A partnership between Movelsul Brasil 2016 and the FIERGS system through the Senai Institute of Technology in Wood and Furniture started a competition in a search for improvements to the furniture industry. It is the Senai Innovation Gran Prix where three teams will work for 40 hours during the five-day of the fair of furniture and accessories, which began today and will be held until March 18th in Bento Gonçalves.

It consists of a competition in real time, where the teams will create projects focused on energy, water, waste and occupational safety. Held for the second time in Rio Grande do Sul, the project aims to propose a technological innovation network formed by engineers, designers, entrepreneurs, teachers and students, who will compete for the best ideas, projects, innovative processes for the competitiveness of the woodworking industry.

The regional director of Senai, Carlos Arthur Trein, pointed out that the project complies with the open innovation methodology, which is based on the quest for current qualified ideas. “Through the Gran Prix, Senai accomplished its mission to support the development of manufacturing companies,” he says.

For the president of Sindimóveis, Henrique Tecchio, the purpose is to invest in projects that stimulate a collective approach and present different ways to do something that has already been done for a long time. "Innovation means never to give up changing. More than reinventing, we need to look within the company to make businesses stay alive. The Senai Innovation Grand Prix represents our continuous search for what is new," he emphasizes.

The creative process complies with the Integrated Product Development (DIP) methodology, resulting from a partnership between Senai, the Consorzio Politecnico Di Milano (Poli.Design, Italy) and the Technological Institute of Aeronautics (ITA), supported by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, US). On the last day of the competition, a judging panel, made up of representatives of companies, organizations and the civil society, will choose the best projects that will be awarded.