BREAKING NEWS: IFOY AWARD 2022 goes to six companies

The winners of the IFOY AWARD 2022 have been announced: at the award ceremony in the BMW Welt in Munich, representatives of Jungheinrich, Locus Robotics, Noyes Technologies, robominds, SSI SCHÄFER and SYNAOS accepted the award, also known as the “Oscar of intralogistics”, from six laudators.

A laudatory speech was held by Steffen Bersch (Chairman of the Board of the VDMA Materials Handling and Intralogistics Association), Jan-Dietrich Hempel (Managing Director GARBE Industrial Real Estate), Raimund Paetzmann (Vice President Real Estate & Logistics Network Expansion at Zalando), Julia Jocher (Project Management Group7), Udo Schmidt (Managing Director Cascade Europe) and Dr Michael Nikolaides (Senior Vice President Production Network, Logistics, BMW Group).

The IFOY AWARD is considered the most important intralogistics award in the world. In 2022, 12 international companies with 14 products and solutions competed in the 10th round of the award. “10 years of the IFOY AWARD stand for 10 years of outstanding innovations,” emphasises jury chair Anita Würmser. “In 2022, the finalists have once again presented top products in the competition that will shape the future of intralogistics in the long term,” she continues.

Jungheinrich won the IFOY AWARD in the “Special Vehicle” category with its ERD 220i double-deck stacker. The truck sets new standards for a safe, optimally protected and yet super-compact electric pallet truck, judged the jury. The performance was first-class and challenged the competition, the jurors added.

The winner in the category “Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV/AMR)” was Locus Robotics with its Locus Robotics AMR Solution. The collaborative AMR, with which retailers, contract logistics companies, but also industrial companies can greatly improve their efficiency, scored points with the testers and innovation checkers due to its high degree of innovation and its high market relevance in the light of the rapidly growing online trade and the demand for cost-effective solutions to increase throughput.

A total of three young companies qualified for the final round in the “Start-up of the Year” category this year with their innovative products and solutions. The winner in the end was the Munich-based start-up Noyes Technologies with its first robotically operated, automated and highly flexible nano-logistics system Noyes Storage for urban logistics. The IFOY Innovation Checkers awarded the solution the highest possible number of points in the categories of market relevance, customer benefit, degree of innovation and functionality/type of implementation. The fact that customers from almost all industries can benefit from significantly improved space utilisation with the help of the system also impressed the test team and the jury.

For the 10th round of the global competition, the Robotics + Automation Association within the VDMA entered the “Robot” category at the IFOY AWARD 2022 as a sponsor. Here, the Munich-based company robominds won with its AI-based robobrain.NEUROS – an industrialised operating system for intelligent robotics. According to the jury, the market relevance of a manufacturer-neutral and reliable robotics operating system with support for AI-based processes can be classified as very high.

The “Integrated Warehouse Solutions” category is one of the top categories at the IFOY AWARD. In the final, SSI SCHÄFER prevailed with its IKEA Project Flat Pack Picking. With Flat Pack Picking, the company had implemented an automated and turnkey system solution for the safe and volume-optimised palletising of heavy and large items. The use of gantry robots enables the efficient handling of a very heterogeneous range of articles. The IFOY testers rated the solution as well-engineered and interesting – also for other industries.

This year’s winner in the category “Special of the Year” was SYNAOS with its SYNAOS IMS – Vehicle Localization for the complete localisation of transport vehicles. “The simple real-time localisation of all types of industrial trucks with the help of this very convincing localisation system helps customers on their way to the complete digitalisation of intralogistics,” judged the IFOY testers. In the IFOY Innovation Check, the solution scored points for its high market relevance.

The International Intralogistics and Forklift Truck of the Year (IFOY) AWARD honours the best intralogistics products and solutions of the year. It has established itself as an indicator of cost-effectiveness and innovation and is considered the definitive international innovation award in intralogistics due to its technical expertise. The basis for the decision is the three-stage audit – consisting of the IFOY test protocol comprising around 80 criteria, the scientific IFOY Innovation Check and the jury test. The decisive factor is that the nominees are not compared with each other, but with their competitor devices on the market.

On the occasion of the IFOY TEST DAYS, all nominees went through the IFOY test series in March at the Messe Dortmund exhibition centre. For the third year in a row, numerous potential buyers were also on site at the TEST CAMP INTRALOGISTICS. The winners of the IFOY AWARD are chosen annually by an international jury of trade journalists – the UK is represented by Logistics Business News Editor Peter MacLeod. All IFOY test reports and Innovation Checks of all finalists can be found for free use HERE.

The IFOY AWARD is sponsored by the Materials Handling and Intralogistics Association and the Robotics + Automation Association within the VDMA. IFOY partners are Messe Dortmund and leading forklift attachment manufacturer Cascade. The IFOY AWARD’s pallet partner is CHEP, a world market leader in the pooling of pallets and containers. The logistics real estate partner is GARBE, the logistics partner is LTG. Trailer partner is Fliegl Fahrzeugbau. Event partner is the BMW Group. The IFOY organisation is based in Ismaning near Munich.

The IFOY AWARD is under the patronage of Dr. Robert Habeck, German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.

The application phase for the IFOY AWARD 2023 starts on August 1, 2022.

IFOY 2022 WINNERS IN BRIEF:

ERD 220i, Jungheinrich

Locus Robotics AMR Solution, Locus Robotics

Noyes Storage, Noyes Technologies

robobrain.NEUROS, robominds

IKEA Project Flat Pack Picking, SSI SCHÄFER

SYNAOS IMS – Vehicle Localization, SYNAOS