STILL honoured as leading innovator among SMEs

STILL GmbH is a leading innovator among Germany’s SMEs this year. The Hamburg based company was honoured with the TOP 100 seal, which is being awarded for the 24th time. In the independent selection process, the company was particularly convincing due to its successful innovation and outward-looking orientation.

STILL honoured with the TOP 100 Award as a leading SME innovator.

Robotics and digitisation are currently the big topics in the mechanical engineering industry. On the other hand for STILL GmbH, a leading supplier of customised intralogistics solutions, they have already been on the agenda for a long time. That’s because the intralogistics supplier, now honoured with the TOP 100 Award, has developed the “iGo neo CX 20”: the first autonomous order picker in series production, which recognises its operator and independently follows him/her through the warehouse. The truck is equipped with sensors that create a map of the surroundings within a radius of 15 metres. If the operator switches to autonomous mode, the truck searches for its driver and follows him or her. The truck’s advantage is its astonishing power of observation, which allow an extreme improvement in performance. Dr. Henry Puhl, Chairman of STILL’s Management Board, explains: “Our customers are convinced by the 47% increased ‘pick performance’ compared to conventional order-picking machines.”

Puhl says: “For me, innovation within our company means actively inviting, listening to and discussing with our staff, who recognise new issues and invent opportunities for solutions.”

The TOP 100 Seal has been awarded to SMEs by compamedia since 1993 for outstanding innovative strength and above-average innovation success. Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke has been its Scientific Director since 2002. Franke is a founder and board member of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation of Vienna’s University for Economics and Business Administration, and is a guest researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). With 18 research prizes and more than 200 publications, he is a leading international innovations researcher. The TOP 100 is mentored by science journalist and TV presenter Ranga Yogeshwar. The project partners are the Fraunhofer Society for the Promotion of Applied Research and the German Association for Small and Medium-sized Businesses (BVMW). The “manager” magazine accompanies the company comparison as a media partner. More information can be found at https://www.top100.de