Does this question assume that the R&D activities and patents filed by machine manufacturers are insufficient today?

“Innovation in many French OEMs is, in my opinion, too focused and short-term, given the economic context in which we operate and the societal challenges that we face,” explains Pierre Chevalier. It is focused on technology, mainly brought by the major players of the industrial movement and robotics, and often discontinuous, pushed by regulatory constraints. But above all, it is solitary: everyone innovates in their own corner, focusing on their craft, while packaging is an inherently systemic and transversal discipline. All these features help to limit, over time, the innovation potential of our manufacturers.”

New avenues should therefore be explored, more in line with contemporary expectations. Some of them are still unknown or little considered by the sector’s players, probably held back by firmly established habits. Among these alternatives: frugal innovation, co-creation or the questioning of traditional business models.

Nurturing its innovation potential also means adopting a different perspective: strengthening a skill that is vital to the company’s sustainability, rather than focusing exclusively on developing a new product. Everything is going so fast today that the path or process is almost more important than the result. Every action taken in the context of innovation will change the environment in which it is deployed, and generate new constraints as well as new opportunities. Our OEMs must be able to follow the movements of their ecosystem, attract and lead younger and more international teams if they are to help solve environmental and societal problems.”

This raises several fundamental questions:

• Have we, as players in the sector (manufacturers, users, consumers), taken the time to define together the problems that we really want to solve?
• What are the barriers that we have set ourselves to innovation, and which collaboration could help overcome?
• What skills do you need to acquire in order to connect individual innovation efforts with a more systemic view of the entire process (primary, secondary, tertiary)?

By agreeing to collectively confront these issues, Packaging machine manufacturers – a vital link between packaging producers and marketing industrialists – can play a key role in the sustainable redefinition of the packaging function. Some have already begun this change: it is now up to their peers to follow the movement.