“Success as the outcome of entrepreneurially thinking and acting employees allied to the company’s strong orientation towards continuous innovation” – this was the reason cited by the distinguished jury for its recent decision to confer the “Award for Excellent Innovation Management” on WITTENSTEIN AG in the framework of the “Factory of the Year 2006” competition. The award will be officially presented in Nuremberg at the end of March 2007.
Successful companies aren’t afraid of comparing themselves with the best. Quite the contrary: they use the comparison as a highimpact management instrument. Those who benchmark themselves against the best both within and outside of their industries can define their own competitive position better, identify their strengths and weaknesses and systematically implement new objectives.
The Factory of the Year/GEO award is such a comparison. A.T. Kearney, in collaboration with the weekly magazine “Produktion”, initiated the Factory of the Year Award in Germany in 1992. Since then, hundreds of companies have taken advantage of this independent, crossindustry benchmarking. This year, WITTENSTEIN AG resolved to take up the challenge as well.
“By taking part in this prestigious and respected competition, our company benefited from valuable recommendations from impartial outside observers”, reports Andreas Faulhaber, WITTENSTEIN’s International Director of Marketing. “We are extremely proud to have be honoured in this way, especially since this year was our first attempt and none of us knew exactly what we were letting ourselves in for”.
The Advisory Board cited the following reasons for its selection of WITTENSTEIN AG as an award winner:
- New, modern factory for manufacturing planetary gearheads (main source of revenue) as well as various other product types (for example, complete drives). Continuous expansion of production capacity in the last few years, with a further extension currently in the pipeline.
- Excellent growth perspectives based on three strategic directions: mechatronics, complete systems and new niche applications.
- Extraordinarily agile pursuit of fields of innovation, e.g. highperformance motors for machine tools, various medical applications such as limb lengthening, servo actuators for the A380, etc.
- Seamless integration of product development and production in focused units to facilitate a rapid and flexible response to specific market and customer requirements.
- Unique corporate culture in which very highly motivated employees closely identify with the company. Curiosity, a willingness to experiment and active involvement are systematically encouraged by top management.
- Impressive realisation of onepiece flow in gearhead assembly. Considerable variant flexibility yet extremely short delivery periods.
Manfred WITTENSTEIN, President of WITTENSTEIN AG, sees the award above all as recognition of the company’s success in seamlessly integrating product and production process development throughout the whole of the WITTENSTEIN Group. “I’m delighted that we have now also won an award for innovation management in the framework of the “Factory of the Year 2006” competition, having already been honoured as “Germany’s most innovative company” (TOP 100, 2002), “Job miracle” (N24 Good News Award, 2004), and “Pioneer of ethical conduct” (Ethics in Business, 2005).”
Factory of the Year award 2006 / the winners at a glance
The Factory of the Year (overall winner): Siemens Gerätewerk Erlangen;
German GEO Award: ZF-Achsgetriebe Türnau; Highest quality of processes: ZF-Achsgetriebe Gotha; Best assembly system: MODINE Wackersdorf / supplier of engine cooling modules for the automotive industry; Excellent innovation management: WITTENSTEIN AG; Excellent production technology: Schmitz Cargo Bull Altenberg; Country champion: ContiTemic Ingolstadt-Nbg.
The objective of the award was once again to pinpoint and reward bestinclass performance by manufacturing companies around the globe. The competition’s evaluation model is tailored around a comprehensive and, for the most part, quantitative assessment of performance indicators for “customer satisfaction”, “quality”, “economics”, “agility”, “innovation” and “value creation”. Participation was open to manufacturers from all branches of industry with a minimum of 250 employees or EUR 80 million sales. All shortlisted candidates were paid an on-site visit – the jury spent a full day at WITTENSTEIN on August 8 this year.
The official presentation of the award will take place during the “Factory of the Year/GEO Congress” in Nuremberg on March 29/30, 2007.
Since 1999, the “Factory of the Year” competition has been twinned with the “GEO Award”. GEO stands for “Global Excellence in Operations” and spawned two innovations: positioning based on the entire process chain and the extension of eligibility to the rest of Europe as well as North and South America. The eminent members of the Advisory Board include Prof. Hans-Jörg Bullinger, President of Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft; Dr. Günter Jordan, a consultant with A.T. Kearney, Member of the Executive Board and Head of the European Competence Center for Production; Prof. Uwe Loos, Chief Executive Officer of VDI-Gesellschaft Fahrzeug- und Verkehrstechnik; Prof. Günter Spur, Emeritus professor at Technische Universität Berlin and member in a wide array of scientific institutions and academies.
Successful companies aren’t afraid of comparing themselves with the best. Quite the contrary: they use the comparison as a highimpact management instrument. Those who benchmark themselves against the best both within and outside of their industries can define their own competitive position better, identify their strengths and weaknesses and systematically implement new objectives.
The Factory of the Year/GEO award is such a comparison. A.T. Kearney, in collaboration with the weekly magazine “Produktion”, initiated the Factory of the Year Award in Germany in 1992. Since then, hundreds of companies have taken advantage of this independent, crossindustry benchmarking. This year, WITTENSTEIN AG resolved to take up the challenge as well.
“By taking part in this prestigious and respected competition, our company benefited from valuable recommendations from impartial outside observers”, reports Andreas Faulhaber, WITTENSTEIN’s International Director of Marketing. “We are extremely proud to have be honoured in this way, especially since this year was our first attempt and none of us knew exactly what we were letting ourselves in for”.
The Advisory Board cited the following reasons for its selection of WITTENSTEIN AG as an award winner:
- New, modern factory for manufacturing planetary gearheads (main source of revenue) as well as various other product types (for example, complete drives). Continuous expansion of production capacity in the last few years, with a further extension currently in the pipeline.
- Excellent growth perspectives based on three strategic directions: mechatronics, complete systems and new niche applications.
- Extraordinarily agile pursuit of fields of innovation, e.g. highperformance motors for machine tools, various medical applications such as limb lengthening, servo actuators for the A380, etc.
- Seamless integration of product development and production in focused units to facilitate a rapid and flexible response to specific market and customer requirements.
- Unique corporate culture in which very highly motivated employees closely identify with the company. Curiosity, a willingness to experiment and active involvement are systematically encouraged by top management.
- Impressive realisation of onepiece flow in gearhead assembly. Considerable variant flexibility yet extremely short delivery periods.
Manfred WITTENSTEIN, President of WITTENSTEIN AG, sees the award above all as recognition of the company’s success in seamlessly integrating product and production process development throughout the whole of the WITTENSTEIN Group. “I’m delighted that we have now also won an award for innovation management in the framework of the “Factory of the Year 2006” competition, having already been honoured as “Germany’s most innovative company” (TOP 100, 2002), “Job miracle” (N24 Good News Award, 2004), and “Pioneer of ethical conduct” (Ethics in Business, 2005).”
Factory of the Year award 2006 / the winners at a glance
The Factory of the Year (overall winner): Siemens Gerätewerk Erlangen;
German GEO Award: ZF-Achsgetriebe Türnau; Highest quality of processes: ZF-Achsgetriebe Gotha; Best assembly system: MODINE Wackersdorf / supplier of engine cooling modules for the automotive industry; Excellent innovation management: WITTENSTEIN AG; Excellent production technology: Schmitz Cargo Bull Altenberg; Country champion: ContiTemic Ingolstadt-Nbg.
The objective of the award was once again to pinpoint and reward bestinclass performance by manufacturing companies around the globe. The competition’s evaluation model is tailored around a comprehensive and, for the most part, quantitative assessment of performance indicators for “customer satisfaction”, “quality”, “economics”, “agility”, “innovation” and “value creation”. Participation was open to manufacturers from all branches of industry with a minimum of 250 employees or EUR 80 million sales. All shortlisted candidates were paid an on-site visit – the jury spent a full day at WITTENSTEIN on August 8 this year.
The official presentation of the award will take place during the “Factory of the Year/GEO Congress” in Nuremberg on March 29/30, 2007.
Since 1999, the “Factory of the Year” competition has been twinned with the “GEO Award”. GEO stands for “Global Excellence in Operations” and spawned two innovations: positioning based on the entire process chain and the extension of eligibility to the rest of Europe as well as North and South America. The eminent members of the Advisory Board include Prof. Hans-Jörg Bullinger, President of Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft; Dr. Günter Jordan, a consultant with A.T. Kearney, Member of the Executive Board and Head of the European Competence Center for Production; Prof. Uwe Loos, Chief Executive Officer of VDI-Gesellschaft Fahrzeug- und Verkehrstechnik; Prof. Günter Spur, Emeritus professor at Technische Universität Berlin and member in a wide array of scientific institutions and academies.
