An industrial company sought creative ideas outside established paradigms for its next product generation. In an innovation phase run by Zühlke, the group developed together fresh ideas for new products.
A manufacturer of piping systems was planning its next product generation. In an early stage of development, a creative project group was to outline what degrees of latitude the company actually had and incorporated cross-industry experiences. The experts that were brought in pointed out current trends and combined them with a rich and broad range of experience and specialized knowledge. The goal was to strengthen the tradition of innovative product development of the Georg Fischer Company.
The customers’ employees from different units of the company slipped into a new role during innovation days. Zühlke leads the process and provided the novel leeways. In this special atmosphere, the group generated over 300 visionary ideas thanks to the unusual roles they were asked to assume.
At the same time, the overall business environment was covered, along with current trends. To increase the chances of success, Zühlke conducted three innovation days with different groups at separate times. The input of experience from employees from the sales regions ensured that the ideas were suitable for being put into practice later on.
In a second step, Zühlke experts illuminated the available product series and markets in a SWOT analysis. The requirements were then condensed into about 50 core claims, and the limits of the system were defined.
The third step involved summarizing the requirements that had been cleared with Sales. The customers’ development team used this specifications document as a basis for the development of an innovative products.
