Syntegon wins the BME Innovation Award 2021

The German Association for Supply Chain Management, Procurement and Logistics (BME) has awarded Syntegon Technology with the BME Innovation Prize 2021. BME has awarded Syntegon Technology with the BME Innovation Award 2021. The award ceremony took place on Monday (8 November) in the afternoon plenary session of the 56th BME Symposium Purchasing and Logistics DIGITAL. The motto of the three-day online event is "#newhorizons". At the BME's largest networking event, speakers and participants will discuss the future of purchasing, logistics and supply management and the associated new tasks until 10 November. Syntegon Technology says it is a leading global supplier of process and packaging technology. As the former packaging division of the Bosch Group, the company, headquartered in Waiblingen near Stuttgart, has been offering total solutions for the pharmaceutical and food industries for over 50 years. Around 6,000 employees at 30 locations in over 15 countries generated sales of 1.3 billion euros in 2020. The portfolio of intelligent and sustainable technologies includes individual machines, systems and services. Currently, 260 employees work in purchasing. The annual procurement volume is more than 600 million euros. Syntegon receives this year's BME Innovation Award for the successful innovative transformation of its purchasing. The starting point for the comprehensive transformation of the purchasing organisation was the sale of Bosch Packaging Technology (now Syntegon) to CVC Capital Partners at the beginning of 2020. The objective of the changes was to improve liquidity and material costs as well as to create a purchasing organisation that fits the new, more flexible corporate structure. In the new organisational set-up, the company manages strategic purchasing, project purchasing and supplier development centrally. The locations continue to be responsible for operational purchasing. Syntegon has created a framework for this that applies to all locations and includes uniform processes and IT solutions. In implementing the transformation, Syntegon has taken innovative paths and has dispensed with extensive discussions about the future organisational structure. Instead, with the support of the management consultancy Inverto, the company tested the subsequent organisational model of centrally controlled purchasing in practice from day one. This enabled Syntegon to achieve improvements in terms of liquidity and purchasing results right at the beginning of the project phase. The question about the organisational structure, which was critical for many stakeholders, was only answered by the project managers after tangible results were available for everyone. In addition, Syntegon focused on the contribution of purchasing to EBITDA as the most important purchasing key figure (EBITDA = earnings before deduction of interest, taxes, depreciation of fixed assets and amortisation of intangible assets). This has significantly improved the cooperation between locations and central purchasing. The introduction of new digital tools has also supported the reorganisation. By transforming its purchasing, Syntegon has succeeded in increasing liquidity and significantly reducing material costs in a very short time. Purchasing is making a noticeable contribution to increasing the value of the company, which has led to an improved perception of the organisation both inside and outside the company. With the new set-up, Syntegon is successfully coping with the current uncertain situation in global procurement markets as well as constraints caused by the Corona pandemic. Gundula Ullah , Chairwoman of the Board of the German Association for Supply Chain Management, Procurement and Logistics (BME): "The cleverly managed transformation by Syntegon Technology GmbH's purchasing department has enabled this division to make a significant value contribution to the company during a difficult phase in the procurement markets. The comprehensive and multi-faceted transformation concept convinced the BME jury to award Syntegon the BME Innovation Award 2021." Berthold Kraus , Chief Purchase Officer of Syntegon Technology: "We are grateful for this recognition and proud that the BME has honoured our intensive work over the past year and a half with the Innovation Award. I would like to thank all my colleagues and the team at Inverto who have contributed to this success. When leaving the Bosch Group, Syntegon announced that it would become even more flexible and efficient. With the transformation of our purchasing department, we have succeeded in doing just that. It helps Syntegon raise its profile as a leading company for process and packaging companies." To the BME Innovation Award:
With the BME Innovation Award, German Association for Supply Chain Management, Procurement and Logistics (BME) has been honouring successful companies since 1986. From the group of companies submitting concepts, the jury nominated Netzsch Pumpen & Systeme GmbH, Edscha Holding GmbH and Syntegon for the second round in October 2021. Thanks to its convincing concept, Syntegon Technology emerged as the winner in the final. The winner is traditionally presented to the public at the BME Symposium Purchasing and Logistics.