Institut Cerdà announced innovations in the industry in 2022, this Thursday, during the celebration of the sixth edition of the Observatory for Innovation in Mass Consumption in Spain, taking place at the Ministry of Science and Innovation. He highlighted an internal Mercadona application, called DPP, as a process innovation that can determine the costs and profitability of each product at the unit level, at all stages of the assembly chain, and facilitates accurate cost decision making. In addition, the easy-opening system in soluble coffee developed by the company itself.
Developed after more than 5 million Euro investment by the company, the purpose of the application is to optimize its processes. adapt quickly and flexibly to the uncertainty of the current context, characterized by rising prices of energy, transport and raw materials (among others); to make cost savings consistent with quality improvements on each product. Thanks to the use of this tool to date, The company managed to save more than 150 million euros.
Also considered a product innovation is the easy-open system that the company has included in the lid of the Hacendado soluble coffee (Classic, Decaffeinated and Espresso Cream) range in collaboration with Supplier Totaler Prosol.
Thanks to this new packaging, the consumer can easily open the product by pressing the lid itself, thus avoiding the use of additional kitchen utensils such as teaspoons.. This new shape, which speeds up and facilitates the opening process, ensures that the flavor and aroma of the coffee are preserved in optimum conditions.
Mercadona co-innovation model
For Mercadona, the satisfaction of the “Boss” (as the customer is called internally) is the main key to its operation and always places it at the center of its decisions. Therefore, there is a corporate culture based on service excellence and continuous quality improvement that drives innovation throughout the entire company.
It also has a pioneering Joint Innovation Model that it has been working on since 2011 with its “Apron Strategy”. This way, Shares experiences and habits related to food and beverage consumption, house cleaning, personal care and pet care with customersthus passing them on to suppliers later to improve quality and encourage direct cooperation to develop new products.
The company has a network of more than 22 partner innovation centers in Spain and Portugal.is a company whose facilities are dedicated to innovation, promoting continuous improvement in processes and products, examining customers’ needs and wants and providing them with the best solutions in an increasingly changing context in an agile manner.