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| In a business where certain product families are becoming commoditised
and mass-produced in very high volumes in China using standardized
production processes, innovation is a key success factor in maintaining
our competitive lead. It also enables us to create differentiation
through unique concepts, new features, original designs or different
marketing approaches. Designing innovative, high-performance,
ergonomic, attractive products requires a structured research and development strategy backed by the right resources. |
A structured innovation process
Research is focused on around 15 key strategic projects capable of having a strong cross-category impact on our operations. These products are managed and tracked centrally by the Technology Department.
Development, on the other hand, has been decentralised to
engineering offices and teams located in the production plants to be as
close as possible to the process-engineering phase. This approach
improves responsiveness, energises the R&D process and shortens
time-to-market.
Project platforms, a technology information
and expertise intranet, databases and other cross-functional resources
promote the sharing of information and best practices across the
organisation and the transfer of technologies among the operating
units. They also enable us to continuously track progress on each
project. This is notably the case with the Product Lifecycle Management System,
which consolidates and regularly updates all of the information on a
given project, so that it can be accessed by all of the participants
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Every year, a Technology Forum is organised for R&D teams from
across the Group. Held in Lyon in 2008, the two-day event brought
together 270 people from around the world to discuss the Group’s
research priorities, share their knowledge and experience of the
development process, and receive progress updates on major projects and
programs.
Over the past three years, our R&D teams and
capabilities have been considerably strengthened by the hiring of
engineers from a wide range of backgrounds, such as chemistry,
nanotechnologies and agri-foods. They are helping to stimulate the
innovation process by designing new products combining diverse and
potentially complementary technologies. Research and development
programs are also supported by a networked organisation
that combines in-house capabilities and outside partners, including
suppliers, research institutes, universities, industry-leading
companies and laboratories. This sharing of ideas and expertise
plays a critical role in expanding our technological offering. This is
especially true today, when the competitive market environment and
shorter appliance lifecycles have led us to take a highly proactive
approach, which is shortening time-to-market for new products and
models. This strategy is enabling us to continuously revitalise our portfolio and improve our product mix.
As
a result of this dynamic and the steady shift upmarket in our
on-the-shelf products, we are raising our visibility and positioning
ourselves for new market share gains. |
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Groupe SEB ranks 20th in patent filings in France
This
continuous innovation dynamic is structured by a commitment to
protecting our products, models and brands through the filing of
patents and Soleau envelopes – the first step in the patent process,
which involves filing a technical brief with France’s National
Institute for Industrial Property (INPI). In 2008, the Group filed 110
patents and 404 Soleau envelopes, ranking us the 20th most active
patent filer in France and demonstrating our strategic role as a
pioneering innovator. Obviously, this role makes us vulnerable to
imitations and counterfeiting, which we are combating as systematically
and effectively as possible through:
- Market surveillance in sensitive regions, especially China and the Middle East.
- Punitive
measures, such as seizures of proven imitations and counterfeit goods
(70,000 in 2008 vs. 50,000 in 2007), demands for their destruction, and
lawsuits.
A real-world example of successful collaboration
The
Autoclean iron’s self-cleaning catalytic soleplate was jointly
developed by our linen care research teams and the Lyon Institute of
Research on Catalysis and the Environment (IRCELYON), a research unit
of France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). By
effectively combining our technological and manufacturing expertise and
the catalysis and nanoscience capabilities of IRCELYON’s surface and
interface team, the partnership identified both the right material
(palladium) and the appropriate method of applying it to the soleplate.
- The outcome of the joint endeavour: a patent pending and a promising product.
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