Excellent innovations: Peter Huber Kältemaschinenbau, the company from Offenburg, impressed in the 29th round of the ‘TOP 100’ competition as a think tank. Based on this, it was awarded the TOP 100 2022 Label. Only particularly innovative medium-sized companies receive this award. On 24 June, the company will be personally honoured by the competition supervisor, scientific journalist Ranga Yogeshwar.
A scientific selection process is a core element of the TOP 100 innovation competition that participants must pass. Under the authority of compamedia, organisers of these proceedings, the innovation researcher Prof. Nikolaus Franke and his team at Peter Huber Kältemaschinenbau carried out their investigations based on more than 100 innovation indicators from five categories: Innovation-oriented Top Management, Innovative Climate, Innovative Processes and Organisation, Outward-orientation/Open Innovation and Innovative Success.
In principle, the TOP 100 analysis addresses the question whether a company’s innovations are simply a product of chance or whether they are systematically planned and can therefore be repeated in the future. Specific emphasis is placed on the question whether and how innovations and product improvements establish themselves on the market (further information on the testing criteria can be found at www.top100.de/pruefkriterien).
Huber has already been identified for the tenth time as one of the TOP innovators. The Company is based in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, however, also supplies its products to many other areas of industry from automotive production to environmental research. Above all, the Company made a name for itself with the introduction of the Unistat temperature control system in 1989. To date, Unistat is the leading technology when it comes to high-dynamic temperature control processes.
“Few companies can reach as low temperatures as us. Our Unistats make temperature regulation applications of up to -125°C possible,” said Daniel Huber, Chairman of the Executive Board. Here’s an example: The new Unimotive heating and cooling systems enable temperature control processes directly with water-glycol-mixtures up to -50°C. The product range was developed specifically for the automotive industry. Vehicle manufacturers use these products for temperature-dependent stress tests, which aim to show whether the vehicle technology functions reliably under all external conditions.
“We provide the development team and other internal departments with lots of possibilities to make their own decisions,” emphasised Huber. The recruitment of innovation-conducive top management extends all the way to the assembly department. “Even small innovations can dramatically improve quality and efficiency,” the Chief of the Executive Board explained.
In order for all applicants to have an equal footing, the Label is awarded in three size classes: up to 50 employees, 51 to 200 employees, over 200 employees. In total, 436 medium-sized companies applied, 294 of whom were successful and are therefore amongst this year’s TOP 100 (maximum of 100 per size class).
“To what extent is a company geared towards innovation? How consistent is this goal with its institutions? With the TOP 100, this is what we are investigating,” explained Prof. Nikolaus Franke, scientific director of TOP 100. “The most innovative medium-sized companies receive our Label. This shows that they are superbly equipped to meet future challenges.”
On 24 June, there will be another reason to celebrate: In Frankfurt am Main, the top innovators of 2022 will come together for an awards ceremony at the German Summit for Medium-sized Companies where their achievements will be recognised by Ranga Yogeshwar. The scientific journalist has supervised the competition for 11 years.
