All about innovation: Swiss Quality Day 2024

The SAQ - Swiss Association for Quality hosted the Swiss Quality Day for the 17th time - a now established event with cross-industry appeal, which, in addition to plenty of networking opportunities, always offers a varied program of presentations. As in the previous year, the event was organized in collaboration with Shift Switzerland organized.

An excursion into robotics

The fact that Switzerland is the world champion in innovation is something that is often pointed out - and was also emphasized on Swiss Quality Day. Switzerland's innovative strength in robotics is at the forefront. The first speaker to talk about this was Prof. Dr. Roland Siegwart, Director Autonomous Systems Lab ETH Zurich and Founding Co-Director of Wyss Zurich. In his presentation, Prof. Siegwart outlined a number of applications where robots capable of walking or flying can provide massive support to humans, for example in material testing in hazardous environments such as wind turbines or high-rise chimneys. The solutions shown were developed by ETH spin-offs. They are examples of how the combination of research and science with innovative companies and high-quality manufacturing works.

Innovation "bottom-up" instead of industry promotion by the state

But what about the innovative capacity of companies? And where or how do you get funding pots such as those from Innosuisse? Presenter Andrea Vetsch discussed this with Andreas Preller (Alternative Bank Switzerland), Tom Russi (Innosuisse), Nina Schaller (Luya Foods AG), Cuno Singer (Fill Me) and Roger Siegenthaler (mb-microtec AG). Nina Schaller and Cuno Singer represented the perspective of the start-ups. Driven by a vision - and having one is the basis for innovation - they have each developed their own innovative products. Nina Schaller's company Luya Foods develops plant-based meat alternatives. In contrast to other high-tech meat imitations, these are traditionally fermented. Cuno Singer wants to make drinking tap water more popular with a reusable bottle system and avoid the expensive transportation of mineral water in pet bottles. Innovation in established companies is driven less by visions and more by market pressure, as Roger Siegenthaler knows: "People tend to become sluggish," especially in the position of market leader. Innovation then often arises out of necessity, says Siegenthaler. One antidote to this is an open corporate culture that also allows outside perspectives without "stable smell".

It is well known that innovation requires money - sometimes a lot of it. Innosuisse does not act as an investor, but as an organization that promotes innovative projects. Many start-ups, but also established companies, find it a "jungle" to obtain such funding. "Support start-ups, but don't forget SMEs," was Tom Russi's motto. In contrast to countries such as Germany or France, which operate a state-controlled industrial promotion system, innovation in Switzerland is very much "bottom-up", said Russi. Although this approach is tougher, it is ultimately more promising because companies learn how to deal with economic challenges at an early stage.

An innovator with heart and soul

Thomas Binggeli, or Thömu for short, CEO and owner of Thömus AG, a manufacturer of high-quality bicycles, is someone who has gone from being a young bike enthusiast to a pioneer of new mobility. Bicycles have always been Thomas Binggeli's passion: with the Swiss Bike Park, he has realized a social project to make cycling more popular. The 2000 m2 park serves as a test center for professionals, a training facility and a practice facility for anyone who wants to improve their riding and road safety. Thömus is also involved in the CircuBat project for the recycling of lithium-ion batteries, which are also used in e-bikes. And even if the (bicycle) wheel has long been invented, there is still room for innovation, as Binggeli explained. He showed off his latest developments in e-mountain bikes, which can keep up with classic mountain bikes in terms of weight thanks to smaller electric motors. However, his biggest innovation project at the moment is the "Twinner": a high-end bike with a carbon frame, sophisticated sensor technology and safety features, including its own software for so-called "Smart Power Management". You still have to ride the bike yourself, but it has all the amenities that can be compared with a luxury class car.

"Everyone can be creative"

Innovation requires ideas - and ideal conditions are needed to come up with them. Because: "Everyone can be creative," explained Barbara Studer, a neuroscientist specializing in mental fitness and health, in her presentation. Creativity is present throughout the brain and can also be trained thanks to the so-called neuroplasticity of the brain. Barbara Studer demonstrated some practical exercises that are suitable for keeping our brains fit for creativity. She also explained how strongly emotions play a role in generating ideas: Those who have a higher so-called emodiversity, i.e. who experience more emotions, are demonstrably more successful and also healthier. In short: creativity is driven by emotions - something that is completely unknown to artificial intelligence. Barbara Studer gave the audience practical tips on how to stimulate creativity: fresh air and daylight - combined with exercise - promotes creativity, but also the cultivation of curiosity. She also recommended seeing the world through a child's eyes again and allowing the brain the time it needs to "incubate" ideas. This means not making decisions immediately after a brainstorming session, but only after an incubation period to allow ideas to mature.  

Putting innovation into practice

Another part of the Swiss Quality Day was taken up by four parallel open sessions with a workshop character. These dealt with "Radical Innovation", for example: innovative business models and product strategies from "young savages" were juxtaposed with those from "old hands". The focus was on what we can learn from each other in order to innovate even faster. Another workshop delved further into the topic of creativity - also with practical exercises. A third workshop showed how generic artificial intelligence can also support management systems and where it can already be used to good effect. The fourth open session focused on EFQM: How can this model act as a booster for innovation? And what is the practical experience with it? A panel led by Russell Longmuir, CEO of the EFQM European Foundation for Quality, discussed these questions. 

Sustainability as a new driver of innovation

"Creating haptic fascination from ideas" - this is the claim of industrial designer Björn Ischi, owner of Designform. With "Upcycling by Design", he focuses on the use of existing resources and takes their recyclability into account right from the design stage. This results in unconventional yet economical product designs. Björn Ischi's presentation was entitled "Quality through design". He made the connection to the topic of sustainability, which will be inextricably linked to the world of quality in the future.

The conclusion of the event: innovation is not a new topic, but it remains highly topical. And innovation will continue to drive the Swiss economy - as long as the quality of the innovations is right. The next Swiss Quality Day will take place on May 13, 2025.

Further information and impressions: https://saq.ch/de/veranstaltungen/tag_der_schweizer_qualitaet/tsq-2024/