Innovate Labs

For many years, African nations have sought to transform their economies through industrialization and have for the most part failed to do so. Innovate Labs seeks to contribute to this transformation by improving traditional product development processes and leap-frogging them by providing design, rapid prototyping and machining services first for Ghana's entrepreneurs, private sector and artisans and later across the continent. Specifically: 

1. Artisans who utilize our CNC machining and 3D printing services will build capacity through training programs and shorten their production process, thereby producing more quality products and generating more revenue. 

2. Entrepreneurs can take advantage of our design expertise, shortening their time to market 

3. Established firms can machine parts locally, thereby increasing local revenue, creating a local value chain for machining services, and subsequently more jobs for artisans, engineers and designers. Improved product quality for export also makes these firms more competitive on the global market.

In 2013, I founded Innovate Ghana, an annual innovation competition that challenges high school and tertiary students to address community development problems using human centered design, entrepreneurship and STEM. Since the beginning of the program, we have trained 850+ students from 10 institutions who have in turn developed over 35 innovative concepts for development. Similar to Solve (but on a much smaller scale), our competitions and workshops have tackled issues ranging from agriculture to health, waste management, sanitation, energy and more. Throughout our concept development process however, I observed that 

1. Customers and foreign companies complain about the poor quality of made in Ghana products 

2. Entrepreneurs often lack expertise in product design, prototyping and manufacturing needed to bring ideas to market and rely on artisans to produce sometimes low-quality prototypes and products 

3. Artisans are constrained by manual, inefficient methods of production due to limited resources (outdated tools, limited access to energy, funding, etc). They also lack access to engineering know-how and efficient precision machining services that can improve the quality of the products they build for both entrepreneurs and larger industrial firms.

Innovate Labs will provide design consultancy, rapid prototyping and machining services for Ghana's entrepreneurs, private sector and artisans.

• Entrepreneurs: To date our program has provided design consulting to nearly 250 aspiring entrepreneurs, some of whom have already launched businesses. Innovate Labs will help us to continue providing these services while giving them access to new technologies that will accelerate their market entry
• Artisans: Our labs will offer training in advanced tech (3D printing, design software) in a way that is practical and easily applicable to their current vocations. We will also offer access to tools that are not readily available to them. Our initial targets are artisans in Ghana's e-waste site of Agbogbloshie whom we have worked with before, as well as others in the Greater Accra area
• Firms: Our long term goal is to be able to raise enough capital to provide industry grade machining services than enable firms to manufacture locally and employ local artisans who have been equipped with our training.

Our service will consist of 3 basic categories of service: 

1. Design consultancy services: will include Human-Centered Design/Design Thinking, 3D modeling and engineering services 

2. Rapid prototyping services: will include 3D printing, sewing, light carpentry and other light maker services 

3. Machining services: will include drilling, CNC machining, laser cutting, lathe and basic machine shop access

This idea is innovative in two key areas:

1. While the business concept is not new, our research shows that there are no existing companies that provide all of the services we seek to provide in one place. Some incubation hubs such as the Impact Hub, Kumasi Hive, and other Fab Labs provide rapid prototyping services for makers and young entrepreneurs but do not provide professional machining services for more established businesses and artisans. Specifically, CNC machining services are not available to artisans and industry to our knowledge. By making this service available, we will eliminate the need for entrepreneurs and industrial firms to send parts outside of the country or rely on externally machined services. We will also be building the capacity of artisans who cater to the needs of small businesses and individuals by improving the quality of their services.

2. Our second point of innovation lies in the approach. As a for profit business, our model is based on the concept of shared value and considers how our enterprise can catalyze the ecosystem of stakeholders in the manufacturing value chain at all levels. By empowering and resourcing entrepreneurs, artisans and firms are to improve product quality and their development processes, we believe that we can help accelerate the rate of innovation, increase employment and improve livelihoods.  

The key technologies involved in our solution can be grouped by the 3 service areas:

1. Design consultancy services: 3D modeling with (SolidWorks, Autodesk Fusion, Rhino, GrabCad and other software) and engineering services using software solutions like (Pro-E, ECAD and others)

2. Rapid prototyping services: will include 3D printing, sewing, light carpentry and other light maker services 

3. Machining services: will include drilling, CNC machining, laser cutting, lathe and basic machine shop access

Underlying technology that provides seamless integration of these services may include IOT and Machine learning. Training for artisans also requires not traditional and practical methods and could benefit from the use of AR/VR in educational materials

Our model ultimately seeks to transform the African manufacturing sector by uilitizing new technology in additive and subtractive manufacturing to drive innovation and improve the product development process. Our outcome, outputs and activities are outlined in the theory of change below.

Over the past six years the Innovate Ghana Program has served nearly 850 youth. Innovate Labs as a private sector extension, has the potential to serve even more if extended to artisans and firms:

• Industry & Registered Firms: Approx 13,750 in Accra, 1200 registered members of AGI 

• Artisans: 6,639 registered with the GAA, about 1500 in Accra 

•Entrepreneurs: 46 entrepreneurship hubs. Targeting Innovate Ghana (250), Impact Hub (200), Kumasi Hive (50) 

• Students: 228,347 students at Universities, 51,169 in Polytechnics

We are currently working to complete our market research and business plan by September 2019, and are currently going through a 12-week startup program as part of the Tony Elumelu Foundation's Entrepreneurship program. Our goal in the next 1-5 years is to

• Build our portfolio of clients starting with entrepreneurs we have already been working with and gradually reaching firms. By next year, our target is to secure 2-3 large scale clients, serve at least 50 artisans and 10 entrepreneurs/startups
• Train at least 100 artisans in CNC machining, with 10% being integrated into industry
• Establish a physical center solely our own

Currently, key barriers include 

• Raising capital for industrial machinery and start-up. As this service is not fully functional in Ghana - we are yet to see how well services will be adopted. 
• Establishing a physical center: We are currently working out of a maker space in an existing hub in Accra, and would like to deploy centers in strategic areas such as industrial zones, artisan communities and other incubators.
• We are also aware of another competitor seeking to set-up similar services for industrial clients. 

Our objective is to start small in the next year. We have registered our firm and currently have one part-time staff member

1. Raising capital: We will continue to seek funding through grants and investment on various platforms. We will also start by establishing our brand and services with  industrial clients in one sector (e.g. automotive repair, furniture production, oil and gas clients etc). We can also explore other business models to save money e.g. offer machining services to small entrepreneurs in exchange for shares, investment, or core services necessary to our operation (e.g. branding, web design, etc). 

2. This is a 2-3 year goal that can be mitigated in the short term by renting spaces. Currently we will continue to utilize the makerspace at Impact Hub, and have an invitation to use a training space at a local artisan community

3. By targeting one specific sector, we can develop clientele and partnerships that later expand to other sectors

-

Currently we have 2 directors and 3 part-time staff (intern)/volunteers.

• Freda Yawson - Founder and CEO, is a mechanical engineer with experience in the automotive industry having worked with GM and Toyota in the US. Her training included design, CNC machining, design for manufacturing. Following this, she acquired 4 years in management consulting and 4 years in international development. She has 6 years of product design and human centered design training experience from the Innovate Ghana workshops, facilitating workshops for GIZ, Ghana's Design Thinking Conference and other workshops.
• Prince Essesl - Co-Founder and Director is an electrical engineer with 3 years experience in electrical design and energy sectors. He has won multiple awards with his Exonexus venture and brings experience in startup development.

Experts and part-time staff

• Prof. Gregory Yawson - is an expert in curriculum design, workforce training and brings over 30 years of teaching and training experience in engineering, hazardous waste management, quality having been certified for ISO 9000 Lead Auditing. 
• Sandi Fafali - is an electrical engineering graduate with expertise in 3D printing, modeling, coding and servo-motor design and computer repair.
• El-Hayil Puplampu - is a biomedical engineering graduate with expertise in 3D modeling and design, having led workshops for Innovate Ghana on 3D modeling.

Impact Hub Accra - is currently our host organization, providing the space and some machines to work with. As a hub, they are home to nearly 200 entrepreneurs and offer an existing market of entrepreneurs to test our services with

Accra Health Innovation Center - is a health incubator developing innovative products and services. We intend to partner with them to offer prototyping services to their entrepreneurs

Ghana STEM network - is a network of organizations seeking to promote STEM in Ghana. As a member, Innovate Ghana has access to other organizations who may patronize our services.

Our primary model is the fee for services model 

• Design consultancy (pay per hour) 

• Machining services (pay per hour, or per product specifications e.g 3D printing) 

• Training workshops (flat fee per workshop) Industrial firms will be charged at higher rates to subsidize artisan and entrepreneur fees (service subsidization)

Initially, we are seeking grants as seed capital in the first 2 years and seek to transition that fully to sustainable revenue streams from our design and machining services.

Simply put, the Solve program has provided the opportunity for many young entrepreneurs to launch and kickstart businesses that are transforming our world. It would be an honor to have the opportunity to learn from those who have succeeded and demonstrate the power that entrepreneurship has to change our community and nation. While I have had the opportunity to work in the private sector and run the Innovate Program, those experiences are vastly different from running your own business. I look forward to learning immensely from the program and meeting like-minded change makers who are also transforming their communities. I am excited by the challenge ahead as well as the opportunity to impact a wide range of stakeholders in Ghana and Africa at large, for the better.

• MIT D-Labs - for design expertise and best practices
• Protolabs - while it could be a competitor in the US, it has perfected its rapid-prototyping model
• D-Rev - its expertise using engineering services to support development
• GIZ - to continue previous work in one Artisan community in Ghana
• the World Bank - for its work in manufacturing and private sector development

As a woman owned business, it is one of my personal missions to increase the number of women interested in STEM fields and who have access to it as I did. This would be an opportunity to not only create linkages with women in engineering, but create internship opportunities for young women studying engineering as well. We are also able to reach women engineers and artisans who are typically underrepresented in Ghana