{"id":54218,"date":"2022-08-17T00:00:15","date_gmt":"2022-08-16T14:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aumanufacturing.com.au\/?p=54218"},"modified":"2022-08-17T07:21:20","modified_gmt":"2022-08-16T21:51:20","slug":"innovation-comes-from-outside-says-founder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aumanufacturing.com.au\/innovation-comes-from-outside-says-founder","title":{"rendered":"Innovation comes from outside, says founder"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u201cChange that adds value.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Maybe you just thought of the word \u201cinnovation\u201d, which the above is a common definition for.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As with other words, there are multiple understandings and definitions for innovation.<\/span><\/p> A couple of years ago Stuart Elliott<\/span><\/a>, a co-founder at Planet Innovation, told us that it is \u201cnot about research and it\u2019s not about invention,\u201d but rather, it is \u201cabout creating a business that\u2019s about creating a product or service offering that solves a real problem.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Another explanation comes from Resmed founder Peter Farrelly, who has told multiple interviewers these words or a slight variation on them:<\/span> \u201cinnovation only occurs when someone writes a cheque.\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n You might have your own definition. And if so, then great.<\/span><\/p> Peter Torreele, the founder and Managing Director of 3RT \u2013 an Australian company that is commercialising a process to turn low-value wood residues into products with the looks and properties of high-quality hardwood \u2013 has another.<\/span><\/p>\n The former World Economic Forum CEO is also focussed on solving problems and creating something the market wants, but separates innovation as totally new, breakthrough solutions versus optimisation. It is also developed by outsiders.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOptimisation happens within the industry itself, where people, engineers, scientists are trying to make an existing process better, cheaper, faster\u2026 Innovation is looking at the process and looking at how I can do it differently,\u201d he says in episode ten of the <\/span>@AuManufacturing Conversations<\/span><\/i> podcast, released today.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAnd a different approach always comes from outside the industry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Torreele \u2013 whose company developed their robotically-controlled technology in collaboration with nanotechnologists at Flinders University, chemists at Henkel, and automation specialists at Bosch Australia Manufacturing Solutions \u2013 explains that 3RT has developed an approach to mimic nature over nearly a decade of development.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBasically we say we are growing trees in a machine,\u201d he explains of the process, which uses pressure, a water-based \u201cnano-glue\u201d adhesive, heat and a few secrets, and which the company says can do in hours what nature does in a century.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The work began with <\/span>3RT co-founder, Professor David Lewis<\/span><\/a>, Director of Flinders University\u2019s Institute of Nanoscale Science and Technology, who Torreele says had never worked with wood before.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHis other [researchers] are coming from polymers, plastics, automotive, and so they were looking at the process from completely new eyes,\u201d Torreele recalls.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAnd the new eyes [were] really going back to the fundamentals of \u2018what does a tree do when it grows?\u2019\u2026 Looking really at a nano level \u2013 because that\u2019s what nanotechnology is all about \u2013 and understanding what is happening there.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s innovation by looking at the industry from the outside.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Picture: A pilot machine based at 3RT’s Innovation Center at Adelaide Airport. (Image credit 3RT)<\/p>\n You can stream the episode of <\/span><\/i>@AuManufacturing Conversations<\/span> through a browser <\/span><\/i>here<\/span><\/i><\/a>, or download it from Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other platforms.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n