Stuttgart, Germany—A high-bay warehouse in wood, a data interface and a reader to track goods in real time—these are the winners of  the winners of the Best product Awards presented at LogiMAT 2015, 13th International Trade Fair for Distribution, Materials Handling and Information Flow, in Stuttgart. The companies creating them are: Kaufmann Bausysteme GmbH, Jungheinrich AG and Kathrein Sachsen GmbH, Business Division Kathrein RFID.

An independent jury of experts and journalists examined 91 entries for the awards and selected three lucky winners to receive the accolade of “Best Product”. These winning solutions increase productivity, rationalize and save costs. The awards were presented to the winners as part of the official opening ceremony on the morning of the first day of the show.

In the category “Software, communication, IT” the prize went to Jungheinrich AG for their universal data interface, the “Jungheinrich Logistics Interface”:

Logistics processes are subject to ever tougher pressure on costs and performance. Against this background there is a move towards larger warehouses with more technology and more process optimization. In order to manage and control these logistics processes warehouse management systems and other IT systems are being used. The processes can in part be automated, provided there is a corresponding interface between the truck and the IT system.

The “Jungheinrich Logistics Interface” is the name of this universal interface software (middleware). It has different practical applications with process-optimization potential. For example, in terms of reducing time spent driving around searching for items, and shortening the routes taken by the trucks; manual scanning is also eliminated. This improves vehicle productivity by up to 25 percent.

In the category “Order picking, conveying, lifting, storage technology” the prize went to Kaufmann Bausysteme GmbH for their high-bay warehouse in wood.

Warehouse logistics has been a growing segment for a number of years now. The rapidly rising prices on the steel market not only led in the short term to an enormous price hike in storage construction, it was also at times impossible for customers to receive binding prices and deadlines for their projects.

One solution is the world’s first high-bay warehouse built entirely out of the sustainable raw material of wood; this offers significant advantages over the alternative of steel. Economic factors are a fixed-price guarantee for several months and a high degree of prefabrication in the factory. This means the cost-intensive time spent on assembling the storage facility is considerably shortened and that increases economic efficiency.

In terms of construction, the advantages lie in the fact that much of the structure can be produced indoors, in the factory, independent of weather influences. But wood offers the biggest benefits in terms of quality, in that it is compatible with food storage and also resistant to chemical reactions with substances like salt, which can dramatically impair the durability of steel. Probably the most important criterion for the future, however, is the ecological aspect. Wood, unlike steel, is CO2-neutral and does not put pressure on the environment.

In the category “Identification, packaging and loading technology, load securing”, the prize went to Kathrein Sachsen GmbH, Business Division Kathrein RFID for the new-style “ARU-CSB-ELC” antenna-reader unit with circular switch beam.

This is a high-performance auto ID system with automatic detection of direction, based on conventional UHF RFID readers and transponders. The system detects dynamically the movement of the UHF RFID transponders that are within the operating range of the system and can recognise which direction they are moving in. This enables automatic tracking of the goods.

The typical logistics applications of booking goods into and out of warehouses, loading containers at dock doors onto and off trucks, or direction-identification of pallets on fork lifts are reliably and cost-effectively handled by this system.

Many companies already benefit from UHF RFID for labelling and product inventories. With the possibility it opens up of reacting to events in materials flow almost in real time, the intelligent “ARU-CSB-ELC” brings added value to identification systems, including existing ones.

The three winners of the BEST PRODUCT Awards 2015 are exemplary of many other products and solutions on show at the stands of the exhibitors at LogiMAT 2015, on 85,000 square metres of space in a total of seven exhibition halls.

The ‘BEST PRODUCT’ Award was launched twelve years ago by the organiser of LogiMAT, as a way of highlighting the achievements of its exhibitors, many of which are small and medium-sized companies. The winners of the competition receive a plaque and a certificate.