Innovation management at KUKA
Innovation management is the active development of new business within KUKA, but we also drive innovation together with external partners, customers and suppliers. To achieve this, we create processes to enable the successful commercialization of innovative ideas. The necessary governance is also being established within the company. For us, this means on the one hand who can make which decisions and on what criteria the decisions are based, and on the other hand that innovation is an integral part of our corporate strategy.
KUKA provides all employees an access to methods and knowledge to generate new ideas, thereby fostering a corporate culture that enables innovation even more easily.
Our innovation strategy
To enable innovation, our innovation strategy consists of five building blocks:
1. Co-developing by working with customers, leading innovators, and decision makers on new industry trends.
2. Buying acquisitions of companies with a technology complementary to KUKA’s business priorities.
3. Partnering by creating solutions and go-to-market strategies with technology and service partners.
4. Investing in direct and indirect promising startups, entrepreneurs, and venture funds (in development).
5. Building organic innovation from our internal teams across the company.
Best practice example: Mixed Reality Interface
One product, that made all its way from an idea into development is our Mixed Reality Interface. The basic idea of this solution is to visualize application data as well as robot paths directly at the cell, thus enabling commissioning tasks to be completed more quickly and easily. To do this, we are using mixed reality technology.
