of operations that could help differentiate them from the competition, find their own place in the market, and head a path of profitable growth. Secondly, the study shows that companies are unaware of and, hence, unable to use design as a strategic competitive tool as other domestically and internationally competing organisations do. These two current features of ceramic companies are deemed additional pending issues that the sector must address in order to assure a successful future.

Fostering training actions on design management, further raising awareness, monitoring and supporting the companies that are capable of undertaking this type of strategy, and continuously promoting design within the business fabric of Castellón will, in the coming years, be an indispensable condition for laying out a clear route for the sector towards an appropriate positioning in increasingly competitive markets, in which these types of differentials are and will remain indispensable in order for the sector to be in a national and international position of opportunity.