Culture of Innovation
i3 PROCESS
We believe that to innovate, you must establish new pathways to success. That’s why we created our i³ Innovation Process, which has enabled Cooper Standard to imagine, initiate and innovate areas of the automobile that haven’t been touched in decades.
To more effectively harness and explore employees’ valuable insight and innovative ideas, the i³ Process consists of three basic steps:
Imagine: an idea that pertains to products, processes and materials related to Cooper Standard’s current core products.
Initiate: the innovation process by submitting a simple online form, which will be evaluated by the Global Technology Council or Digital Center of Excellence.
Innovate: approved projects will enter into the innovation or product development stage-gate process until project completion.
Our Global Innovation Team drives the i³ Process by identifying the most radical or game-changing ideas to be presented to cross-functional leadership teams of Cooper Standard’s Global Technology Council and Digital Center of Excellence; who review approximately 30 submissions quarterly. Ideas approved for further action are assigned to Global Innovation teams. Cooper Standard’s innovations have received many industry recognitions including the 2018 Automotive News Pace Award for our lightweight elastomeric material science platform, Fortrex™; and also named a 2019 Automotive News Pace Award Finalist for our proprietary artificial intelligence (AI)-based polymer compound development software (programmed by Uncountable under the guidance of Cooper Standard).
