Nonwoven Product Development and Innovation Short Course

From stage-gate to patent landscaping to market intelligence and decision making via a hands-on case study – attendees will be exposed to the full lifecycle of nonwoven product development.

The Nonwoven Product Development and Innovation Short Course is a dynamic training that integrates relationships, perspectives, and team dependencies between product design, manufacturing, purchasing, marketing, and business disciplines. This course is designed to be accessible and valuable to both those who are new to the field and/or come from a non-technical background, as well as seasoned nonwovens professionals.

Following the in-class portion of the course where attendees will learn about critical product development methodologies and tools to help ensure success (patent landscape, innovation culture, commercialization strategy, design of experiment, etc.), the hands-on segment of the training will highlight the utility of the stage-gate process. Attendees will spend time in NWI’s state-of-the-art nonwoven fabrication and testing labs, which include technology for taking a product from the lab to pilot scale and final testing. The course’s hands-on exemplar will provide attendees the opportunity to work through options for creating a new nonwoven product, examining tradeoffs from raw material selection to end-product functionality. In doing so, emphasis will be placed on how to effectively utilize the stage-gate process to explore feasibility in terms of material availability, manufacturing readiness level, and costs.

Featured Topics Include:

• Product Development – Stage Gate
• Intellectual Property Considerations
• Market Research and Marketing Strategy
• Innovation Culture Practice
• Commercialization
• Sustainability and Circularity
• Design of Experiment
• Laboratory – Hands-on developing a specific produce utilizing NWI’s world-class nonwoven production labs.
• Prototype Testing

Expert Instructors:

• Amy Minton, Analytical Lab Manager, The Nonwovens Institute (NWI) at NC State University
• Behnam Pourdeyhimi, Ph.D., Professor and Executive Director, The Nonwovens Institute (NWI) at NC State University
• Benoit Maze, Ph.D.,Director of Simulation, The Nonwovens Institute (NWI)
• Tom Daugherty, Deputy Director, The Nonwovens Institute (NWI), former Procter & Gamble

Who Should Attend? 

• Business and Product Development
• Finance and Purchasing
• Manufacturing and Engineering
• Process and Plant Management
• Quality Control
• Research and Development
• Technical Sales and Marketing

This course is presented in partnership with: