The interest in more local and European manufacturing is not new for several reasons. Besides obvious political and ideological drivers, manufacturers have seen big swings in transportation costs and supply chain disruptions during the past years. Meanwhile, China’s labor cost has risen, along with Western awareness of sustainability and social responsibility. As a result, some appliance manufacturers are considering relocating their manufacturing back to Europe, where they’ll benefit from higher standards, closer proximity to customers, and more stable political and legal systems.

As you navigate this transition, ensuring that your product’s journey from idea to industrialization is seamless and efficient is crucial. To safeguard a consistent quality and effective operation during the industrialization phase, you’ll need a trusted partner to guide you through every production step:

• Supplier management: selecting a manufacturer with the right expertise and facilities to deliver consistent, long-term production quality.
• Manufacturer audit: through rigorous audits, potential manufacturing partners are reviewed to meet the key criteria for your project’s success.
• Testing and precertification: setting up and implementing comprehensive testing throughout the entire product development cycle, from conception to qualification, so your product meets all necessary standards before it hits the market.
• Quality and technical file: specific product specifications, work instructions, maturity grids, and validation documents will guarantee quality at every production stage. 
• Artificial intelligence and machine learning: cutting-edge technology to optimize sustainable production processes, and reduce waste and energy consumption, all while maximizing uptimes.

More and more, product and device manufacturers are showing a growing preference for EU-made components and goods. Why? It’s about avoiding the challenges often associated with ‘Made in China’ products, such as quality concerns, long shipping distances, rising travel costs, and limited control over production processes. The tips in this perspective are based on the hands-on experience of our consultants during recent projects, offering valuable insights to help manufacturers adapt to this growing trend.

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By leveraging the power of the Internet of Things, smart devices can revolutionize the way we interact with everyday household items. Moreover, the integration of artificial intelligence opens up a realm of new possibilities, providing valuable insights for users and manufacturers alike. The best and most efficient way for such cases is to connect them to a platform that acts as a one-stop shop for all stakeholders involved. In this perspective, we will delve into the digital innovation possibilities brought by connected devices, how they can create added value for all stakeholders involved, and how you can go the extra mile to differentiate from other brands and create loyal customers. Ready to take your rightful place of being the #1 provider in your product market?

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Elevating your Fast Moving Consumer Goods appliances

As technology advances, sensors are becoming more affordable due to improved manufacturing processes and increased competition in the market. This competition has resulted in manufacturers offering sensors in a wide variety to target specific applications. In addition, miniaturization is the first step towards integrating sensors into everyday appliances.

Cost efficiency and size are important, but integrating new sensors can be a challenge. So let’s give you a few examples of the sensing technologies we have employed, their potential applications, and the associated challenges.

1. VIRTUAL TEMPERATURE SENSOR

Temperature is a critical factor to control in appliances, ensuring an accurate and consistent recipe for a quality food or beverage. Temperature sensors are widely used in many applications and are now small and cost-effective. You can use them not only for process monitoring and control but also for signal compensation, as temperature has a considerable influence on most measurements. Despite its widespread usage, there are still challenges that need to be addressed and overcome. Indeed, you can’t indiscriminately add sensors everywhere due to food-safety concerns and/or manufacturing requirements.

For instance, placing a temperature sensor in a beer keg can be difficult. To solve this problem, you can implement virtual temperature sensors, which simulate the behavior of a physical sensor by using data from other physical sensors. Back to the example, the temperature of the contents of a keg can be predicted by using sensors to monitor the temperature of its surroundings. Additionally, you can employ sensor fusion to acquire multiple data and merge the measurements into a single output, ensuring greater reliability and accuracy.

2. SENSITIVE TO PRESSURE?

Beginning with the automotive sector and then extending to numerous industries, pressure sensors are now cost-effective and available in a variety of shapes and sizes. In addition to measuring pressure and flow, you can use these sensors for indirect measurements such as volume. By measuring the pressure and its rate of change over time, it’s possible to calculate the liquid volume contained in a bag.

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Source: Construction Products Europe

Emission trading to ignite the renovation wave

The Emission Trade System is the most impactful green project of the EU, accounting for almost 43% of the realized GHG reduction over the past 16 years. The ETS sets a cap on the total emitted GHGs per sector in scope, which are the most energy-intensive industries, including building materials production. By decreasing the cap gradually, companies are progressively more incentivized to decrease their footprint as the cost of buying the same volume of emission rights rises. This is how True Pricing is materialized (see ‘6 leverages for the circular paradox’). Depending on GHG abatement cost and company strategy, each player decides whether to invest in energy efficiency or additional emission rights.

Building material producers have been in the scope of ETS since the start, leading to ongoing production process decarbonization and to the adoption of new technologies (see for instance CCU/CCS). The challenge for construction is to expand the efforts to what happens downstream of building material production. One of the ongoing reflections in the EU Commission is to roll out a similar trading system to the building owners, to accelerate the renovation wave (retrofitting insulation, heating systems, doors and windows etc…) and decarbonize ‘assets in use’. For residence owners, this will further emphasize the importance of prioritizing the right renovation in terms of expected CO₂ reduction per euro invested. The potential rollout of this trading system will highly depend on how social impact can be managed (‘Leave no one behind’), as there is a risk of over-soliciting investment pockets that are already depleted by the current economic crisis.

Nonetheless, one way or another, a serious renovation wave is imminent and this opens up promising business model innovations such as Knauf Energy Solutions.

Illustration of the Knauf Energy Solutions impact on an asset owner over time, from making the initial retrofit choices (‘Maximize ROI’) over verification after the intervention and towards further ROI increase
Source: www.knaufenergy.com

With this solution, Knauf – a market leader in drywall gypsum boards and insulation materials – expands into energy efficiency services for asset owners with a technology breakthrough – the so-called ‘negaWatt hour meter’. Based on intelligent assets and data science, Knauf guarantees the realization of predicted energy cuts per invested euro.
This example demonstrates how traditional building material producers can valorize knowledge and technology to shift from conventional seller-buyer transactions towards genuine service models with higher expected customer lifetime value. Note that Knauf operates the field services and interventions, hence intensifying the direct connection with the owners.

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Customer intelligence, digital value chains and customer relationship management need to get a digital makeover in order to prepare for the next wave of digitization. What can you learn from the past and how can you achieve the next wave of digitization for customer experience with appropriate toolchains? Find out in this webinar from Dany Robberecht, Director Strategic Innovation, and Lieven Claeys, Director Innovation Acceleration Services – Digital Innovation.

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Research and innovation at GITEC and AB InBev are always in motion. How are they coping with the current crises? What hurdles are they facing and how do they find new opportunities? Find out from Simon Gerdesmann, Global Director Digital & Open Innovation at AB InBev, how they are using AI and digitized processes to streamline innovation research, knowledge sharing and resources.

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In the quest to lower companies’ CO2 emissions and optimize the use of scarce resources, it’s important to not only look at the company itself but also at the entire value chain. Find out how using sustainable design can nudge your upstream (suppliers) and downstream (customers) operations significantly in this webinar from Frederik Aldelhof, Manager Innovation Acceleration Solutions – Smart FMCG & Consumer.

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The valley of death, known as the phase between exploration and successfully implemented innovation. With the current material and talent scarcity in mind, controlling this phase becomes crucial. Because success as a new product is not always a success as a business and vice versa. How can you accelerate market adoption and shorten break-even time by understanding and mastering both economic and emotional drivers? Find out during this webinar from David Pas, Coordinator InnoLab.

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Our human drive to invent new things has led to historic achievements. When we brainstorm innovation, we usually come up with ideas to add, but we often forget the immensely high value of simplifying and streamlining. Especially in crisis times, your innovation toolkit should include reduction, subtraction and elimination processes. Discover how reduction can improve your products and services in this webinar from Ornella Torres Melkebeek, Consultant DesignLab, and Frederik Wouters, Board Director Innovation Acceleration.

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The post Innovation via reduction: a pathway to a great outcome? appeared first on Verhaert Masters in Innovation.

The shift to sustainability in FMCG can only be realized successfully when you invent new business models, new delivery tools and new products. The best way forward at the moment, is by shifting exploratory thinking and pretotype testing to direct-to-consumer business models, new ecosystems, and the invention of new smart delivery tools. Especially due to the current economic situation, putting pressure on prices. Check out this webinar from Jonathan Reeves, Corporate Vice President New Business, Venturing & Marketing Excellence at Henkel Laundry & Home Care on new business creation to overcome inflation and sustainability needs.

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