Generating ideas

Our most important raw material

Ten years ago, LM Glasfiber’s R&D department consisted of just eight men. They all worked in the same room, so it was easy for them to swap ideas and see what became of them.
Today, our R&D organisation consists of more than 100 people in Denmark, the Netherlands and India. This means that our work on innovation has to be rather more systematic – which is one of the reasons that idea generation and idea gathering are specifically included in our project handbooks. Even though it’s difficult to completely ”systematise” something as indefinable as creative ideas, we consider it important to develop a corporate culture that places clear value on good ideas. 

Creative potential in action

The innovation and patents department at LM Glasfiber has implemented an Idea Management System to stimulate the process of gathering in new ideas. This system make it easy for users in the production, sales and service, R&D, marketing and business development departments to deliver in good ideas, as well as to make contributions to ideas posted by others, helping them on their way to maturity. The broad user base helps ensure that we draw on creative potential from throughout the organisation, and that specific development challenges are considered from many different angles.

Targets for innovation

It’s difficult to define exactly what a high level of innovation really means. At LM Glasfiber, we’ve chosen to focus on both the sheer number of new ideas that our Idea and Patent Committee looks at and to ensure that we lodge a large number of patent applications every year. Patents are a way we can protect our unique know-how and also ensure that we have room to manoeuvre within the market place.
A systematic structure for gathering and registering ideas helps give us a good overview over the entire body of ideas we have available, and to assign priorities so that the best new ideas can be fast-tracked. Speed is a key parameter if we are to turn these ideas into long-term competitive advantage, especially as regards technology.
The ideas we receive are initially assessed by a small group who work with R&D on a daily basis. If an idea passes this first filter, it passes on to our Idea and Patent Committee, which meets every month at consider the new ideas. We aim for no fewer than 80 new ideas reaching this stage every year.
More about our patent portfolio.