As industrial manufacturers face rising cost pressures, talent shortages, and the need to maintain operational resilience, the question is no longer whether to innovate — but how to do so without adding friction. The answer, increasingly, is found on the shop floor.
Studies show that over 80% of optimization opportunities come from frontline employees. When their voices are heard, the results are concrete: faster cycles, cost reductions, and measurable ROI. This is what leading manufacturers like BIC, Nestlé, and thyssenkrupp have discovered and implemented— that empowering frontline teams isn’t just a cultural shift, it’s a performance strategy.
AEVO Innovate has been helping top global manufactures on this transformation supporting them on building scalable, repeatable processes for capturing and implementing frontline ideas. The impact is not only operational: idea flow improves, employee engagement rises, and ultimately, production becomes more efficient — benefiting all stakeholders across the value chain.
What makes the difference is structure. Through clear innovation programs rooted in continuous improvement methodologies — such as Lean, Kaizen, and Operational Excellence — companies are moving from symbolic initiatives to systems that deliver real outcomes. A key enabler in this journey is the right idea management platform — one that empowers both frontline employees and managers with a clear, streamlined process to capture, evaluate, and implement ideas. When innovation flows systematically, so do the results.
Credit: AEVO Innovate
At Nestlé, a global leader in the food and beverage industry, innovation used to rely on spreadsheets to manage improvement ideas across 14 factories—leading to fragmented processes and limited visibility. By adopting AEVO Innovate, Nestlé transformed this informal system into a structured program. In just one year, over 5,000 employees actively engaged with the platform, submitting more than 1,700 ideas, 90% of which were approved. The digitized process not only streamlined evaluation and implementation but also fostered a culture of participation and continuous improvement across operations.
At another large industrial group, BIC, more than 50,000 ideas were submitted and over 30,000 initiatives implemented through AEVO Innovate. The impact extended beyond efficiency: engagement rose, visibility improved, and continuous improvement became part of how each factory operated — not a parallel program or leadership-driven mandate. To learn more about how BIC achieved this transformation, read the full case study.
“In today’s industry, ROI starts with participation,” says João Richa, General Manager EMEA at AEVO Innovate. “When employees feel seen, and their ideas can move through a real system, the result is not just improvement — "It's alignment and building a culture of excellence and innovation"
What AEVO Innovate offers is not a collection tool — it’s a system of execution. With workflows tailored to industrial contexts, real-time tracking, and clear linkage to operational priorities, companies are turning bottom-up ideas into strategic, repeatable outcomes.
Today, AEVO Innovate supports more than 200 industrial organizations and over 550,000 users — helping teams close the gap between insight and implementation, and between contribution and measurable progress. In a sector where margins are tight and complexity is high; this connection has become essential. "Our platform respects the rhythm of industrial work, but also brings the structure required for innovation to scale”, concludes Richa.
What’s the real ROI of innovation and digitalization on the shop floor. Free Webinar
To explore this critical topic, AEVO Innovate joins forces with globally recognized Industry 4.0 leader Jeff Winter for an exclusive webinar on how digital transformation, continuous improvement, and idea management are delivering real business results.
Webinar: The Shop Floor Secret – ROI of Innovation, Digitalization, and Improvement
Date: July 3rd
Time: 3:00 PM CET
In this session, you’ll learn:
- What truly differentiates transformation from optimization
- Why many digital initiatives fail to deliver ROI
- The strategic role of the shop floor in scaling Industry 4.0
- How AEVO enables companies to build a structured and repeatable innovation engine inside their factories
https://www.linkedin.com/events/theshopfloorsecret-roiofinnovat7343230200920399872/theater/
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