Conference

32st Factory of the Year – The winners of the 2023 production competition will be honored!

Congress with award ceremony and gala will take place on March 14 and 15, 2024, Pentahotel, Leipzig.

For the 32st time, the management consultancy Kearney, together with SV Veranstaltungen and the trade journal Produktion, honored factories that master current production challenges in an exemplary manner.

The winners of the prestigious production competition have been announced. Digitalization and automation are the current focal points of the time, and all companies share the commonality that transformation is well underway. The Porsche plant in Leipzig is undergoing a particularly rigorous transformation towards a Smart Factory.

The Porsche plant in Leipzig is the ‘Factory of the Year 2023’!

“The Porsche Leipzig plant is distinguished by strong production metrics, particularly in the areas of Functional Excellence and Digitalization,” explains Daniel Stengel, Director at Kearney, the jury’s decision to choose it as the Factory of the Year 2023. “The shift towards a Smart Factory using AI applications on the shop floor demonstrates the opportunities available to many companies, and Porsche Leipzig is taking full advantage of them.”

The Porsche plant currently manufactures the Macan and Panamera models. Approximately 4,300 employees work in the factory, which was opened in 2002, across various stages from body assembly to painting and assembly. Well-thought-out facility designs, digital support for employees, and mostly automated logistics that deliver sequence kits directly to the assembly points enable maximum flexibility in production. Furthermore, in terms of sustainability, the Porsche Leipzig plant is leading the way with a clear roadmap for “Zero Impact Factory 2030.” Several measures, such as the use of a comprehensive Energy Monitoring System and the substitution of process heat with locally generated energy sources, are already in practice.

Daniel Stengel, who is responsible as the project leader for the Factory of the Year at Kearney, adds, “In addition, the plant’s management proactively and enthusiastically addresses the new challenges. The clear communication of the strategy and upcoming implementation plans to all employees and departments, in particular, has impressed the jury.”

The “Global Excellence in Operations (GEO) Award” goes this year to the ABB plant in Ratingen. Here, the focus is also on digitalization and innovation, with development originating from the workforce, meaning solutions created by employees for employees. It has been consistently demonstrated in recent years that employees are one of the most critical success factors in leading companies. ABB takes it a step further by involving all employees in digitalization with new applications like “KVP to go.” Production terminals in the factory ensure access to relevant information and interaction. Furthermore, all relevant KPIs are available online to the employees, ensuring transparency of the company’s strategy.

“We had significantly more participants this time than in previous years and a higher proportion of companies from the automotive industry, as well as a very international field of participants,” Stengel is pleased with the companies’ ambitions to compete with the best of the best in the 32nd benchmark competition.
“In the end, we traveled around the globe for the audits, starting in China and ending in Mexico.”

Learn from the best and look forward to the presentations of the winners, who will share their path to success with you.