IFOY Test Days: done and dusted
IFOY Test Days: done and dusted
The latest and greatest products within the field of intralogistics have come under the spotlight during the International Intralogistics and Forklift Truck of the Year (IFOY Award) Test Days in Germany.
A total of 51 innovations, around 950 participants over six days, daily highlight tours, and a top-class congress programme with panel discussions. That pretty much summarises the IFOY Test Days and the Test Camp Intralogistics, which took place last month in Dortmund.
A total of 14 products and solutions from 12 companies nominated for an International Intralogistics and Forklift Truck of the Year Award (IFOY Award) underwent six days of multi-level testing. Among them were new developments from Cargotec Engineering, Jungheinrich, Locus Robotics, Magment, NAiSE, Noyes Technologies, robominds, SICK, SSI Schäfer, STILL, stow robotics, and SYNAOS.
These and a number of other companies took the opportunity to present their innovations to potential customers at the Test Camp Intralogistics from March 21 to 23. The B2B visitors – most of them in management positions in logistics, industry, and trade – travelled to the Ruhr metropolis for hands-on testing as well as intensive networking discussions, without the hustle and bustle of the trade fair in the more than 10 000 m2 facility of IFOY partner Messe Dortmund. From forklift trucks and warehouse technology equipment to Automated Guided Vehicles (AGCs), software, specials, and robotic solutions, numerous devices and solutions were available in the test arena.
The talks revolved primarily around the topics of innovation and sustainability. The IFOY organisation also made sustainability a principle and took a number of measures to effectively conserve resources. The focus was on reusability and recycling, the use of regenerative energies and, above all, the fundamental renunciation of equipment that was not absolutely necessary. The declared aim was to launch a new, sustainable event format in logistics.
The congress programme celebrated its premiere this year with prominent panel discussions on the trend topics of innovation management, Intralogistics 4.0, and VDA 5050. The keynote on the opening day was given by the internationally-renowned logistics researcher Michael ten Hompel (Fraunhofer IML), who spoke about how innovations are changing logistics.
The nominees in what is now the 10th round of the competition were critically analysed by an official tester, a team of researchers, and the international IFOY jury.
The IFOY audit for the nominees once again consisted of three parts. First, all the trucks underwent the IFOY test conducted by Dutch intralogistics expert Theo Egberts. In this process, the finalists in each category were compared not with each other, but with the relevant equipment in the competition. The industrial truck nominees underwent standardised driving and functional tests, including the IFOY test protocol comprising more than 80 criteria, which considers factors such as sustainability, cost-effectiveness, safety, and ergonomics.
In the second part of the audit, researchers conducted the IFOY Innovation Check. Scientists from the Dortmund Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics (IML), the Chair of Technical Logistics at the University of Dresden, the Chair of Materials Handling Material Flow Logistics at the Technical University of Munich, and the Stuttgart Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA assessed the nominees in terms of market relevance, customer benefits, type of design, and degree of innovation. The jury members – trade journalists from all continents – were handed all the results of the IFOY test as well as the IFOY Innovation Check before voting.
The Test Camp Intralogistics also included a revival of the AGV Mesh-Up initiated by the VDMA Materials Handling and Intralogistics Association and its member companies. Following the world premiere of the first live test of the VDA 5050 communication interface the previous year, the 2022 test scenario was relaunched and once again gave B2B visitors the opportunity to observe the functions of AGVs for themselves and exchange ideas with developers and scientists.
This year, as well as some new manufacturers participating in the AGV Mesh-Up, extended functionalities of the communication interface were presented. Participants in the AGV Mesh-Up included DS Automotion, ek robotics, Fraunhofer IML, incubed IT, Omron Electronics, SAFELOG, Siemens, and SYNAOS.
Neither the participants of the Test Camp Intralogistics nor the nominees were told who had won an IFOY Award during the IFOY Test Days. All winners will be announced at the IFOY Award Night in Munich on June 30, 2022.
What is the IFOY Award?
The IFOY Award recognises the year’s best intralogistics products and system solutions. The aim of the organisation is to document the performance capability and innovative drive of intralogistics offerings, helping to boost competitiveness and raise the profile of the entire sector in the public arena.
The winners of the IFOY Award are selected once a year by an independent jury of international trade journalists. South Africa is represented on the jury by Charleen Clarke, editorial director of FOCUS.
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