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RECARO cultivates innovations
How do you get ideas to grow? What kind of an atmosphere do you need to make them thrive? How do creative services fit into a professional process? Eckhard Behnert, Director of Product Group Management, RECARO Aircraft Seating, describes the nature and the role of innovation at RECARO Aircraft Seating
For 40 years RECARO Aircraft Seating has been designing and producing “the seats of innovation” for aircraft passengers. “Innovations are characterised particularly by the divergence between the extremes”, explains Dr. Mark Hiller, Chief Operations Officer of RECARO Aircraft Seating. “On one side is human creativity, the gift of being able to invent things. Purely intellectual achievements cannot be forced or standardised. In many cases, they are linked to a real flash of inspiration. But not every idea is good, nor is it feasible. This brings us to another side of inventions, one that is closely connected with reality. And that is tough project management. It takes a professional process to transform an idea into a perfect innovation.” Today, product development phases and lifecycles have been shortened dramatically. Consequently, the innovation cycles are shorter and innovations have to be much faster, more interdisciplinary and global. “In order to be in the lead, we cultivate innovations at RECARO”, says Mark Hiller. “We create an atmosphere, or corporate culture, that promotes the growth and evolution of ideas. Although it may sound contradictory, we apply methods that make the process of inventing more systematic. This involves creative techniques. We generate and evaluate ideas, sort them out, fine-tune them and carefully monitor their implementation every step of the way.” Working in interdisciplinary teams fosters an exchange of ideas, understanding and a continually growing pool of knowledge at RECARO.
The company pursues a clear strategy when it comes to innovation. Taking the total cost of ownership into consideration, RECARO consistently works on innovation projects focusing on lightweight construction, passenger comfort, living space, and efficiency in the cabin. “One recent example is our BL3520 seat”, says Hiller. The economy class seat combines patented solutions with intelligent designs and the integration of scientific research. One of the key features of the new seat is that it offers passengers more living space. Hiller explains: “We have vastly improved the comfort and ergonomic features of the BL3520. Lightweight construction, a slim profile and an extremely comfortable seat are anything but contradictory terms.”
RECARO managed to significantly reduce the weight of
each seat unit to less than eleven kilograms – making it about 30 percent lighter than the previous model. The company’s engineers developed the seat components based on bionic calculations to maximise weight reduction. Instead of conventional foam, an innovative netting material is integrated into the backrest core to significantly reduce thickness. The result is a slimmer backrest profile that is also
much lighter. RECARO also managed to offer passengers more living space: This is made possible by innovative RECARO solutions, the higher placement of the literature pocket patented by RECARO is just one example. It is positioned above the tray table instead of in the knee area which gives passengers more room even when the seat pitch is reduced.
Thus, the benefits for RECARO customers are based on a number of advantages. “By offering reliable, fully developed innovations, we supply high quality products with 100 percent delivery performance”, says Hiller. “Our customers can rest assured that they will set the ‘right’ trends with innovations made by RECARO – now and in the future.”
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