Innovation Case Study

Setting

On a Friday morning, an Innovation Director of a stock-listed billion dollar Beverage company from California called one of our team members. The case was very clear: they needed to come up with a beverage in a tin for the US market en listings were under pressure, so it had to go very fast!

Action on the first day

To not waste time, the same day, we set up an intercontinental project team (US and the Netherlands) to get this fixed. It involved R&D, Marketing, Operation, Commercial and Finance. Over the weekend, the first large meeting was prepared to take decision on the way forward. On Monday, we concluded on the timelines and we promised to have the first samples in California by that Friday. Also, a cost indication was prepared. Samples were tasted in the next week. The taste was close to the level of expectation and we prepared another round of samples.

Ongoing pressure

As you may expect, a thousand items had to be done, such as raw material authorization, logistics between the manufacturer of the liquid and the canning facility, transport to the US, costing, investments in the factory and hiring additional operators to run productions and kosherize the factory. Needless to say, it all had to be first time right.

Result

Very proud, we can share that within 12 weeks after that first phone call, the first liquid production took place. And of course, dozens of open items still need to be solved, but the overal goal to get productions going ASAP to avoid out of stocks was realized. A very happy customer even addressed this item in their annual report.

The Newcalf signature

This project is typically something which fits us. It has to be delivered at high speed, it’s innovative, it’s multidisciplinary and it does make a difference for your organization!