General Mills' open innovation initiative celebrated its one-year anniversary in May, and the food company is pleased with its progress. "Not only have we seen a 300% increase in the number of innovation concepts submitted to us since we initiated G-WIN, but we are also seeing a higher percentage of high-quality, potentially game-changing technologies with broad application across our business," says Peter Erickson, senior vice president of innovation, technology and quality, about General Mills' Worldwide Innovation Network (G-WIN).
General Mills' open innovation seeks collaboration opportunities across a broad spectrum, "from applying technologies more effectively to partnering more closely with key suppliers to finding potential new partners in entirely different industries." The G-WIN team received more than 200 concept submissions in its first year. Among the innovations resulting from the G-WIN program is Progresso Light soup, which qualifies and carries the Weight Watchers endorsement for 0 points per serving.
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Jill Jusko
Bio: Jill Jusko is executive editor for IndustryWeek. She has been writing about manufacturing operations leadership for more than 20 years. Her coverage spotlights companies that are in pursuit of world-class results in quality, productivity, cost and other benchmarks by implementing the latest continuous improvement and lean/Six-Sigma strategies. Jill also coordinates IndustryWeek’s Best Plants Awards Program, which annually salutes the leading manufacturing facilities in North America.
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