We were asked by American multinational consumer goods company Procter & Gamble (P&G) to conceive and develop a technology which many of their experts felt was ‘impossible’. Within two years, we had not only found a solution but developed this revolutionary new technology into a complete working system ready for handover.

Key Facts

    • Our Breakthrough Innovation Lab found a solution in just two years (from April 2012 onwards) for Procter & Gamble (P&G) to revolutionise technology on its production lines.
    • We are continuing to work with P&G to take this new technology to higher levels of performance and its ultimate conclusion as a fully-integrated system within their world-leading production lines.
    • Like much of our breakthrough innovation work being undertaken, it remains confidential due to its commercial sensitivity and value.
  • Funded by Procter & Gamble (P&G).

Impact of our research

We managed to overturn 100 years of stagnation in production line technology with a breakthrough innovation is less than two years! However, like much of our work in this area, this project remains confidential because of its commercial significance.

Such was the difficulty of the challenge that, as a result of the efforts undertaken, new avenues of research were identified for the study of creative behaviour associated with developing breakthrough innovations.

Interest in the work being undertaken reached the top of Procter & Gamble (P&G) with Bruce Brown, its then Chief Technology Officer (CTO), flying into Cranfield for a special presentation of the radical new technology being built.

We are currently working with P&G to take this new technology to new levels of performance and its ultimate conclusion as a fully-integrated system within their world-leading production lines.

Why the research was commissioned

We were approached by Procter & Gamble (P&G) to conceive and develop a revolutionary new technology, previously believed to be ‘impossible’, for its production lines.

Why Cranfield?

Our Breakthrough Innovation Lab – which sits within C4D – tries to better understand the nature of breakthrough innovations through a combination of cutting-edge industry and academic collaborations. Researchers work on creating truly original innovations, using a combination of traditional and advanced methods and technologies to help unlock these ‘original ideas’ and the extreme problem-solving capabilities often required to deliver such breakthroughs.

Facilities used

Centre for Competitive Creative Design (C4D) / Breakthrough Innovation Lab.