An innovation competition or innovation program might sound more at home in a company headquartered in Silicon Valley than a chemical manufacturer, but at AdvanSix, we are innovating together to generate new ideas for how we improve. In 2018, we hosted our first two innovation competitions, kicking off our Innovating Together program. The competition results in four ideas that address long-standing business challenges. We are excited that the innovation teams are proceeding forward to implement these ideas, and we are looking forward to results in 2019.
Each competition involved two days of training on innovation tools facilitated by our partner, Systematic Inventive Thinking. Over the course of the two competitions, 14 diverse teams of four or five individuals were given a unique business challenge, ranging from quality issues on the shop floor to logistical inefficiencies to manual or ineffective processes such as manual operator rounds. Participants were selected from each site, line of business, and function to form diverse teams. Business challenges were submitted by employees and selected by a cross-functional steering committee. During the competitions, each team generated eight to 20 ideas for their challenge, selected their best idea, and presented in an unconventional way their idea to a panel of judges from the AdvanSix leadership teams. A winning team from each competition received cash prizes; all participants voted on “people’s choice” awards, selecting the best use of innovation tools and other fun prizes.
Key Business Benefits:
- Use-case on how to implement your own program
- Increase the learning and diversity of ideas within your own organization
- Challenge the way you normally look at problems, allowing new solutions to emerge
