Thinking outside the box to provide a solution.  

 

Giving Gum the Boot

Knowledge Gap

Innovation consultancy IXC helped a food & drink client investigating the problem of chewing gum litter.  
The client’s research team had already explored novel technologies to modify the gum formulation, yet had no tests to measure the success of rapid degradation.

The Creative Step

IXC’s innovation experts reframed the problem in to that of quality testing, and introduced the client to a product testing company with a machine to measure footwear lifetime.  
The equipment moves a shoe repeatedly at an accelerated rate to mimic prolonged footfall yet in a relatively short period of time.   

The Business Result

Open Innovation success:  the perfect real world technology introduced from the fashion/clothing sector into the food sector to enable the measurement of gum stickiness over time.