2021/12/06
ID: 3971

Lean & Green Award for production plant of Festo

Global Production Center Sofia receives prize for lean and environment-friendly processes

The Global Production Center Sofia in Bulgaria is one of the winners of the “Lean & Green Management Award 2019”. The plant was honoured in the “General Manufacturing” category for its successful measures for improving resource efficiency in industry.

Resource-efficient value chains that both reduce costs and increase the sustainability of business processes are an important component of the production plant strategy of Festo and are implemented at all plants worldwide. This focus has been acknowledged with the Lean & Green Management Award bestowed on the Global Production Center Sofia for implementing the so-called OPEX (Operational Excellence) approach in value flow organisation, and in view of the results achieved.

 

“This award recognises the concerted efforts of all employees at our location. It shows that we are on the right track to becoming the ‘ideal value flow organisation’,” said a contented Kalin Dobrev, Head of Operations Electronics and Drives in Bulgaria. “The necessary resources along the value chain, and responsibility for the production of certain product family groups, were distributed among autonomous teams at the plant.”

 

Cooperation as a success factor

The judges were impressed by the way the production plant implements green elements as an integral component of its vision and uses resource efficiency as a competitive advantage – with highly motivated teams that concentrated on reducing wastage in all areas along the value chain and achieved excellent results within a very short time.

 

Lean & Green Management Award – a top accolade

The “Lean & Green Management Award” was conducted this year for the eighth time by the advisory firms Growtth Consulting Europe and Quadriga Consult. Experts regard this award as one of the top accolades bestowed on production plants. The first stage of the assessment of candidates took the form of a questionnaire. The organiser’s consultants then carried out so-called “Lean & Green Assessments” on location with selected finalists among the participating companies. A panel of experts finally assessed the results and decided on the prize-winners.

 

 

The winners in 2019

Over 250 production plants from more than 10 countries and 20 different industries participated in the best practice exchange and the award assessment. All the companies have excellent management systems, in which efficient, resource-saving processes help make the production of tomorrow more sustainable. Further winners are Volkswagen, Wolfsburg plant (“Automotive OEM” category); Bosch Diesel, s.r.o., Jihlava plant (“Lean & Green Supplier Excellence” special award); Iveco España S.L., Madrid plant (“Green Excellence in Truck Production” special award); and FCA Italy SpA, Bielsko-Biała plant (“Lean Excellence in Engines & Components Manufacturing” special award).

Festo es un actor global y una empresa familiar independiente con sede en Esslingen am Neckar (Alemania). Desde sus inicios, Festo ha marcado pautas en la tecnología de automatización industrial y en la formación técnica, contribuyendo así al desarrollo sostenible del medio ambiente, la economía y la sociedad. La empresa suministra tecnología de automatización neumática y eléctrica a 300.000 clientes de automatización de fábricas y procesos en más de 35 sectores. El sector LifeTech, con la tecnología médica y la automatización de laboratorios, es cada vez más importante. Los productos y servicios están disponibles en 176 países de todo el mundo. En todo el mundo, unos 20.800 empleados en cerca de 60 países con más de 250 sucursales generaron unas ventas de aproximadamente 3.810 millones de euros en 2022. De esta cantidad, alrededor del 7% se invierte anualmente en investigación y desarrollo. En la empresa de aprendizaje, las medidas de formación y desarrollo representan el 1,5% de la facturación. Festo Didactic SE es un proveedor líder de educación y formación técnica y ofrece a sus clientes de todo el mundo soluciones integrales de aprendizaje digital y físico en el entorno industrial.

© Festo SE & Co. KG
Global Production Center Sofia, Bulgaria
The Global Production Center Sofia in Bulgaria – manufacturing location of Festo for sensors, cables and other electronic components.
© Stefan Bausewein
Lean and Green Award Presentation 2019
The winner team from Festo.