Open innovations ecosystems for Do IT Together processes (INEDIT)

INEDIT stands for open INnovation Ecosystems for Do It Together process and is developing a European open innovation ecosystem for the furniture industry with a focus on virtual design for 3D printing of wood, recycled plastic as well as manufacturing of smart furniture.

In view of the current trend towards flexible mass production, the aim of the project extended the well-known "Do-It-Yourself" (DIY) to a collaborative "Do-It-Together" (DIT). This approach has been applied and developed by consumers, designers and manufacturers, especially from SMEs, to achieve higher customer satisfaction, acceptance and loyalty. The Open Innovation ecosystem integrates knowledge and ideas of design and engineering from different disciplines. Customers' creativity is pooled to design novel, sustainable furniture and then produce it locally. Therefore, the project's motto was "Design globally - Produce locally." Recycled, smart and personalised products should thus reach the market in the shortest possible time.

Important ecological and economic effects are the reduction of CO2 by avoiding the transport of raw materials and goods from abroad, the creation of local jobs and the emergence of new business models. The open platform has significantly shortened the process from concept to design to validating the manufacturability of a piece of furniture.

INEDIT was coordinated by the Ecole Nationale Superieure d'Arts Et Metiers (ENSAM) in Paris, France. The consortium consisted of 14 project partners from eight European countries.

As project partner, Steinbeis Europa Zentrum was responsible for the creation and implementation of a utilisation plan and strategy, the development of an efficient planning and monitoring tool for the dissemination and exploitation of the results and the protection of the intellectual property rights of the consortium. Furthermore the SEZ supports the improvement of knowledge transfer and the community and cluster building and networking of relevant European stakeholders in the fields of furniture manufacturing and open innovation.

Further information:

• Project name acronym: INEDIT
• Funding: European Commission, Horizon 2020
• Funding budget for all partners: 7 M EUR
• Participating countries: Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Spain
• Duration: 10/2019 – 03/2023