MHI to honor original products, solutions with 5th-annual Innovation Awards

On Wednesday, during MHI Industry Night with Dana Carvey, the winners of the 5th-annual MHI Innovation Awards will be announced. That gives ProMat attendees plenty of time to drop by the booths of the 12 finalists in the three categories—Best New Innovation, Best Innovation of an Existing Product and Best IT Innovation—to check out the entries throughout the first three days of the show.

“We received a record 153 total submissions spread between the three categories, an increase from 95 entrants at Modex 2016. It’s clear evidence that ProMat exhibitors are dedicated to continuous improvement of the industry that makes supply chains work,” said Greg Baer, director of sales for show sponsor MHI.

To narrow down each category to four finalists prior to the show, the submissions were judged by a committee of seven industry experts. “The volunteer judges represent seven different companies: Ashley Furniture, Big Lots!, Boeing, DHL eCommerce, Luxottica, McKee and Shaw Industries,” Baer added.

On Monday, the finalists’ exhibits are visited in person by a separate judging panel that will determine the winners in each category.

Finalists in the “Best New Innovation” category are:

• 6 River Systems (Booth S2663) – Collaborative Fulfillment Solutions
• DSA Systems (Booth N541) – PICAVI Smart Glasses
• PINC Solutions (Booth S4478) – PINC Air: Inventory Robotics
• Proship (Booth S4480) – CVP-500 Automated Packaging System

Finalists in the “Best Innovation of an Existing Product” category are:

• Big Ass Solutions (Booth S450) – Powerfoil X3.0 with SmartSense
• EuroSort (Booth S2026) – Twin Push Tray Sorter
• Schaefer Systems International (Booth S2903) – Weasel
• Transbotics (Booth S3626) – Natural Navigation AGV

Finalists in the “Best IT Innovation” category are:

• Emulate3D (Booth S1018) – Virtual Reality HTC Vive
• Schaefer Systems International (Booth S3571) – WAMAS 5.5.3
• ServiceMax from GE Digital (Booth N843) – IOT Connected Field Service
• Ubimax (Booth S3691) – Enterprise Wearable Computing Suite

The contest defines innovation as a new product, product line, technology or service, new application of existing products or technology, that creates quantifiable and sustainable results in terms of return on investment (ROI), cost savings and customer satisfaction.