Some enterprises "innovate" in response to the assessment, resulting in the low quality of the results, and it is difficult to actually use them to generate benefits——
[Innovation is on the front line] Why do some innovations change their taste?
Our reporter Lu Yue "Workers Daily"
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Some enterprises do not understand innovation in place, and fall into the vicious circle of innovation for innovation's sake, blindly pursuing quantity, while some individuals attack "innovation" for assessment and promotion.
At the same time, "emphasis on quantity over quality" and "emphasis on application over implementation" have resulted in the low quality of many results, which can only be laid on the booth, and not many can really be used to generate benefits.
my country has been the world's largest patent country for many years.
According to the data released by the World Intellectual Property Organization recently, the number of international patent applications in my country has once again topped the list.
At the same time, the problem that my country's patent applications are too many but not strong has attracted much attention.
Recently, the reporter interviewed a number of front-line employees of enterprises with a number of innovative achievements.
They mentioned a phenomenon: in practice, some companies do not understand innovation in place, and there is a concept of innovation for assessment; some patents are of low quality, and there are not many that can actually be used to generate benefits.
Some companies are caught in a vicious circle of innovation for innovation's sake
"Some companies are caught in the vicious circle of innovation for innovation's sake, blindly pursuing the number of patents, and completely equating patents with creativity." Zhao Ping, a riveting fitter at the Shaanxi Aircraft Parts Factory of Aviation Industry, told reporters about his observations. of this phenomenon.
As a gold-medal blue-collar worker in the production line and a national model worker, over the years, Zhao Ping has continuously innovated working methods and solved various production problems.
He believes that under the concept of "innovation for assessment", "innovation has changed."
Mi Zhongyi is a lathe worker and senior technician in the Bulk Material Equipment Branch of North Heavy Industry Group Co., Ltd.
He not only has excellent technical skills, but also loves innovation. The processing technology completed according to his design has made important contributions to the company's new product research and development, and is called "the king of improved technology" by the workers.
When talking about this phenomenon observed by Zhao Ping, Mi Zhongyi was very touched.
He asked rhetorically, "Which one of the so many technological innovations I've made over the years is for the assessment assault?"
"In the invention patents of enterprises, a large proportion are generated by workers on the front line 'accidentally'." Mi Zhongyi gave an example from his personal experience, "At that time, we produced a batch of components, but there were drawbacks in the production process, which led to product failures. It was returned. This inspired me to improve the processing technology and invent a new device, which greatly improved the work efficiency and the quality of the product.”
"Technological innovation is to be discovered by workers in production, not by assessment." Mi Zhongyi said.
At present, the number of patent applications in my country exceeds one million every year and is increasing year by year.
During the interview, the reporter learned that some companies rely on patent applications to "support their appearance", while some individuals attack "innovation" for assessment, or use patents as a bargaining chip for promotion.
The State Intellectual Property Office has taken actions to strictly regulate the behavior of patent applications and improve the actual gold content of patents.
In February 2021, the bureau issued a notice that clarified 11 types of abnormal patent application behaviors that do not aim to protect innovation, and pointed out that "eliminate abnormal patent application behaviors that do not aim to protect innovation."
Many innovative achievements can only lie on the booth
While the number is large, the conversion utilization rate is low, which is an "unspeakable hidden" in the field of intellectual property.
According to the "2020 China Patent Investigation Report" released by the State Intellectual Property Office, the effective domestic patent transfer rate in my country is 4.4%.
The problems of "emphasizing quantity over quality" and "emphasizing application over implementation" have attracted the attention of Li Zheng, deputy director of the Substation Operation and Maintenance Office of the Tangshan Power Supply Company in Hebei, State Grid. He has been concerned about promoting the transformation of employees' technological innovation achievements.
In 2013, Li Zheng took the lead in establishing the Model Worker Innovation Studio, which has obtained more than 200 national patents and created economic benefits of more than 80 million yuan.
As a representative of the National People's Congress, Li Zheng once investigated dozens of units on the promotion and transformation of employees' innovative achievements.
During the investigation, he found that there are more and more innovative achievements researched and developed by front-line employees, but not many can be transformed and applied. In the end, many employees' innovative achievements can only be laid on the booth, which cannot bring actual benefits to the enterprise. solve the real problem.
In this regard, Li Zheng analyzed that some enterprises have higher requirements for the number of initial innovation achievements, but insufficient support for the improvement and promotion of subsequent achievements, and there are many repeated innovations in employee innovation. However, at present, few companies have established a perfect promotion mechanism for employee innovation achievements.”
In 2020, Li Zheng led the establishment of the "Tangshan Public Welfare Model Workers (Workers) Innovation Studio Alliance", which integrated the innovation resources of enterprises and universities in Tangshan City, adopted the industry-university-research cooperation mechanism, and took "use" as the starting point and end point. , to form an enterprise-led achievement transformation community of interests, reduce the blindness of technological innovation, and shorten the cycle from product development to commercialization and marketization.
The key is how the company should be assessed
In Zhao Ping's view, positive incentives can only be formed by attracting talents to actively participate in innovation through projects, rather than apportioning the number of patents per head.
"For employee innovation, it doesn't mean that there can be no assessment. The key is how to assess and what standard to assess." Li Zheng said, "For example, is it to assess the quality or quantity of patents?"
Li Zheng suggested that a sound evaluation mechanism for the transformation of enterprise employees' innovation achievements should be established, and the promotion and transformation rate of employees' innovation achievements should be used as a performance indicator for evaluating enterprises and business leaders.
"For example, when evaluating professional titles, the conversion rate of innovative achievements is set as a weighted bonus item. If the innovative achievements are not applied and transformed, the weighted bonus items will be less." Li Zheng explained.
"If there is no assessment at all, employees may become lazy and unwilling to innovate." said Qi Songyu, chief technical master and senior engineer of China FAW Co., Ltd. "But this kind of 'forcing' innovation is not forcing, but for guiding, Tell employees how to improve and how to implement it.”
Twenty years ago, Qi Songyu developed an electronic leakage welding monitor in production. This achievement is used to monitor a worldwide problem that plagues the automotive industry - automotive spot welding vulnerabilities.
After continuous testing and improvement, the "Automatic Monitoring Technology of Resistance Spot Welding Process Quality" has been formed, and won the second prize of the 2011 National Science and Technology Progress Award.
Today, Qi Songyu holds more than 30 patent achievements.
"Assessment is not a blunt index and mechanical apportionment, but accumulation of experience through guidance and incentives to form an innovative atmosphere. Over time, employees take innovation as a habit." Looking back on his own innovation path, he said.
"There is no problem in encouraging employees to produce more innovative patent achievements." Qi Songyu pointed out, "What enterprises really need to think about is what to do next after the number increases."
Qi Songyu further explained that problems may be found in some innovation achievements, and enterprises should further guide and help employees to address these problems; it is possible that multiple teams have submitted repeated innovation achievements around the same problem, but this just reflects This problem is a pain point, and enterprises can organize special research; some innovations may not form patents, and enterprises must have a fault-tolerant mechanism for this, so as not to extinguish the inspiration of every innovation.