R&D&i: Research, development and innovation in ceramics decoration

Cretaprint is committed from its beginnings to innovation and technological development.  Our R&D+i department starts and ends in our clients. We are great connoisseurs of the ceramic sector, both on a production level and in the management of colour and digital image treatment and we constantly apply new technologies and functionalities to the tile sector. Our starting point is the client’s needs and therefore the direct on-field contact is continuous.

Objectives

Our basic fundamentals regarding R&D+i are:

• Define and implement new projects and new technologies.
• Increase the efficiency and productivity of our printer by defining the production parameters and the printer’s electro-mechanic and software configurations. 
• Develop new printing ideas that result in benefits for our clients. 
• Transfer knowledge to all our technicians through internal training.
• Direct customer service
• Strengthen Cretaprint’s position of state-of-the-art technology in the world

Innovation committee

Innovation within Cretaprint does not only take place within the R&D&I department. A systemized innovation process has consolidated since 2006 with the aim of implementing a methodology to manage the company’s innovation based on two basic concepts:

• To focus innovation towards Cretaprint’s strategic objectives
• To systematize the innovation process to generate continuous innovation instead of fortuitous and sporadic progresses.  

To achieve this systematization of innovation an Innovation Committee was created, formed by the company’s functional directors, which is now the highest governing body for innovation at Cretaprint. This committee meets regularly to focus innovation initiatives towards the company’s strategic objectives, to define the states of the innovation process, decide who must participate in each one of them and the progresses that must take place.  It also chooses the initiatives to undertake, defines the makeup of the innovation project, assures the support from the rest of the organisation to the tams, it manages its good operation and is in charge of revising the systematic of the entire process for its continuous improvement throughout time.

The Innovation Teams are the basic operative unit in charge of performing the projects.  They report to a project manager and have representatives from the most critical departments for their implementation.

The master strategic line derived from the implementation of this process is the reorientation of Cretaprint to evolve from being a manufacturer of machinery to a R&D&i company, not only focused on the development of new machinery but towards any aspect that provide an added value solution in the field of ceramic decoration.

Awards

This innovation process has led us to win the 2010 Company of the Year Award in R&D&I, granted by the prestigious Newspaper El Mediterráneo