Second round of supplier programm
New innovation horizons are being explored through four exciting partnerships following the second round of the Paint the Future supplier program, continuing AkzoNobel’s collaborative innovation story.
Paint the Future supplier program – what is it, again?
It’s a win-win model where we collaborate with our suppliers to pioneer cutting-edge innovations that bring surfaces to life. The supplier collaboration program is part of our Paint the Future innovation ecosystem.
The program was launched in 2019
Our first ever Paint the Future supplier collaboration program took place in November 2019 with an invited group of 35 suppliers. We selected five projects to take forward for acceleration.
Round two – taking our vision of collaborative innovation even further
The second round of the program saw 90 key suppliers invited to join our experts for an exciting virtual event in December 2020. It consisted of a series of master classes giving insights into our vision for collaborative innovation, as well as breakout sessions that dived deeper into our company’s four innovation themes: Productivity, Asset protection, Surface enhancement and Environmental protection. Afterwards, the Paint the Future platform was opened for eight weeks to allow suppliers to share their best solutions with us.
In total, 99 compelling submissions were received, with four chosen to go forward: Ferro Corporation (United States), BRAIN Aktiengesellschaft (Germany), KUKDO (South Korea) and Wanhua Chemical Group (China).
“I am especially happy with the selected projects because they are great examples of ways to reduce our carbon footprint beyond the traditional ways of working and support our People.Planet.Paint. ambitions, and/or they bring product solutions that go beyond our customers’ imaginations,” says Chief Technology Officer, Klaas Kruithof.
Take a look at the new collaborations in more detail:
- Ferro Corporation – a new approach to coating functionality beyond expectation.
- BRAIN Biotech AG – a sustainable solution that uses versatile benign microbes to heal cracks and prevent paint intruders.
- KUKDO – new resin technology for developing low-bake powder coatings that will allow our customers to increase their productivity while also reducing their carbon footprint.
- Wanhua Chemical Group – low-VOC resin technology with excellent adhesion on untreated plastics, a new and sustainable solution that allows our customers to improve their productivity.
Next steps
Together with the four selected suppliers we’ll now work jointly to accelerate their solutions and meet both our innovation and sustainability targets.
“Innovation is the fuel of our supplier collaboration and part of our QDCIS (Quality, Delivery, Cost, Innovation and Sustainability) balanced score card. By bringing these solutions to life we maintain our leading position in sustainability as the frontrunner in our industry”, adds our Chief Procurement Officer, Jan Paul van der Velde.
For more on Paint the Future for startups, suppliers and academia, visit https://www.letspaintthefuture.com/