Innovative polystyrene, polypropylene & plastic packaging, bespoke packaging and technical parts - Knauf Industries.

Meet ID Lab.

Interview with Patrick SUTTER – Innovation Director Knauf Industries

“At Knauf for 20 years, with an engineering background in Chemistry and Polymer Physics, I held various positions within the group and its divisions. After 6 years of international subsidiary management, I took the direction of innovation and digitization in September 2017.

 

  • How do you define innovation in general?

“Innovation is about imagining and giving life to tomorrow’s solutions Innovation has always been the driving force behind business development, and today the innovation dynamic must be more intense because the market demands more news. solutions made available more quickly.”

 

  • How are we innovating at Knauf Industries?

“Innovation is an integral part of Knauf Industries. Our employees generate new ideas and solutions every year in factories and at our customers’ premises. This is probably related to the fact that Knauf Industries is a company run by entrepreneurs who promote risk taking and change to always do better.

The missions we have set ourselves are multiple. It is first and foremost the development of solutions that create value. Develop new products, new market segments, new business models. It is also adding value to our customers. Innovation must also enable us to reduce Time To Market and improve the efficiency of our employees.

Today, digitalization is accelerating innovation momentum. Knauf Industries strives to provide more value to its customers with a high degree of responsiveness. To achieve our goals, we created ID Lab, our Innovation and Development Lab.”

 

  • What is ID Lab?

“ID Lab stands for Innovation and Development Lab. More than a service, it is a state of mind that must be spread within Knauf Industries. A first Lab specializing in foam foams was created at Ungersheim (68) to provide essential functions such as design, prototyping and testing. We deploy our skills and equipment to generate value-added solutions and identify new growth segments, business models and technologies. A second Lab exists at La Bernerie en Retz (44), specialized in thermoforming and plastic injection. Beyond our central Lab, we develop Labs internationally. The goal is to combine the agility of a local organization with the strength of an international group, with all Labs connected and challenging their ideas and concepts. ID Lab is everywhere within Knauf Industries. In France, Spain, Russia, Poland, Brazil … A cosmopolitan team! Our experts and engineers close to our customers are specialized in markets, materials or technologies.

 

  • What are ID Lab’s missions?

We have 6 work axes:

    • Design: optimize our creations by taking into account the environment and by guaranteeing the performance of the proposed solutions
    • Prototyping: quickly offer parts to facilitate decision-making at our customers
    • Tests: validate the performance of our solutions with internal tests or those made by our specialized and certified partner laboratories
    • Digital Simulation: thermal, mechanical, acoustic simulation to optimize our solutions and reduce Time to Market
    • Innovation by matter: select and optimize our materials to best meet the performance expectations of our customers
    • Eco -Innovation: find and propose solutions that contribute to the circular economy