SCHOTT Recognized for Successful Innovation and Technology Management

Date: 21 February 2011

Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology (IPT) calls SCHOTT a “Best Practice Company” in the area of technology management On 16 February 2011, the SCHOTT technology group from Mainz, Germany, was recognized for its successful methods and procedures in the area of technology management as part of the recent study that the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology conducted entitled “Consortium Benchmarking in Technology Management 2010/2011.” 298 companies in total participated in the international study, from which the IPT and a consortium of renowned companies selected five award winners from various fields after carefully analyzing them by conducting surveys, interviews and making one-day visits.

In addition to SCHOTT, Audi from Ingolstadt, Delphi Corporation, 3M Deutschland GmbH, Nokia Siemens Networks and Dräxlmeier Group were honored at the final event.

“The technology group from Mainz is known for how it controls its technology management in an effective and efficient manner, relies on seamless processes to derive technology portfolios at various levels and actively pursues commercialization of its own technologies,” the Director of the Fraunhofer IPT, Professor Günther Schuh, noted in his laudation.

“We are extremely proud of the fact that SCHOTT has been rated a “Best Practice Company” and received this honor in the area of innovation and technology management. This confirms the efficiency and effectiveness of our strategy and the execution of our international innovation projects,” commented Dr. Hans-Joachim Konz, the member of the Board of Management responsible for research and development at SCHOTT.

SCHOTT employs around 600 people in research and development on a global basis and invests approx. 100 million euros towards it each year. The company currently holds more than 2,500 global patents. In addition, SCHOTT has world-class, customer-oriented resources that range from the areas of basic research to product development at its Otto Schott Research Center at the main site in Mainz, the company’s development center in Duryea, Pennsylvania, in the U.S. and its Customer Technical Service Centers in Asia, North America and Europe. The main focuses of research and development at SCHOTT are on new and improved glasses and glass-ceramics, melting and forming processes, coating technologies, photovoltaics and Concentrated Solar Power, as well as Pharmaceutical Systems and Home Tech. Mathematical simulation and optimization, and analytics and measurement techniques serve as supporting measures.

SCHOTT is an international technology group that has been developing and producing special materials, components, and systems for over 125 years. The company’s core markets are the household appliance industry, solar power, pharmaceuticals, electronics, optics, the automotive industry and architecture. SCHOTT seeks to contribute to its customers’ success and become an important part of people’s lives with its high-quality products and intelligent solutions. SCHOTT Group maintains close proximity to its customers with manufacturing and sales companies in all major markets. Its workforce of around 17,500 employees generated worldwide sales of approximately 2.9 billion euros for the 2009/2010 fiscal year. The company's technological and economic expertise is closely linked with its social and ecological responsibility. At the same time, SCHOTT strongly supports the principles of sustainability. SCHOTT AG is owned by the Carl Zeiss Foundation.

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