design and business strategy, systems design, modeling complexity, visual design
DS Smith 2020 Innovation Model
Experimenting a mission-driven organizational model for open innovation in Chicago’s packaging food system through the concept of a Dark Kitchen
Project developed at IIT Institute of Design
Challenge
Build a mission-driven organizational model for open innovation systems driven by regenerative principles and design strategies to scale environmental impact in the food packaging industry.
Concept
Supply Cycle Thinking for a Circular Economy — Designing for localized, fast, innovation at zero waste.
DS Smith is a leading packaging and assembly company, who provides unique customization, consulting, and just-in-time assembly capabilities for customers around the world. In 2013, DS Smith established their first sustainability policy and has continued leading the industry in innovative manufacturing practices. In 2019, DS Smith became a global partner with the Ellen McArthur Foundation to develop a comprehensive Circular Economy model.
This model focuses on making each level of the supply chain ‘certain to be recycled’ with a target towards 0% waste. To drive the circular economy model and infuse continuous innovation, DS Smith has integrated itself within a vibrant innovation district within Chicago, which has enabled DS Smith to provide unique, innovative and flexible manufacturing solutions. Through our integrated networks, knowledge sharing and design capabilities, our customers are able to bring new ideas to market faster and at lower cost than ever before all with a focus on sustainability and recycling. We call this Supply Cycle Thinking, and we’re here to help make the food products of the future. For 2020, DS Smith is interested in introducing a Dark Kitchen to their service offering. The following pages outline a series of experiments to test the viability of this new model and its alignment with the broader corporate strategy. The experiments were created using the 5x5 framework, from the book ‘The Innovator's Hypothesis’ by Michael Schrage. This framework aims to achieve faster, better, cheaper, and more creative innovation outcomes with 5 people, 5 experiments, $5,000, and 5 weeks.
Experimentation plans for testing the concept
In order to test the model in multiple dimensions, we created different experiments to explore the possibilities.
01 Co-design a shared kitchen space: knowledge brokering is crucial for developing design specification and formalizing an effective and efficient shared kitchen design process.
02 Personalized Packaging for D2C Orders: identifying key packaging design touchpoints to achieve a personal engagement.
03 Short-run localized manufacturing for special events: co-creation with local food service provider to establish an innovative, scalable packaging capability.
04 Engage Consumers in Circular Supply Chain: behavioral design is essential in driving consumer participation in circular economy.
05 Engage Supermarkets in Circular Supply Chain: service design model is essential in engaging local partners in determining a simple journey with equal value exchange.
SPECIAL THANKS TO THE WHOLE TEAM
Team: Yun Yang, Julia Rochlin and Jessica Bogart Kasper
IIT Institute of Design Faculty: Carlos Teixeira