DATRON-Electronic is among Germany’s top innovators

The ‘Top 100’ seal of approval from Lothar Späth for the company in Mühltal

MÜHLTAL-TRAISA. Dr. Arne Brüsch, managing director and proprietor of DATRON-Electronic GmbH in Mühltal, Germany, was outwardly pleased about their acceptance in the "Top 100" league of the most innovative medium-sized companies in Germany. "The seal of approval is a wonderful confirmation of our work, which is distinguished by the highest technical standards as well as by the high innovation potential, which we put to use for the benefit of our customers," said Brüsch.

Lothar Späth, former minister president of the German state of Baden-Württemberg, presented the South Hessian company with the coveted seal of approval on Friday, June 22, 2007 during a festive ceremony at the "Phönixhalle" in Stuttgart. "For DATRON, this is the official confirmation for the 100% commitment of its employees to fulfill customer wishes and requests as effectively as possible. Innovation is the top priority of our company’s business principles," said the managing director when the award was announced in Mühltal.

Within the framework of this year’s nationwide company comparison, the participating companies were evaluated in five main categories: innovative success, innovation environment, innovative processes and organization, innovation-promoting top management and innovation marketing. The Mühltal company especially excelled in the "innovation environment" area.

In order to make sure good ideas didn’t go unnoticed, the mechanical engineering company from South Hessia created the "Future Development" department, for example. One employee has the exclusive job of collecting suggestions from other employees and requests from customers. "An arrangement which has been worth it to us in any case. From this pool of ideas, we develop new solutions for carrying out tasks on our machines. The customer is very grateful for this," says Arne Brüsch. It’s no wonder that the Mühltal engineers call numerous patents their own.

To maintain the positive innovation environment, there are quarterly innovation meetings at DATRON-Electronic. These are attended both by employees from Research & Development as well as their colleagues from Sales. This way, DATRON Electronic is constantly able to provide innovative, practical products with high customer benefit. One of the machines which resulted from this pool of ideas is a CNC machine for high-speed milling with a novel chip suctioning system. Chips from aluminum and plastic plates are nearly completely removed with a special suction head. Cleaning the machine before machining a new workpiece, which is expensive and time-consuming for the company, is no longer necessary.

"Top 100" looks for and promotes medium-sized companies who have outstanding innovative strength. The search is carried out by innovation experts from the business university in Vienna, under the direction of Prof. Nikolaus Franke.