IFOY 2023
IFOY AWARD Night in Dortmunder U

 

The decision has been made, the winners of the IFOY AWARD 2023 have been chosen: at the award ceremony in the Dortmunder U, representatives of AGILOX, Crown, DS AUTOMOTION, HUNIC, STILL and Jungheinrich accepted the award, also known as the "Oscar of intralogistics", from seven presenters.

A laudatory speech was given by Thomas Westphal (Lord Mayor of the City of Dortmund), Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Michael ten Hompel (Chair of Materials Handling and Warehousing at the Technical University of Dortmund and Managing Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML), Steffen Bersch (Chairman of the VDMA Association for Materials Handling and Intralogistics), Dr. Johannes Söllner (Managing Director of Geis GmbH), Bettina Baumann (company founder Baumann Paletten), Udo Schmidt (Vice President at Cascade Europe) and Peter Trapp (CIO of HGK Häfen und Güterverkehr Köln AG).

IFOY AWARD 2023
The winners are ...

The winners of the IFOY AWARD 2023 have been announced: Congratulations to AGILOX, Crown, DS AUTOMOTION, HUNIC, STILL and Jungheinrich!

The international jury of the global intralogistics competition 2023 nominated 25 products and solutions from 23 companies in seven categories and voted on the winners after a three-part audit.

The results in detail:

The IFOY AWARD in the category "AGV/AMR" was won by AGILOX with the intelligent logistics robot AGILOX ODM. The vehicle ensures the production supply with small parts and makes it possible to flexibly supply production lines. The dolly mover can drive transversely into rack aisles as well as turn on the spot, and can thus manoeuvre even in the tightest of spaces.

The winner in the category "Warehouse Truck 'highlifter" was CROWN with the SP 1500. The high-lift order picker offers a load capacity of up to 1,250 kilograms, travel speeds of up to 12 km/h and a maximum lifting speed of 0.71 m/s with a lifting height of up to 11.2 metres. Numerous customised solutions allow the operator to set up the workstation as desired thanks to the Work Assist Rail.

The IFOY jury chose ARCOS from DS AUTOMOTION as the best new product in the "Intralogistics Software" segment in 2023. The innovations are not only characterised by the coining of the terms "plannable autonomy" and "cooperative navigation", as new core functions of the vehicle software. According to the jury, the conformity with the VDA-5050 interface, which is used across fleets, also deserves special mention.

A total of five young companies qualified for the final round in the "Start-up of the Year" category this year with their innovative products and solutions. In the end, HUNIC won with its passive exoskeleton "SoftEXO Lift". The assistance system can provide preventive relief in the case of high and long-lasting stress caused by repeated lifting of heavy objects. With the help of the patented back splint, the spine is completely decoupled from additional load. No tensile forces are placed on the shoulder, which would lead to additional strain on the intervertebral discs.

This year's winner in the category "Special of the Year" was Jungheinrich with its addedVIEW fork camera with barcode scanning. Technically, the device is the first fully digital fork camera in series production, with full HD resolution, broadband automotive Ethernet data transmission and software for transferring the results to any WMS.

The IFOY AWARD 2023 in the category "Intralogistics Robot" also goes to Jungheinrich. The Hamburg-based company won with the PowerCube, an automatic compact tote warehouse in which the warehouse operating units do not travel on top of the tote rack but underneath it. This allows the height of the individual tote stacks to be easily adapted to the respective building infrastructure. In the pilot application, a retail company from Switzerland, it remains to be seen whether the expectations will be fulfilled. In any case, the potential is there - according to the IFOY test conclusion.

The EXH 14-20 Plus series is the latest addition to STILL's electric pallet truck range. The new series was developed with the operator in mind - earning STILL an IFOY AWARD in the “warehouse truck 'lowlifter'” category. The EXH 16, with a load capacity of 1.6 tonnes and integrated lithium-ion battery, enables front dimensions to be up to 80 millimetres shorter and significantly smaller turning radii and aisle widths.

The International Intralogistics and Forklift Truck of the Year (IFOY) AWARD recognises 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 competitive equipment on the market.

All nominees and winners at a glance