Rational, ceda Partner and the world market and technology leader in the field of hot food preparation in professional kitchens, has won this year’s Factory of the Year competition for its factory in Landsberg am Lech.

The annual prize is awarded by the management consultancy A T Kearney, and the industry journal Produktion. With a heritage of thirty years, it is the most traditional benchmark competition for the manufacturing industry in Germany.

Rational has already won the Global Excellence in Operations (GEO) Award twice in the past for its outstanding performance throughout the value chain. This year, the Rational factory in Landsberg is the overall winner.

As this year’s overall winner, Rational is being honoured for excellence, especially in the core competencies of cost-effectiveness and agility. According to the jury panel, the plant in Landsberg am Lech has made it to the top of its performance in Germany with an established problem-solving culture, and a systematic continuous improvement process.

“Thanks to our Rational lean working method, we are anchoring standardised, coordinated workflows and processes. We also see digitalisation as a great opportunity in production,” says Peter Wiedemann, Chief Operations Officer at Rational AG.

The panel was also impressed by the highly motivated staff. The team acts with a lot of personal responsibility and creative freedom through the ‘U.i.U.^® principle’ (intrapreneurship), which is reflected in the excellent production figures.

“Rational invests a lot in promoting and retaining its employees,” adds Daniel Stengel, Director at Kearney, explaining the jury panel’s decision to select Rational as the ‘Factory of the Year 2022’.

The factory also stood out from the other participants in matters such as speed of innovation, renewable energies and cost reduction.

“We are delighted to receive the overall prize this time. It is confirmation for us, but also an incentive to improve our processes even further,” says Peter Wiedemann.

The coveted prize will be awarded at an award ceremony in Munich in March 2023.