“Efficient production requires a well-organized innovation process”.
Interview trade magazine VMT, 16th of February 2021.
Merel Rijnen supports food manufacturers, large and small, with product development from her own company Food Dynamics. Due to many years of experience with food manufacturers, she sees that the impact and complexity of innovation on upscaling is often underestimated.
Merel Rijnen has had her own company for 9 years, where she supports food manufacturers in product development. “I help them from A to Z, from sourcing the right raw materials to scaling up production.”
Thinking too easily about innovation
She has worked extensively in the “sweet corner”, for manufacturers in the chocolate, bakery, ice cream and confectionery industry. “Many questions are about reformulating recipes.” Rijnen sees that people often think too easily about innovation. “Sometimes there is great pressure on manufacturers from their customers, to develop a new product. But even then, the complexity of an innovation must be properly assessed. ”
Classification of innovation complexity
Rijnen works with scales A, B and C for increasing complexity of innovation. “From a small change in a recipe, usage of a new raw material to the purchase of a new machine or production line. The higher the innovation is ranked, the more involvement from other departments is necessary. Complexity determines the impact on production, time and development costs.”
According to Rijnen, a factory can only produce efficiently if the innovation process is properly organized.
More startups develop products during corona
Since the corona crisis, it is striking that the number of applications from startups has increased. “They’ve had an idea for some time, which they now really want to get started with.
If they have a background in business administration, they often lack in technological knowledge that Rijnen supports them with. “She sees that these startups mainly focus on healthy products with, for example, clean label or less sugar.
Larger food manufacturers seem to innovate less these days. “Corona demands all the attention and get production going is a priority.”
