Deutsche Post DHL honors innovators in the logistics industry

Under the slogan of "Growing Ideas," the DHL Innovation Awards were presented in the DHL Innovation Center in Troisdorf near Bonn. The annual presentation recognizes ground-breaking logistics solutions in the categories of "most innovative customer," "most innovative scientist" and "most innovative employee." The categories of "most innovative young scientist" and "special award" come with cash prizes totaling EUR10,000.

"Every day globalization creates new challenges for the logistics industry," Deutsche Post CEO Frank Appel said. "We are determined to continue playing a pioneering role in innovative logistics solutions. The Innovation Award honors special developments, publicizes them and helps putting good ideas into practice."

With the Innovation Day and the presentation of the Innovation Award, Deutsche Post DHL underscores the meaning of innovation, which is also a critical component of the Group's Strategy 2015. As part of Strategy 2015, the new business unit of DHL Solutions & Innovation was created. It bundles the technological activities of individual DHL units and assimilates the experience of the DHL Innovation Center.

The podium discussion held during the Innovation Day was attended by leading business, scientific and societal representatives, while the Innovation Center's 18 partners presented trend-setting applications and technologies in the Innovation Exhibit. The displays included the RFID Village, digitalSTROM and special temperature measurements for goods. The presentation of the Innovation Award, attended by around 250 guests, closed the Innovation Day.

Recognized innovations

Airbus was named the "most innovative customer" this year. The aviation company was prepared to work with Deutsche Post DHL on a completely new type of solution for the aviation industry and to put it into operation during an early stage of development. The heart of the award-winning concept is the "control tower," through which all transports by Airbus are handled and with which the transparency and process management of goods transportation are improved, and supply costs are lowered, according to the jury.

The prize for the "most innovative senior scientist" for 2009 was presented to Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Hans-Christian Pfohl of the Technical University of Darmstadt for his "Logbook" project: In a comprehensive logistics compendium, the award winner provides a media-based presentation of background information covering the everyday problems and solutions of logistics and creates a unique collection of complex knowledge in the process.

The award for the "most innovative junior scientists," which carries a cash prize of EUR5,000, was presented this year to Adam Crossno of Irving, Texas. Deutsche Post DHL recognized him for developing FlightSafe, a holistic solution for tracking and tracing air freight.

The special award was presented to the DHL support project known as the "German Youth Research Competition" ("Jugend forscht"). The young inventors developed packaging that draws on the practices of the master packer "nature." The winning team, Christian Wassermann of Wietmarschen and Sven Krummen of Lingen, secured first place with a "diatom creation" that could provide special stability during transports. Second place was awarded to an inner-cushioning system. The two third-place awards were presented to cut-to-size shipping cartons and a telescope package with a dimpled air tube. The prizes carried cash awards of EUR2,500, EUR1,500 and two amounts of EUR500, respectively.

The award for the "most innovative employee" is designed for the employees of Deutsche Post DHL and was awarded to two teams this year. Employees from Germany impressed the jury with their video coding tunnel that facilitates the exchange of codes among several mail centers and improves the utilization of video-coding employees in the process. The DHL team from Finland was recognized for developing new plastic pallets that can be optimally stacked. This ensures that the trucks' loading capacity is completely used and that goods are transported in a more efficient and environmentally conscious manner. Deutsche Post DHL is currently testing the system in a pilot project in Scandinavia.

The selection of the award winners for 2009 was assisted by a commission of business and scientific experts. This group included Prof. Dr. Michael Schenk, Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation; Dr. Sabine Groner-Weber, Director of the Subsection of Transport Policies, Research, Technology and Structure in the German Transport Ministry; Prof. Dr. Eckard Minx, Head of Research at Daimler AG; and Dr. Keith Ulrich, Director of Technology & Innovation Management at Deutsche Post DHL.