In this highly competitive sector innovation is a major competitive issue. Our mission was to structure and implement a governance and process dedicated to innovation, while instilling a culture of innovation.
Innovation being a major axis of its strategic plan this tier 1 aeronautical subcontractor wanted to define, implement and test an innovation process in a short time frame, and demonstrate its relevance through the first results. The objective was also to involve all employees in this approach by developing a culture of innovation and giving them the means to innovate, through places, methods and a dedicated organization.
“Innovation is an alliance between research, marketing, instinct, imagination, product and industrial courage.”
Antoine Riboud
The scoping phase, consisting of interviews and workshops with the subject sponsors and stakeholders, aimed to identify key drivers and constraints and define the structural elements of the approach. A steering committee has been set up to define the strategy and provide trade-offs. The approach was then applied to a few pilot processes within the company. For each, an innovation committee with specific roles has been created to identify topics, prioritize them and decide on the launch of Proofs of concept. These experimentation phases were intended to be limited in time and budget, in a Test & Lean approach inspired by the Lean Startup and Design Thinking methodologies which were also the subject of training.
pilot processes
identified pioneers
PoCs launched
training courses
Result
The 4 pilot processes launched their respective innovation committees on a monthly basis, in order to be able to present and promote innovative subjects allowing to decide on an experiment and to review the status of ongoing or completed experiments. About fifteen PoCs have been launched, on various topics ranging from Industry 4.0 to Artificial Intelligence.
Creativity workshops were organized on transversal themes in order to generate innovative ideas.
With a view to acculturation, several training sessions on innovation methods were conducted and contacts organized with other companies.
Finally, places dedicated to innovation (creativity spaces, FabLab) have also been defined to give substance to the approach.
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