Ibema presents solutions for production through open innovation Ibema, participant in the BRDE Labs project, a program of the Regional Development Bank of the Far South (BRDE). Was selected to identify possible production improvements and seek solutions through open innovation, with the support of startups from Paraná

The process is part of a digital transformation project of the company, which has paperboard factories in Turvo (PR) and Embu das Artes (SP), as well as an office and distribution center in the Curitiba region.

BRDE Labs was created to accelerate the development of the innovation environment in the South Region. Its objective is to promote projects at the state level, linked to the needs of local ecosystems and aligned with the State Government.

“We have the characteristic of developing the connectivity of the idea and its use, starting from contacts with customers and understanding their needs”, explains the president of BRDE, Wilson Bley Lipski. “From this stage onwards, we accelerate and, in the end, the ecosystem, in addition to being valued, will gain new companies, an appreciation of the production of new ideas and concepts”, he analyzed.

In 2021, in Paraná, BRDE Labs had 177 startups registered, in partnership with the startup hub Hotmilk, from PUC-PR. Eighteen of them went through the pre-acceleration phase and nine, through the acceleration phase. In 2022, the theme will be ESG – Environmental, Social and Governance.

“Open innovation involves cost reduction, without the industrial secret mentality, and brings great synergy between established and start-up companies. Everyone wins”, explains Débora Botini, manager of Ibema, who mediated the definition of the challenges to be launched within the scope of the program.

After joining BRDE Labs, Ibema followed three stages: launching the challenges for open innovation of solutions, the internal cultural transformation, through which employees went through knowledge trails, and the definition of innovation strategies. “We wanted everyone involved to understand the challenge in depth, to approach the solution in the best way and engage in its implementation”, says Danilo Torres, IT manager at Ibema.

The need to create an internal IT cloud service center for Ibema was identified, and the startup AgiDesk was selected to find the solution.

“They developed a platform that receives and centralizes the company's demands, with strategic reports for decision-making, in addition to key indicators that allow us to focus where necessary. At the end of the day, we have a more organized and productive team and our internal customer is better served.”

The company was hired in December to implement the plant.