A TOP 100 firm for the tenth time: RK Rose+Krieger received the award for sustainable innovation and improvement processes
RK Rose+Krieger has been counted amongst the 100 most innovative SMEs in Germany for the tenth year in a row. The fact that the one-stop supplier for linear, profile assembly, connecting and modular technology has once more been awarded the accolade of the TOP 100 seal provides proof of its innovative strength yet again. This year, RK Rose+Krieger won the jury over with its continuous innovation and improvement processes and the way it responded to the pandemic.
“We believe the fact that we’ve repeatedly been awarded a place in the TOP 100 is confirmation of our actions. It is testament to the fact that we’ve done lots of things rather well,” explained Hartmut Hoffmann, Managing Director of RK Rose+Krieger, before going on to add: “Receiving this accolade once might have been a fluke. But being voted among the TOP 100 most innovative German SMEs for ten years in a row is something special and very important to us.”
RK Rose+Krieger’s innovative strength is based on its successful internal suggestion and improvement system. “Our employees now enjoy coming up with new ideas and submitting suggestions for improvement”, confirmed Hartmut Hoffmann. This makes it comparatively easy for the company to continuously work on sustainably improving its products and work processes.
The Minden-based company’s creative spirit has also been evident during the continuing Covid-19 pandemic. Its creativity hasn’t suffered – despite the orientation phase and staff working reduced hours. For example, one of the things that RK Rose+Krieger developed within a very short space of time was a customisable sneeze guard for reception counters in doctors’ surgeries, pharmacies, law firms, police stations and fire stations, or for checkout areas in the retail trade, along with its RK hygiene guard based on its safety guards and partition systems. And since all the trade fairs were cancelled, RK Rose+Krieger simply brought the trade fair to its customers by holding a virtual trade fair tour through real exhibition rooms. Visitors can find out about the company’s products in the two exhibition rooms that focus on different subject areas.
Virtual booth
Assistance systems provide the employee with support and prevent defects during assembly. Productivity and quality are improved significantly.
The idea of sustainable innovation is also evident in the company’s ergonomically designed and digitalisable assembly workstations. They help to ensure the ongoing affordability – even in high-wage countries – of manufacturing operations to create small, highly variable batches of complex products and of work processes that cannot be meaningfully automated. These individually configurable assembly workstations are in high demand in the medical industry at present. The new northern German subsidiary RK-AHT recorded high order intake in this respect last year. In a new showroom in Bienenbüttel, RK-AHT demonstrates the full range of options using sample workstations, before going on to develop the ideal workstation for the customer’s application together with the customer.
Back in 1993 compamedia began awarding the TOP 100 seal to SMEs which demonstrate particular innovation strength and outstanding innovative success. Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke has been responsible for academic leadership since 2002. Franke is founder and director of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. Science journalist, Ranga Yogeshwar, is the TOP 100 project mentor. The Fraunhofer Society for the advancement of applied research and the BVMW act as partners to this project. manager magazin, impulse and W&V are the media partners for the company awards. For more information, go to www.top100.de.