Festo wins Lean and Green Management Award
The Operation Unit "Modular Valves" at the Festo plant in Scharnhausen, Germany, is one of the winners of the "Lean and Green Management Award 2022". The jury awarded the special "Lean Excellence" prize to the lean processes and cleanly applied standards. Efficient and resource-saving production is also an important building block in the sustainability strategy of Festo.
The Lean and Green Management Award was presented in cooperation with the Vogel Communication Group on 20 October in Leipzig. With the renewed award after 2016 and 2019, Festo is in line with renowned companies such as Volkswagen, DMG Mori and the Fischer Group and shows how lean production processes can be driven forward in combination with sustainability strategies at plant level.
Among other things, the jury evaluated how problems and complaints are handled in the Operation Unit "Modular Valves" and how the triad of quality, costs and delivery capacity is applied within the organisation. The Operation Unit scored above average in all topics related to lean – that means lean, efficient processes. Festo also received good ratings for sustainability issues.
"At Festo, we are convinced that Lean is a cornerstone for Green – that means for sustainable production – within the factory. The lean processes are already making their contribution to this: they waste fewer resources and thus have a positive effect on the environmental factor. With efficient processes and a clear awareness of the topic of Green, we are thus promoting our competitiveness and securing the future," says Michael Straub, Head of Operation Unit Modular Valves at Festo.
Sustainability Strategy of Festo
Efficient and resource-saving production is becoming increasingly important. Therefore, Festo will massively reduce its CO2 footprint in the next two years and thus take its social responsibility into account. "From the beginning of 2023, all our production and logistics sites worldwide, as well as the German sales locations and the company headquarters in Esslingen, will be CO2-neutral in terms of Scope 1 and 2," says Christian Österle, Vice President Sustainability at Festo.
Festo has aligned its own Sustainability Strategy along the Strategic Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. In addition to Scope 1 and 2 emissions, Scope 3 emissions will play an increasingly important role in this. Here, emissions from purchasing and logistics are considered on the one hand, and the use of products by customers on the other. In the annual Sustainability Report, Festo documents its global responsibility with numerous examples and provides information about its sustainable corporate development.
The Lean and Green Management Award
The Lean and Green Management Award has been presented by the T&O Group since 2012. The award focuses on the question of how all types of waste can be reduced in a company and how production sites must position themselves for the challenges of the future.
Festo is a global player and an independent family-owned company with headquarters in Esslingen am Neckar, Germany. Festo has set standards in industrial automation technology and technical education ever since its establishment, thereby making a contribution to sustainable development of the environment, the economy and society. The company supplies pneumatic and electrical automation technology to 300,000 customers of factory and process automation in over 35 industries. Digitalization, AI and the LifeTech sector with medical technology and laboratory automation are becoming increasingly important. The products and services are available in 176 countries. With about 20,600 employees in over 250 branch offices in around 60 countries worldwide, Festo achieved a turnover of around €3.65 billion in 2023. Each year around 7% of this turnover is invested in research and development. In this learning company, 1.5 % of turnover is invested in basic and further training. Festo Didactic SE is a leading provider of technical education and training and offers its customers worldwide comprehensive digital and physical learning solutions in the industrial environment.
