About Us

Prima Performance is a hands-on product innovation and training company. We transform tired old products into cutting-edge products by applying a methodology proven in industries, ranging from potato chips to computer chips. Frequently, this is accomplished with only minor design changes, that is, by staying 'in the box'. But before describing our services and unique approach to improving performance, we would like to pass on what we have learned about the characteristics of innovation itself.

To begin:

  • Innovation has more to do with the systematic search for opportunity than romantic ideas about serendipity or a magic bullet.
  • Great inventions solve fundamental constraints of a system and frequently provide brand new capabilities to the system.
  • Mould-breaking innovations, or 'disruptive technologies', are totally different from incremental improvements. The latter may deliver improved product performance, but they do not conquer new markets or guarantee survival. Disruptive technologies, with features such as being cheaper, smaller, more simple, and easy to use, have the capacity to create new markets; frequently, that lead to the demise of their predecessors.

Now, consider some of the familiar landmark examples of product innovation that have changed the ways we live and work.

The photography industry replaced the single, double and triple lens cameras with a single zoom lens that was lighter, easier to use and less expensive than its predecessor.

In the field of print communications, IBM replaced the 74 characters on the keys of a typewriter with an interchangeable ball with all 74 characters embossed on a single ball. The constraint of many characters requiring many type heads was removed. And eventually the 'ball' was replaced by ink jet printers, and soon thereafter, by laser printers. Today, the printer has become the 'Ideal Printer', a non-existent printer, whose printing function has been taken over by something totally different, the computer monitor. With each successive product generation, its predecessor, over time, became a technological artifact.

Gilette replaced single blade razors with double, TRACII, and then with triple, MACH3, blade razors.

These examples have two elements in common: They all solved the fundamental constraint within the system, e.g. print many characters but only with one print head, or for the razor, to cut (hair), and not to cut (skin). In addition, they totally changed the industry.

As change agents, our business is to help organizations find the product innovation opportunities that can put you steps ahead of the competition, and in some cases, create entirely new market opportunities.

We have helped develop and implement numerous initiatives, from the very small to multi-million dollar international projects, ranging from robotic computer card assembly lines, to polymer molding manufacturing plants. Along the way we have earned the reputation for solving 'unsolvable problems'.

Our goal is simple. We strive to give our clients higher output and brand new capabilities with less input-including costs.

We apply our goal to three basic service areas:

  • Product innovation that can lead to a brand new disruptive technology.
  • Technology forecasting that defines the next product generation, or the amount of headroom still remaining in your existing products (i.e. many type heads,one type "ball", inkjet, laser printer, etc...).
  • Use the inventive techniques described above for:

    • Manufacturing process improvement
    • Organizational improvements

Virtually every production process or system is eventually limited by the self-conflicting constraint imposed by the competing requirements of input resources (materials, costs, labour), and output requirements (performance). Attempting to adjust these vectors beyond their optimum point of intersection results in a trade off on one side of the equation or the other.

That's where Prima Performance comes in.

We isolate the primary limiting constraint, and quite simply, remove it from the equation through innovation. The beauty of our approach is that it eliminates the process's conflict while each of the competing requirements are at their optimum level without adding any new resources, and eliminating waste otherwise caused by constraint trade offs. It's the next best thing to 'having your cake and eating it too.'

Take your product to the next level and higher, by inventing away performance limiting trade-offs.