Designer Pollinator: a case study

Being aware of direct aftereffects of human activities on the entire ecosystem is one of the main phenomena characterising modern times. Research is looking for methodologies and frameworks that, in parallel with many other themes, could enable industrial companies towards a radical shift in current production systems assets and resources management techniques. However, industrial companies usually show huge recalcitrance in adopting innovations, preferring already known procedures. Designers, instead, are intrinsically familiar with iterative way of working and they naturally look for promoting innovation, taking inspiration by emerging of different kind of novelties. Therefore, designer could represent a key-figure in the transitional process towards new economies adoption. In this article, authors propose a case study where, through design typical tools, the workflow of an existing industrial company has been mapped in order to promoting new working assets. Material selection process has been the reference activity for the entire analysis: being a key decisional process in product design, it allowed researchers to enlighten possible interferences between several departments. The interconnection and overlapping of several processes into the company defines a very intricate environment in which a single variation in the workflow can have consequences over the whole system. It follows that it is fundamental to identify specific moment to introduce novelties without compromising the industrial system equilibrium. Authors here propose a vision where the designer, thanks to the adductive way of thinking, competencies as facilitator and the ability of synthesising complex systems into visual outputs, can be receptor and promoter of potentially radical innovations at a systemic level into industrial companies.