Schmidt & Heinzmann earns TOP 100 Innovator award
For the second year in a row, the composites equipment and machinery company has been recognized for its innovation in equipment, processes and customer involvement.
Behind from left: Matthias Feil, Dr. Tobias Fürst (CTO), Michael Ochs (director sales and marketing); front from left: Steffen Märtiens (director automation) and Holger Link (director engineering Services). Photo Credit: Schmidt & Heinzmann GmbH & Co. KG
Schmidt & Heinzmann (Bruchsal, Germany) has been awarded the TOP 100 Innovator award for the second time in recognition of the company’s product innovation with customers and optimization of internal processes. The TOP 100 competition, which honors medium-sized companies with innovative strength and above-average innovation successes, was held for the 30th time this year.
On behalf of compamedia, the organizer of the competition, innovation researcher Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke from the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration (Austria) and his team investigated Schmidt & Heinzmann on the basis of more than 100 criteria from five categories:
- Innovation – promotion of top management.
- Innovation climate.
- Innovative processes and organization.
- External orientation/open innovation.
- Innovation success.
Of particular importance is whether a company’s innovations are merely a product of chance, or whether they are planned systematically and can therefore be repeated in the future.
In order to maintain and expands its market leadership, Schmidt & Heinzmann has integrated technological and ecological aspects into process and machine optimization. “All innovations are optimizations of the existing systems or logically complement the existing product portfolio within the value chain,“ CEO Matthias Feil explains.
The company’s sheet molding compound (SMC) line, Cube, for example, works to digitize production of SMC semi-finished material. It has been developed so it reduces space requirements by 65%. Integrated sensors enable the recording and live analysis of production data for every section of produced material. A newly developed deburring cell — the next step in the value chain of SMC component production — completes press automation.
Schmidt & Heinzmann has als recently installed its new “Pole Position” camera system within its cutting and stacking lines. This system detects the positioning and orientation of the material, which is said to significantly increases the quality of the produced components, and saves on cutting and sealing process steps.
“In addition to our market success, the awards we have received in the last two years show, that we are one the right direction with our innovation process,” Feil continues. In addition to the first Top 100 Innovator Award in 2021, the company was also among the finalists at the JEC Awards. It also received the AVK Innovation Award and the ThinKing Award from the Baden-Württemberg State Agency for Lightweight Design.
In order to ensure development in line with market needs, Schmidt & Heinzmann also consistently involves its customers in the processing of innovation topics. For example, innovation ideas are tested in customer surveys for their marketability by asking their importance for the production processes of the customer. In addition, workshops are regularly held with customers as part of projects in order to develop tailor-made solutions and incorporate these insights into future developments. The company’s intensive cooperation with geographically close customers also makes it possible to test developments under real conditions in series production.
