News about WERMA
WERMA receives the Innovation Award „Top 100“
Rietheim-Weilheim – For the second time the signal device manufacturer WERMA Signaltechnik from Rietheim has received the coveted Innovation Award Top 100. At a special summit meeting the most innovative medium-sized companies in Germany met on 5 July for the awards presentation ceremony in Berlin. The two WERMA development team leaders Daniel Kensy and Markus Möller accepted the award “Top 100” from mentor Ranga Yogeshwar at the event held in the “Axel-Springer-Passage”.
WERMA Signaltechnik GmbH + Co. KG was founded in 1950 and produces signal devices that indicate process conditions, risks and imminent dangers in all fields of modern information technology and production engineering. In the “Top 100” analysis, the company with 245 employees worldwide scored highly, especially with its in-house development process, the WERMA Development System (WDS): It reduces the duration of projects, ensures the punctual conclusion of the projects, provides an efficient use of resources and allows to identify and to eliminate difficulties at an early stage. A process that is structured in nine phases describes innovation
processes in detail; from the idea to the concept and tests to the completion. This leads to early agreement on market and product requirements and allows for the possible collaboration with external consultants.
Clear Structures
In all innovation projects, the responsible persons form their own teams that compare input from different departments. In this way, the most current experiences can be directly integrated in the process. A clear product management and a defined business development process ensure growth outside of the core business.
At the same time, senior management adapts the company organisationally to the latest requirements. Development Manager Christian Höhler explains, “our products are becoming more and more complex electronic systems as a result of increasing demands being made to us by our clients and new technical possibilities. We have responded to that and have significantly increased our software development department. We also have a system for bring apprentices through our system and giving them valid tasks to train on.
Continuing to optimise innovation management
The basis for the award is a scientific company analysis by Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke and his team of the Chair for Entrepreneurship and Innovation of the Vienna University of Economics and Business. This year, the innovation experts have surveyed a total of 245 companies.
The results of this analysis are made available to the participants in the form of a benchmarking report that reveals their potentials and provides instantly applicable practical tips. Christian Höhler: “This success is the result of a committed teamwork of management and employees and it shows us that we are going in the right direction. Now we are going to use the results to continue optimising our innovation management.”
Besides WERMA, 102 other companies in three different size categories receive “Top 100” award. Among them, there are 51 national market leaders and 21 world market leaders. About two thirds of the firms are family run businesses.
