LIRA Program
Evaluation Criteria
Professionals
(Ready for investment industrial prototypes)
INTRODUCTION
The Ministry of Industry, the Association of Lebanese Industrialists, and the Lebanese National Council for Scientific Research are proud to launch the annual Conference and Exhibition of Lebanese Industrial Research Achievements.
All industrial research entities, experienced engineers and industrialists are encouraged to participate in this "innovation showcase" aiming at translating high quality, creative industrial research into productive industrial investment opportunities. In a modern economy essentially based on knowledge, research and long-life learning become the motor for industrialist development. Therefore, the Professionals Category is open to participation for any industrial research entity (researchers at research centers, etc…) to encourage the Research culture in the Lebanese Industry and to reinforce the Research cooperation with the higher education and research institutions.
The participating projects shall compete through an open forum to be evaluated by specialized jury committees based on the enclosed criteria, during the LIRA Exhibition. Cash prizes of $2000 and trophies with certificates from LIRA Advisory Board are awarded to the best project.
PROJECT ASSESMENT CRITERIA
In developing criteria for project evaluation the following objectives were sought:
1. The ultimate objective of the LIRA Program is to promote national competitiveness of the industrial sector. The evaluation criteria are expected to include those features that reflect economically viable and globally competitive industrial innovative activity.
2. Adopted criteria are expected to increase awareness and responsiveness at research and industrial entities ready to respond to the needs of the Lebanese industrial sector.
3. Well-defined, unambiguous and readily quantifiable criteria that will permit accurate project evaluation.
The project should reflect a mature industrial investment opportunity.
This should be translated into a well elaborated "Project Document" to be submitted with the application to LIRA administration, at least 2 months before the announced date of the exhibition*. The document should clearly show in each separate section advantages of the product relative to the criteria items listed below.
* If this dead-line for documents submission is not respected, the submission will be rejected
Accordingly, the following Criteria are proposed:
(The criteria item will be disregarded in case it doesn't apply to the product)
A- Technical Qualification
A-1 Creativity:
Developer(s) must define his points of creativity that will be judged from 0 to 10. Points will be deducted for similar ideas applied by competitors.
Developer/owner(s) must show clearly the creativity in the product involved in the submitted project document
A-2- Quality:
Degree of robustness, simplicity, durability, as applied to:
- Design
- Prototype
- Finishing and Packaging
Grade 10 to 0 -- Where 10 represents an excellent design from a comparative point of view, with other existing similar products (if any) with respect to robustness of design or concept, simplicity of execution and maintenance, durability, and expected quality of product. 0 represents a project/design that has an existing competitor with better performance on all quality counts. Quality aspects are to be more elaborated in the Professionals Category.
A-3- Design of the Manufacturing process:
Many of the excellent "lab prototypes" never make it to the manufacturing stage because the developer(s) did not put the extra needed effort to design all the necessary details of manufacturing processes. In fact, many good designs can not be easily manufactured and may have to be radically modified to accommodate the needs of mass production processes and/or to reduce the cost of such processes, to improve the competitiveness of the product.
Developer(s) is expected to submit documentation on how he or she is to move from the prototype to a manufactured product, including an estimate of machines and all input materials and components needed and where to be procured. The design must be included in the submitted project document and must include all relevant steps in the manufacturing process.
Grade 0 to 10, to be recommended by visiting industrialists as in C-3 below.
A-4- Multi-Disciplinary Content:
Grade 10-2. 10 representing the contribution of 5 specializations or more, each contributing no less than 10% of total value added. (Disciplines are to be defined by developer(s) indicating contribution to value added). Importing novel ideas from another discipline is considered/evaluated for both the creativity and multi-disciplinary criteria.
Developer/owner(s) must show clearly in the submitted project document the contributing part of each of the specializations concerned
B- Competitive Economic Advantages
B-1- Value Added:
The need to include this parameter may be best reflected by quoting Michael Porter "Productivity, not exports or natural resources, determines the prosperity of any state or nation".
Productivity is best measured by the ratio of the added value to the input factors invested in producing it. The grading of this index is based on a round number approximating typical rates of productivity in industrialized nations.
The developer(s) must show serious effort in estimating the value-added of his/her product, by calculating the expenses incurred and proposing a "tag price" for the finished product.
The need to include this factor resides in the necessity of creating a strong awareness among applying developers and among industrial companies of the need to measure and continuously work on improving this critical survival factor.
Value added is to be calculated from the proposed “Tag price” – set by the developer(s) – compared to the total cost of the project (materials, manufacturing, and labor) as calculated by the developer(s).
Grade 0 to 10, depending on how serious the calculation is carried out, taking into consideration ALL factors including the effort of the designer.
ALL calculations should be elaborated in details in the submitted project document.
B-2- Price Competitiveness
Grade 10 to 0, 10 for a product that costs 50% or less than an equivalent product on the local and export markets, 0 for a product that has a similar price or higher that competitors. "The developer(s) is to search for the prices of similar products in the local market or in the export markets". A detailed study on price competitiveness is expected in the Professionals Category proposals. The results of such search and detailed calculation procedure for the proposed price must also be shown in the submitted project document.
B-3 The Business Plan.
Industrial researchers/engineers should "promote a greater understanding of entrepreneurship and the self confidence to take risk". This will lead to a culture of entrepreneurship, and to new business ideas and business start-ups. Therefore, it is essential for professionals projects, to demonstrate commercial viability, best exemplified professionally through a well defined business plan. This Business plan must show all steps for moving from the Lab prototype to a commercial product in the market. It should include all relevant steps with an elaborate analysis of budget needed and cash flow. It should also touch on various permits and legal aspect needed.
Grade 10 to 0, where 10 represent a comprehensive Business Plan and 0 represents the absence of a business plan.
Grade is determined by the jury committee.
C- Marketability and Exportability
C-1- Marketability
It is essential that available resources be directed towards economically viable and commercial acceptable activities. It is thus imperative to be aware of the global market, and to put emphasis on those products that can be economically viable and marketable, given Lebanese economic constraints, namely products in which Lebanese producers may have a competitive advantage. The global market reality is a fact that both our graduates and local industrialists need to be aware of.
The main factors in product marketability today are: quality, price and acceptability by end user. As such, cost as a percentage of global prices for equivalent products, is believed to be a good indicator of marketability.
Developer(s) is expected to prove the marketability by searching the prices of comparable products in the market; he/she is expected also to have some estimate of acceptability by end user. A consequent grade 0 to 10 will be attributed to the project.
C-2- Export Potential
The developer(s) must be concerned about the competitiveness of the product in local as well as in export markets. The export constraints (legal issues, quality control, transaportation, …) and their impact on prices and competitiveness of the project are to be evaluated carefully in the Professionals Category. A thorough market research to this effect must be included in the submitted project document. The quality of the analysis and its results will be measured and a grade from 0 to 10 will be given to the project.
C-3- Industrial / Investor Consumer Evaluation:
Industrial / Investor Visitors Poll Ranking
Poll is to be conducted during exhibition. Grades 10 to 0: 10 representing the top industrialist's choice, 0 representing the eleventh or greater industrialist's choice.
LIRA Administration with the developer(s) should collect at least three evaluation forms from industrialists in the field willing to put their names on the evaluation form.