‘The Perfect Something!" MHI Announces Winners of 2021 MHI Innovation Awards

‘The Perfect Something!” MHI Announces Winners of 2021 MHI Innovation Awards! 

By Shani Calvo, MHI Solutions 

The companies that earn a spot in the list of finalists for the MHI Innovation Awards go through a rigorous vetting process by the judges. But, it isn’t just the companies on that list that consider themselves winners. One of the judges in this year’s panel of eight spoke to the value of the Innovation Awards for everyone involved when he said, “The opportunity to be a judge was a huge benefit. I am so excited because I actually found the perfect something that I was looking for and I’ve already reached out to that supplier for a quote. Thank you so much for letting me be a part of this judging process.” 

“That judge actually found a solution for their facility by looking at the Innovation Awards,” said John Paxton, CEO of MHI, during the Monday keynote at ProMatDX just prior to the winners being announced. 

There were 93 submissions for this year’s awards, and the 10 finalists in each category – Best New Innovation; Best Innovation of an Existing Product; and Best IT Innovation – were revealed just prior to ProMatDX. But, it wasn’t until the Monday, April 12 keynote that the three winners were announced by Paxton. If you want to see what makes these products winners, be sure to click on the links to visit their booths! 

Best Innovation of an Existing Product
Packsize International LLC for Packsize X7 Automated In-line Packaging and Fulfillment Solution 

“Almost 20 years of expertise and knowledge went into building the X7,” said Connor Pehrson, director of product management at Packsize. “We spent time focusing on both speed and reliability.” He added that they really focused on the market and tried to listen to those customers that needed high speed reliable packaging machines. “Those are the customers that required high availability and uptime, so during our designing of the X7, we made specific decisions to meet those requirements that we heard from our customers.”

Winning the award “is a huge honor. It really provides the idea and the confidence that we are truly solving problems that matter.” 

Best IT Innovation
4Front Engineered Solutions for 4SIGHT Connect Digital Gate

“The capabilities of the 4SIGHT Connect Digital Gate products will allow facilities to schedule their docks as well as manage shipments for overall operational efficiency,” said Rhonda Reece, program manager for 4SIGHT. The program can organize dock scheduling, real-time carrier notifications, shipments as they arrive and depart. It is able to alert the facility when a driver has arrived, can produce reports, and can review and configure performance KPIs through an interactive dashboard. Digital Gate can also provide digital end-to-end visibility and enables touchless check in and check out for drivers. “Being able to know what shipments are there, which shipments have left and which are waiting to be loaded or unloaded allows facilities to be more efficient with their dock planning,” said Reece. Winning the award “is a testament to the organization as well as the 4SIGHT team that we are moving in the right direction.”

Best New Innovation
ThruWave, Inc. for ThruWave X2 mmWave Imaging System

“We like to say that ThruWave makes the invisible, visible,” said Matt Reynolds, chief scientist and co-founder of ThruWave. “Our human-safe 3D mmWave sensors see through corrugated boxes and plastics totes to see the items inside and our software analytics layer automatically interprets those images to yield key process variables, like item count, dimension, cube utilization, and detect missing items, damaged items or leaks.” ThruWave can automatically update warehouse execution systems or warehouse management systems with accurate item dimensions, through sealed boxes or closed totes, as the dynamic product mix changes, which allows for efficient storage utilization as well as enabling right-sizing of packaging, added Reynolds. “We are very thankful for this recognition,” said Reynolds, adding that they are also looking forward to “working with the MHI community to make impossible things happen.” 

The winners also shared insight on how their products addressed labor and sustainability, operational performance, e-commerce, and efficiency and visibility. The full keynote video includes videos spotlighting each of the winners. Videos from all ProMatDX keynotes and education sessions are available online—after each live broadcast has aired—to watch at your convenience.  

BEST NEW PRODUCT
Winner! ThruWave, Inc. for ThruWave X2 mmWave Imaging System
Finalists:
• AutoStore for Router™ from AutoStore
• Big Ass Fan for Clean Air System
• Fives Intralogistics Corp. for GENI-Flex™ Modular Solution
• Geek+ for Geek+ RoboShuttle C200M robot 
• SVT Robotics for SOFTBOT™ Platform
• SIERA.AI (Stocked Robotics, Inc. dba SIERA.AI) for SIERA Forklift Safety System S3
• Vecna Robotics for Autonomous Counterbalanced Fork Truck
• Waypoint Robotics, Inc. for Waypoint Robotics/Productive Robotics 7 DOF Omnidirectional Mobile Manipulator 
• Wiferion GmbH for etaLINK 3000 - wireless charging system

BEST INNOVATION OF AN EXISTING PRODUCT
Winner! Packsize International LLC for Packsize X7 Automated In-line Packaging and Fulfillment Solution Finalists:
• AutoStore for AutoStore Micro-fulfillment Center for Grocery
• Banner Engineering Corporation for Q5X Jam Detection Sensor
• Georg Utz, Inc. for Attached Lid with Bag Hooks
• Ideal Warehouse Innovations, Inc. for AutoStand Wide
• LogistiVIEW for OnSite™ Remote Collaboration
• Numina Group Inc. for RDS Batch Bot
• Quadient for CVP Everest Automated Packaging Solution
• Valley Craft, Inc. for The Hydraulic Powered Self-Dumping Hopper Forklift Attachment
• Wieland Electric Inc. for podis power distribution system 

BEST IT INNOVATION
Winner! 4Front Engineered Solutions for 4SIGHT Connect Digital Gate
Finalists:
• BEUMER Corporation for BG INSIGHT Real-time Data Analytics
• Damotech, Inc. for The Damotech Platform: Rack Safety & Inspection Cloud Software
• Fascor for Advanced Cartonization
• Geek+ for FleetSort - Autonomous Goods Sortation with S20
• New Dawn for Horizon Warehouse Execution Software (WES)
• Optimal Discovery LLC for Optimal Picking
• SmartBOL for Mobile Driver Check-in & Check-out
• Softeon for Softeon Warehouse Management + Execution System
• Yard Management Solutions for Yard Management Solutions 2021 Innovations

Click here to view all submissions for the 2021 MHI Innovation Awards: promatshow.com/innovation-awards. 

The MHI Innovation Award serves to educate and provide valuable insights on the latest manufacturing and supply chain products and services to ProMatDX attendees.  ProMatDX sponsors were called to submit a new product, product line, technology or service or new application of existing products or technology that create quantifiable and sustainable results in terms of ROI, cost savings and customer satisfaction.   

Be sure to read the next issue of MHI Solutions, where we will feature more insight and some behind-the-scenes looks at the three winners and the finalists. If you’d like to be added to the email list to receive MHI Solutions, click here.