SPIE suppliers rewarded for their creativity

Second Belgian edition of the SPIE Supplier Innovation Challenge crowned with success.
 

Brussels, 7 December 2018 – In early 2018, SPIE Belgium, a subsidiary of the SPIE group, the independent European leader in multi-technical services in the areas of energy and communications, invited its suppliers to take part in the second edition of its Supplier Innovation Challenge. Last night, SPIE awarded prizes to the most innovative of them at the Maison du Futur – Living Tomorrow, a symbol of innovative entrepreneurship, in Vilvoorde.

Between 16 April and 15 June 2018, 36 suppliers of SPIE Belgium submitted their projects in four categories: Breakthrough Innovation, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Safety and Supply Chain. No less than 44 innovations were submitted to a judging panel made up of SPIE Belgium employees drawn from different departments. The panel then assessed the submissions and selected 1 project per category.

Each of the projects chosen by the SPIE panel were awarded the trophy for innovation last night at an official ceremony held at the Maison du Futur – Living Tomorrow in Vilvoorde:

• ‘Breakthrough Innovation’ Category
  Signify for its InterAct Office innovation, an intelligent lighting system providing information to users in real time to optimise the use of space and energy consumption.
   
• ‘Corporate social responsibility’ category:
  Messer for its Green CO₂ - Recycled 0₂ innovation, a system for recycling CO2 in the atmosphere using an ‘ethical’ plant.
   
• ‘Safety’ category:
  Socomec for its eWIRE Application for UPS Masterys innovation, an application designed for professionals working in the electrical installation sector that simplifies the various phases of installation with the help of tutorials.
   
• ‘Supply Chain’ category:
  Nexans and Cebeo for their common Smart Reel Management innovation, designed to show the logical sequence of the supply chain between manufacturer (Nexans) and distributor (Cebeo). The proposed application enables cable reels to be geolocated using a barcode system fixed on the reels.

With the Supplier Innovation Challenge, SPIE aims to identify innovation among its suppliers with a view to applying such innovation to its projects to improve its own performance.

Following the first edition of the challenge held in 2016, SPIE Belgium rolled out two of the award-winning innovations:

• 30,000 paper cups made from agricultural waste by Paperwise, a winner at the 2016 event in the ‘environmental impact’ category, have been distributed within SPIE Belgium.
• The Orsy storage system proposed by Würth, likewise a winner in 2016 in the ‘economic impact’ category, has been deployed to ensure optimal control and immediate oversight of inventory.