At this year's IFOY Test Days, the organisation of the international intralogistics competition awarded the "Best in Intralogistics" certificates for the first time. BYD, Jungheinrich, Liebherr, Still, Gebr. Schulte, Wegard and Witron received the certificate at a reception in the Hermes Lounge of Deutsche Messe AG.
“The `Best in Intralogistics` certificate was developed to document even more clearly the high degree of innovation and technical quality of the finalists who have successfully completed the IFOY test procedure, known to be the toughest selection process in intralogistics. Best in Intralogistics is the visible sign of innovation," emphasizes Sascha Schmel, managing director of the VDMA Materials Handling and Intralogistics Sector Association and sponsor of the IFOY Award.
The IFOY audit lasts one week and includes various test series, which serve as decision support for the jury. In order to ensure that the performance values and innovation gap can be objectively assessed, the nominees in a category are not compared with each other, but always with comparable devices on the market.
One of the most important evaluations is the scientific IFOY Innovation Check, which is carried out by the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics (IML) in Dortmund, the Chair for Technical Logistics at the University of Dresden and the Chair for Machine Elements and Technical Logistics at the Helmut Schmidt University in Hamburg. It particularly examines market relevance, novelty value, customer benefit and type of execution are assessed. To this end, the scientists verify the innovations specified by the manufacturers in the test hall and assess in a technology comparison whether they are innovative further developments, new compositions or real innovations.
The practice-oriented IFOY test conducted by the Dutch specialised journalist Theo Egberts measures the hard facts and compares them with the relevant competitive devices. The devices are subjected to individually tailored driving or function tests, including the IFOY test protocol, which covers around 80 criteria and determines the economic efficiency and energy efficiency, sustainability, safety and ergonomics of the devices. In order to ensure that the test results are not falsified by external influences such as lighting, weather conditions or aisle widths, the test hall creates identical environmental conditions for all candidates.
After all, more than 30 jurors and accredited consultants around the globe travel to Hanover to assess the finalists themselves before they cast their votes.
Who will win the race, however, remains a secret up to the end. Even the manufacturers will not be inaugurated before the award ceremony at the opening day of CeMAT and the Hannover Fair.
