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September 19/20, 2024 in Künzelsau, Germany
The 14th R&D Autumn Conference in Künzelsau (Germany)
will highlight practices in innovative R&D management, exploring themes such as product development
methodologies, environmental responsibility, technology strategies, disruptive innovation, digital transformation,
technology roadmapping, customer focus and standards.
Speakers from various industrial areas will share their insights and best practices and present examples
from their day-to-day work.
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This year our industrial partner will be
WÜRTH in Künzelsau.
Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG in Künzelsau is the largest single
company in the Würth Group. The Würth Group is the global market leader in the development, production and sale of assembly
and fastening materials. The Group currently employs more than 87,000 employees in over 400 companies with more than 2,700
shops across 80 countries. According to the preliminary annual financial statements, the Group generated sales of
EUR 20.4 billion in the 2023 fiscal year.
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The event will start on Thursday around noon - we will hold our afternoon session in
Schloss Hotel Döttingen
near Künzelsau. Away from everyday life, in a quiet environment, the hotel offers a stimulating and creative working atmosphere.
Schloss Döttingen is located in the middle of the Hohenloher Plain, between forests and meadows - an optimal prerequisite
for the afternoon session, the dinner and the get-together in the evening.
The Friday session will be held at the premises of Würth. The visit will include a Factory Tour and will finish after lunch.
The R&D Autumn Conference has been held since 2007. Current technology and management topics have been discussed and
investigated at various locations in Europe. The basic idea of the conference is to provide a forum for managers from
diverse industries to meet peers, discuss topics of mutual interest and to share best practices.
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Conference Programme
Click on title of talk to obtain further information - The programme may be subject to change
Thursday, September 19, 2024
Location: Schloss Hotel Döttingen, Buchsteige 2, 74542 Braunsbach-Döttingen
13:00 Get Together and Standing Lunch
14:00 Afternoon Session
Setting the Scene
Welcome and Introduction
About the conference, the topics, the participants, welcoming new participants, logistics ...
Kontrapunkt Technology provides consultancy services in technology, innovation and strategy to industrial enterprises. Our
expertise is in the optimisation of product innovation, strategic technology planning and assessment, strategic business
development and establishing international collaboration. We also step in as an interim manager to fill a temporary vacancy in your organisation.
Product Development
Gravitrax Goes Electronic
In his talk during the R&D Conference 2018, Clemens spoke about the successful launch of GRAVITRAX, a modular track system game,
which combines mechanics, kinetics and magnetism to propel marbles up and down a 3D racecourse. In 2022, Ravensburger added a new
line of electronic action elements into the system, which raised the possibilities for constructing interactive marble tracks to a
new level. For the development team at Ravensburger, the integration of RF, Bluetooth and electromechanics into the small elements
was a quite challenging task. Clemens will give an insight on the nearly four years of R&D for this electronic toy line.
Founded in 1883 and with its headquarters still in Ravensburg, Germany, Ravensburger has turned into an international corporation with six product categories in toys and publishing.
Environmental Responsibility
PFAS - Challenges and Opportunities in the Transition to Alternatives
PTFE, fluorine elastomers and other PFAS chemicals are used for their excellent chemical and thermal
properties, low friction, non-stick and water-repellant behaviors. At the same time, a range of
these substances are known to be dangerous to human health and the environment. With new regulations
under way, we have begun the journey to replace PFAS in our formulations.
AVK GUMMI A/S is part of the family owned AVK Group. AVK GUMMI manufactures elastomeric components
for food, drinking water, health care, energy and tech industries.
Anders G. CHRISTENSEN · Sales- and R&D Director · AVK GUMMI A/S · Laasby (Denmark)
Disruptive Innovation
The Next Step in the Evolution of Money
If cryptocurrencies represented a country, they would be in the top-10 economies of the world. They have
taken the market by storm and are becoming mainstream through new mechanisms such as ETF. Cryptos
are immutable, scarce, durable, fungible, decentralized and smart - but are they easily portable and
transactable like cash? This presentation is about how to seize the best of all worlds to achieve
what could become the ultimate means of payment, wealth storage and investment.
COLOP is an independent commercial company which deals with the development, production, assembly and
distribution of modern stamp and marking devices. COLOP is regarded as one of the region's flagship
companies and is a global player within the industry with an export rate of nearly 98 % and more than
120 export markets supplied on a regular basis.
External Factors
Standards - Accelerators or Brakes to Innovation?
One can argue that standards promote innovation by providing a basis for new developments. One can also argue that
the sluggish and consensus-based standardization process retards innovation. So which is it (most of the time)?
We will take a closer look at the standards ecosystem, and try to come to some sort of conclusion.
Metrolab is the global market leader for precision magnetometers, used to very precisely measure strong magnetic
fields. Over the past 35 years, Metrolab has won the trust of MRI manufacturers and physics laboratories across
the world.
Philip KELLER · former Metrolab Co-Owner / Chair of IEEE Magnetics Society Standards Technical Subcommittee · Metrolab Technology SA · Plan-les-Ouates (Switzerland)
Business Transformation
Innovation Drivers in Tobacco Packaging Inks and Varnishes Through the Ages
The tobacco industry is subject to continuous change due to regulation, anti-smoking campaigns, sustainability demands
and a declining market. Consequently, innovation activities have shifted from enhancing packaging decoration to fostering
sustainability and increasing cost efficiency. This presentation compares external influence factors on innovation and
showcases past and present innovation activities for Tobacco packaging inks & varnishes.
Siegwerk is one of the leading global manufacturers of printing inks and coatings for packaging applications and labels.
Based on 200 years of expertise, they provide customized solutions for all types of packaging needs - from functional and
eye-catching to safe and sustainable. 30+ country organizations and ~5,000 employees worldwide ensure consistent high-quality
products and customized support around the world.
Digital Transformation
Business Model Innovation Transforming R&D
Ziemer is a global leader of Femtolaser ophthalmic surgery machines, operating a successful Razor & Blade
business model: every surgical operation requires a Ziemer-manufactured unclonable
sterile procedure pack, with high-availability machines connected in an Internet of Medical
Things business ecosystem. We will discuss the transformative challenges imposed on R&D,
with the transition from a classical product business to a software and data-driven solution
business, incorporating diagnostic equipment, surgery equipment, consumables, and workflow
software for clinic IT integration.
Ziemer Group is a family owned MedTech company based in Switzerland, specialized in ophthalmology,
ophthalmic surgery and microsurgical visualization systems.
19:00 Dinner
Friday, September 20, 2024
Location: CURIO Reinhold Würth Innovationszentrum, Schliffenstraße 26, 74653 Künzelsau
08:00 Transfer to Würth
08:30 Welcome and Introduction at the CURIO Reinhold Würth Innovationszentrum
09:00 Morning Session
Customer Focus
Innovation Focussed on Holistic Customer Needs
Innovation management has many facets: it can deal with groundbreaking infrastructure system solutions and it can also deal with
day-to-day banalities. In his talk Heiko will elaborate on this balancing act and illustrate examples from the Würth R&D innovation
function.
Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG in Künzelsau is the largest single company in the Würth Group. The Würth Group is the
global market leader in the development, production and sale of assembly and fastening materials. The Group
currently employs more than 87,000 employees in over 400 companies with more than 2,700 shops across 80
countries. According to the preliminary annual financial statements, the Group generated sales of EUR 20.4
billion in the 2023 fiscal year.
Time-to-Market
Why is my large project suddenly several months late?
It's surprisingly frequent for large projects' projected delivery date to rapidly change by weeks or months with little apparent warning.
Why does this happen? What behaviours lead to this, and how can teams and organisations work differently to avoid it happening? In his
talk David will address some of the causes and remedies, along with some examples.
42 Technology is a product development and engineering consultancy. They solve difficult technical problems and develop new and exciting
products for their clients. They are a practical and pragmatic group that enjoys hands-on problem solving that gets their clients the
answers that they need. Taking the time to understand their problems is therefore a very important part of 42's development process.
10:10 Transfer to Waldenburg
10:30 Factory Tour
Location: SWG Schraubenwerk Gaisbach GmbH, Am Bahnhof 50, 74638 Waldenburg (Werk II, Pavillon)
12:00 Lunch
13:30 End of Conference
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