On March 22, Peter Wiedemann, Chief Operational Officer, accepted the award for the “Factory of the Year 2022” at a conference in Munich. The jury, consisting of renowned  experts from industry and science, made their decision based on the fact that the production facility in  Landsberg successfully faced diverse challenges such as a resilient supply chain, more sustainability, and demanding recruitment of skilled workers. In recent years, RATIONAL has been a regular award  winner in one of Europe’s most prestigious industry competitions. This year, it was the overall winner. 

For over 30 years, companies have been competing against the best of the best to show where they  are one step ahead of the rest. At RATIONAL, the jury identified the secret to our success is in our  continuous development process, long-standing supplier relationships, and the independent work of  each employee as part of our U.i.U. principle. “We simply try to have a more emotional take on  everything,” Wiedemann states. For example, the company initially rewards each suggestion for the  Continuous Improvement Process (CIP) with 10 euros, and at the end of the year there is an award for  the best suggestions, which are again rewarded with substantial amounts of money. According to  Wiedemann: “It’s up to the teams to decide what they want to do with the money. This makes a  significant contribution to team building and motivation.” 

The award was also given for the principle of entrepreneurship within the company (U.i.U.), which  begins with training. Two years ago, this led, among other things, to the founding of a junior group that  came up with its own product and marketed it as its own company. This product, a charcoal grill, is now  very popular with the company.  

On the second day, the conference participants were able to see the winner’s production facility for  themselves. During a factory tour lasting several hours, the RATIONAL team explained the reasons  behind their success as the global market leader.  

The management consultancy, Kearny, organizes the competition together with SV Events. The  winners were selected in two stages. In the first step, the participating companies had to complete a  detailed questionnaire on all aspects along the value chain. Based on these key figures, a top group  was identified and then visited by an audit team in a second step.