Factory of the year: These companies are setting new standards

The Factory of the Year competition is considered an important performance benchmark for the industry in Germany: It makes innovation and competitiveness visible and shows how production technology, digitization, lean management, and sustainability interact at the highest level. This sets standards for entire industries. According to Daniel Stengel, partner at Kearney: "What you see in many companies is that they try to get very involved themselves. They don't just want to find someone in the market to implement it, but they want to understand for themselves what is happening."

Excellence arises through continuous development

For the awarded companies, the title is proof of operational excellence and a strategic advantage in international competition. It strengthens the employer brand, motivates internally, and acts externally as a promise of quality. Egeplast shows that continuity pays off: The repeatedly awarded plant demonstrates how consistent development can further advance long-standing top locations.

"This is what distinguishes these companies," says Daniel Stengel, "who then say with the entire team: Let's tackle this, let's take the next step and really step it up again. I am personally always particularly pleased to see how participants, even if they have not won, continue to develop continuously and how they use our feedback and insights from the competition and discussions to implement it in their own company."

 Rittal's success lies in the end-to-end digitized plant

This year's overall winner, the Rittal Haiger plant, stands for efficiency, flexibility, and high implementation orientation. Almost all processes are digitally mapped - from configuration through automated work plans to packaging. This end-to-end networking ensures short throughput times, high productivity, and stable delivery performance. "Rittal impressively demonstrates how networked systems and consistent shopfloor management enable a new quality in productivity and responsiveness," explains Kearney partner. Why the Rittal Haiger plant won and what the decisive levers were, knows Jürgen Kromer, plant manager Rittal Haiger plant: "Our factory shows what is possible when digitization is consistently thought through and implemented. It is more than pure efficiency and 99.9 percent planning accuracy. The decisive factors are the significant advantages for our customers: transparency, quality, and availability with a 24-hour delivery guarantee."

Kromer's colleague Dennis Benfer, head of digital processes & production planning, Rittal, adds: "The jury was particularly impressed by the seamless process chain from customer to customer. From the configuration of the product through automated work processes in the plant to packaging, all steps are seamlessly digitally connected. We integrate ourselves as best as possible into our customers' processes and thus achieve a joint digital transformation."

Moritz Heide, vice president of Rittal Digital Operations, is also pleased with the jury's decision: "The award makes us proud and is a reward for years of pioneering work by the entire team. We are also reaping the fruits of this work technologically: The achieved data quality and transparency without process breaks end-to-end pave the way for the next level." AI already supports quality control, maintenance, our knowledge management, and software analysis. "This is just the beginning," said Heide.

 Read more details about Rittal here:

Rittal is the factory of the year 2025

The winners of the production competition factory of the year have been announced: Rittal is the overall winner 2025. What distinguishes the plant and who the other winners are.

 Jacob owes success to pragmatism and customer proximity

The Jacob Group receives the GEO Award for its plant in Porta Westfalica. It impresses with high manufacturing depth, specially developed automation solutions, a consistently end-to-end oriented planning, and a production strategy clearly focused on sustainability.

Jan Niklas Töws, director of operations & supply chain management, Jacob Group, on the secret of success: "We won because we consistently do what is obvious. Our goal is for our customers to enjoy working with us. That's why we make our processes simple for the customers and are happy to take a detour internally for that. We act with common sense instead of rigid processes. Everyone takes responsibility and contributes their knowledge to get better together. This culture of collaboration ensures that we remain flexible, respond quickly, and always keep the customer in focus."

What makes the award significant, Töws says: "One sentence from the jury's feedback report means a lot to us: The workforce shows high motivation and initiative, and numerous projects are independently advanced. This award is an appreciation for all colleagues who think ahead and take action every day."

SEW-Eurodrive sets standards in series production

"The jury described our Hall North in the plant network at the Graben-Neudorf site as an excellent example of a comprehensively thought-out factory. End-to-end processes, a modular factory concept, and consistent automation create the highest efficiency and flexibility. Through investments in digitalization and artificial intelligence, we secure our future viability," says Christian Mayer, managing director of production (GP), SEW-Eurodrive. 

This simultaneously explains why SEW-Eurodrive won in the category of outstanding series production. The modular factory concept, which includes intelligent networking with the two other production plants at the site, impressed the jury - as it stands for long-term orientation and growth in the international plant network.

But what exactly made the victory, once again Christian Mayer: "The outstanding element of our new wave and gear part production is for me our motto 'Never touch a part'. It was the foundation for the entire layout and concept development. We have created a production that allows all process steps to be completed from bar material to packaged finished part entirely without manual handling."

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Takt production brings Maplan to the top

Maplan GmbH, manufacturer of elastomer and rubber injection molding machines, wins the award for outstanding small series production with its plant in Kottingbrunn. "Our line production is particularly noteworthy," explains plant manager Oswald Steinbauer: "We produce our special machines in takt - even though they are not classic series products. For this, we have adopted methods and approaches from series production and specifically adapted them to our requirements in special machine construction. The result is a highly structured, efficient, and yet flexible production."

For Maplan, too, "the award is a great honor and at the same time a valuable confirmation of our daily efforts," says Steinbauer. "It recognizes our tireless pursuit of improvement and our courage to actively tackle changes - even if they are uncomfortable. We do not see the award as a goal, but as an incentive to consistently continue on our path."

Egeplast achieves peak performance through seamless digitalization

In the factory of the year category outstanding digitalization & automation, Egeplast International GmbH is recognized. The manufacturer of high-quality plastic pipe systems impresses at the Greven plant with the new EgeGigaFab - a highly automated production with fully automatic material handling, real-time monitoring, and seamless ERP integration.

Heinz Rinsche, head of master data management and IT at Egeplast, knows what's behind it: "From a digitalization perspective, the technical success factor is the in-house development of a customized MES system that controls and monitors all production systems in the sense of integrated order management. Through full integration with the ERP system, we were able to realize a seamless data workflow in our factory. All production data additionally converge in a central data lakehouse - this not only forms the basis for transparency and efficiency but also for future AI-supported applications."

Heinz Rinsche sees the award as an important confirmation of their own digital strategy. He emphasizes that even a medium-sized company can elevate digitalization and automation to a top level. "I am particularly proud of my team, which has worked on this project with passion, know-how, and pragmatism," says Rinsche. The award is a recognition of this very shared, solution-oriented, and forward-looking spirit.

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Eppendorf completes model transformation at Leipzig plant

The award for outstanding site transformation goes to Eppendorf Zentrifugen GmbH for its plant in Leipzig. The company is one of the leading providers of laboratory and bioprocess technology and develops solutions for research, diagnostics, and bioproduction. At the Leipzig site, Eppendorf has implemented a comprehensive lean transformation that has encompassed all areas of the plant - from manufacturing to logistics to administrative processes. The results are clearly visible and measurable: increased productivity, higher agility in production processes, and noticeably improved resilience to market and supply chain volatilities.

This shows how a consistently implemented transformation process can sustainably strengthen the performance of an entire site. "Our plant won because we have successfully implemented a comprehensive transformation in recent years," says René Weber, plant manager and VP operations, Eppendorf Zentrifugen. "We have managed to switch production from island manufacturing to modern line production while significantly increasing operational excellence in all areas."

Oliver Scholz, formerly plant manager and VP operations, Eppendorf centrifuges, describes the transformation of the Leipzig Eppendorf plant as a comprehensive approach that goes far beyond classic process optimization. "The key was Step, our holistic concept that combines leadership, value stream optimization, and the redesign of our work organization," says Scholz.

It was particularly important to actively involve and further develop all employees, says Weber. "This allowed us to establish a process-oriented work organization that enabled us to meet increased demands even in challenging times - such as during the corona pandemic - while ensuring our high quality."

Meeting place for the industrial elite is in March

The factory of the year 2025 impressively shows how different companies achieve excellence - through digitalization, automation, lean transformation, or a lived culture of responsibility. Rittal Haiger sets the standard as the overall winner, but all award winners prove that top performance arises primarily from consistent further development.

The focus now shifts forward: On March 18 and 19, 2026, the industrial elite will meet at the 'Factory of the Year' congress in Dortmund. There, the winners will be celebrated, best practices shared, and the next impulses for the production of the future set. More information and tickets are available here.