MIT Sloan Management Review Article on How Temporary Assignments Boost Innovation

Just as digitalization and automation are transforming the shop floor, they are changing the role of front-line manufacturing employees. Workers increasingly create value not only by performing their core duties but by contributing to broader organizational objectives such as competitiveness and innovation as well. Those with creativity and aptitude for problem-solving have proved particularly valuable: Their front-line perspectives often generate promising process improvements and business opportunities that would not have been apparent to managers. As a result, front-line innovation has become one of the largest sources of sustained competitive advantage in manufacturing industries. At leading companies, up to 75% of annual productivity gains can be traced back to bottom-up ideas from non-R&D employees.

About the Author

Philipp B. Cornelius is assistant professor of technology and operations management at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University.

Bilal Gokpinar is professor of operations, technology, and innovation at the UCL School of Management at University College London.

Fabian J. Sting (@fast1005) is the chair of the Department of Supply Chain Management — Strategy and Innovation at the University of Cologne, as well as chaired professor of digital supply chain innovation at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University.

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