pacific nw transportation consortium region 10 Pactrans

Innovation – it tops the list of most used (and misused) words of the past decade, but how many of us truly know what innovation means?

Dr. Man-Chung Tang, Chairman of T.Y. Lin International, discussed innovation at the PacTrans Regional Transportation Seminar on March 4, and as the designer of over one hundred bridges, was uniquely qualified to do so. He is known not only for his contributions to the overall bridge design industry, but for the quality and innovation of his individual designs.

In his encouraging talk, Dr. Tang broke down the components of innovation into an easy to use formula: 5I + 3W + 3C. While somewhat mysterious at first glance, the formula divides the weighty concept into three parts: the definition, process, and prerequisites of innovation.

Innovation is comprised of the 5 Is: inventions, improvements, incorporations, increased value, and incentives. Fundamentally, the purpose of innovation is to increase value. In looking at a bridge, we see the value of safety, functionality, economy, and aesthetics. Together, the total sum is the value of the bridge.

On the road to innovation, Dr. Tang cited three questions (the 3 Ws) to ask:

Why? to challenge the status quo.

Why not? to introduce your new ideas.

What if? to keep you from straying outside of the possible.

For example, in the case of the West Seattle swing bridge, the prevailing belief required that a swing bridge be made of steel. By asking these three questions, the bridge instead used concrete, and the construction cost was much lower than the steel scheme.

Finally, innovators must have the 3 Cs, capability, courage, and chance, chance being both the opportunity offered by society and created by the innovator. Courage, for example, was critical in the case of the Eifel Tower. Originally criticized by many, including prominent engineers and architects of the day, it is now the pride of France.

While Dr. Tang has designed several record-breaking bridges, he reiterated the underlying principles of innovation. “Reaching a world record is not innovation. Making something impossible possible is.”