GERMANY – Homag Group AG is among the best at the 26th edition of the TOP 100 innovation competition.

The TOP 100 was independently selected by innovation researcher Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke on the basis of a scientific system. This is the third time the Homag Group has been among the innovation elite.

The award was presented in Frankfurt’s Jahrhunderthalle by science journalist and mentor of the competition Ranga Yogeshwar. The award went to companies that demonstrate exemplary innovation management and above-average innovation success. Yogeshwar sums up the qualities of the TOP 100 as follows: “Openness to new things, an open culture of errors, the constant effort to do things new and different – these are the characteristics of a good culture of innovation”. Franke adds: “Innovation means restlessness. The TOP 100 companies are therefore constantly creating new products, new services, new business models and new processes”.

“We are proud to belong to this select group of top innovators,” says Pekka Paasivaara, CEO of the Homag Group. “The pursuit of innovation is a permanent process which never ends. The award is an incentive for us not to let up and to constantly increase the customer benefit of our products with innovations. The prize belongs to all employees of the Homag Group who work every day for our innovative solutions”.

The TOP 100 jury was impressed by, among other things, the Homag Group’s new “Digital Factory”, in which new digital products are defined and developed. These include, for example, the digital user interface “intelliGuide”. It indicates the next work step to the machine operator by means of arrows and LED lights. In the global manufacturing industry, this is an important support for less qualified employees.

The virtual commissioning of the TOP innovator Homag was also highlighted. This allows more and more systems to be simulated in a virtual system before they are even built. With this digital twin, the functionality of the entire system can be tested before the actual installation, which considerably accelerates the setup. On the other hand, the customers can also be trained on the machine so that they can operate it from the first day.