On 4 March 2019, four renowned logistics scientists successfully carried out the IFOY Innovation Check in a hall of the IFOY partner Deutsche Messe AG in Hannover, Germany. The researchers tested a total of 15 products and solutions from a dozen manufacturers and looked at the innovative value. These products and solutions had been nominated by a jury for the 7th International Intralogistics and Forklift Truck of the Year-AWARD, (IFOY AWARD). New developments from Cargometer, Clark, Combilift, Hubtex, Jungheinrich, Raymond, SAE, Still, Torwegge, UniCarriers, ProGlove and Trône Seating were tested by the research quartet.
The one-day IFOY Innovation Check was attended by Prof. Dr. Rainer Bruns, Chair of Machine Elements and Technical Logistics at Helmut Schmidt University, Guido Follert, Head of the Machinery and Systems Department at the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML, Prof. Dr. Thorsten Schmidt, Chair of Technical Logistics at Dresden Technical University and Prof. Dr. Johannes Fottner, Chair of Materials Handling Material Flow Logistics (fml) at Munich Technical University.
The independent IFOY Innovation Check is part of a three-part audit during the IFOY TEST DAYS, which will take place this year from March 1 to 8. The IFOY Innovation Check Team with its many years of experience knocked the nominees down to the four criteria:
- Market relevance,
- customer benefit,
- degree of novelty and
- type of implementation.
As orientation for the jurors, the scientists used a five-stage evaluation scale for their assessment. The individual levels are: “non-existent”, “less”, “balanced”, “good” and “very good”.
The task of the four experts was to compare the newly developed devices and solutions with competing products already available on the market and to record differences in technology. After all, one of the most important rules of the intralogistics competition is that the jury may not compare the nominated devices in a category with each other, but with their respective competing products that are already available for purchase or rent.
For the IFOY Innovation Check, the quartet of researchers analysed the written documents for the IFOY application and compared the functions and properties of the devices described therein with the state of the art. The innovations emphasized by the intralogistics providers were reproduced on site using visual and functional tests. During the evaluation, both innovative further developments and successful new compositions as well as genuine innovations were identified and evaluated.
The results of the IFOY Innovation Check will be given to the members of the jury, who will travel to the IFOY TEST DAYS on 7 and 8 March, together with the results of the practice-oriented IFOY test by Dutch intralogistics expert Theo Egberts. Before the jurors cast their final vote, they also test the nominated equipment and solutions themselves.
The overall result of the intralogistics Oscars will, apart from the jurors, not be revealed to anyone before the award ceremony. The festive IFOY AWARD NIGHT will take place for the first time in Austria in 2019 – on April 26 in the Vienna Hofburg.
